Exclusive track premiere of ‘Strange Skies’ by Kodiak Island, a project by Jo Bartlett.

It’s a psych-folk band with programmed beats and percussion from the Surrey / Hampshire / Berkshire borders of England, consisting of Jo Bartlett on guitar and vocals, Richard Handyside on guitar, flute and synth, Mike Muggeridge on bass, Matthew Cocks on synths and Gareth Palmer on electronic beats and cajon.

<a href="https://kodiakisland1.bandcamp.com/track/strange-skies">Strange Skies by Kodiak Island</a>

Bartlett says about the band: The track was inspired by a photo my friend sent me last year, saying ‘Strange skies over Glasgow’. I thought that would make a great track title, so set about writing it! I ended up using the photo as the sleeve for the single. The way we tend to work in Kodiak Island, is, I send out the initial idea, then the other guys add their magic. We send the music back and forth between each other until it is finished. ‘Strange Skies’ was great fun to work on as it was never a traditional song, mainly an instrumental really. This gives us all a little more space as musicians to experiment. The last thing to be added was some vocals by me, “Strange skies gather over my head” but also a bit of operatic stuff to try and make the whole piece sound quite proggy / psychedelic. We are really lucky as we then send everything to Richard, he finishes the track off and makes the completed music sound awesome! We played it live for the first time on Saturday and we just about pulled it off – it’s a tricky beast to capture – I didn’t manage the vocals, I was too focused on my guitar, but Richard was able to play both the flute and guitar – no mean feat!