Song #4 is by Stone Breath - also maybe known as Breathe Stone, Crow Tongue, Black Happy Day, The Spectral Light & Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree, etc...
The Astral Research department indicates they're from Maryland (and/or Pennsylvania), active since circa 1995 timeframe. I definitely get the sense of a loose collective that works together, then takes a break, then reunites again. I believe these are: an interview, a Facebook page and a MySpace link, respectively.
Songs of Moonlight and Rain (1997) by Stone Breath
Appears to be the first ever release on the Camera Obscura label (CAM 001CD). Sounds like some mellow, ancient psych-folk - back to the roots, the deep gnarled physical roots in the earth. Someone(s) thought enough of these tunes to put them up special: "Perched Upon the Temple Bell, the Butterfly Sleeps" and "Willowisp."
"The Rainbow Gilded Leaves of Autumn" from A Silver Thread to Weave the Seasons (1998)
There is a 2008 expanded 2xCD edition, with bonus "acid-forest-drone-mantra-folk glory." Mr. SQW Bussy has a little collection of songs up, but I'm just going to highlight "My Heart Is an Acorn Buried in the Black Earth" here.
"Wasp-Sting, Thorn, and Arrowhead" from The Silver Skein Unwound (2003)
More string pluckings and haunting vocals. I get the impression that the available videos are from their 'bigger' albums, and that they have tons of smaller-run releases that you'd have to dig for. Couple o' more from here: "Bless the Lily, Bless the Rose" and the "Last Lost Love Song."
I'm assuming that explains the gap from 2003-2011, despite featured releases such as comeback album The Shepherdess and the Bone-White Bird (with The Forest Beggars, 2009), the Knotwork rarities collection (2008), plus a few CDr's here & there.
"Scorpion Tears" from The Ætheric Lamp (2011)
Dark Holler Arts calls it "expansive Middle Eastern influenced sounds ... Intricate and driving - half composed and half improvised - tense and intense - beautiful and terrifying." Also contains "The Coming Fires" if'n yer so inclined.
"In the Garden of Ghostflowers" from Twist of Thorn (2012)
That cassette (also with "Blood Winter") is one of two so far for 2012.
The other is The Night Birds Psalm ...and Other Songs We Sung Beneath the Silver Web, which "is the third chapter in Stone Breath’s silver thread (following 1998’s A Silver Thread to Weave the Seasons and 2001’s The Silver Skein Unwound)." I found this 5/5 review - from the same website that did the interview linked way up there. Full circle!
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