A very limited edition (15) Lathe-cut 10″ vinyl record, and also available as a digital download.

“The Cutty Wren by Helen McCookerybook (whimsy of Vashti Bunyan, zesty harmonies of France Gall) and analogue synthesist master Willie Gibson (stomping synths of the Art of Noise, hints of elegiac Wakeman), is an eclectic three track EP that nods to folk, electronica and prog rock, whilst artfully assimilating McCookerybook’s soul-mining vocals, graceful harmonies and wit. …”

Released on Gare du Nord Records and distributed by Kudos Records:

garedunord.kudosrecords.co.uk/release/gdn45041/willie-gibson-helen-mccookerybook-the-cutty-wren-ep

Buy digital download: helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com

Buy limited edition Lathe-cut 10″ vinyl record: williegibson.bandcamp.com

She’s at the Controls: Sound Engineering, Production and Gender Ventriloquism in the 21st Century
by Dr. Helen Reddington

www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls

“She’s at the Controls gives a socio-historical examination of the roles of women studio professionals in the UK music industry. At the heart of the book are interviews conducted over six years with 30 female studio practitioners at different stages of their careers and working in different genres of popular music including reggae, hip hop and pop. …”

From Abus Dangereux the fabulous French magazine- thank you!:

Equal Parts EP

“It’s the treat of the season: the Austro-Anglo pop goldsmith Robert Rotifer, not content to accompany Louis Philippe, joined forces with Helen McCookerybook, figure and historian of female punk who from the 1980s within Helen and the Horns, blithely mingled ska or jazzy brass, western melodies and Broadway echoes. As the title of this mini-album indicates, we of course (the tangy and sometimes cracked timbre of one mingles with the velvety baritone of the other), talents, and even languages (with a few verses in German), for the art of the mixed duo in its most delightfully sixties version, the guitars drawing on folk as well as bossanova to produce pure pop euphoria. And like in the song ‘Balloon’, we laugh at the walls because we take flight. [SC] mccookerybookandrotifer.bandcamp.com”

(bit of a Google translate going on there)

http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article/9761/McCookerybook-and-Rotifer-Interview-Part-2

“When we published the first half of our interview with McCookerybook & Rotifer, shortly before Christmas, they were setting about navigating the postal services in a race against the Brexit deadline. It was a close-run thing, and my copy of the vinyl arrived safely before Britain shut its doors on its European neighbours.

In the first part of this interview, we learned about the making of the EP and how Brexit and the hidden political narrative were advancing while we were distracted by the pandemic influenced its lyrical narrative.

This was, however, the first chance Robert Rotifer and Helen McCookerybook had to speak to one another since they’d finished recording over the summer. Although their respective homes in Barnet, North London and Canterbury, Kent wouldn’t normally be too far apart, during the pandemic, the necessary journey around the M25 wasn’t feasible. It wasn’t, therefore, a conventional interview, as they both asked each other questions, reflections on their motivations and discussed what made them want to work together.” … continued