Music: Stolen From A Crow

Stolen from a Crow is the unusual alter ego of Crispin Case-Leng, a singer, songwriter and poet who believes in pushing boundaries within music and performance in a quest to leave the mainstream far behind.

Influenced by a range of artists as broad as his own creative horizons, he spent his early years experimenting with diverse ideas in music and poetry. His lyrics are unconventional, with themes ranging from observations on human interactions, through to darkly comic fairy tales about werewolves and winged messengers between worlds. His instrumentation is similarly off-centre and genre-defying, dipping into seemingly incompatible areas like punk, folk and art rock, yet managing to blend them together into something new and exciting.

Stolen From A Crow

Working with award-winning producer John Delf (Plan B, Lily Allen), and a team as unconventional and visionary as himself at Edge Recording Studio gave Case-Leng the freedom to pull out all the stops in terms of the production of his album View from Another Dimension and EP Dark Wing Zero. Imaginative and inventive recording techniques were employed to bring life to Case-Lengs vision, with the overall approach being akin to a throwback in time to the era of classic prog rock, where recording sessions incorporated the sounds of breaking glass, creaking trees and the motor of a radio-controlled Millennium Falcon into the richly-layered tracks.

The resulting eclectic collection of songs has an otherworldly feeling: compellingly fractured, like a trip on a roller-coaster, drifting through a strange tour of extremes, from sweet trippy daydream, to post-apocalyptic nightmare, then suddenly falling headlong into something that sounds like a fun fair on acid. Sometimes romantic, sometimes introspective, always unpredictable, Case-Lengs music is about exploration. Theres also a vulnerability about his work, even in the faster-paced tracks, which gives the ensemble an endearing quirkiness, and Case-Lengs urban scarecrow appearance adds to his appeal. With his Syd Barrett hair and Gothic dress sense, theres something of the quintessential English eccentric about him, so its no surprise that his music is an extension of his original personality.