Bobby Wratten’s first band were The Field Mice. They released seven singles and four albums on Sarah Records. When The Field Mice split, Bobby’s new project was Northern Picture Library, involving Annemari Davis and Mark Dobson from the latest Field Mice incarnation. They recorded two singles and an album for Vinyl Japan, and then returned to Sarah for their final two 7”s, Paris and Last September’s Farewell Kiss.
In 1996 Bobby started Trembling Blue Stars, a solo project. He released three records for Shinkansen and, in 2001, Trembling Blue Stars’ fourth album, Alive To Every Smile, with a new line-up with a lot of ex-Sarah Records folks in the ranks: Keris Howard from Brighter, Beth Arzy from Aberdeen and Harvey Williams of Another Sunny Day, as well as The Field Mice themselves. Three other album were made, before the band disbanded.
At the end of 2014 Bobby Wratten was back on the scene with Lightning In A Twilight Hour, this time with the help of Beth Arzy and Michael Hiscock. On November 17th, The Memory Museum was released and the EP Slow Motion arrived in February 2015 and for April of that same year they released their first full-length, Fragments Of A Former Moon.
With 2016’s EP And All The Ships At Sea the project became more and more experimental, connecting the old Wratten’s distinctive sound to ambient and electronic music. In 2017 Quiet Actions was a cassette with only two long ambient composition, which confirmed the shift in Bobby Wratten’s music. A couple of months ago, six years after his last release for Elefant Records, Bobby Wratten’s Lightning In A Twilight Hour returned with a new single produced in association with long term collaborator Ian Catt, The Circling Of The Seasons / Neuchâtel trailer (but do not feature on) the forthcoming second album. This stand-alone single set the scene for Overwintering, the new album, which will be out tomorrow, April 1st, on Elefant Records, a collection of eleven songs overseen in collaboration with Ian Catt. Beth Arzy and Anne Mari Davies and Michael Hiscock from The Field Mice are featured throughout the record.