Stoke Newington band Scowlin Owl release new song about Abney Park

Scowlin Owl band members (plus owl)

Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington already has claims to fame in popular culture. The video for ‘Back to Black’ by Amy Winehouse was filmed there. American steampunk band Abney Park took their name from it. And much filming for the popular BBC drama Waking the Dead also took place there.

Now it is the setting for a mysterious new song by Scowlin Owl, an all-female folk band  from Stoke Newington itself.

Founded in 2011, Scowlin Owl will release its debut EP These Strange Companions on 23 November, with a single by the same name now available on the band’s website.

Speaking with Nina Lovelace, lead vocalist and songwriter for the band, the respect she has for the place becomes clear: “Abney Park is my favourite cemetery,” she says, “and not just because I now live in Stoke Newington. It’s among the least known, but is amongst the most atmospheric for me.

“You can really feel the history of Stoke Newington as you wander through it.”

‘These Strange Companions’ was inspired by the writings of Arthur Machen, an early 20th century horror and fantasy writer. Machen’s stories tested the limits of perception, portraying London as an illusion behind which was hiding a mystical world.

One short story, published in 1936 when he was 73 and simply entitled ‘N’, is about a magical transformation that takes place inside the Stoke Newington cemetery.

“The song [‘These Strange Companions’] has its own story but was inspired by the story of ‘N’,” explains Lovelace. “I really liked the idea of someone being lost to another world via Abney Park, someone who perhaps thought they were safe in their neighbourhood, but in reality had no idea what was really living there…”

The song was also motivated by plans to build a Sainsbury’s overlooking Abney Park in Wilmer Place, Stoke Newington, which were approved by Hackney Council in August.

“I really don’t think we need yet another supermarket round here, especially if extra traffic or construction affect Abney Park, which is many people’s fear,” says Lovelace.

Not that ‘These Strange Companions’ is about politics, its minor key harmonies and chord progressions instead invoking a unsettling sense of fantasy and the supernatural.

The enigmatic last line of ‘N’ reads: “And with what companions?” Judging by the song’s quality it is likely there will be many ‘companions’ following Scowlin Owl soon enough.