Most people may not have heard of The Story, but fans of obscure psychedelic folk may remember The Forest with some affection.The Story is a duo consisting of ex Forest member, Martin Welham, & his son Tom Welham.

They formed The Story in 2005 & between then & now have released one side of a vinyl LP (split with The Whysp), one full -length CD (Tale Spin) & now this, their third release, exclusively available as a download from Woven Wheat Whispers.
They also feature on the wonderful & absolutely essential 'John Barleycorn Reborn' compilation.

Arcane Rising is psychedelic folk of a different sort than most. It isn't laden with special effects, rather it achieves it's otherworldliness through the use of melody & harmonies. In fact this is an ideal album to play to those who consider folk-psych generally to be a little too strange for their tastes.
It somehow manages to be "nice", without any of that unfortunate blandness the word usually implies.
Fans of artists such as The Incredible String Band, Donovan, CSN&Y, Simon & Garfunkel & (obviously) The Forest will find a great deal to like here. This is an album it's very easy to lose oneself in.
Without sounding in any way dated, The Story manage to sound as if they would have fitted in perfectly on the Woodstock soundtrack album.

Stand out tracks for me...
Lingering
Precious One

... but ithe whole album has a very stream of consciousness feel to it & is best experienced as a complete work, played from beginning to end, which is why I found it difficult to come up with much to say about the individual songs themselves.

http://www.thestorymusic.co.uk/
http://www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk/
http://www.john-barleycorn-reborn.com/