Oliver - Standing Stone

In an era where visibility and success are the only yardsticks for judging an artist, and at a historical moment when it's often banality — or, at best, mediocrity — that gets rewarded, the story of Oliver Chaplin is almost like something out of a fable, a reminder that harks back to rock music's golden past and that, in many ways, brings home just why those years were so full of vitality, creativity and genuine spirit.

Oliver was born in 1950 in England, spending his youth in the rustic countryside of Suffolk alongside his sister Claire and his three brothers, Giles, Chris and Simon. It was by following in his brothers' footsteps that Oliver took his first steps into the world of music. The four Chaplin brothers performed first under the name Rebels, then Avengers; when Chris found work at the BBC in London, Oliver and Giles set about building a studio where they could cultivate and develop their own compositions, often fired by a sacred devotion to improvisation.

The early 70s were years of a complete semantic revolution in pop and rock music. The Chaplin brothers lived through this vibrant flow of ideas with an adventurous spirit, and it was in this context that Chris's role as a sound engineer at the BBC opened up new prospects for Oliver, ever more determined to leave his mark in those years of great creative vigour.

In 1974 Oliver's dreams took shape in a debut blessed with a series of distinctive qualities, ones that the recent reissue — made possible thanks to the tenacity of blogger Jack Cucci — has finally brought to light for the public.

Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart, Jimi Hendrix and Roy Harper are the reference points for "Standing Stone", an album rich in visionary folk-rock-blues ballads ("Freezing Cold Like An Ice"), disorienting lysergic-tinged folk-rock ("Royal Flush") and skewed, sickly ballads that dust off the magic of the best early-70s English folk (the Roy Harper-esque sketch of "Off On A Trek" and the splendid palette of colours and shades of psych-folk on the pastoral "Orbit Your Factory").

Recorded in complete autonomy, the album showcases Oliver's gift for improvisation and experimentation. Not only does the musician use his voice as a further instrument, but he also opens the door to natural sounds — birds, frogs, bees — and curious inserts of ambient and artificial noise — ringing telephones, hammers — while at the same time casting a glance towards technological and electronic evolution, which, although absent from the instrumentation itself, can be felt in the finishing and post-production work carried out by his brother Chris ("Tok Tic"). It's only natural to say that "Standing Stone" anticipates the modern joys of DIY and field recording.

There are plenty of gems on this rediscovered album: the rockabilly driven by the fuzz guitar sound of "Trance", the transgressive acid-folk of "Cat And The Rat", the ecstatic Mike Oldfield-esque instrumental of "Flowers On A Hill" — though, in truth, each of the 17 tracks would deserve an in-depth look of its own, from the blues-psych transfiguration of fingerpicking style on "Telephone", right through to the rambling folk-blues of "Primrose" — but I'll leave it to the reader to discover a record that's precious both musically and as a collector's item (starting from 3000 euros upwards).

Never officially released, distributed only to friends and acquaintances, and although it was aired by the ever-diligent John Peel on the radio, the album remains one of the hidden treasures of English folk-blues music. Oliver chose a life devoted to the tranquillity of the countryside, even turning down the chance of a release under the Virgin banner.

Stone by stone, an album of unreleased material arrives

After the surreal recovery of "Standing Stone", the Spanish label Guerssen announced a second chapter: a collection of unreleased tracks intended for a second album that was never finished. "Stone Unturned" revisits the acid-folk-psych-blues sound of the English musician, with even rawer, more compelling tones. It's an album that isn't merely an appendix to the rediscovered debut, but a further confirmation of Oliver's enormous talent.

Psych-blues virtuosity ("Clock Tick"), Todd Rundgren-style post-production manipulations ("In A Hurry", "Down To The Woods"), enchanting, unconventional ballads rich in guitar flourishes ("Tantalize", "What's Next") and blues-flavoured delights ("Over There", "Noise In The Night") alternate to form a mosaic of countless shades.

There remains a reasonable doubt that the story of Oliver Chaplin is partly responsible for all the interest surrounding these two albums, but "Standing Stone" and "Stone Unturned" are two projects that have aged remarkably well, while also representing an anomaly within the wild-goose-chase circuit of rare records never officially released, i.e. privately distributed, being valid projects beyond their mere collector's value. For lovers of psych-blues à la Captain Beefheart, they could prove to be more than just a pleasant surprise.

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17/02/2026