“A brilliant album. Big surprise for everybody and a real change in direction. A wonderful thing.” (Steve Barker / “On The Wire”)

Ajay Saggar has been making music under the moniker Bhajan Bhoy for the last 5 years, releasing several albums and touring around the globe. As a member of both Water Damage and CHELA, he appeared on 3 consecutive nights at Le Guess Who? festival in November 2024. Bhajan Bhoy’s music “plough a peak time psychedelic furrow; from lazy interstellar ragas to lysergic dance music, mellow psychedelic rock and all sorts of kosmische mutations” (The Slow Music Movement).

“Summer In St. Mary’s” is an album of beautiful and highly meditative and minimalist compositions with repetitive motifs, played on a 19th century church organ in the 15th century church of St. Mary’s in the small village of South Cowton in North Yorkshire (U.K.).

It’s an incredibly beautiful church with a rich history. Built in the 1450s by Sir Richard Conyers (who also built his castle on the hill opposite), this handsome church, like the castle, is sturdy in character. Inside the church are the alabaster effigies of Sir Richard Conyers and his two wives. The church is unused but maintained by the the ChurchesConservation Trust.

Inside is a church organ built by the The Packard Company, who were based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. I dated this particular organ by finding the serial number that had been scratched into the back of the organ, and via a wonderful website setup by a fan of the organ company, could see that it was built somewhere between 1896 – 1898!

I discovered the church in the summer of 2022, whilst on a visit, that summer, to unusual buildings in North Yorkshire with my mum. I saw the organ tucked away in a corner and immediately was drawn to playing it, and heard the amazing sound that emanated from it, and the seeds of an idea to record on it were sown. Over two long days in the summer of 2023, I composed and recorded a number of long compositions. Spending those long hours in the church gave me a stereophonic impression of the auditory surround. Inspired by the “natural musics” of the house’s structure (its acoustics, creaks, wind blowing through the wooden doors and room tone) and the history of it (stain glass windows, effigies of Sir Richard Conyers and his two wives, Latin inscription above the doors), I fell into a spell of playing music in a very open and free manner for many hours that, within the confines of this very special building, felt transcendent and astral.