STEN is a brand new band from the creative hub of West Cork featuring David Bickley (founder Irish folktronica pioneers Hyperborea), renowned Dublin singer Robert Delany (Gold, Numbers) and celebrated guitarist James O’Leary (from award-winning band Interference).


STEN comes from the Cornish for the mineral tin. Tin was essential for making bronze often mixed with Irish copper from West Cork to this end. The bilateral trade in these metals created an inseparable bond between these two ancient nations, and this is the basis of this body of work, an LP of lyrical electronica as a companion piece to an immersive film artwork.

OLD GODS as a musical work grew directly from the film (also produced by Bickley, a renowned film artist) — a journey in sound and vision that uses the ancient Cornish track way, The Tinners Way, as a narrative thread. As we travel we encounter ancient monuments, mythic forms, and the remnants of an industrial past, all immersed within an atmospheric and inspirational landscape. 

Taking these narrative elements we developed a series of songs for an LP that told the story of the miner's journey in a more “oblique” manner while still maintaining the sense of the "hero's journey" — an epic adventure through mysterious obstacles that renders the protagonist with a new sense of being.