Folk Radio Newsletter - 4 Feb 2024
KLOF Mixtape, Celtic Connections, Jenny Sturgeon and Boo Hewerdine, Demi Spriggs, Emma Gatrill, Swimming Bell, Ëda Diaz, Johnny Campbell and lots more.
This week’s Mixtape is an unrushed offering from our KLOF series featuring an epic raga-like jam from East-Coast psychedelic combo Elkhorn and Pelt’s Mike Gangloff. There’s also music from our own Glenn Kimpton, Chaz Prymek’s Lake Mary, Dirty Three’s Jim White (from his first solo album), NYC psychedelic instrumental trio numün, Sage Alyte (Roxane Métayer and David Jarrín Zabala, and Larum (Micah Frank and Chet Doxas) with a track from their latest live album, The Music of Hildegard von Bingen | Live at Public Records. Opening proceedings is the Henry Lowther Band and a favourite from their 1970 album ‘Child Song’.
If you are a premium newsletter subscriber, I recently sent out the new Insider Mixtape featuring Demi Spriggs, Cerys Hafana, Oisin Leech, Emma Gatrill, Katherine Priddy, Boo Hewerdine & Jenny Sturgeon, Daudi Matsiko, Hafdís Huld and more. In case you missed it, you can find that here:
Jenny Sturgeon and Boo Hewerdine – Outliers
Jenny and Boo are our Artists of the Month for February; their new album, Outliers, is out now on Hudson Records - Order here.
The album was reviewed by Thomas Blake, who said:
The fact that Outliers was conceived and recorded entirely online, without the use of a physical studio, might make you think that it is likely to sound scratchy or thrown together, but in fact, the opposite is true. The novel way of recording seems to have focussed both artists, and the attention to detail on this album is remarkable. It has also resulted in an incredible clarity of sound, where both participants’ contributions are clearly defined and yet entirely in accord. Sturgeon and Hewerdine’s collaboration may have been remote, but it feels astonishingly close. Exceptional.
We will also have an interview and a playlist from them soon on Folk Radio.
Celtic Connections
We had a couple of reviewers attend this year’s Celtic Connections, here are the links to those covered so far (a few more are due in):
Recommended
Demi Spriggs – a boy called ear
Demi Spriggs is hard to pin down. Splitting time between Athens and London, she trades as an artist, ethnographer and more. None of which prepares you for a boy called ear. It’s an EP that traffics in both delighting and confusing, sometimes in equal measure. Read the review.
Emma Gatrill – Come Swim
I feel like this album has been a long time coming…Bob Fish reviewed the album: Emma Gatrill’s new album, Come, Swim, has the most interesting genesis. It’s one thing to start a new record by asking friends to provide drum loops and beats to use as a starting point to shake off the creative cobwebs. Inverting the creative process by not starting with her harp challenged her brain to break away from the old patterns and instruments that may have previously been tangential suddenly took centre stage. Using instrumentation more commonly associated with the world of classical music: harp, violins, and clarinets, she merges these with synths and percussion to form an unlikely alliance. Read the full review here.
Swimming Bell - Charlie
While we haven’t a review for this album on the site as yet, LA songwriter Katie Schottland, aka Swimming Bell, is our latest Off the Shelf guest in which we ask artists to present objects from a shelf or elsewhere from their home and talk about them. She shares some lovely moments. Read it here.
Various – Merengue Tipico: Nueva Generacion!
Merengue Típico: Nueva Generación! delves into the heart of Dominican merengue, a genre whose significance often eludes the spotlight. Bongo Joe's venture into unexplored terrain takes us to the Caribbean, specifically the Dominican Republic, shedding light on its musical tapestry. Curated by Xavier Daive, aka Funky Bompa, the compilation unveils rare '60s and '70s gems, providing a glimpse into a transformative period following the fall of the Trujillo regime.
Read Dave’s in-depth album review here.
Ëda Diaz – Suave Bruta
Musical journeys often seem to arrive at destinations far removed from their initial starting point. That certainly appears to be the case for French-Colombian bassist Ëda Diaz.
Born Eléonore Diaz-Arbelaez to an urban planner father from Columbia and a French dressmaker mother who met on a plane travelling from Montevideo to Paris, she studied music from a young age, specifically classical singing and piano. She spent more than a decade performing classical piano at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt in France.
With regular summer trips between Paris and the family home in Medellín, through her grandmother, she was exposed to the songs and sounds of South American music, such as bambucos, boleros and tangos. Her father also introduced her to tumbaos, the basic rhythms played on the bass in Afro-Cuban music, from artists such as Joe Arrovo, The Buena Vista Social Club and Omara Portuondo.
She had a eureka moment in her musical development after taking up the double bass. Already moving away from the classical and exploring sounds such as psychedelia and electronica, she began playing live with contemporary and Latin music artists. Read the full review here.
Malcolm MacWatt – Dark Harvest
Oppression and repression provide the political and personal thematic anchors on the Scottish singer-songwriter Malcolm MacWatt’s sixth full-length album Dark Harvest, one on which he’s joined by three notable collaborators: Angeline Morrison, Nathan Ball and Pat McManus. Read Mike’s review here.
Johnny Campbell - True North
Johnny Campbell is someone who enjoys long walks, the fresh air and the opportunity to take in breathtaking scenery. He also plays and sings. These two things are very much intertwined in his latest album, True North. Not a title reflecting the transient nature of the magnetic north but an evocation of the land and the stories of the land from around the north of England. Read Richard’s review here.
Also Reviewed
We will have another Monday Morning Brew playlist up tomorrow. Check out the latest here:
Until next time…
Thanks Alex......this mix really hit the spot for my cold wintery Sunday!