Mermaid Chunky
We invite you to celebrate the Autumnal equinox, and the opening of our Autumn season, with the glorious Mermaid Chunky. Named after a type of wool from their hometown of Stroud, their music is a charmingly disorientating blend of lo-fi ceremony and play. Songs from their album, VEST, have been described as ‘bass thumping schoolyard chant with a heart of darkness’ and ‘ranty cosmic synth empowerment’ (The Quietus). With a lightly-worn inventive brilliance two best friends dressing up and playing around opens up a dream-like ritual space which feels genuinely subversive.
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Mermaid Chunky
Website
Byron Wallen has been described as "one of the most innovative, exciting and original trumpet players alive" (Jazzwise Magazine). His 'Black Flag' project started life in 2004 as 'Dangerous Duets': a series of improvising duos performing live in response to the photography of Annabel Elgar. In 2022 this project was revisited and released as a book of photographs and a CD featuring Byron on trumpet and his long-term musical partner, Nick Ramm, on keyboards.
Informed by Byron’s own experience, this music charts the psychological and emotional frontiers of contact between a mother and her son separated by the Atlantic Ocean. It dives into the multi-layered toxic waste caused by global imperialism and colonialism and the creation of lost souls and generations living in socio-economic poverty confined within a mental bubble of paralysis. Byron invites us to "explore the shifting balance of power between the urban and rural with a glimpse of light before the Sun".
"A moment for transcendence on loop. A reminder of a home outside of ourselves. An affirmation that oneness of spirit is both our journey and destination. The Black Flag is an exercise in becoming. The spirit of hope, woven in sound"
(Dr Aditi Jaganathan)
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Black Flag
Byron Wallen website
👁 Extract of a duet set with Lemn Sissay and Byron Wallen
👂 Listen/read about Black Flag (album 2022)
Nick Ramm website
👁 The Cinematic Orchestra - Time & Space (ft Nick Ramm)
👂 Hello Skinny - Hello Skinny (ft Nick Ramm) via Bandcamp
The extraordinary lyric poet Kelvin Corcoran will be reading from his collected poems, to be published by the prestigious Shearsman Press in May 2023.
"Corcoran has as wide a range and as rich a vocabulary as any poet now writing. He possesses a flawless ear, a fresh eye for image and detail, penetrating analysis and a storyteller’s gift. He can shift registers suddenly, from lyric to formal mode to common speech, and even a snatch of song … Kelvin Corcoran is one of the rare true poets. Reading him is a privilege and a pleasure, a new awareness’
(David Wevill)
Balladeste are Preetha Narayanan (violin) and Tara Franks (cello), who explore the versatility and sound potential of just two string instruments. With traces of contemporary minimalism, Indian classical and folk, they co-create all original compositions that are vibrant and experimental yet melodic and filmic in quality – songs without words with a contemporary alt-folk twist.
"music that can radiate suspense but at the same time is warm and intimate" (Songlines 4****)
"Absolutely stunning"
(BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour)
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Kelvin Corcoran
Shearsmith books
👂 Kelvin Corcoran reading at Free Range in 2012
Balladeste
Balladeste website
👂 Balladeste - 'Dina Dukhio' via Bandcamp
👁 Balladeste - 'Being' via YouTube
Dau is the new ambient drone project from UK musician Phil Self. Known locally for his work with Smugglers Festival, the Isolation Choir and bands like Cocos Lovers, Will Varley and Montrose Composers Club, Phil is joined here by cellist James Gow. Dau’s debut release on Phantom Limb’s Spiritual imprint, entitled 'Zed Zed', was created entirely from acoustic instrumentation and real-time performances and has been described as ‘serenely crafted quietude [that] ripples and breathes with life, every creak of its bowed guitar as audible as the seagulls flying above Self’s flat’ (Phantom Limb).
Phil and James were joined for this performances by Chase Coley (see FR#252), playing walkie talkies, TV static and a waterphone, and Samuel D Loveless (trumpet).
Opening the evening is Tony Westcliff: famous rock star, intellectual giant of the manosphere and freelance sex therapist.
‘Tony is dry, silly, camp, sober and terrific, all at once ... He inhabits the stage with a throwaway charisma, and we're never sure if things are going to plan’ (Steven Todd)
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Dau
Dau website
👂 Zed Zed on Bandcamp
👂 The Drift by JOW (James Gow & Pete Judge) on Bandcamp
Tony Westcliff
Help Me Fake My Death on bandcamp
Let Spin are a post-jazz quartet who’ve been making waves in the UK and European jazz scenes since they formed in 2012. Their new release, 'Thick As Thieves', sees their fiery energy find a more organic feeling of growth and reflection through collective improvisation.
Let Spin are: guitarist Moss Freed (Union Division, Spike Orchestra), saxophonist Chris Williams (Led Bib, Sarathy Korwar), bassist Ruth Goller (Skylla, Melt Yourself Down) & drummer Finlay Panter (Beats & Pieces Big Band).
‘British Punk Jazz with a wiry electrical crackle’ Uncut
‘I'm absolutely loving this album! It's a full listening journey’ Corey Mwamba, Freeness BBC Radio 3
‘An album of energy and synergy, Let Spin again show their absolute muscle and charm’ ★★★★ Liverpool Sound and Vision
The poet David Herd will read from his recent collection 'Walk Song'. Voted a book of the year by the Australian Book Review, this work grew from the Refugee Tales project and speaks of the need for activism, solidarity and a language of welcome.
‘passionately engaged, moving towards real change, charged with the vivid strength of a collective commons’ (Blackbox Manifold magazine)
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Let Spin
Let Spin website
👂 Let Spin - Waveform Guru on Bandcamp
👁 Let Spin - Thick as Thieves trailer on YouTube
David Herd
David Herd - Walk Song
👁 David Herd reading 'Prologue' on YouTube