hello welcome to the newsletter
view it on a computer for better layout and links to all the featured artists x
just a little bit of
news for
august
june...july...
the big news at the right now is that i'm taking a show to edinburgh fringe! (maybe) (i need your help!)
The very first show I made with Ulita 'What Happened to Agnes' has been offered a 2-week run in the C:Venues programme for Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. I know! Wonderful, exciting news!
But... we've been unsuccessful with our funding bid, and we can't afford to make it happen. This is where you come in!
There are some lovely rewards for donating– like me writing and recording an original song for you (or a cover of your favourite), or Tom and I performing a private house concert.
What Happened to Agnes is a very special show. It tells the story of my great-aunt, who disappeared as a child in Malaysia in the 1930s. I made it with Tom and Luca (aka Ulita), and it's a beautiful, ephemeral memory piece, drenched in colour
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I had been recording my grandmother's incredible stories for some time. And of all her wild, pioneering adventures, it was the way she talked about her sister Agnes, the one who ‘disappeared’ that captivated me. And listening back to the recordings, I became a bit fixated on the language she would use “She went away somewhere… And then there’s no more Agnes. I don’t know what happened to Agnes.”
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At first we told the story from Agnes’ point of view, it was a surreal, imagined deep dive into a story we had to basically invent. But after a while we realised that it while it was important to give a voice to Agnes herself, it was my grandmother’s story we were really telling, and that’s when we really started to find the bones of the piece. And then halfway through making the show, we found out what happened to Agnes…
What we’ve ended up with is a story that walks the line of reality and imagination, threaded through with songs that hang off ephemeral half-memories, trying to spin them into complete stories. But it has a brutal throughline– because it tells the truth.
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We really want to share it with people, and we really appreciatre any help you can give us to take it north!
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thank you for reading the newsletter
See you back here next month
ps. new show listings here.
hey
may
It's 'a picture by Joshua Rush
I'm
sorry
this
is
late
I've
been
so
busy
what's the news well here it is
I've gotten stuck into making new music for my album, and my gosh it's exciting. I'm somewhat out of money now, so if you are reading this and you have lots, or know someone who does, and is interested in becoming a patron of the arts please get in touch ha!
I've also started tentatively playing the new songs live in different configurations. Look at this lovely poster Luca Shaw made:
here are some shots taken by Mat Coffey of the first show at Manchester Jazz Festival
and secretly
there is one more show about to be announced
for now, let's just say it's in Brum on August 8 x
here is a gorgeous song I've been listening to over and over again this month
on the day we parted, a thousand birds
flew low, so they might overhear your words
and they might understand, for it seemed absurd
trampled love like the dust under thundering herds
and the sun sank low and the clouds rolled in
as they sometimes do when the night begins
and the sleepless birds heard a noise within
we believed in love but it couldn’t win
birds know best, and they follow us ‘round
and they wait till the weight has us stooped to the ground
and they find in us then what is seldom found
molten love spilling out with a hissing sound
like a punctured tire that is leaking air
for what is love but a kind of despair
and what is love when it’s no longer there
but a quiet room and an empty chair
and here is a poem i wrote
See you back here next month
hi
it's
april
Excerpt from
April Midnight
By Arthur Symons
It's 'a picture by Steph Dutton
live from low four studios
with tom harris and aaron wood
what's the news well here it is
So much news in April my my
The first thing is that we’ve begun recording the music for my new project, ‘The Beast’! I was joined by Xhosa Cole, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Charlotte Keeffe, Tom Harris and producer Chris Hyson at Buffalo Studios in London for some incredibly inspiring musical days. In late May we’ll be tracking drummer Sarah Heneghan and then we’ll have the first three tracks well underway. Huge thanks to Help Musicians & the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award for making this possible! These beautiful photographs were captured by Sophie Jouvenaar. Stay tuned for more updates!
a bit more news
Nextly, I have a new string to my bow and the string is a new job! As of last week, I’m the new programmer at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds. Its an absolutely beautiful room and Opera North are a company I’ve had the pleasure to work with as an artist so its super exciting to be taking this on. I’l be working part time curating the programme of music, spoken word, film and dance and am looking forward to working with some incredible artists.
the weird thing this month is a small picture of a tiger I made and here it is
thank you for reading
the newsletter
See you back here next month
it's march
march is here!
It's 'a picture Luca Shaw made for my cloud party last month!
this month's weird thing is some micropoems I made about beetles,
arranged in a circle
^^^
did you know the little animation I shared last month was the inspiration for this scene in the 'Up' video?
here are some nice things i've seen recently
(hover over the pictures)
what's the news well here it is
I'm going into the studio for the first session recording my new album 'The Beast' in April! I'll be sharing some behind the scenes images and clips here in the newsletter for subscribers. And meanwhile, tickets to the first live shows with the new music are starting to go on sale:
Here's a link to the manchester jazz festival show
and there are more to come soon so stay tuned! x
thank you for reading
the newsletter
See you back here next month
february at last
It's 'Home' by Sarah Wilson. Made in reponse to my song of the same name.
I wanted some clouds to be the pendant lights in my house. So last weekend I made them. I used papier-mâchè and balloons and built them around some vintage light fittings I had bought years ago at a junk yard. The nicest thing was, two of my best friends came over and we all did our own projects, and listened to music.
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I find this time of year very hard and I cant tell you how satisfying it was to want something, and make it, and finish it and put it up. So many things at the moment are intangible or have been sent off into the ether and may yield future joys. But this was a small nice thing I did.
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Next week I'm going to have a cloud party, where I'll wear a floaty dress and invite some friends over to eat meringue and listen to Joni Mitchell and gaze at my cumuli creations.
That my favourite singer/artist Cecile Mclorin Salvant, who is an absolute inspiration, has a new album coming out next month? You can preorder Mélusine now. I'm going to.
by Luca Shaw & Helenskià Collett above my desk.)
One of the clouds, before I hung it from the ceiling (note the lovely pictures
The boat is called 'S.s. Birdie' after my niece's imaginary friend Birdie who was with us for several years. Birdie was sometimes person-sized, sometimes fit in a bicycle basket and occasionally even slid down a straw.
its some news! i've just announced
my first show with the new music from my upcoming album The Beast. It's May 25 for Manchester Jazz Festival, with an absolutely incredible line up of musicians. I'm so excited to share this music and these ideas with you!
thank you for reading
the newsletter
See you back here next month
it's january and everyone's sad
It's a melancholy set of film photographs from my neighbourhood by William Hewer
"The friends have left, the sea is bare
That was strewn with floating, fresh green weeds.
Only the rusty-sided freighter
Goes past the moon's marketless craters
And the stars are the only ships of pleasure."
Elizabeth Bishop
Isabelle Faust playing Bach
A picture of me by Chiara Terraneo
well what's the news
here it is
I've been mired in planning work so I can make all the things I want to make this year, and it's been a sticky quick sand of budgets and timeline and horror. BUT it's important to do and it means I'll (hopefully) be making lots of beautiful colourful things again soon.
​
Right now I'm working on funding for Ulita to make lots of new work (and to take 'What Happened to Agnes' to Edinburgh fringe!) I'm also planning for The BEAST which regular readers of this rag will know is my new recording project which I am THRILLED to be bringing to you.
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So even though this is the saddest, greyest muddiest time of year (and Frank's paws are a constant source of anxeity), we'll be out the other side soon and spring will bring music and magic again.
