The lovely folk over at Caught by the River recently invited me to write an essay about the month of May to add to their monthly series, The Pleasures of…

Here’s a snippet of my month:

“May begins away from my native East Anglia, waking up on the first of the month in Manchester and remembering to say white rabbit three times before engaging in the day ahead. I was staying at Islington Mill artists B&B, ahead of my performance that evening. A plump sparrow chick on its first day of flight hopped in through the door and sat squatly, unaware of the dangers of a swinging door and a hungry cat. I was glad to see a creature in this brick heavy ex-industrial landscape. Eventually it had another go and lumpily flew up and out…”
READ IT IN FULL HERE

 

 

 

I heard Laura Cannell for the first time only a couple of weeks back, while I was eagerly awaiting acoustic sets by Thurston Moore and Michael Gira at the London Barbican. Cannell’s supporting set – consisting largely of solo pieces for fiddle or double recorder – knocked me sideways; a mercurial dance between historical harmony and spontaneous improvisation, weaving Early Music into a beautiful ribbon of reflex. Below, Laura and I discuss her own perspective on the Barbican performance, her discovery of the deconstructed bow technique and her conscious disregard for the idea of “wrong answers” in music.

It was wonderful to see you perform at the Barbican the other week. It always feels like a great space for very vivid and dedicated listening. How was it for you? Thank you! I absolutely loved performing at the Barbican…. READ the rest here