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Out and About

Farewell 2020, you won’t be missed

31st December 2020 by the_ashen
New Music, Out and About
2020, end of year, live, music

IMG 6201

What a year. What. A. Fucking. Year. 

It’s the last day of 2020, and with the turning of the year, comes that moment where nostalgia typically swells, and hopefulness pokes up its little bright head above the winter snows. Except, this is 2020. Surely, 2021 can’t be worse, can it? There’s no snow yet, at least not visible here, in my little lockdown room. But, is that hope peeking out? Maybe. Maybe. 

I’ve been one of the lucky ones. I, and my family, and most of my friends got through the year. Many didn’t, but we did. I had work. Many didn’t, but I did. I even managed to play a gig. Many didn’t, but I did. I heard a lot of music, and even made some myself, which I’ve now consolidated under the banner of Kosi Records here. I didn’t use the lockdown like I’d hoped I would, but who did? It was soul crushing, but here we are, on the brink of 2021, and so there it is…hope. 

In all this, there have been things that have delighted and sustained me.I climbed mountains, I hiked, I ran and rode almost 1000 Kilometers.

I watched a lot of online concerts, my favourite of which was the Folk On Foot Festivals, especially the second one, where O’Hooley & Tidow & their baby Flynn stole my heart, and the show. I listened to hours of The Old Songs Podcast, where I discovered Burd Ellen. I made a series of long form interviews called “The Ashen Asks” with a bunch of great musicians over on my YouTube Chanel, was that in 2020? Wow. Seems forever ago. I watched Piers Cawley grow a community around weekly swapping of traditional songs on his YouTube Channel. I worked on the audio of a film by Andrew Leach and Alec Bowman called Overheads. I remixed some other people’s songs in my own style, and I mixed an album for Jon Wilks, whose humour,  patience and friendship has kept me company through the dark days of winter, via the wonders of WhatsApp. That should hit the shelves in January, and I can safely say you won’t want to miss that one. 

Another upside of the year was that Bandcamp.com introduced Bandcamp Fridays, where once a month they waived their fees to help artists, so many of whom have lost income to the lockdown. There was a lot of noise and a lot of buzz, and it got overwhelming at times, but it was also fun, and I found many new artists, some of whom I’ll list below, and of course you can buy their work even if it’s not Bandcamp Friday, I know they’ll appreciate it. These, among many others, were my soundtrack to the year.

What will 2021 hold? Who knows, but l can’t help marking this arbitrary moment in time by peering closely at the snow, just to see if there’s anything poking through. 

My Bandcamp soundtrack to 2020, in all its joys and sorrows, as eclectic and changeable as my mood, and like the year, in no particular order. 

 

Live For Ever by Bartees Strange. 

The Land is A Sea In Waiting by Pefkin

Access Denied by Asian Dub Foundation

A Formless Mass Of Chaos by Stephanie Merchak

Cabin Lights Off by Myles O’Reilly [Indistinct Chatter]

EP1 & EP2 by The Magpie Arc

The Isolation Sessions by Piers Cawley

Five Stages by Hilliat Fields

Silver Came by Burd Ellen

Seascape by Billow

If You See A Rook on its Own, it’s a Crow by Elle Osborne

Inversions by Belinda O’Hooley

I Don’t Want to Let Go, but I Need to Let Go by Whetman Chelmets

One by Ian Arkley

Sweet England by Jim Moray

Historical Record vol 1&2 by Josienne Clarke

Sing To God Vol 1&2 by Cardiacs

Dark Turn of Mind by Iona Fyfe

The Fiery Margin by Alasdair Roberts

Loss by Adzes

Fjældmark/Wintarslāf by Fjældmark and Wintarslāf

Pėdsakų lede nepalikus by Algis Fediajevas

Argonauta by Aisha Burns

To The Chaos by Tragical History Tour/Order of the Wolf

Moribund Kingdom by Spectral Child

Temporary Antennae by Caïna

Dawn by Kuyashii

The Salted Air by Nadine Khouri

At The Sound Lab by Electroscope

Supporting Josienne Clarke

17th August 2019 by the_ashen
Out and About
Bratislava, josienne clarke, live, slovakia, Trnava

Really exciting news, I’ll be supporting Josienne Clarke on her first live dates in Slovakia this September. Josienne is one of the best singers in the world, and has won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Josienne has frequently been compared to the great Sandy Denny, but present too are elements of Nina Simone and Gillian Welch; all three are important influences on her work.

Mr Alec Bowman will also be playing some songs from his forthcoming work, and this will be their public debut!

I will be playing songs from my new album Slowdive, which has been described by folking.com as “show[ing] traditional/folk influences, and can certainly be described as fitting in with “a melancholy folk rock project“, though there’s a raw passion here that transcends melancholy”

Come see us on 4th September in Nadvorie, Trnava and Cafe Scherz, Bratislava on the 5th

A picture of andi (the ashen) in the underground

The Bowman Experience

6th June 2019 by the_ashen
Out and About
london, MrAlecBowman, photos

i recently did a photoshoot with Mr Alec Bowman, and he made a rather lovely blog post about our day. i have to say that meeting him was a confirmation to me that finding real friendship through social media channels like Twitter is quite possible. through a series of serendipitous events we were able to meet up in London, and quite apart from the many, many photographs he took of me (quite possibly more than are in existence in the entirety of the rest of my life), we had a wonderful time talking and getting to know each other.

i really don’t like having my picture taken, but Alec was able to keep things calm and comfortable. i really enjoyed his sense of excitement about his work and that he was very willing to work with me on getting the sort of images i had imagined.

you can read his blog post here

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