Thank you to Fran & Flora for donating a copy of ‘Unfurl’ on CD, and a beautiful limited edition gold on black album artwork prints by the Oscar winning illustrator Alan Lee (Lord of The Rings), adapted to print by known graphic designer Raimund Wong. 

"Unfurl covers a breadth of material, both musical and thematic. Traditional folk songs are sung in both Romanian and Yiddish, while pre-release single ‘Mayn Rue Platz’ is a modern performance and interpretation of a poem and melody by early New York-Jewish writer (of the “Sweatshop Poets” group) Morris Rosenfeld. Poem and song both tell the true story of the death of a factory worker, singing to his lover from the afterlife. Fran & Flora also name as influences Shostakovich, Bach, Tcha Limberger, D’angelo, Alice Coltrane, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Elka Vulcheva, Nils Okland, Gabi Lunca, Petro Loukas, Elizabeth Walfisch and Alan Bern, effectively capturing the huge range of their own expression. Present here, in abundance, is the elegance and poise of those classical reference points, flowing freely and boldly alongside the strange magic of the modern.

Recorded by Hejira’s Sam Beste, and further augmented with guest performances by contemporary composer, violin virtuoso and horse-whisperer Linde Timmermans and London-based experimental percussionist and improviser Simon Roth on frame drum, Unfurl also features artwork by Oscar winning Lord of the Rings’ lead concept artist Alan Lee, a collaborator of suitable pedigree to such a rare work."