Friday 25 April 2025, 7.30pm
Pleased to welcome back Laura Cannell, following the release of her A Compendium of Beasts - Volume 1, a kind of modern day medieval bestiary in sound. Cannell's ‘Beasts’ series opens the door on a new chapter in which she is searching for meaning amidst chaos. She embraces her feral medieval and improvisatory roots through her instruments as she plays a game of catch and release to explore the minds of these mythical and real animals.
Ecclesiastical and intimate, Gooch’s music resides somewhere between meditative flow and classical arrangement, recalling incantatory chanting as much as folk songwriting. Her looping vocals and evolving ambient electronics draw you in and invite you to listen more closely — harmonized vocal layers spin in place while she solos on top of them; buzzing organ tones lend a liturgical atmosphere with an almost imperceptible hint of serration in their edges. Behind this reverberated tapestry are worlds of soundtrack ambience and classical song construction. Lucy has punctuated recent years with live performances at festivals like Glastonbury, SXSW, Rewire and Green Man, and she makes this appearance at Cafe Oto with new work that builds on her previous releases 2020’s ‘Rushing’ EP and 2021’s ‘Rain’s Break’.
https://lucygooch.bandcamp.com/
“Using her voice, a synthesizer, some reverb, and little else, Lucy Gooch makes music of surprising complexity.” – Pitchfork
“Gooch's voice is rich and angelic, matching the timbre of the lush surrounding instrumentation.” – Bandcamp, best Ambient Albums review
“Somehow extremely dramatic but elegantly understated.” – Loud And Quiet
Laura Cannell is an internationally acclaimed composer and musician whose music straddles the worlds of contemporary and ancient music, drawing on the emotional influences of the landscape. In 2024 she released a monthly EP series on her Brawl Records Label under the heading, ‘A Year of Lore’, and her 10th solo album ‘The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined’ came out August 2024 to rave reviews.
She is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 6Music and was recently featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as well as two Spotlight Scene features on BBC 6Music. Laura has also performed throughout the UK and Europe and collaborated with the likes of writer and comedian Stewart Lee and the cellist Lori Goldston (Earth/Nirvana) with a 2024 duo album released on State51.
Recent performances include The British Library double bill with Gazelle Twin, ALICE - Copenhagen, Artist in Residence at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, performance & lecture at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Laura was also a contributing composer/performer to the score of feature film HARVEST which premiered at Venice Biennale, New York and London International Film Festivals in late 2024.
www.lauracannell.com
www.brawlrecords.co.uk
“The raw beauty of her melodies glimmer through prickly thickets of stark and dissonant chordal drones” – THE WIRE
“this music feels ancient, it also feels brutally alive, as if a giant was waking from long slumbers, about to make its way in the world” – THE GUARDIAN
“beguiling, mournful solemnity wreathed in power and sonority. Cannell is one of the country’s most promising musicians.” – RECORD COLLECTOR
“an essential work of modern British folk and avant-garde composition.” – THE QUIETUS
