Saturday 10 August 2024, 7.30pm
Launch show for 'The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined' – the tenth solo album from UK based Composer, Performer and Improviser, Laura Cannell.
Exposed and raw, Laura Cannell’s latest album is an offering of contemporary minimalism to a 12th century composer, a thank you to a lost uncle and a way to process an anxiety disorder. The music feels ancient as she breaks down and reconstructs selected music by the 12th Century Polymath Hildegard von Bingen alongside her own compositions. The 12 track album is performed on bass recorders, a 12 string knee harp, delay pedal and sparse layering, conjuring a bridge to connect the centuries. The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined was improvised and recorded in single takes.
"Hildegard's music gradually became a significant presence in my life. I revisit her music at times when I feel overwhelmed, or when I need to reset my inner musical dialogue. Sometimes the sparsity is too intense, leaving room for the darkness to make itself at home, other times, it radiates joy and gives me inspiration to create worlds within the spaces between the notes.” – Laura Cannell (June 2024)
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
“an essential work of modern British folk and avant-garde composition.” – THE QUIETUS
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
Jennifer Lucy Allan is a writer and broadcaster. She writes on underground and experimental music, and is a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction. Her first book, The Foghorn’s Lament, was out in 2021 on White Rabbit Books. Her next book Clay: A Human History is out in 2024.
Arianne Churchman is an artist from Suffolk, working in London. Her work looks at British Folklore and traverses performance, sound, film, textiles and objects. Often slipping in and out of tradition her works look for spaces where we might encounter strange and magical transformations within folklore. Her recent works focus on Suffolk horse folklore, transforming this material into new feminist collective histories and psychedelic dreamscapes in the form of a Dream Horse Cult. She frequently collaborates with other artists including Benedict Drew, Chloe Langlois and Plastique Fantastique.
