Hannah Cohen

Event information

HANNAH COHEN

Hannah Cohen comes from a family of poets and ministers, musicians, broadcasters and booksellers. Despite growing up in a strict Belfast home with no mirrors, alcohol or Shakespeare, her grandfather, Bertie Rodgers, became a lauded poet, BBC broadcaster and good friend of Dylan Thomas. Hannah's mother was a 17 year old British schoolgirl on holiday in San Francisco when she met Hannah's father, a jazz drummer from the Midwest, and there Hannah was raised surrounded by music, musicians, and hippie intellectuals.

She left home as a teenager to travel the world working as a model, soon finding herself in New York and becoming over the next few years something of a muse to the city's art scene, posing for Richard Prince, Terry Richardson, David Salle, Will Cotton, and Ryan McGinley. Working on the other side of the lens, Hannah shot album covers and music videos for friends, and her first book of photography, "Fotografias. Brasil", was published earlier this year.

She also immersed herself in New York's music scene, working at the Village Vanguard, staying out all night; in the East Village at Nublu's legendary Brazilian parties, becoming friends with singers and writers and producers. And quietly, privately, she started teaching herself guitar and writing songs. They were simple songs, sung to herself, private reflections on love and loneliness. But when she did start sharing them with her friends, usually in the wee hours as a party was winding down, rooms were hushed, jaws were dropped, and it became clear to everyone who heard them that these songs were something very special indeed.

TOM THE LION

From naked piano ballads, driving guitars, and percussive electro, to stargazing folk; Tom the Lion's songs comeZfrom the grandest traditions, but with a modern edge. With a uniquely melodic and lyrical sleight of hand, he can't help but play big hearted, singalong, hairy pop music.