LONDON: Union Chapel

Thursday 6th May, 2010

7:00pm

Event information

Calgary's WOODPIGEON's chamber-folk concoctions of banjo, glockenspiel, choir and Mark Hamilton's diffident vocals make for thoughtful melodious moments and joyous rock-outs. Combining the mystical comic-book fantasies of Mark's lyrics with the sparkling music of the band, comparisons to Sufjan Stevens and his delightful ilk aren't far wrong, setting Woodpigeon up to be the next great Canadian breakout band.

"**** It's bloody marvelous." -SUNDAY TIMES

LAURA GIBSON's new album Beasts of Seasons (out now) is nothing short of a masterpiece, both for its flawless and often haunting execution and for its inspired statements on the human experience. If it's the sonic equivalent of darkness and what may be lurking there, then Gibson's fragile voice and plaintively strummed guitar soon emerge as a flicker of light. It's a mesmerizing contrast, as the curtain rises for Gibson's beautifully gloomy and arresting meditations on life and death

WITHERED HAND is the work of one man from Edinburgh, Dan Willson. Despite a lyrical admission to listening to death metal bands, Dan makes pensive and pretty 'antifolk' music sprawling with all sorts of questions and quiet conversations while his Neil Young-ish voice mingles joyously with varied accompaniments including that of a banjo, harmonica and mandolin.