Divine Schism: Sharron Kraus & Sara Wolff

0	OXFORD: The Port Mahon
P	Tuesday 23rd May, 2023
N	7:30pm

OXFORD: The Port Mahon

Tuesday 23rd May, 2023

7:30pm

Event information

Delighted to share this double bill of some amazing and interesting songwriters, Sharron Kraus & Sara Wolff!

Sharron returns to Oxford for the first time in years with her latest album KIN available on vinyl for the first time (on Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube) for this homecoming show and we welcome Sara back after beguiling us last year at the Library.

Over the years Sharron Kraus' career has pulled her in many directions and seen her collaborate with artists, poets, writers and researchers, creating soundtracks, podcasts, musical accompaniments and responses. She is an intuitive improviser, a compelling performer and a weaver of musical spells.

The spine supporting this body of work is songwriting, though, and it is to this most natural combination of words and music that she always returns. If prose writing is a tool for analysis and working out what we think, because of the emotional dimension music introduces, songwriting is a tool for working out how we feel. This newest collection of songs was written during and partly in response to the pandemic and the relative isolation it plunged us into. Kraus dives into deep explorations of themes of kinship with other humans as well as the natural world, and of what happens when those kinship bonds are severed or abused. Sonically the album is on a continuum with her previous solo album, Joy's Reflection is Sorrow, with its layered synths and recorders, and sits somewhere in the space between Jane Weaver's electronica and the psych/folk of bands like The Left Outsides, Modern Studies.

There’s an old saying “a stitch in time saves nine” and it’s this attention to detail which is woven through Sara Wolff’s songwriting. A lyrical observer well-attuned to life’s finer points, her forthcoming EP 'Magic Hour’ (Small Matter Records) marks a shift in her sonic universe after what she calls “a year of sound” and revisiting her native Bergen reshaped the homespun nuggets crafted in her cosy Liverpool abode. Now expanding her pool of people and production skills outside, Sara’s music is present as it pulls from the past, and muses on the weird paradox of time with wide-eyed wonder.

Playing, or rather, experimenting with sound has always been Sara’s superpower in the face of adulting. 12 months following her debut EP When You Left The Room, collaboration and composition has led the way. Lacing a crimson thread through a tapestry of rich arrangements, her avant-garde knit-pop has been honed through producing other artists; performing as a session musician; embarking upon her first solo tour of unconventional spaces, book shops, and museums whilst armed with her trusty 4-track cassette machine, and sharing stages with artists like Fenne Lily, Rozi Plain, Helado Negro and Peter Broderick.