Alula Down plus support TBC
Haunting folk textures encompassing drone, collage, field recording and improvisation
Presented by: Sonido Polifonico| 0 | SHEFFIELD: Bishops' House (info) |
|---|---|
| P | Thursday 8th May, 2025 |
| N | Door time: 7:00pm Start time: 7:30pm |
| . | All ages (under 16s must be accompanied by an adult) |
| C | Music - Folk/blues/world |
Event information
ALULA DOWN (Kate Gathercole & Mark Waters) make music that is born of relationship, exploring connection with the land and with the magic and ordinariness of our human-being.
With eclectic musical roots, they make use of collage, improvisation and field recording. Their explorations of folk song and their own self written songs are underpinned with drone and textured soundscape. Recognising that many traditional / vernacular (‘folk’) songs illuminate dispossession and inequality, Alula Down explore these divisions between self and other, and treat the ecology of place as a point of communion, not as an uninvolved landscape.
They have been acclaimed by The Guardian ‘Folk Album of the Month’.
Kate & Mark live in Herefordshire and have played music together since they first met. Recent musical collaborations include work with multi-award winning author Max Porter, and playing with celebrated banjo player Jacken Elswyth on her album At Fargrounds. They also sing and play with psych-folk band Sproatly Smith, make improv noise with rushes/esp, and sing a-cappella with the Bushel Bag Carollers.
Part of The Weirdshire Society, they support local shows featuring folk, left-field and experimental live music from travelling musicians.
Kate & Mark also run seasonal community folk song choirs in Herefordshire. More details here on the natural voice network.
Shovel Dance Collective, Freak Zone Playlist, BBC Sounds, December 2022:
“Alula Down spent 2020 into 2021 recording a series of 4 seasonal albums each engaged with and rooted in the landscapes and soundscapes of their Herefordshire home (…) These resonate with and helped to inspire our treatment of the Thames on our new album, and hold a quality both eternal and contemporary that the album reaches for …”.
Jude Rogers, The Guardian, August 2020:
”Echoing rain blends with shuddering drones and lyrics. Post-rock and ambient fans will relish the shape-shifting textures. Gathercole’s voice is featherlight and meaningful, recalling Vashti Bunyan and late 60s private-press folk, tethering the listener to every syllable.”
Website: www.aluladown.uk
Bandcamp: aluladown.bandcamp.com
Spotify and other streaming platforms.
