Firestations - 'Many White Horses' Album Launch

Event information

Join us for the launch of the new Firestations album (released 25 April 2025 on Lost Map Records).

'Many White Horses' is a collection of weather-worn acoustic songs and instrumentals interwoven with field recordings and lyrics drawn from the immediate surroundings of a sailing expedition, all brought together with warm, textured production. It marks Mike Cranny’s first solo endeavour, playing a variety of instruments and self-producing, albeit one enriched by Laura Copsey’s contributions on flugelhorn, flute and vocals.

The album was conceived and largely written at the beginning of August 2024 on a sailing yacht (Sail Britain’s “Merlin”) in the Inner Hebrides. This was the location for a week-long art residency with seven fellow artist-explorers all keen to capture something of the essence of being at sea and viewing the land from the sea. The voyage, through high winds and waves, took in the mysterious Isle of Rum and the coastline around Arisaig, before Mike and Laura continued the journey for a further week; travelling around the Ardnamurchan peninsula, across the Isles of Mull and Ulva to end up off-grid on the remote Isle of Gometra.

While the music, with its focus on quietly hypnotic, hushed acoustic instrumentation, may at first appear something of a departure from the last five-piece band Firestations album ‘Thick Terrain’, it remains closely related and recognisable by Mike’s song writing style. It also occupies a similar space to the ‘Sunken Versions’ – quieter and slower songs (featuring on the ‘Automatic Tendencies’ EP series in particular) that focus on the more meditative, stripped back side of the band.

Mike and Laura are joined by Neil Walsh on viola and vocals.

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Melinda Bronstein

Melinda is an experimental musician based in Margate. Through live looping she constructs melancholy atmospheres using casiotone, found objects and noises & toyses, finding magic in the mundane.

Her pieces bridge modern composition and ambient pop to experimental electronics and drones, offering brooding ethereal songs exploring loss, hope, conflict and realignment.

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Bit Cloudy

E London leftfield electronic producer and sound artist. Releases on Castles In Space / Werra Foxma / Lost Map / Byrd Out / Front and Follow / TDO / Wormhole World. Martin is also a guitarist in Firestations (when they make more noise).