Betsey Bobbin (Slight Reprise) by Emmie Ward

Soulful voiced Emmie Ward sings a collection of traditional songs from the British isles. Most are unaccompanied or have simple instrumentation of vocal harmony, flute and drum.

She has been singing for as long as she can remember and loves the powerful stories and emotional themes in traditional folk songs.

Regularly performing solo and with other musicians around London, Emmie won Islington Folk Club singer of the year 2016 as well as the South London Folk Festival solo song performance 2018.

Emmie has been performing songs from the ‘Folk Opera’  Captain Swing and The Blacksmith, based on the book by Beatrice Parvin, throughout the UK in 2018 and 2019. The shows garnering praise for the “musicality and lyricism of its language” as well as showcasing specially commissioned songs written by her late father, Fairport Conventions Dave ‘Swarb’ Swarbrick.

2020 sees the continuation of her work at Cecil Sharp House as ‘Folk Unlimited’. Leading creative, inclusive and multi-sensory band sessions for disabled young people alongside fellow folk artist Joe Danks.

Click here for gig dates and further news 

Produced by Simon Christophers
Mastered by Mark Beazley

Upon The Ancient Tracks by Guilo

Stridently pastoral music encompassing orchestrated chaos and fidgety folk

Simon Christophers’ Guilo project produces music of arcadian beauty and of circadian disquiet, a sound that is both joyous and disturbing, reverential and satanic.  Upon The Ancient Tracks, the third album from Guilo is the first one that feels as if one has been given an invite into a private world of secret thoughts and delicate delights that allows one to forget the plunge into dystopia instead floating through via an uneasy space between societal turmoil and internal monologue.

Ancient Tracks is the product of what Guilo has described as an extended period of pleasured anxiety, and it sounds like it, full of wraithlike frequencies and fibrillating pulses. That’s not a huge surprise: Guilos material has always sounded delightfully anxious… Incline Thine Ears (2011), Simon Christophers debut outing as Guilo, largely succeeded in channeling the decade’s post-millennium tension into compellingly moody abstractions, later that year flushed on creative freedoms Guitarra, compiled outakes and collaborations that contrasted ITE’s singularity  – mining similar viens but diging up some rarer ore with the help of cohorts (relationships that he has rekindled and added to augment this latest release).

Through that, Christophers,  long a fan of left-of-center music, pulls in sonic references, modal and harmonic from the vanguard, moving beyond contemporary fashion. Yet for all the music’s heavy structure, it isn’t obviously mapped to a rhythmic grid: It slips and slides all over the place, wheezy melodica feints… synths rise, timables lead.

Track after track, Guilo provoke the listener, stressing the importance of stripping back. It’s remarkable how much he can make out of so little: The best here get by on the strength of just one or two elements, a handful of electronic drum sounds—mostly just scraped white noise, plus the occasional booming kick drum—and his use of voice, processed and layered as often as is needed.  Every element practically dares you to so much as ask for any further accompaniment.

Upon The Ancient Tracks is a complex and involving instrumental journey through delicate and disturbed electronica and nu folk/nu classical. All things told, this is a gorgeous album from start to finish, without a weak track amongst its number. The overall effect makes Upon The Ancient Tracks feel like the world’s first baroque-Krautrock-folk-rock-Michael Nyman-album. But more than all that, it is genuinely very beautiful.

TRACK LISTING
01. Ancient Tracks (3:14)
02. Atmospheric Weather Conditions (5:49)
03. Autonomous Meridian Response System – feat Neil Cole (7:25)
04. Arcadian Rhythms (1:37)
05. Plough Your Own Furrow (3:18)
06. Homespun (8:00)
07. Homemade (5:13)
08. Gilt feat. Mark Beazley (4:43)

Total time – 42:00

MUSICIANS
Simon Christophers – Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Nylon-string Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitars, Electric Bass, Acoustic Bass, Piano, Chamber Organ, Synths, Laptop Computer & Voice
Alice Westlake – Clarinet
John Eacott – Trumpet
Neil Cole – Voice and Percussion
Frank Biddulph – Violin
Mark Beazley – Bass & synth
Ella Harrington – Percussion
Rikette Nefertiti Genesis – Voice
Emmie Ward – Voice
Alex Maclean – Voice

Arcadian Rhythms by Guilo

Simon Christophers’ Guilo project produces music of arcadian beauty and of circadian disquiet, a sound that is both joyous and disturbing, reverential and satanic.  Ancient Tracks, the first single from Guilo in 5 years is the first one that feels as if one has been given an invite into a private world of secret thoughts and delicate delights that allows one to forget the plunge into dystopia.

Ancient Tracks is the product of what Guilo has described as an extended period of pleasured anxiety, and it sounds like it, full of wraithlike frequencies and fibrillating pulses. That’s not a huge surprise: Guilos material has always sounded delightfully anxious… Incline Thine Ears (2011), Simon Christophers debut outing as Guilo, largely succeeded in channeling the decade’s post-millennium tension into compellingly moody abstractions. Later that year, flushed on creative freedoms Guitarra compiled outakes and collaborations that contrasted Incline Thine Ear’s singularity  – mining many a similar vien but digging up rarer ore with the help of cohorts (relationships that he has rekindled and added to, augment this latest release).

And through those associations, Christophers,  long a fan of left-of-center music, pulls in sonic references (modal and harmonic) from the vanguard, moving beyond contemporary fashion. Yet for all the music’s heavy structure, it isn’t obviously mapped to a rhythmic grid: It slips and slides all over the place, wheezy melodica feints… synths rise, timables lead.

Ancient Tracks is a complex and involving instrumental journey through delicate and disturbed electronica and nu folk/nu classical. But more than all that, it is genuinely very beautiful.

TRACK LISTING
01. Arcadian Rhythms (3:34)
02. Autonomous sensory meridian response (5:14)

Ancient Tracks by Guilo

New single – out now

Stridently pastoral music encompassing orchestrated chaos and fidgety folk

Simon Christophers’ Guilo project produces music of arcadian beauty and of circadian disquiet, a sound that is both joyous and disturbing, reverential and satanic.  Ancient Tracks, the first single from Guilo in 5 years is the first one that feels as if one has been given an invite into a private world of secret thoughts and delicate delights that allows one to forget the plunge into dystopia.

Ancient Tracks is the product of what Guilo has described as an extended period of pleasured anxiety, and it sounds like it, full of wraithlike frequencies and fibrillating pulses. That’s not a huge surprise: Guilos material has always sounded delightfully anxious… Incline Thine Ears (2011), Simon Christophers debut outing as Guilo, largely succeeded in channeling the decade’s post-millennium tension into compellingly moody abstractions. Later that year, flushed on creative freedoms Guitarra compiled outakes and collaborations that contrasted Incline Thine Ear’s singularity  – mining many a similar vien but digging up rarer ore with the help of cohorts (relationships that he has rekindled and added to, augment this latest release).

And through those associations, Christophers,  long a fan of left-of-center music, pulls in sonic references (modal and harmonic) from the vanguard, moving beyond contemporary fashion. Yet for all the music’s heavy structure, it isn’t obviously mapped to a rhythmic grid: It slips and slides all over the place, wheezy melodica feints… synths rise, timables lead.

Ancient Tracks is a complex and involving instrumental journey through delicate and disturbed electronica and nu folk/nu classical. But more than all that, it is genuinely very beautiful.

TRACK LISTING
01. Ancient Tracks (3:14)
02. Atmospheric Weather Conditions (5:49)

A nice review from la dea bicefala website

29th April 2016

GUILO – “Incline Thine Ears” (Maeg Music)

Are you feeling so down that you don’t want to leave the house? From the window does Cremona seem to be a district of Gotham City? Has drizzle and damp entered your soul?

Well, if you want an antidote there is one. Insert into the CD player the EP Guilo, a London-based duo debut that consists only of instrumental tracks with acoustic guitar, programming (Simon Christophers ) and clarinet (Alice Westlake). A risk, you think. Certainly a challenge,nowadays. A little madness of genius.

Because the music does work, and how. It bewitches. Eight songs are under three minutes which are many micro scores for journeys of the mind, the primary source of inspiration the never quite appreciated Penguin Cafe Orchestra by the legendary Simon Jeffes (five albums between ’76 and ’88 which have shown that a single path, on the edge of ‘popular music ‘, where the genres crumble and are reborn in a new form, unclassifiable).

The charm of ” Incline Thine Ears ” ( title taken from the Bible ?) is in the taste with which electronic and acoustic sound come together defining a balance really rare: and it captures the ancestry of Christophers for the classic sounds, even tempered and modified by a clear propensity for electronic experimentation, inspired by American minimalism (repeated cellular sounds) with obvious references to the compositions of René Aubry (one album above all: the magnificent “Invités sur la terre ” from 2001) and the scores of Yann Tiersen or, in brief instances, even to the Third Ear Band from the Italian reunion  (listen to the initial “Arctic Sound” to believe it) .

With well-crafted music, generally the risk is to slip into sickly, caressing melodies of ‘ muzak ‘or in the monotonous marshes of the so-called new age which since the eighties corrupts the sound of space by spreading the idea of a world clean and clear, virginal, untouched, for the exclusive use of the middle classes in search of relaxation from the stress of modern life .

Here, on the contrary, we are in a universe which is restless and passionate, it makes you fall in love and divide, indicating horizons which change while the mind believes to have seized  them : in ” Incline Thine Ears “, for example, the beating drums in 2 / 4 overlaps an arpeggio iterated of extraction folk on which the clarinet circles with free improvisation in the background. The climax is initially relaxed, joyful, then in the chorus looks threatening, and the listener, convinced that they had embarked on a path that leads to a flowery meadow, find themself suddenly in a steaming mound of toxic vapors. Just as in certain experiences of every day life …

Incline Thine Ears by Guilo

credits:

Guitarra by Guilo

Guilo (Si Christophers) continues his foray into the world of modern classical meets folktronica with Guitarra, his second album. The set comprises the last three singles, Family, Falaise Pocket (b side Mulberry Harbour) and Light and Weight (b side Ruby of Cocundo) with 3 new tracks. 

The three new tracks feature ambient flautist and sound-smith Katie English aka Isnaj Dui – who conveys a minimalist sound using flutes, home-made dulcimers and electronics – and who here casts a bewitching air over the pieces. Alchemising Guilos gentle, naturalised electronica into a twisted folktronica. 

After opening with a haunting piped refrain, evocative of a late night ferry, Terminal is shackled and tethered (rather than driven) by a rumbling  and foreboding prepared zither played by Christophers, the notes ebbing and flowing like the eddies of a malevolent marina. Emmie Wards haunting vocals twist with Isnaj Dui’s electro-acoustic drones, ride cymbal splashes conjure ghost ships moored.

The mood warms somewhat on the improvised Incompleteness Theorems with some nice interplay between Si Christophers zither playing and Katie English’s flute – whilst some Arlet and North Sea Radio Orchestra influences creep in, it is still very much an idiosyncratic sound. Dominated by a modern minimalist stance. Overall Incompleteness Theorems sounds strangely familiar – even homely, however incomplete the theorem maybe.

The disjointed unease of  sharp and natural notes vibrating (laconically), stuttering and stammering at the outset, set out the stall on Financial Collapse – gradually aligning to form some semblance of a sequence or sentence. And what a depressing sentence its likely to translate to… for when a trio of voices finally appear and build a choral wail over the proceedings, you know we are being led to the inevitable, aforementioned Financial Collapse. Somehow we are denied this (darn it!). Failing to fall over that precipice.. instead the listener is cast ashore to a kind-of–calm, just marooned in a quietness. A quietness that does little to truly soothe, just mask some of the pain.

It the uneasiest easy listening this side of Easter

Good luck!

What others have said:

“Reflective soundscapes for the thinker”

And:

London based artist Guilo presents an instrumental set of modern classical folktronica. Inspired by a road trip through French Normandy, this is a pastoral, demi-orchestral reflection of war mementos encountered along the way.

Mulberry Harbour, like its namesake in Arromanches, is timeless and almost magical. Guitar chords are wrapped in enchanted percussion and brass, set against waves of warm familiarity. Falaise Pocket weaves a mood of urgent trepidation with guitar, French horn and chimes. Oscillating between strength and weakness, confidence and fear, we are left somewhat afloat, without a sense of resolution or closure.

 The two sides burst with pastoral and sacred sounds performed with a host of friends from the more-cultured music scene in London.

Of note, Light and Weight culminates in an anthemic, triumphant fanfare, while Ruby of Cocundo pulses with cinematic aplomb to a climax of peals of trumpets and French horn.

And even!

Beautifully mastered by Mark Beazley (Rothko), the 8 pieces are mixed expertly for hi-fi or headphone listening. Introspective, weird modern/medieval music. You could call it Mead Hop. Or maybe not.

credits

Banner Ad Emmie Ward

19th February 2016

Light and Weight ​/​ Ruby Of Cocundo by Guilo & Friends

“Beautifully strange music to inspire the soul”

Guilo continue his foray into the world of modern classical meets folktronica with this double A sided single. The two slices burst with pastoral and sacred sounds performed with a host of friends from the more-cultured music scene in London.

Light and Weight culminates in an anthemic, triumphant fanfare, while Ruby of Cocundo pulses with cinematic aplomb to a climax of peals of trumpets and French horn. Beautifully mastered by Mark Beazley, the pieces are mixed expertly for hi-fi or headphone listening.

⌂ If you love Aaron Copland, Arlet, Fleet Foxes and North Sea Radio Orchestra

Guitar, Synth, Percussion: Guilo

Clarinet: Alice Westlake

Xylophone and angelharp: Oliver Cherer

Violin: Frank Biddulph

Trumpet: John Eacott

Cello and vocals: Rebecca Carrington

Vocals: Riketté Nefertiti Genesis

Mastering: Mark Beazley

Mulberry Harbour ​/ ​Falaise Pocket (Single) by Guilo

“Reflective soundscapes for the thinker”

London based artist Guilo presents an instrumental double A-side of modern classical meets folktronica. Inspired by a road trip through French Normandy, this is a pastoral, demi-orchestral reflection of war mementos encountered along the way.

Mulberry Harbour, like its namesake in Arromanches, is timeless and almost magical. Guitar chords are wrapped in enchanted percussion and brass, set against waves of warm familiarity. Falaise Pocket weaves a mood of urgent trepidation with guitar, French horn and chimes. Oscillating between strength and weakness, confidence and fear, we are left somewhat afloat, without a sense of resolution or closure.

⌂ If you love Aaron Copeland, Fleet Foxes and North Sea Radio Orchestra