One not to miss…Paul Armfield plays The Slaughtered Lamb this coming Monday 16th December and releases his new album Up Here in January 2014.
Managing a bookstore by day and playing double bass mostly with local bands and musicians on the Isle OF Wight (but also Michael Kiwanuka most recently), Paul has still found time to put together a superb band of multi-instrumentalists for his new album, adding kora, sitar, pedal steel, saw and oud to the more traditional singer-songwriter palette of sounds. It certainly has our ear and The Speed Of Clouds shows exactly why. Its ambitious setting wraps up a gorgeous melody, with Paul’s sonorous, velvet voice wrapped around some equally well developed lyrics.
After the great critical acclaim that greeted his debut release Paul spent some years living in Europe and there developed a large fan base, especially in Germany and subsequent albums sold very well there. But having returned to the Isle Of Wight some years ago, he is ready to embark on the next phase of his career and has gathered an exceptional set of songs and created his most ambitious soundscape yet, looking set fair to rekindle the critical acclaim that greeted his debut a decade ago.
Musically it combines elements of English folk with Americana, French chanson with more exotic sounds. Lyrically too Paul delights in a playfulness and a simple joy of language, the imagery is familiar, with regular references to birds, church bells, trees, clouds and, of course, the sea, this is an album firmly situated on the Isle of Wight, but with an eye on the bigger picture.
Paul describes ‘Up Here’ as “the high point of middle age, the peak, the summit you can straddle looking down one side on youth with old age and death on the other. It’s a unique perspective and one which I enjoy”.
Monday 16th December 2013
@ London Slaughtered Lamb
Tickets