Karine Polwart – A Pocket of Wind Resistance
Hudson Records – 17 November 2017
Karine Polwart – five-time winner of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards – will release her new album ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’ via Hudson Records on November 17, 2017. Written in collaboration with the Scottish sound designer Pippa Murphy, ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’ is the musical accompaniment to Polwart’s critically acclaimed theatrical debut (“Poignant, unflinching and beautiful” ***** – The Telegraph). The production, which debuted at the Edinburgh Festival in 2016, was written, musically directed and performed by Polwart, winning her the Best Music and Sound Award at the 2017 CATS. Alongside three other nominations, it also placed Polwart on the shortlist for the Best Actor ‘Scottish Oscar’ in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards. In-line with the album’s announcement, Polwart is streaming the first single to emerge from the album, ‘Labouring and Resting’. Listen below:
For Karine, the ‘Wind Resistance’ project took seed from a close hand view of the annual migration of over two thousand pink-footed geese to Fala Flow, a tiny peat bog close to Polwart’s home just south of Edinburgh. Watching the geese’s constantly shifting skeins – in which the birds take turns to create pockets of wind resistance to aid each other’s flight – prompted Karine to consider the ways in which humans depend upon each other, whether or not we form skeins of our own. The airborne phenomena & its role in Fala Flow’s delicate ecology – explored in beautiful detail by Polwart on ‘Labouring and Resting’ – resonated particularly with Polwart’s own recent experience of becoming a mother and protecting a family of her own.
Speaking about the album, Karine says; “It’s a meditation on the ways in which we, as humans, protect and care for one another, and for all life, by stepping up, falling back, labouring and resting in our own fashion. In particular, it’s a hymn to mothers and birthing, to the proffering of sanctuary, to the miracle of medicine, and a reminder, a warning, about the consequences of isolating and forgetting.”
‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’ – the follow-up to her 2012 Scottish Album of The Year-nominated ‘Traces’, produced by Chvrches’ Iain Cook – is the latest in a series of collaborative projects from Polwart which combine music and art with science, environment and politics. Following her BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning 2005 debut ‘Faultlines’, Polwart collaborated on the naturalist-inspired ‘The Darwin Song Project’ in 2009 and last year’s all-female ‘Songs Of Separation’ release with Eliza Carthy, alongside ‘Sea Change’ in 2013, written as a response to climate change. Karine has also collaborated with indie composer RM Hubbert, co-written with members of Portishead for Martin Green’s EIF/Barbican production ‘Flit’, and co-directed and worked on life novelist James Robertson’s ‘Pilgrimer’ production.
Following a run of shows through October, Polwart will be performing ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’ as part of a residency at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh between November 3-11, 2017.
Pre-Order A Pocket of Wind Resistance here: https://karinepolwart.lnk.to/windresistanceTW
Tour Dates
October 10, 2017 | Belfast International Festival, The Mac, Belfast
October 11, 2017 | Belfast International Festival, The Mac, Belfast
October 12, 2017 | Dublin Theatre Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Dublin
October 13, 2017 | Dublin Theatre Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Dublin
October 14, 2017 | (Matinee) – Dublin Theatre Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Dublin
October 14, 2017 | Dublin Theatre Festival, Pavilion Theatre, Dublin
November 3, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 4, 2017 | (Matinee) – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 4, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 7, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 8, 2017 | (Matinee) – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 8, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 9, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 10, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 11, 2017 | (Matinee) – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
November 11, 2017 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Photo Credit: Sandy Butler