Dead Rat Orchestra + Sutari UK Tour: Free Folk in Brexit Britain

Dead Rat Orchestra and Poland’s Sutari, two of the world’s most prominent avant-folk ensembles, are to join forces for a headline tour of the UK in July. Flying under the banner of Free Folk in Brexit Britain this is one you should make every effort to see.

I once booked the Dead Rat Orchestra (Daniel Merrill, Nathaniel Mann and Robin Alderton) back when I was putting on live shows. Their performance began with Nathaniel Mann walking through the audience whirling around a ‘pigeon whistle’ above his head on a piece of knicker elastic. Whilst I admit I was concerned he might take out one of the punters in the audience, what followed was one of the most engaging shows I’ve ever been to. Their collective musical knowledge is phenomenal, as is their innovative ability to entertain and challenge our musical boundaries – something I’m always keen to do through Folk Radio.

Raw, elemental and poignant and with a love of adventure, their performances feature flailing axes, salt and sawdust, throbbing harmonium, grinding fiddle and 2000 shards of micro-tuned steel cast to the floor in cascading, shimmering joy. DRO create works that blur boundaries between installation and performance. Activities have included The Cut (2014), a site-specific musical tour undertaken by canal boat along 273 miles of waterway which we covered in a special Guest Blog here, and Tyburnia (2015/17), for which we were a media sponsor, exploring 17th/18th-century gallows ballads and their sociopolitical history.

www.deadratorchestra.co.uk

Sutari is the brainchild of three young women: singers, instrumentalists and performers, each from different musical and theatrical backgrounds, coming together to continue the tradition of home-made folk music (they featured in our Lost in Transmission Show No 36). They play violins, basetla and drum as well as exploring the musical potential of everyday objects such as a hand mixer, grater, bottles and a wrench: kitchen avant-garde. Their compositions are based on Polish and Lithuanian folk songs. They are particularly inspired by the sound and character of Lithuanian Sutartines, sung only by women in perfect harmony (Sutari actually means to harmonise). Sutari sing in the kitchen, through open windows and by the fireplace, pouring tea, baking a cake or listening to the ticking of the clock, walking in the woods, sitting on a bench or standing on a bridge by a lake. Sutari is Kasia Kapela, Basia Songin and Zosia Zembrzuska. 

www.sutari.pl

Polish and British Free Folk will also be the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary to be aired later this year. The programme will chart the bands’ journey through these communities, highlighting the cultural issues surrounding the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

SUTARI & DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA