Many of you are by now no doubt aware that multi-award-winning songwriter and musician, theatre maker and published writer Karine Polwart – six-time winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including 2018 Folk Singer of The Year – has a new album on the way. The album, Laws of Motion drops this month on 19th October via Hudson Records and is supported by a UK Tour Including London Cadogan Hall on October 17 (see dates below). It’s the follow-up to her SAY nominated ‘Wind Resistance‘ project, which alongside the much-praised album (read our review here), also included a self-produced multi-award winning theatre production (for which Karine won a 2017 CAT awards & a Best Actor nomination in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards) and a Faber & Faber published script, later selected by the Guardian as a 2017 Book Of The Year.
Today, Karine is sharing the title track, which she wrote with longstanding collaborator Martin Green, of Lau, it’s also our Song of the Day:
https://soundcloud.com/hudsonrecords/karine-polwart-laws-of-motion-radio-edit/s-hvNHV
A Pocket Of Wind Resistance used the migratory habits of geese to crack open universally human societal & ecological issues. Across Laws of Motion Polwart continues to coalesce the familial and the familiar alongside the unsettling and the unknown, driven as ever by her gift for empathy and accessibility. Subject matter as disparate as Trump, WW2 & holocaust survivors are drawn together by the laws of the album’s title alongside the experiences of migrants and allegorical folk & children’s stories. Speaking about the broad focus of the album (which includes several co-writes with Martin Green), Polwart says; “I didn’t set out to write songs on a unified theme – they’ve just landed that way. Perhaps that’s no surprise, given the times we’re in.”
Laws of Motion is the latest in an evolving series of collaborative projects across which Polwart has combined music & storytelling with politics & environmental-societal issues. Karine wrote A Pocket Of Wind Resistance (a Songlines & BBC Radio 3 Late Junction Album Of The Year) as a musical companion to her acclaimed theatre debut Wind Resistance, now published via Faber & Faber and selected by Robert McFarlane as a Guardian Book of 2017. The production, which debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival with a residency at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, 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.
Read our last interview with Karine in which she talked about A Pocket Of Wind Resistance.
UK Tour Dates
17 October LONDON Cadogan Hall
18 October PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
19 October PONTARDAWE Arts Centre
20 October MANCHESTER Royal Northern College Of Music
21 October EXETER Phoenix
22 October BRIGHTON Komedia
23 October CAMBRIDGE Junction
24 October LEEDS City Varieties
31 October SHREWSBURY Walker Theatre
01 November BRISTOL St Georges
02 November BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
03 November KENDALL Brewery Arts Centre
04 November GATESHEAD Sage
Pre Order Laws of Motion – Signed CD | CD | LP:
https://karinepolwart.lnk.to/lawsofmotion
Photo Credit: Sandy Butler