I can hear the cheers already – A new book, a new album, new concerts – and – a unique live-streamed concert from the Natural History Museum; 2021 is looking set to be an exciting year for the Spell Songs ensemble.
In 2018, following the publication of The Lost Words book, authors Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane invited eight remarkable musicians to use their internationally acclaimed book as inspiration for an album (they were Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Jim Molyneux, Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton and Beth Porter – unfortunately, the talented Kerry Andrew is unable to take part in the Lost Words: Spell Songs Volume II). The Lost Words: Spell Songs album which followed was also greeted with acclaim, as were the select number of sell-out shows they performed. Folk Radio UK covered Lost Words : Spell Songs in great depth, thanks to the brilliant efforts of David Weir, including an album review, live review (Southbank Centre) and interviews with Karine Polwart and Jackie Morris, the latter also featured in the Album book.
Along with many other fans of the original book, the Spell musicians were delighted to hear that the authors had teamed up again, this time to create The Lost Spells (published by Penguin on 1st October 2020).
And, as it worked so well last time, the authors invited the spell singers to gather to create a second album, this time drawing inspiration from both The Lost Words and The Lost Spells books.
The Lost Words Spell Songs Volume II album will be born out of the same heartfelt concerns that informed the artwork and poetry of these books, namely, the loss of our natural world, the need for a more compassionate view of the wild and a determination that there is still hope. This new album will grow out of a creative week-long musical collaboration in early 2021, culminating in recording due for release in June 2021.
Some very special live dates are due to be announced soon too but in the meantime, we’re excited to confirm that one of those will take place at London’s Natural History Museum on 27 April 2021. Here Spell Songs will stage a very special live-streamed concert to raise money for the NHM’s new and ambitious conservation venture The Urban Nature Project. It will be performed, rather fittingly, beneath ‘Hope’, the magnificent blue whale skeleton that is currently suspended high up in the breath-taking Hintze Hall entrance space. https://www.thelostwords.org/nhm/
Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris will join the Spell Singers in the Natural History Museum’s iconic Hintze Hall for an evening where music, art and poetry combine forces to call for a more environmentally enlightened future.
For those that missed it, in honour of the Willow charity, Folk by the Oak asked the Spell Songs group to recreate their ‘Willow’ song whilst in lockdown for Family Nest Fest, Folk by the Oak’s digital festival for 2020.
Photo Credits: Artists Image – Elly Lucas | Blue Whale Hintz Hall – Trustees of NHM