Last year saw the release of Fishclaw’s EP ‘Monmouth’s Twelve’. In his review of the EP here, Thomas Blake described the band as operating in “a kind of shadow-world, a Lynchian dream of folk music where the old and the new are not as easily delineated as you might think.”
Among the tracks on offer was the mysteriously titled 3,6,7…the tune was used by Blake to describe their propensity for building tunes out of disparate components so that tracks are often split into two or more sections… “This gives them, depending on how the technique is employed, the sense of serene growth or violent upheaval.”
This ‘calling card’ is highlighted in the accompanying video below.
At the end of that EP review, we mentioned their forthcoming Ash project, an audio-visual project bringing together elements of music, folklore and nature that will be set in a range of woodland locations. The project will highlight the loss of Ash trees following Ash Dieback and the loss of local culture connected with Ash Trees (according to the Woodland Trust, Ash dieback will kill up to 95% of ash trees across the UK).
The video below depicts the death and re-vitalisation of nature and folk law to bring us into the Ash project. Recorded by Adam Bowers and Mike Curtis at the Boathouse Studio and featuring guest Will Heaton on Trombone. The video itself features Demi Leigh with cinematography, editing and direction by photographer and film maker Jason Arber.
The video is being released as part of a build-up to their two forthcoming EPs to be launched over the summer before the release of an Augmented Reality App (more on below). All of this material has been written and recorded during the course of the 3 UK lockdowns whilst undergoing 2 line-up changes.
The band tell us that they have been working hard on the development of Ash – an Audio AR collaboration between Fishclaw, producer, composer and artistic director Jim Sutherland (Composer of the Year – Scots Trad Music Awards, 2014) whose CV includes major commissions for film, TV and theatre. They are also working with software developer, Echoes and have begun work on the narrative side of the Ash project with James Canton, a wild writer who explores the ties between literature, landscape and the environment.
‘Ash’ will be an Augmented Reality App that uses GPS data to trigger sounds in order to create an immersive listening experience for a range of woodland locations. The soundscape will be located in different parts of the woodland so as the listener wanders each musical element overlaps, intensifies and fades creating a truly personal soundscape that is unique for every listener. Bringing together elements of music, folklore, nature and being outdoors our project will also focus on well-being, visitors can de-stress, get active in nature walking whilst enjoying a creative listening experience.
Fishclaw’s next single, ‘Taghairn’, also their first release of 2021, will be released exclusively on Bandcamp on 9 April 2021 and will be available on all platforms on 15 April. Our second single, ‘the Lyring’ is scheduled for release at the end of April and the first EP of this year will at the end of May.
To hear and see more of Fishclaw, follow the links here: : https://linktr.ee/Fishclaw
More about The Ash Project: https://holkham.squarespace.com/ash