In October last year, The Rheingans Sisters released their fourth album, ‘Receiver’. It was a beautifully presented album – nestled in the front endpaper of a book that runs to nearly fifty pages and contains an original piece of writing by Rowan Rheingans and a series of artworks – ‘solargraphs’ – by Pierre-Olivier Boulant.
As explained in Thomas Blake’s review of the album: “These long-exposure photographs create vivid abstractions, arcs that resemble rainbows or aurorae. It is more than just something to look at while you listen to the tunes. As Rowan explains in her process notes, Boulant’s artwork embodies collaboration between artist and the world from which he draws his inspiration. The sisters see their songs as similar collaborations – what they create is inseparable from what they receive. It is an admirably utopian way of thinking.”
He concludes the review: “The final waltz that tops off the album is delicate and endearingly humble, a paean to the joys of simplicity. The Rheingans Sisters have earned the right to embrace that simplicity after all the brilliant complexity and sparkling diversity on show. In Receiver they have created a masterpiece of modern folk music as well as a captivating physical artefact.”
As well as featuring in our Top 100 Albums of 2020, it also made it into Thomas Blake’s Top 10 Album of 2020…Anyone who thinks there is a lack of innovation or experimentation in the Brit folk scene needs to hear this album pronto.
We now finally have the opportunity to catch the sisters performing ‘Receiver’ on tour. The tour kicks off in Bristol in September, then takes in the likes of Sage Gateshead, The Greystones, Cecil Sharp House, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Theatr Mwldan and more. In case you needed reminding of why, watch their video for ‘After The Bell Rang’ on which they say:
‘After The Bell Rang’: “We’re at that age when our friends are starting to have children. And, like it has done many times before now, the world feels a volatile place in which to do that. We could see it as a futile or perhaps even damaging act, or perhaps it is implicitly hopeful to bring new life into this world. But as children begin to delight in the beauty and curiosities around them, how much do we tell them about human destruction? For how long should we protect them from the sorrow of this world?
The line ‘we can’t see everything from up here’ was buried in one of Rowan’s notebooks for a long time. More recently, she read a story in a magazine about the bell that was rescued from the rubble of a cathedral in Nagasaki, after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945. Since then the local people have hung it from a special frame and ring it to symbolise survival and continuity. It might be foolish to hope for a peaceful world, sometimes, but if hope is not there we can only know the destruction.”
The Rheingans Sisters ‘Receiver’ Tour
THU 23 SEPTEMBER – St George’s, Bristol
FRI 01 OCTOBER – Sage Gateshead
MON 04 OCTOBER – The Greystones, Sheffield
WED 06 OCTOBER – Worthing Theatres, Worthing
THU 07 OCTOBER – Cecil Sharp House, London
FRI 08 OCTOBER – Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD), Cardiff
SUN 10 OCTOBER – The Forge, Anvil Arts Centre, Basingstoke
TUE 12 OCTOBER – The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
WED 13 OCTOBER – Galeri, Caernarfon
THU 14 OCTOBER – Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan
FRI 15 OCTOBER – Wyeside Arts Centre, Builth Wells
SUN 17 OCTOBER – Topsham Folk Club, Topsham
MON 18 OCTOBER – The Boileroom, Guildford
FRI 22 OCTOBER – Muziekcentrum Dranouter, Heuvelland, Belgium
SAT 23 OCTOBER – Sint-Pieterskerk Langdorp, Aarschot, Belgium
SUN 24 OCTOBER – Muziekclub ‘t Ey, Belsele, Belgium
Ticket Links: https://www.rheinganssisters.co.uk/shows