Karine Polwart announces a new album with pianist and composer, Dave Milligan. ‘Still As Your Sleeping’ will be released via Hudson Records on 1st October 2021 and is available to pre-order now.
Piano and voice isn’t a combination that you hear much in the folk idiom, and yet it can be just as potent – if not more so – than a full band. Karine Polwart’s new album ‘Still As Your Sleeping’ is just this, a duo album of piano and voice. Deceptively simple yet devastatingly powerful.
the Earth is never still,
it’s never still –
even rocks melt in the sun
(Siccar Point)
‘Still As Your Sleeping’ is an intimate, stripped-back collection of songs Karine recorded with renowned pianist and composer Dave Milligan. Although known primarily as a jazz pianist, Dave’s writing and arranging often distil folk and traditional influences, making him the perfect creative partner for Karine in what is very much a dual project. Both musicians live in the same Midlothian village of Pathhead and have known each other for years, and the familiarity is evident in the music. It’s a magical combination, and as Karine says, “One voice and one piano can hold a lot of space, a lot of feeling.” It is also no coincidence that Jenni Douglas, who created the album’s gorgeous, evocative artwork, also lives in the same village.
The path that winds before us is not for us to see
One breath and then another is all we need
(The Path That Winds Before Us)
An incredibly personal album, it was recorded less than ten minutes from Karine’s home. “It’s never felt more important to me to make music, and tell stories, from exactly where I am, with the people I live alongside, my friends and neighbours”. Of the 10 tracks that make up ‘Still As Your Sleeping’, some are old, some are new, but threaded through them all are images of stillness and flux, leaving and returning, and pivots of change. They range from original songs by Karine, such as ‘Travel These Ways,’ written for Luminate, Scotland’s festival of creative aging, and ‘Old Men of the Shells’ by fellow Scot Alasdair Roberts. There are also traditional songs, including ‘Craigie Hill’ and the timeless and poignant ‘The Parting Glass’. Interestingly, this latter song was requested by Margaret Atwood for her specially curated BBC Radio 4 Today programme in December 2020, and also featured in a July 2021 edition of BBC Radio 4’s Soul Music. Karine sums the collection up by saying that many of the songs walk the edge of things. “People say goodbye to what they know, to loved ones, and perhaps even to life, whilst others are pulled back to the world of the living. There’s a deep sense of time too, both of those who went before us, and those who’re still to come”.
But since it falls unto my lot
that I should rise and you should not
(The Parting Glass)
Karine’s previous solo release, 2019’s Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook, reached the UK Top 40 album charts and toured major UK venues, including The Barbican in London and The Usher Hall in Edinburgh (she is currently under commission by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh). Karine’s other records have picked up awards and nominations from the likes of SAY, BBC Radio 2, CATS, Songlines, The Guardian, BBC Radio 3 and more. April 2018 saw Karine named BBC Radio 2 Folk singer of the year.
Still As Your Sleeping is released by Hudson Records on 1st October 2021 CD/Digital; vinyl December 2021 – pre-order now.
Tour Dates
Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan
22 Aug – Old College Quad Edinburgh International Festival
Karine Polwart with Steven Polwart & Inge Thomson October 2021
08 Oct – Sage, GATESHEAD
09 Oct – Cadogan Hall, LONDON
10 Oct – Liverpool Philharmonic, LIVERPOOL 11th – Bury Met, BURY
12 Oct – Town Hall, BIRMINGHAM
13 Oct – St George’s Hall, BRISTOL
14 Oct – The Gate, CARDIFF
15 Oct – Theatre Severn, SHREWSBURY 16th – The Stables, MILTON KEYNES 17th – The Apex, BURY ST EDMUNDS
https://www.karinepolwart.com/