While London-based folk singer, songwriter, ballad singer, fiddle player, musician, “digger and delver” Lisa Knapp and her partner, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and fiddle player extraordinaire Gerry Diver, may be familiar names to regular readers of KLOF Mag, you might be surprised to learn that, even though Gerry regularly produces and features on Lisa’s albums, including Hidden Seam (2012) and Till April is Dead (2017), as well as her collaborations such as Hack-Poets Guild (ft. Marry Waterson and Nathaniel Mann), they have yet to release a duo album or single. Until now, that is…
On their forthcoming album, Hinterland (out 7th March 2025), together they will fuse their deep-seated love for English and Irish folk traditions, which weaves together folk horror, remembrance, and the landscapes that inspire their art.
“This album is a mix of themes, often drawn from the natural world and the people who inhabit it,” says Knapp. “We wanted to explore both what we know and what lies beyond our understanding in nature and history.”
The duo have launched a Kickstarter Campaign to help bring Hinterland to life. It still has 44 days to go and there are some great rewards for getting behind this new project which we’re very excited about. Check it out and get on board here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2012509620/lisa-knapp-gerry-diver-brand-new-duo-album-hinterland
KLOF Mag’s Thomas Blake has previously said of Lisa: “She has a gift for combining clarity of expression with a willingness to experiment: her ability to straddle traditional and avant-garde forms with seemingly little effort has seen her praised in both mainstream and underground circles, and her singing highly accomplished and sweetly limpid, though often touched with a hint of the strange, a characteristic that makes her the perfect chronicler of this island’s more unusual traditions.”
Gerry Diver is equally innovative in his ideas and approach to music; his Speech Project was probably the best example of this, an album and live show he began working on in 2008, derived from the melody and rhythm of spoken words – specifically, the Irish way of talking. Through a series of interviews with the likes of Shane MacGowan, Christy Moore, Damien Dempsey, Danny Meehan and Martin Hayes, as well as archive interview recordings with Margaret Barry and Joe Cooley, he used the rhythm and cadence of their voice to create new contemporary music, it was unlike anything else I’d heard before, or since.
Together they are something of a powerhouse when it comes to innovation and the interpretation of tradition, something we get to witness on their lead single, Hawk and Crow (out tomorrow – 6th December 2024), which takes listeners into the dark, mysterious world of anthropomorphic birds, blending unsettling harmonies and natural percussion (sticks and leaves) to evoke a deep forest’s ambiance. They called upon singer, songwriter and visual artist Marry Waterson to create an animated video to accompany the single. I can think of no better person for the job when conjuring such folkloric visions into life.
Lisa and Gerry shared this on the Hawk and Crow:
Our debut single as a duo, Hawk and Crow, is an exploration of storytelling through sound, of folklore of birds and a touch of winter’s mystery. We (Lisa and Gerry) poured our hearts into this piece, drawing inspiration from an Irish rendition by Liam O’Connor, based on a recording made by Peter Kennedy in 1953.
What makes this song special to us is its narrative voice—literally, the voices of birds. While folk songs often mention birds, in Hawk and Crow, the birds themselves are the storytellers. This unique perspective captured our imaginations and allowed us to explore themes of nature, humanity, and the poetic ways we anthropomorphise the environment.The instrumentation is slightly unconventional. Percussion for the track came together using whatever we had to hand—fireside tools, dried alder leaves from the garden, and an old bass drum Pete Flood from Bellowhead gave us, creating a raw and earthy rhythm.The result, we hope, is a soundscape that’s dark, esoteric, and unsettling. It reflects the wintry mood in which we recorded it—a time when the plight of birds in this country feels particularly poignant. And, of course, our love for the fiddle takes center stage: Gerry brings Irish fiddle motifs, while Lisa adds cinematic string tones and plucked fiddle textures to create our own sonic palette.
The video, beautifully crafted by the brilliant Marry Waterson, ties all these elements together. Her breathtaking expertise brings out the eerie yet beautiful magic of the piece. It’s mysterious, grounded, and unapologetically true to its roots, much like the song itself. For us, this isn’t just a folk song—it’s a conversation with the past, an ode to nature, and a glimpse of storytelling at its finest.
The video for Hawk and Crow brings the song to life, letting the birds tell their story.
‘Hinterland’ will be released on 7th March 2025 and launched at World Heart Beat, Embassy Gardens on 1st March with more live dates to follow.
In the meantime, you help bring the album to life here by supporting their Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2012509620/lisa-knapp-gerry-diver-brand-new-duo-album-hinterland
