karine polwart

This month, Karine Polwart releases her latest studio album A Pocket of Wind Resistance. She has just finished ten performances of Wind Resistance at The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, and we were keen to ask her about the inspiration behind those live performances, the attendant studio release and what else these wonders might lead to.

Our latest Folk Show featuring new music from Karine Polwart, ALAW, Bob Delyn A’r Ebillion, Blue Rose Code, Adam Holmes, Ralph McTell and Wizz Jones, Luke Daniels as well as favourites from Jo Mango, James Yorkston and more.

Our Song of the Day is ‘Lark in the Clear Air’, taken from Karine Polwart’s new album ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’. “In Gaelic, the word for skylark is ‘fosg’. It means, literally, open space, including the space above us. When I go to Fala Moor, I get filled up with space.”

Karine Polwart’s music and poetry, with Pippa Murphy’s exquisite settings, haven’t replicated the theatre production; it has brought Wind Resistance to a wider audience, furnished it with portability. Beautiful, potent, and engaging; A Pocket of Wind Resistance gives Karine Polwart’s enthralling theatrical début a satisfying permanence.

Karine Polwart – five-time winner of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards – will release her new album ‘A Pocket Of Wind Resistance’ via Hudson Records on November 17, 2017. the album was written in collaboration with the Scottish sound designer Pippa Murphy. Listen to the title track here.

Soundpost Singing Weekend: Old Adam is no ordinary weekend, it’s a community of people of all ages and abilities who come together to explore the music up close and personal with some of the top folk musicians in the country: Fay Hield, Karine Polwart, Nancy Kerr, Ben Nicholls and more.

Robin Morton’s admiration for the Battlefield Band in all its many incarnations has driven the assembly of this collection; snapshots of 40 years of musical development that so effectively chart the band’s evolution. The Producer’s Choice is a superbly fitting celebration of it.

The beginning of 2016 saw the release of the Songs of Separation album, a project featuring Jenny Hill, Eliza Carthy, Hannah James, Hannah Read, Hazel Askew, Jenn Butterworth, Karine Polwart, Kate Young, Mary Macmaster and Rowan Rheingans. To mark its end a final film was commissioned called ‘The Album and Beyond,’ watch it here.

Watch a short film on the making of Wind Resistance, the first ever show for theatre from Karine Polwart. Taking the peatbog Fala Flow as a central focus she surveys the surrounding landscape through history, song, birdlore and personal memoir.

There’s plenty of Folk music at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival including two world premiere shows: Karine Polwart’s ‘Wind Resistance’ and ‘Flit’ featuring Lau’s Martin Green, Adam Holmes, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Mogwai’s Dominic Aitchison and Becky Unthank.

Featuring Martin Simpson, Karine Polwart, Robert Plant, Ryley Walker, Jacqui McShee and more, a Bert Inspired proved to be an excellent show, and a fitting tribute to a folk legend.

Read our Live Review of The Shee’s launch of their Continuum Project at Celtic Connections also featuring Karine Polwart, Chris Wood, Andy Cutting, Kathryn Tickell and Martin Simpson.