In the past we’ve created several collaborative Willkommen projects for free download over the Christmas period.
This year we asked as many Willkommen related artists as possible to simply contribute thirty seconds of sound. I stitched them together in the order in which they arrived to make a sonic patchwork quilt. The result is incredibly diverse and beautiful despite the random nature of its composition and form.
Thank you to the following people for contributing:
Here are a few links to past collaborative projects for free download on last.fm:
Willkommen Covers The Sleeper – various artists covered each song from The Leisure Society’s debut album. Originally released as a free Rough Trade bonus CD.
Willkommen Foxswap – various artists covered each other’s songs before the Foxtrot festival
To celebrate her return to England having spent the past 8 months in Japan, Rachael Dadd will be playing at Kings Place on Friday 22nd June. The show will be split into two parts, with Rachael playing solo (including her new prepared piano songs), and also with a full band comprising of Emma Gatrill (of Sons of Noel and Adrian, The Mariner’s Children, and Laish), Tom Heather (Eyes & No Eyes), and experimental multi-instrumentalist ICHI. The music will be backed by animations and live drawing from Betsy Dadd. A very special night of songs old and new.
The band’s sophomore album sees them breaking far away from the acoustic roots of their debut. Sons of Noel and Adrian’s immersion in folk music was always more informed by guitarists like Dave Pajo, David Grubbs and Jeff Parker than by traditionalists. These influences, rooted in the city of Chicago’s pre-millennial post-rock, jazz and avant-pop scenes, are explored on Knots to their fullest. At times soft and orchestral, at times crass and loud, Knots is always infused with beauty and tenderness: soulful, taunt, honed and with a new found love of kosmiche experimentation. Knots’ expanded sonic tapestry is marshalled and woven with growing stature by SONAA’s chief song-writer, Jacob Richardson, whose meditative lyrical concepts and melodic craftsmanship mark him out as musician of genuine depth and gravitas whilst remaining as arcane and beguiling as Palace.
Rejecting notions of a fixed line-up, Sons of Noel and Adrian is more of a sprawling musical whirlpool centred around a few key members, not unlike Broken Social Scene, with whom two members of Sons toured with last year as part of their horn section. The band includes members of The Mariner’s Children, Eyes & No Eyes, and make up most of the renowned Willkommen Collective that spawned The Leisure Society, and the various members lend their talents freely to everyone from Damo Suzuki to Laura Marling.
Such selfless creative interdependence is at the heart of the Willkommen Collective and Sons of Noel and Adrian. The results of their musical co-operative have yielded an album that transcends their debut and positions them as a very unique and thrilling proposition indeed: Knots see SONAA charting new, unexplored aural terrain as immersive an experience on stage as it on record.
Also don’t forget the following shows:
April 2: CARDIFF – 10 Feet Tall | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Winter Villains & Emma Gatrill
April 3: BRISTOL – The Fleece | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 4: NORWICH – Arts Centre | Last.fm | Songkick | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 5: LONDON – Bush Hall | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 7: BRIGHTON – The Haunt | Last.fm | Songkick| with Laish & Emma Gatrill
Our distant cousins Rachael Dadd and Ichi are having a grand time out in Japan and have asked us to let you know they’re both blogging about their experiences. At the time of writing they’ve both been recently updated. Check out Rachael here and Ichi here.
