The High High Nest - Stephanie voice, Krzysztof electric bouzouki & jaws harp, clarinet & harmonium, Isobel Campbell cello and Alex Neilson drum
Warning, Sing Jah Praise (Inspirational Sound)
Influences
Inspired by the lead singers in a youth production of Grease, I started singing at age 12. My first singing teacher was Mary Coles who sadly passed away with cancer. She provided me with a good grounding in singing and we shared many laughs together.
My Dad gave me his Ladies of the Canyon (Joni Mitchell) record that he used to listen to in Halls of Residence. I borrowed a songbook and would spend hours by the piano desperately trying to relate to them. They seem to belong to that particular room in my childhood home.
I learnt a lot from listening to jazz ladies like Ella Fitzgerald and Mildred Bailey, always trying to imitate their voices - I think imitating is the best way to develop good singing.
I started to get more experimental with Meredith Monk, Kronos Quartet, Sun Ra (and singer of the Arkestra, June Tyson, who I love)...
The Bulgarka Junior Quartet really got me into Bulgarian traditional singing and I never realised I would be able to sing something so complex-sounding before I went to one of Dessislava Stefanova's workshops - she told me I have the gypsy spirit! I'm setting up Bradford Bulgarian Choir and if you are interested in joining please send me a message with your contact details. Rehearsals are due to commence in the new year and will take place in the Little Horton area of Bradford. Entry will be £2 per session.
I am also a reggae singer for Inspirational Sound and if you are a sound wanting a special please get in touch!
Out now on Inspirational Sound label... Available from www.dublab.co.uk/shop and all good record shops.
Out now on Singing Knives label...four traditional songs from the British Isles...
In the month of January
Willy O'Winsbury
Andrew Lambie
MaCrimmond's Lament
Thanks to Hanna Tuulikki for her wonderful artwork.
hey stephanie! i thought of you when i finally got my copy of america over the water and when was doing an entry on Sweet England for my blog. you were right.
4th year for Palimpsest Festival held in the majestic All Saints Church (1863) presenting a day of far reaching global sounds and homeland musical miniatures.
Just listened to your lovely vinyl record: it's really, really good and I'm dead chuffed for you. Leaves of Life is outstanding - sheer magic! Keep up your terrific work.
"In 'The Mirror of Eternal Light', the Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem catches his own reflection in tender, minimalist picking and gold-spray overdubs" - David Fricke, senior editor, Rolling Stone Magazine
"Van Wissem seems to breeze across musical boundaries with an effortless fluency" - Pitchfork
"Jozef van Wissem constructs a time bridge which links the 17th and 20th centuries,and, needless to say, the traffic on this bridge moves in both directions. He has made 17th century music into 20th century music" - Brian Marley, Avant Magazine
"Jozef van Wissem has a creative obsession with the concepts of backwards or mirror images. On this cd he applies various palindromes. Van Wissem is accompanied on his gorgeous solos by Gary Lucas who performs a dobro solo that has the sense of intense adventure and motivation" - Eugene Chadbourne
"Jozef van Wissem has been slowly reinventing the lute for the last three decades. Among the slew of fast-picking, fancy-fretting guitar players so prevalent today, his lute’s voice is a quiet oasis, and Stations of the Cross a small masterpiece" - Nick Southgate The Wire
"the certainties of the 17th century holding tight the ugly beauty that we now see scattered around us. I loved these CDs by Jozef van Wissem, A Rose by any other Name and Stations of the Cross. And then I received a new album, A Priori, and I immediately played it and heard its stark and repetitive intensity, its stately and glacial march. There is nothing quite like it that I have heard before - it is timeless, breathing deeply and exhaling showers of snow, endless circles, mirrors, spirals, the sea. When Jozef plays the lute, he pours out endless space. What can I say but let the rain come, close your eyes and watch the stars fall and rise and fall again" - David Tibet/Current 93
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