Tuesday 17 January 2017

New light on old songs: Van Diemen's Land with Sam Lee and Notes Inégales

Sam Lee - photo Frederic Aranda
Sam Lee - photo Frederic Aranda
The folk-singer Sam Lee will be joining with Peter Wiegold's Notes Inégales to perform Van Diemen's Land at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 21 January 2017. The concert is based on the Cd, Van Diemen's Land which is launched this month. The music is a re-working of folk song, presenting a journey down-under to distant places. The idea arose out of Sam Lee's residency at Club Inégales in 2014, where the resulting improvisations have led directly to the music on the CD and the concert. The fluidity of the ensemble, which included violinist Max Baillie, Scottish flute/pipes Fraser Fifield and pianist Martin Butler, meant that the original improvisations wove elements of Stravinsky and Bartok and much else besides into the mix. The CD was edited down from 9 hours of sessions, and the concert will be a distillation of this.

Sam Lee is very much a 21st century folk singer, he comes from North London and studied at Chelsea School of Art. He collects new versions of old folk-songs, but does so on his iPhone and laptop.

Peter Wiegold, Director of Notes Inégales commented: "I believe it's a completely different way of reworking folksong - spontaneously made by the players and myself and thus drawing on our experiences of music of today as well as the past - but then this is curiously authentic! Because in effect it is a genuine 'folk-band' like way of working. Sam's wonderful voice spontaneously tells the musical stories and sometimes, influenced by our improvisation, he goes to much darker or more surreal places than he usually does with a conventional band."




Full information from St John's Smith Square website.

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