Asylum

In a Chapel in South London gathered folk from far and near in celebration of Alan Lomax's Centenary. Wooden chairs on stone floor, faded murals, broken stained glass windows, whose elegance still remained despite the wind whistling through their cracks, were our surroundings. 

Our slot was bifurcated, the first part being with Justin Hopper who read poetry over a semi-improvised sound backdrop created by ourselves, we then moved onto a small selection of songs from the last two albums, plus a cover of Idumea with Diana Collier on vocals and a new, as yet untitled, song. Being January the Chapel was freezing, despite there being heaters directed inwards, my hands were frozen after playing, but tea was readily available to defrost the joints.

It was great to see such a selection of British folk artists under one roof and rarely did the line-up disappoint with my highlights being a reformed Owl Service, the guitar primitivism of Long Pike Hollow, Sharron Kraus and Nancy Wallace, and a meditative drone performance from Plinth.

Photos courtesy of Naoko from The Marbles Jackson.