Cian Nugent
New Member
Nalle (UK, Locust Records, Pickled Egg Records)
Nalle is the Glasgow based avant folk trio of visual artist Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy. Nalle quickly gained attention in the UK as a band to watch . Hanna’s enthralling multioctave vocal range and singular delivery brought comparisons to other women vocalists who have explored the limits of the voice within traditional musical conventions but as the Wire noted, Nalle’s “clear individuality banishes lazy comparisons to others operative in this area of folk-inflected new music, like Lau Nau or Joanna Newsom.” Top this off with a fearless and accomplished integration of the musical traditions & instruments of the world’s people and you have the prescription for something that, in its very globally minded embrace , touches on the other worldly.
Their first album, By Chance Upon Waking - released in the UK in 2006 - was a relatively spontaneous, heartfelt affair, mostly recorded in Glasgow during two short bursts of activity, with the help of Daniel Padden (Volcano the Bear/The One Ensemble) - with a couple of additional tracks being born in solitude on a cold wintry night by the fire in Finland by Tuulikki.
The making of Nalle’s sophomore effort & locust debut, The Sirens Wave, couldn’t have been more different in conception & execution. Where Chance was literally left to spontaneity, Siren’s Wave is a dense & deliberate album of tightly woven song suites where few sounds and few silences, if any, are left unconsidered. Where Chance was cut in a matter of a few sessions, Siren’s became an obsession for the whole band & spanned the entirety of 2007 while the trio slowly took in the moods of the changing seasons as they passed by the window of John Cavanagh’s Glo-Spot studio where Nalle cut Siren’s Wave.
Nestled in the leafy suburbs of Glasgow, Cavanagh’s Glo-Spot is like a working history of recorded sound, housing everything from a turn of the 20th century Colombia graphophone cylinder phonograph to salvaged BBC microphones, Radford valve oscillators & Moog synths. Classic analog electronics at their disposal were integrated with the acoustic instrumentation that forms the backbone of the band (assorted strings, voices, woodwind, reed instruments) and the depth and range of the songs feel all the more intense, moody & spine tingling in part as a result of this magical audio alchemy.
The Sirens Wave is a deeply personal yet accessible album, enveloping themes of loss and grief, the springs of rebirth, and the harvest’s celebration. It is an album that grows a deeper and deeper bond with the willing listener.
www.myspace.com/nallemusic
The Family Elan (UK, Locust Records)
The Family Elan was christened by Chris Hladowski in 2006, being the natural culmination of many hours spent in solitude, both writing songs and attempting to develop an intuitive approach to music making based on the myriad traditions of the long-necked lute. The debut album, Stare of Dawn, consists of spiraling free form yet rooted originals with Hladowski playing bouzouki, baglamas, violin, clarinet, and guitar, alongside various percussion instruments, and Hanna Tuulikki on recorder and flute. The songs range from instrumental modal wanderings with themes such as cascading waterfalls, to folk-inflected tales of friendship and seduction. It was recorded by John Cavanagh (Phosphene) at his home in Muirend, on the outskirts of Glasgow. Since the recording of the album several forays have been made into the murky world of live performance.
Elan derives much inspiration from devotional and folk music traditions. The tanbur playing of the Kurdish Sufi mystic Ostad Elahi and Âshyq songs of the Azerbaijani sâz master Edalat Nasibov spring immediately to mind, alongside the rawer, more percussive sounds of the Yayla musicians of the Eastern Black Sea region – who fashion reed instruments from young pine saplings - like Hasan Yïldïrïm (who plays the violin like a drum) and Hayri Dev. The music of the Rebetes of early twentieth century Greece is an obvious benchmark, alongside more recent European folk revivalists like the Hungarian band Muzsikás. Other signposts might include the bouzouki inventions of Anne Briggs and the musical tapestries of the Incredible String Band. There is also a ‘pop’ sensibility lurking in there somewhere, though it is nigh on impossible to pin down in the conventional sense.
Hladowski grew up in Bradford, West Yorkshire, doing the rounds in rock and punk clubs in Bradford and Leeds before moving to Glasgow in 2001. He was a founding member and songwriter with Scatter, who released two albums, Surprising Sing Stupendous Love (Pickled Egg/Cenotaph), and The Mountain Announces (Blank Tapes) and has enjoyed many a fine ale with the folk-rock band Lucky Luke, playing on their debut album Patrick the Survivor (Invada). He met Hanna Tuulikki in 2004, and alongside Aby Vulliamy they began playing as Nalle, who have so far released one album - By Chance Upon Waking (Pickled Egg) - with a follow-up due on Locust this coming winter. Hladowski also plays in The One Ensemble, who have released two CDs - Live at VPRO (Brainwashed Handmade Series) and Wayward The Fourth(Secret Eye/Daffodelic), the Mystery Water Saloon Boys, who have released three cdrs (on the now defunct Memoirs of an Aesthete and 23 Productions) And recently he has been the bouzouki player in A Hawk and A Hacksaw.
www.myspace.com/familyelan
With some luck for this gig I'll be joined by David Lacey - percussion and Chris Hladowski - clarinet
The Joinery, Arbour Hill, Stoneybatter
Saturday 18th April
8 pm 6 euro
BYOB
www.thejoinery.org
Nalle is the Glasgow based avant folk trio of visual artist Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy. Nalle quickly gained attention in the UK as a band to watch . Hanna’s enthralling multioctave vocal range and singular delivery brought comparisons to other women vocalists who have explored the limits of the voice within traditional musical conventions but as the Wire noted, Nalle’s “clear individuality banishes lazy comparisons to others operative in this area of folk-inflected new music, like Lau Nau or Joanna Newsom.” Top this off with a fearless and accomplished integration of the musical traditions & instruments of the world’s people and you have the prescription for something that, in its very globally minded embrace , touches on the other worldly.
Their first album, By Chance Upon Waking - released in the UK in 2006 - was a relatively spontaneous, heartfelt affair, mostly recorded in Glasgow during two short bursts of activity, with the help of Daniel Padden (Volcano the Bear/The One Ensemble) - with a couple of additional tracks being born in solitude on a cold wintry night by the fire in Finland by Tuulikki.
The making of Nalle’s sophomore effort & locust debut, The Sirens Wave, couldn’t have been more different in conception & execution. Where Chance was literally left to spontaneity, Siren’s Wave is a dense & deliberate album of tightly woven song suites where few sounds and few silences, if any, are left unconsidered. Where Chance was cut in a matter of a few sessions, Siren’s became an obsession for the whole band & spanned the entirety of 2007 while the trio slowly took in the moods of the changing seasons as they passed by the window of John Cavanagh’s Glo-Spot studio where Nalle cut Siren’s Wave.
Nestled in the leafy suburbs of Glasgow, Cavanagh’s Glo-Spot is like a working history of recorded sound, housing everything from a turn of the 20th century Colombia graphophone cylinder phonograph to salvaged BBC microphones, Radford valve oscillators & Moog synths. Classic analog electronics at their disposal were integrated with the acoustic instrumentation that forms the backbone of the band (assorted strings, voices, woodwind, reed instruments) and the depth and range of the songs feel all the more intense, moody & spine tingling in part as a result of this magical audio alchemy.
The Sirens Wave is a deeply personal yet accessible album, enveloping themes of loss and grief, the springs of rebirth, and the harvest’s celebration. It is an album that grows a deeper and deeper bond with the willing listener.
www.myspace.com/nallemusic
The Family Elan (UK, Locust Records)
The Family Elan was christened by Chris Hladowski in 2006, being the natural culmination of many hours spent in solitude, both writing songs and attempting to develop an intuitive approach to music making based on the myriad traditions of the long-necked lute. The debut album, Stare of Dawn, consists of spiraling free form yet rooted originals with Hladowski playing bouzouki, baglamas, violin, clarinet, and guitar, alongside various percussion instruments, and Hanna Tuulikki on recorder and flute. The songs range from instrumental modal wanderings with themes such as cascading waterfalls, to folk-inflected tales of friendship and seduction. It was recorded by John Cavanagh (Phosphene) at his home in Muirend, on the outskirts of Glasgow. Since the recording of the album several forays have been made into the murky world of live performance.
Elan derives much inspiration from devotional and folk music traditions. The tanbur playing of the Kurdish Sufi mystic Ostad Elahi and Âshyq songs of the Azerbaijani sâz master Edalat Nasibov spring immediately to mind, alongside the rawer, more percussive sounds of the Yayla musicians of the Eastern Black Sea region – who fashion reed instruments from young pine saplings - like Hasan Yïldïrïm (who plays the violin like a drum) and Hayri Dev. The music of the Rebetes of early twentieth century Greece is an obvious benchmark, alongside more recent European folk revivalists like the Hungarian band Muzsikás. Other signposts might include the bouzouki inventions of Anne Briggs and the musical tapestries of the Incredible String Band. There is also a ‘pop’ sensibility lurking in there somewhere, though it is nigh on impossible to pin down in the conventional sense.
Hladowski grew up in Bradford, West Yorkshire, doing the rounds in rock and punk clubs in Bradford and Leeds before moving to Glasgow in 2001. He was a founding member and songwriter with Scatter, who released two albums, Surprising Sing Stupendous Love (Pickled Egg/Cenotaph), and The Mountain Announces (Blank Tapes) and has enjoyed many a fine ale with the folk-rock band Lucky Luke, playing on their debut album Patrick the Survivor (Invada). He met Hanna Tuulikki in 2004, and alongside Aby Vulliamy they began playing as Nalle, who have so far released one album - By Chance Upon Waking (Pickled Egg) - with a follow-up due on Locust this coming winter. Hladowski also plays in The One Ensemble, who have released two CDs - Live at VPRO (Brainwashed Handmade Series) and Wayward The Fourth(Secret Eye/Daffodelic), the Mystery Water Saloon Boys, who have released three cdrs (on the now defunct Memoirs of an Aesthete and 23 Productions) And recently he has been the bouzouki player in A Hawk and A Hacksaw.
www.myspace.com/familyelan
With some luck for this gig I'll be joined by David Lacey - percussion and Chris Hladowski - clarinet
The Joinery, Arbour Hill, Stoneybatter
Saturday 18th April
8 pm 6 euro
BYOB
www.thejoinery.org
