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Laura Cannell

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British composer and musician

Laura Cannell
Background information
Occupations
  • Composer
  • performer
  • producer
Instruments
Websitelauracannell.co.uk
Musical artist

Laura Cannell is a British composer and improvising recorder player and violinist. Her work is known for combining the influences of early music, folk and experimental music. Her debut solo album Quick Sparrows over the Black Earth (2014), was named as a top album of 2014 by The Wire and her album Reckonings (in collaboration with violinist André Bosman) was named in the best albums and tracks of 2018 in The Guardian. Cannell's music has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 6Music, NTS Radio and internationally.

Education and early life

Cannell was born in Norwich and studied at the London College of Music, before returning to Norfolk to complete a master's degree at the University of East Anglia and to begin her career as a performing musician.

Horses Brawl (2003–2011)

Cannell founded the trio Horses Brawl in 2003, with guitarist Adrian Lever and cellist Jonathan Manton. Their eponymous debut album was released in 2005. The group was reduced to a duo (Cannell and Lever) by the time of the release of their second album, DINDIRIN (2007), which also featured veteran early musician Philip Thorby as guest performer on viol. Their third album, Wild Lament (2009), received favourable reviews from publications such as The Times and The Independent. The group reformed as a duo of Cannell and André Bosman for their final album to date, Ruminantia (2012).

The wide range of music on which the group drew included Bulgarian wedding music, songs from Renaissance Spain, English and French medieval music and European folk music, combined with unconventional instrumental extended techniques, such as bowed guitar and violin bow slackened to play all four strings at once. Cannell has since often employed the latter technique in her solo performances, together with the "double recorder" (two instruments played at once).

Horses Brawl appeared in live performances at venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, besides regular appearances at the Norwich Arts Centre.

Solo career

Following the end of Horses Brawl, Cannell began working on solo improvisations, initially based on fragments of medieval music, such as the work of Hildegard of Bingen, looped and varied, and performed in churches in rural Norfolk. Cannell subsequently combined her own material with these early sources, resulting in "music that has one foot in the loops of Steve Reich and John Adams, the other in the melodies of moorland England and medieval Europe".

Cannell's engagement with the historical and emotional associations of spaces and geographical locations has led to The Quietus stating that "it is becoming hard to imagine flatlands and flinty churches without also thinking of Cannell’s music playing as a soundtrack".

She has also performed at venues and festivals including ATP, Café Oto, the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican Centre.

Cannell also performs in the trio Oscilanz, together with Ralph Cumbers and Charles Hayward of the experimental rock band, This Heat and with fellow improvising violinist Angharad Davies as Mythos of Violins. Other collaborative work has included projects with the BBC Philharmonic, and a series of new music and spoken word performances, Modern Ritual, which Cannell curated on a UK tour in 2018.

Recordings

Cannell's recordings frequently exploit the acoustics of resonant spaces, such as the ruined St Andrew's Church, Covehithe, Suffolk on her album Hunter, Huntress, Hawker (2017), Southwold Lighthouse on her album Simultaneous Flight Movement (2016) and St Andrew's Church, Raveningham, Norfolk on The Sky Untuned (2019).

Her discography also includes a collaborative album with improvising harpist Rhodri Davies, Feathered Swing of the Raven (2012) and a collaboration with East Anglian singer and performer Polly Wright, Sing as the Crow Flies (2019), inspired by the lost voices of women in the folktales of Norfolk as well as its marshland landscapes. This was Cannell's first release featuring her as a vocal performer. These recordings also form part of an installation at the annual Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail in August 2019 at Raveningham, where the album was recorded in the village church.

In November 2019, Whistling Arrow, a sextet comprising Ex-Easter Island Head, Laura Cannell, André Bosman and Charles Hayward, released an album via God Unknown records.

In 2020 Cannell released the album The Earth With Her Crowns, recorded inside the disused Wapping Hydraulic Power Station.

References

  1. "The Wire's Top 50 Albums of 2014". Album of The Year. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  2. music, Guardian (21 December 2018). "The best albums and tracks of 2018: how our writers voted". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  3. "Laura Cannell - New Songs, Playlists & Latest News - BBC Music". BBC. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  4. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (15 November 2016). "'It's got balls and it can bite': the woman blowing recorder prejudice away". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  5. "The Quietus | Features | In Extremis | Fragments Of Fragments: An Interview With Laura Cannell". The Quietus. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  6. "Listen: new Laura Cannell tracks - The Wire". The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  7. ^ "BBC - Norfolk - Entertainment - Horses Brawl". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  8. Brown, Geoff (13 June 2009). "Horses Brawl: Wild Lament". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Album: Horses Brawl, Wild Lament (Brawl)". The Independent. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  10. "Irish Representation in Huddersfield Short Series". The Journal of Music: News, Reviews & Opinion | Music Jobs & Opportunities. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  11. "The Quietus | Reviews | Laura Cannell & André Bosman". The Quietus. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  12. ^ "Laura Cannell, Simultaneous Flight Movement | Caught by the River | Caught by the River". www.caughtbytheriver.net. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  13. "Oscilanz ← People ← Cafe OTO". www.cafeoto.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  14. "Laura Cannell & Angharad Davies – Mythos of Violins – Counterflows". www.counterflows.com. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  15. "Sounds From the Other City". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  16. "Laura Cannell: Modern Ritual | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  17. Rogers, Jude (19 October 2017). "Laura Cannell: Hunter, Huntress, Hawker review – brutally alive, roaring folk improv". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  18. "The Quietus | Features | The Lead Review | Alive Beyond Time: Laura Cannell's Hunter Huntress Hawker Reviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  19. Owen, William Patrick (27 March 2019). "Laura Cannell: The Sky Untuned (Album Review) | Folk Radio UK". Folk Radio UK - Folk Music Magazine. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  20. postrockcafe (10 August 2012). "Laura Cannell & Rhodri Davies ~ Feathered Swing of the Raven". a closer listen. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  21. Rogers, Jude (26 July 2019). "Laura Cannell & Polly Wright: Sing as the Crow Flies review – lost voices in folktales". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  22. "Waveney Sculpture trail will feature new music from Norfolk folk duo Laura Cannell and Polly Wright". ITV news. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  23. Cory, Lara C (21 November 2019). "The Quietus | Features | The Lead Review | Ritual Union: Whistling Arrow Feat. Laura Cannell & Charles Hayward". The Quietus. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  24. "The Earth With Her Crowns | Caught by the River | Caught by the River". www.caughtbytheriver.net. Retrieved 21 June 2020.

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