PRESS RELEASE - THE EARTH WITH HER CROWNS | Laura Cannell
Out on 19/6/20 BRAWL RECORDS (BRAWL016)

The Earth with Her Crowns is a set of ten tracks which were improvised and recorded in single takes inside Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, London, over two days  in February & March 2019.

In late 2018 composer, performer and improviser Laura Cannell was commissioned by The Wapping Project to capture the resonance of their former building through her improvised music, it would be the final project in response to the iconic space that defined their commissioning for over two decades.

Entering the cavernous building armed with violins and recorders, Cannell had no preconceived ideas and The Earth With Her Crowns emerged from the conversations with the space itself. The recording came at a time of personal grief after the sudden loss of a loved one. Overwhelming feelings of loss and anxiety were charged into sound inside the resonant power station: 

"The cold air of the power station felt alive with a nervous energy. It felt like an opportunity to express something at a time when talking had been useless," she says. 

The Power Station is beneath London flight paths and alongside the Thames, and Cannell explored the Boiler House, Coal Store and Filter House, standing in the centre amongst walls of glazed and raw brick, with freezing breath, in a vast space below water level. Double recorders, voice, violin and the drone of overbow violin filled the cathedral-like space, which captured, amplified and resonated their sounds, bringing them alive and sculpturing moment by moment, note by note.

"Standing on thresholds in the archways between spaces and under the suspended stairs with low notes and high notes flying I played in the moment, allowing the sound to branch off like ancient waterways, I was led by the acoustics of the space to sounds that were self-sustaining, free flowing and changeable. Clear glass panes reflected and returned my offerings of string and air, uttered from fingers and lungs. Tonnes of water once passed through here to power London, and the space is never silent, the sound of the living city outside occasionally entering through porous brick, steel and glass. I found it to be a proud structure, and it was an honour to hear its responses to my questions.”                                                         
Laura Cannell, March 2019

PERFORMERS:
LAURA CANNELL - Violins (Octave & Overbow) / Double Recorders / Voice 
** with special guests: 
JENNIFER LUCY ALLAN - Horn / Mini Accordion / Voice
ANDRÉ BOSMAN - Suspended Stairs / Fiddle

Please see the Press Release or www.lauracannell.co.uk for biography.

The Earth with Her Crowns was commissioned and funded by The Wapping Project, London.  www.thewappingproject.org  Recorded & produced by Laura Cannell, Mastered by Mark Beazley at Trace Mastering

www.brawlrecords.co.uk  
www.lauracannell.co.uk 
Twitter: @laurarecorder 
Instagram: @lauracannellmusic

THE EARTH WITH HER CROWNS - Laura Cannell - OUT ON 19.6.20

I couldn't sleep so came down to make a cup of tea and the birds began their day, so I did too.
Recorded out of the kitchen door in mid-Suffolk.
24th May 2022 at about 4.15am GMT

Dawn Chorus 24 May 2022 - Recorded in Suffolk by Laura Cannell

Earthly Music

3 Earthly Music - Laura Cannell

The Rituals of Hildegard Reimagined

4 O Ignee Spiritus - Laura Cannell

5 The Rituals Of Hildegard - Laura Cannell

6 Flying North - Laura Cannell

7 O Mater Omnis Gaudii - Laura Cannell

8 A Feather On The Breath - Laura Cannell

9 Ad Celestum Armoniam - Laura Cannell

10 Everything Is Hidden In You - Laura Cannell

11 Remain Brave In A World That Is Being Shipwrecked

12 A Lost Nightingale - Laura Cannell

1 The Hearth Stone

Good Morning from The Waveney Valley. Here are is the 5am Dawn Chorus in a Waveney Valley Town. 

Dawn Chorus 26 March 2025 - Recorded By Laura Cannell Waveney Valley Suffolk

Simultaneous Flight Movement

Winter Saltings - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

Interrelation of Diverse Emotions - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

Three Stones - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

The Sudwulf - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

You Have Departed - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE:21.10.16

From forthcoming album: THE SKY UNTUNED - Laura Cannell
Release Date: 26.4.19

The Sky Untuned

1. Flaxen Fields

Mal Cannell reads his favourite poems with his calming Norfolk warmth. These are magical poems to fall asleep to.

The Rolling English Road - G K Chesterton

The Jumblies - Edward Lear

Sea - Fever - John Masefield

01. The Earth With Her Crowns

02. Waters Deep Cathedral

04. After You Left

03. A Space For Dreaming

05. Having Been Breathed Out

Combining traditional and medieval music elements with improvisation, including extended instrumental techniques such as the "deconstructed bow" and double recorders, the artist draws inspiration from the emotional influence of the landscape, animal calls or fragments of liturgical music in order to build a unique form of chamber music that avoids historicism and instead inhabits an imagined territory, combining contemporary and archaic elements.

LauraCannell

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