Bound for Glory by The Magic Lantern. Released 4 June 2021. The first single to be released from the fourth album 'A Reckoning Bell' by the London based singer-songwriter Jamie Doe.

Bound for Glory

The Magic Lantern - Bound For Glory

02 The Magic Lantern - This Life

Blades of Grass is a joyful song for a desperate time that celebrates our unavoidable human fragility and wild need for companionship. It is the second single to be taken from my fourth album 'A Reckoning Bell'. It examines the beauty and freedom that come from the emotional honesty of life’s toughest moments. 

Lyrically ‘Blades of Grass’ is presented as a set of statements each starting with the repetition of the phrase ‘Let it be known’, which like fragments of a jigsaw imply the outline of hard truths learnt. The simple formality of the structure belying the weight it carries. 

I hope it can be useful for you. 

All love

Jamie x

The Magic Lantern - Blades Of Grass

04 The Magic Lantern - Fault Line

05 The Magic Lantern - How Simple

06 The Magic Lantern - Enough

07 The Magic Lantern - There's A Light

08 The Magic Lantern - Learning To Swim

09 The Magic Lantern -  Holding On

10 The Magic Lantern - Weariest River

11 The Magic Lantern - Coda

The new album 'Love Of Too Much Living' from The Magic Lantern, release date 29th September 2014. 

Harvest Moon

The new album 'Love Of Too Much Living' from The Magic Lantern, release date 29th September 2014 on Smugglers Records. 

Watch the video for 'No One's Fault' here: youtu.be/JuEmbXpY1ik

No One's Fault

Stitches

The new album 'Love Of Too Much Living' from The Magic Lantern, release date 29th September 2014 on Smugglers Records.

Scant Peace of Mind

First single from The Magic Lantern's upcoming fifth album 'To Everything A Season'. 

Released 17 May.

To Everything A Season

Trembling

The Magic Lantern - Trembling

The Magic Lantern, the musical moniker of Jamie Doe, is set to release his latest single Holding Hands on 30th October 2017 via Hectic Eclectic Records. 

The single opens with a defiant cry of hope, the lyrics “I’m searching…”, ringing out alone before two saxophones enter, freely weaving around the vocal, at once harmonising and echoing it. This texture builds as a third saxophone joins creating a rich brass warmth through which Doe’s voice glides, effortlessly leaping between the declamatory and the intimate. The  band enter with an infectious groove, and we are introduced to the songs’ key metaphor of a flood and the need for creative destruction - “One day, when all this is washed away, some will remain, full of hope in the pouring rain”. The track resolves with the triumph of hope over doubt.

Holding Hands was written during a moment of desperation, Jamie having travelled half way across the world only to run out of road.  Strung out and alone, he found himself writing this song for the true love he hoped to meet, as much an act of faith in their existence as a beacon to guide himself home.  Originally written for voice and guitar, it was after hearing Bjork’s ‘Anchor Song’ late one night that Jamie decided to arrange the song for saxophone trio. The timbre of the brass, the groove of the band, The Bad Plus style piano solo – it is an arrangement that brings together some of Jamie’s key influences which he describes as “the lyrical directness of folk, the harmonic openness and improvisational freedom of jazz and the craft of great songwriting. It’s a good example of how much more confident I have become as an arranger”. 

Born in Australia, before moving to the UK at 12, Jamie began performing as The Magic Lantern while studying philosophy in Bristol where he met and performed alongside friends This Is The Kit, Rozi Plain and Rachael Dadd. Moving to London in 2007, Jamie expanded The Magic Lantern into a quintet of friends and together they evolved a transporting sound, inspired by the immediacy of Jamie’s lyrics and lilting melodies and a shared love of improvised music. A debut album with the quintet was released in 2011 before Jamie returned to his solo roots with an intimate second album in 2014. The Magic Lantern has received praise from numerous publications including The Guardian, Acoustic Magazine and Folk Radio UK as well as BBC 6Music’s Lauren Laverne, Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and BBC Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe and Bob Harris among others. His third album, To The Islands from which Holding Hands is taken, sees The Magic Lantern return with a new ensemble drawn from London’s thriving jazz scene, exploring memory and hope in a world of near constant uncertainty. 

With Holding Hands, The Magic Lantern is ready to introduce further listeners to his bittersweet, beautiful sound. 

Holding Hands is out on 30th October 2017 via Hectic Eclectic Records.

Holding Hands

From the album 'To The Islands' by The Magic Lantern released on 2 November 2018 and featuring lyrics in shona by Fidelis Mherembi.

To The Islands

Scattered Leaves

The first single from 'To The Islands' by The Magic Lantern, release on 2 November 2018. 

Press for 'Holding Hands': 

"Gorgeous, beautiful. This stopped me in my tracks. Slightly surreal, in all the right ways" 
Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

"Every now and again you come across a piece of music that will completely take your breath away. It might not be instant, but it will. The Magic Lantern’s ‘Holding Hands’ is one of those pieces of music. 8/10"
- Fortitude Magazine

"Creating something truly mesmerizing and incredibly unique. Jamie’s ability to combine jazz and folk into something ethereal and is undeniably spellbinding. Fans of Grizzly Bear and Chet Baker will feel at home here."
- The Vinyl District

“A truly optimistic, triumphant listen.” 
- Mahogany

The second single released from the new album 'To The Islands' by The Magic Lantern. 

Written at a sliding doors moment during a tumultuous return to his childhood home in Australia, the single opens with limpid, crystalline piano chords, before the surprise entry of a driving drum figure introduces the idea that another world is continually below the surface. The song propels the listener along as textures of prepared piano, bass and drums build and break like waves on the shore. Doe’s gently powerful vocal drifts over the pulsing band, drawing on the the poetic image of being alone far out at sea, to urge a message of holding fast during these uncertain times.

The Magic Lantern's third album, 'To The Islands', is due for release on 2 November 2018.

Albatross

Lydia is the second single taken from the new album 'To The Islands' from The Magic Lantern, written during a tumultuous return to his childhood home in Australia. 

Opening with intricate finger picking, a wistful mood is established before Jamie’s intimate lead vocal takes centre stage. Written at a real liminal point in Jamie's life, Lydia is the most personal song on the album, so when it came to recording, the intention was to focus on the intensity that comes with stripping everything away. 

A defiantly solo song, Jamie chose to record it live in one take. Reminiscent of the personal, oblique narrative songs of Elliot Smith and hushed intimacy of Sufjan Stevens, Lydia demonstrates Jamie’s undeniable conviction. 

Influenced by the likes of folk, jazz and contemporary music, Jamie is dedicated to remedying the anxiety and fear present in all of us. Born in Australia, before moving to the UK at 12, Jamie adopted the stage name of The Magic Lantern and began writing songs while studying philosophy in Bristol. Moving to London in 2007, his debut album was released with a chamber-folk style quintet in 2011 before returning to his solo roots with an intimate second album in 2014. The Magic Lantern has received praise from numerous publications including The Guardian, Acoustic Magazine and Folk Radio UK as well as BBC 6Music’s Lauren Laverne, Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum, Mark Radcliffe and Bob Harris among others. 

His third album sees The Magic Lantern return with a new ensemble drawn from London’s thriving jazz scene, exploring memory and hope in a world of near constant uncertainty.

Lydia is out now via Hectic Eclectic Records.

Lydia

From the new album 'To the Islands' by The Magic Lantern, released on 2 November 2018. 

'Darling Day' is about the unique kind of anxiety that comes in the middle of the night. In the darkness and the near silence of the pre-dawn, worries and fears can grow fill the empty space. When that happens I am almost willing the dawn to break, for some sound to tell me I’m not alone and for the first rays of morning light to give shape back to the dark. 

Drawing on a wide range of influences from folk, jazz and contemporary music, The Magic Lantern is dedicated to remedying the anxiety and fear present in us all. 

“Extraordinary. Beautiful poised singing, amazing lyrics and hypnotic production”
- Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music

"Excellent, intriguing and compelling, a man to watch"
- The Guardian

"Gorgeous, beautiful. This stopped me in my tracks. Slightly surreal, in all the right ways"
- Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

Darling Day

I’ve been thinking about music and its place in the world. I’ve been thinking about artistic space and our willingness to occupy it. And I’ve been thinking, again, about success, what it means and to whom I ask for validation of it. These aren’t new thoughts exactly, but they are thoughts I have taken greater root this new year.

It feels important to say out loud that I am not competing with or against any other musician for your attention. I refuse to submerge my artistic practice in the barren, cold waters of marketing speak. Branding is for cows. And while of course I want to grow my audience, to reach further and farther, to travel and make new connections through my songs, what is meaningful to me is the depth more than the breadth. 

Experience and practice, the love of those this music has reached, the support of other musicians, have gifted me a perspective that brooks less doubt about the value of what I do these days. This is a kind of success. Thank you to everyone who nourishes me. 

My work for this year, hand in hand with the exciting and messy business of releasing a new album, is to more deeply embrace gratitude and practice some radical acceptance; to take a look around and realise this may be as good as it gets, and know that it is enough. The work continues. 

Wishing you all love for your work. Looking forward to playing more and sharing my fifth album with you later this year.  

Big love

The Magic Lantern / Jamie x 

"Excellent, intriguing and compelling, a man to watch"
-The Guardian

"Something very, very special"
- Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music

"Gorgeous, beautiful, this stopped me in my tracks. Slightly surreal, in all the right ways" - Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

"Every now and again you come across a piece of music that will completely take your breath away. It might not be instant, but it will. The Magic Lantern’s ‘Holding Hands’ is one of those pieces of music. 8/10"
- Fortitude Magazine

"Creating something truly mesmerizing and incredibly unique. Jamie’s ability to combine jazz and folk into something ethereal and is undeniably spellbinding. Fans of Grizzly Bear and Chet Baker will feel at home here."
- The Vinyl District



www.the-magic-lantern.co.uk
Contact: jamiefdoe@yahoo.com

The Magic Lantern

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