We are massively excited to be hosting the local alt folk legend that is Mary Hampton and her avant-folk French friends La Cozna who are on tour from France. It is so rare to catch Mary playing these days so you really must not miss this special treat of a night. And when we listened to La Cozna’s unusual and exploratory take on trad french songs, we simply couldn’t resist booking this show!
For those who aren’t familiar, Mary Hampton is an award winning English folksinger, musician and composer whose work is influenced by Symbolism, folk, Lo-fi and chamber music. Creating new versions of traditional songs she offers them up as questions, and sometimes challenges, to the modern listener. Using voice, tenor guitar and a selection of other tools, she carries them through her own peculiarly raw and tender sound-world. The stories she tells explore the timeless liability of embodied experience.
Hampton has also supported musicians including: Eliza Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Martin Carthy, Tom Brosseau, Mike Heron, Broadcast, Birdengine, Ariel Pink, Jarboe, Baby Dee, Adam Green, Orchestra Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp and Sea Power and toured with artists including Diane Cluck, Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston and has worked on many commissions including for BBC Radio 3 and The Aldeburgh Festival.
“Very English, very unusual, and proof that if you want to make art, you just have to ignore debilitating forces and get on with it”. – The Times
La Cozna takes up a series of traditional French songs collected in the 20th century. Passed down in whispers in the secrecy of kitchens, these women’s songs are stories of love, violence and freedom that play on domination with humour, drama and poetry. The four musicians go beyond musical expression by inviting spectral conception, improvisation and minimalist post-rock music to the table to give substance to their unique language. In Ni Nuit Ni Jour, the ambiguity of the lyrics flirts with a feverish sound, tense with desire and darkness.