Belle and Sebastian
Discovering Belle and Sebastian is like finding Crunchy Nut after a life of Corn Flakes, it’s sweeter, more articulate and a hell of a lot wittier than what you’ve had before (yep, cereals can be articulate too and for the record Frosties are illiterate). One of the best things about listening to this band is that you can follow the lives of front man Stuart’s rich cast of characters. Through elegant and accomplished song writing, tales of outsider hipsters, gay baseball players, harassed waitresses and can’t be bothered cleversticks are all beautifully played out against a backdrop of tender, triumphant and danceable pop. Probably the best Scottish band ever. (Rough Trade Records) www.belleandsebastian.com
Mira Calix
Mira Calix is signed to Warp Records, on which she has released five albums. Although her earlier music is almost exclusively electronic in nature, in more recent years, she has incorporated classical orchestration into her work for installation pieces, film soundtracks, theatre and opera. Mira has been commissioned to write new works for the London Sinfonietta, Bang On A Can, the Aldeburgh Festival, Opera North and the Manchester International Festival amongst others. In the autumn of 2009 she won a British Composer Awards for her composition, My Secret Heart. Mira regularly collaborates with visual artists, architects and musicians; she often performs with the cellist Oliver Coates, and with Sarah Nicholls and David Sheppard as part of Alexander’s Annexe. www.miracalix.com
Mara Carlyle
Mara Carlyle is a British singer, songwriter and arranger. Often ‘borrowing’ from classical music, Mara has taken themes and motifs from composers such as Schumann, Purcell, Strauss and Vaughan Williams and woven them into unique songs of her own, sometimes accompanying herself on ukulele or musical saw. Her debut album The Lovely was released in 2004 to huge critical acclaim and then followed several years of performances around the world, from Paris to Vietnam. She has recently completed her second album, produced by Dan Carey (Kylie Minogue, Franz Ferdinand, LaRoux) featuring her songs and arrangements, some of which performed with a 30-piece string section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which is due for release next year. Mara’s song Pianni features in the recent IKEA ‘cat’ ad campaign. www.maracarlyle.com
Shiva Feshareki
In 2004, aged 17, Shiva won the BBC Young Composer of the Year, resulting in a performance at the BBC Proms, and her first broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Shiva graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2009, winner of The Elgar Memorial Prize. She has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, from orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia, virtuoso Natalie Clein, sound artist Simon Fisher Turner, and left-field pop artist, Micachu Levi. A recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize 2009, Shiva’s out of sorts was premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra as part of the ‘Music of Today’ series at the Royal Festival Hall. Shiva is currently working on an experimental improvisation project with the Mercury Quartet, which will be released on Gabriel Prokofiev’s label, NONCLASSICAL. www.myspace.com/shivafeshareki
Simon Fisher Turner
From child actor to teenage pop idol, from self-confessed ‘extreme sound freak’ to acclaimed solo recording artist, Simon Fisher Turner’s career has been nothing if not varied. He operated on the fringes of punk; performed briefly with The The; became Musician in Residence at the ICA in 1980; released two albums as one half of a fictional French female duo know as Deux Filles. It his abiding interest in sounds of daily life which now forms the basis of his improvisatory, eclectic approach to music making, and is manifest on his most recent solo albums on the Mute Label. From trite pop to extreme sound-freakery, the mature SFT (as he now styles himself) has arrived at a mesmeric originality.
www.simonfisherturner.com
Foals
2008 saw the Oxford 5-piece band rise to prominence with their debut album Antidotes entering the UK charts at number three. From these early days playing house parties, to selling-out incendiary tours across the UK and the world, stand-out TV performances, and exhilarating festival appearances, they set the stage perfectly for their much-anticipated sophomore effort Total Life Forever, nominated for the Mercury Prize 2010. Foals are signed to Transgressive Records in the UK and Sub Pop in the USA. www.foals.co.uk
