Laura Veirs
Monday 11th June 2018
Amaroun
At
Doors 7:30 pm
Price £17.50 + booking fee / £21.50
A prolific songwriter for nearly twenty years, Seattle’s Laura Veirs proves the depth of her musical skill on her tenth solo album, The Lookout (out on Bella Union). Here is a batch of inimitable, churning, exquisite folk-pop songs; a concept album about the fragility of precious things, waging a solitary songwriter’s war of attrition as she wrestles with themes of accountability, gratitude, fear and cultural decline.
Produced by Grammy-nominated Tucker Martine, Veirs’ longtime collaborator, The Lookout is a soundtrack for turbulent times, full of allusions to protectors: the camper stoking a watch fire, a mother tending her children, a sailor in a crows nest and a lightning rod channeling energy. Written and produced on the heels of Veirs’ acclaimed album with Neko Case and kd Lang (case/lang/veirs), the album integrates the fluency of collaboration with Veirs’ notorious work ethic. The twelve songs on the album are the result of a years’ worth of daily writing in her attic studio in Portland, Ore. It draws on the talents of a time-tested crew of musicians: Karl Blau, Steve Moore, Eli Moore, Eyvind Kang and Martine. Sufjan Stevens and Jim James also provide guest vocals.
“Fluent melodies, nature metaphors, and expressive settings are the robust ties that bind these reveries.” – The Independent
“The album’s dozen essays zigzag with the same unpredictability as Veirs’s vertiginous melody lines, everything united by her compellingly aerated vocal tone and Tucker Martine’s deep focus production. ” – Mojo
Support comes from
Amaroun
Amaroun is the latest project from multi-talented producer and songwriter Jay Brown, existing at the sonic crossroads where Erykah Badu, PJ Harvey and Feist meet. Songs about coming out, moving up and not being kept down, Amaroun creates a truly unique form of kaleidoscopic pop music for the 21st century. Emerging from the same tight knit community as La Salami, Francobollo and Denai Moore, and with support from Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Hawkins on BBC 6 Music, this year is Amaroun’s for the taking.