Lucy Lloyd Barker

It stands to reason that a Lloyd Cole album called Love Story would not have a happy beginning or middle, much less ending. Actually, though, it does start out happy, "Trigger Happy," that is, and later on, Cole is "Happy for You," in which he sings, "If you love him, you should leave me." In between, things get no sunnier, as Cole and his characters drink and despair, but carry on. That determination is very much part of Cole's negative world-view: "Everybody knows this is nowhere," he says, to coin a phrase, "but you've gotta be there." (Except, one supposes, for Lucy, who jumps from the 39th floor in the rollicking "Let's Get Lost.") Typically, Cole couches these sentiments in melodic folk-rock, such that, with the volume low and just following the attractive lilt of his voice, a listener might find this a far more soothing piece of music than it turns out to be on closer examination.

A Dark Murmuration of Words contends with a modern era built on racial and gender inequality, poverty and slavery, environmental exploitation and the climate crisis, finding them all connected by the dark shadow of patriarchy, pursuits of power, and the suppression of history. Referencing Emily Dickinson’s assertion that “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves,” Barker draws connections between the familial, the local, and the global: a mother sings to her unborn child, asking for its forgiveness on Strange Weather, Where Have The Sparrows Gone? looks outside an apartment window and imagines a post-apocalyptic birdless London, and a monument to a Confederate general comes alive for a “how-I-got-away-with-it” confession on Machine. Throughout A Dark Murmuration of Words, all of our choices, our unspoken prejudices, our carelessness, connect us to the whole, but becoming aware and honest on a local, personal scale, can begin to effect change, allow for healing, and tease out beauty from chaos.

Recorded live at Brunel Goods Shed, 15 November 2020. Filmed and broadcast as a livestream by Northern Cowboys, the event brought together the full band that recorded the album A Dark Murmuration of Words in the absence of live touring during the Covid lockdown.

Edwin Barker’s playing is described as “timeless,” “vibrant,” and “compelling,” three descriptors that could not be better suited for his recording of J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 and Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata Op. 108 for solo double bass. Elegantly capturing Bach’s suite in his arrangement for double bass, Barker navigates the challenging and unwieldy passages of the Prelude’s fugue with the same measured and tolerant musicality innate to the immortal tenderness of the Sarabande. Despite a grand leap in time and place, he inspires equal personality — and often spouts of well-placed capriciousness — in Weinberg’s Sonata, honoring the high technical demands of the work while carving out a unique appreciation for Weinberg’s stylistic traditions. BASSO PROFUNDO is a prime example of a master at work, a recording that will surely inspire another extensive list of descriptors risen in Barker’s praise.

Edwin Barker’s playing is described as “timeless,” “vibrant,” and “compelling,” three descriptors that could not be better suited for his recording of J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 and Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata Op. 108 for solo double bass. Elegantly capturing Bach’s suite in his arrangement for double bass, Barker navigates the challenging and unwieldy passages of the Prelude’s fugue with the same measured and tolerant musicality innate to the immortal tenderness of the Sarabande. Despite a grand leap in time and place, he inspires equal personality — and often spouts of well-placed capriciousness — in Weinberg’s Sonata, honoring the high technical demands of the work while carving out a unique appreciation for Weinberg’s stylistic traditions. BASSO PROFUNDO is a prime example of a master at work, a recording that will surely inspire another extensive list of descriptors risen in Barker’s praise.

On her new album, Fragile as Humans - written and recorded as her time living in the UK was coming to a close - Emily Barker turns her lyrical gaze inwards.

On her new album, Fragile as Humans - written and recorded as her time living in the UK was coming to a close - Emily Barker turns her lyrical gaze inwards.