Sat 22nd March 8pm

  horses brawl

Laura Cannell & Adrian Lever

Dindirin

Horses Brawl have been causing quite a stir with their cutting-edge take on early and traditional music. With a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music show to their credit, the duo have performed widely throughout the UK and received much acclaim for their second album Dindirin.

Horses Brawl is Laura Cannell – Recorders, fiddle and crumhorns & Adrian Lever – Guitar & bowed guitar. With roots firmly in traditional English and early music from Europe, they experiment with their instruments to create contemporary arrangements on guitar, bowed guitar, double barreled recorders, crumhorn and fiddle. Even Radio 3 announcers get excited about it! Dindirin, the song of the nightingale passing messages between two lovers, sets the stage for English, Spanish and Italian music from the 12th to the 19th century.

Listen to Horses Brawl on their website or Myspace page.

Sat 12th April 8pm

  luca luciano

with Bruno d'Ambra

And now for something completely different! Luca Luciano, clarinettist and composer, is a classically trained virtuoso and Professor of Jazz Clarinet at the Leeds College of Music. His concert performance features a refined selection of original compositions and re-arranged jazz classics with piano accompaniment. The music has been inspired by European composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky, with some hints of folk, improvisation and a typical Neapolitan sense of the melody.

Pianist Bruno d'Ambra was born in Naples, and studied piano and composition at the Conservatoire of Naples before moving to London in 2000. He is an established regular on the thriving  London jazz scene, and also works as a producer, arranger and session keyboardist on projects from electronic music to pop. He has collaborated with Luciano on a number of performances over the past four years .

Luca will be introducing his latest CD ‘Clarinet’, and you can sample some of his music on the CJB website or his Myspace page.

Sat 17th May 8pm

  misericordia

Stephen Tyler & Anne Marie Summers with Helen Barber and Terry Mann

Passion, Pilgrimage and Plague

Stephen Tyler & Anne Marie Summers with Helen Barber and Terry Mann
Passion, Pilgrimage and Plague

The fourteenth century was a time of plague, war, and famine.  The old certainties of the feudal order began to crumble. After the Black Death destroyed a third of the population, the world would never be the same again.  In the grip of social upheaval, fourteenth-century Europe produced some true oddities: processions of German Flagellants; a French king who thought he was made of glass; a hysterical dancing mania; a war between two popes . . . surely, this was the end of the world, the Judgement Day.

But this was also a time of increasing musical freedom, inventiveness, and complexity. This emergent musical style was dubbed Ars Nova, ‘The New Art’, by Philippe de Vitry in 1329.

Joined by singer Helen Barber and percussionist Terry Mann, Misericordia resurrect the manic dance music of Northern Italy, popular pilgrimage music from Spain, and the intensely passionate and polyphonic love songs of England and France, using medieval instruments such as hurdy gurdy, bagpipes, gothic harp, citole, recorders and voices in consort.

Listen to Misericordia on their website or Myspace page.

Sat 14th June 8pm

  chris wood

Trespasser

The Irish Times heralded Chris Wood as "the renaissance man of English folk" when on his own R.U.F Records label he released The Lark Descending which included the BBC Folk Award winning song One In A Million in 2005.

Chris Wood is an uncompromising writer whose music reveals his love for the un-official history of the English speaking people. With gentle intelligence he weaves the tradition with his own contemporary parables, his writing has been said to share the same timeless quality as Richard Thompson at his best.

Since the release of The Lark Descending Wood's appeal has gone way beyond English folk music. His spot at last year's WOMAD festival was testament to his widening appeal. He has had musical commissions from BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and Between The Ears, from The Sage Gateshead and has completed work for Arts Council England whilst continuing his writing and lecturing.

Chris's latest CD, Trespasser is loosely concerned with the idea of enclosure and imprisonment - from the enclosures of common land in the agricultural revolution which drove the rural workforce into urban wage-slavery, to the creeping loss of liberty which afflicts English society today.

Sat 12th July 8pm

  dave sealey

With A Little Bit O’Luck

The story of Stanley Holloway - The man, the music, the monologues. Dave switches between being the narrator and the man himself on Stanley’s roller coaster ride to fame, meeting on the way old friends such as Sam Small and Albert Ramsbottom.

The great classic monologues and songs are revisited. “Sam, Pick Oop Tha’ Musket”, “The Lion and Albert” and “Three Ha’pence a Foot” all feature along with “My Word You Do Look Queer”, "Brahn Boots", "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" and from My Fair Lady, “Get Me To The Church On Time” and “With A Little Bit O’Luck”.

Anyone who likes My Fair Lady will love this.

Sat 13th Sept 8pm

  dominic allan & woody woodward

Instrument maker Dominic Allan teams up with multi-instrumentalist Woody Woodward. This is ‘new English piping’, drawn from domestic and continental traditions and influenced by numerous contemporary styles, accompanied by guitar, piano, Appalachian and hammered dulcimer.

Dominic Allan and Woody Woodward have been playing together since 2003, Initially as two thirds of the band “Fiendhandle” they have performed at such diverse events as Music in the church at Aust, Semley Music Festival and Glastonbury Festivals 2005 & 2007. Their repertoire includes traditional music as well as the new compositions.

Listen to Dominic and Woody on their website or Myspace page.

Sat 11th October 8pm

  jon swayne & becky price

Jon Swayne and Becky Price have been playing together for a few years, having discovered a natural rapport in their approach to music. On the one hand they are exploring English music, especially from 17th and 18th century sources, and this forms the core of their concert repertoire and of their recently released CD, Love and a Bottle. On the other they have built up an enthusiastic following in European dance circles, where a large part of their repertoire is made up of their own rich and beguiling compositions.

If you're a Blowzabella fan or an English folkie, this should be right up your street. If you're into European piping,  this is an excellent example. English music was rarely better served.

Hear a little of their music on the Cube Roots CD website.

Sat 1st Nov 8pm

  alva

Vivien Ellis & Giles Lewin

The Bells of Paradise

Songs of sensual love and spiritual devotion, street cries and lullabies, chilling murder ballads and dance-songs for the Virgin Mary – this programme celebrates the richness of English song from 13th century sources, and  folk-songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

ALVA was formed in1997 to explore the links between early European vocal repertoire and surviving folksong traditions; by comparing the two traditions, they bring a fresh approach to early music presentation. The duo have completed a successful Early Music Network tour and performed all over Britain and in the USA. Their concert programmes include songs from medieval and renaissance Europe, folk music from Britain, Europe and the USA, and Jewish early and traditional music. Festival appearances include York, Lincoln, Beverley, Birmingham, Spitalfields and the Lufthansa Festival, London. Their concerts have featured on BBC4, BBC Radio 3's The Early Music Show and Late Junction, meanwhile they have released 3 CDs with Beautiful Jo Records: 'Love Burns in Me', 'The Bells of Paradise' and 'The Dawn Songs' (released as a Vivien Ellis solo album).

Giles Lewin specialises in the traditional music of Europe and the Middle East. He has always preferred informal to formal music making, learning most of his Irish music in the pub and with the band Afterhours. His interest in the Arab influences in Medieval music led him to Cairo, where he studied Arabic violin with Ashraf al Sarki. Giles is a founder member of the medieval ensemble The Dufay Collective and traditional group The Carnival Band. He plays in the award-winning folk band Bellowhead.

Vivien Ellis performs early music with The Dufay Collective and international ensemble Sinfonye. She has toured throughout the UK and Europe, and has made several tours of North and South America, Canada and Australia, appearing in major festivals and  concert series. Vivien has made numerous recordings as a soloist, has featured in many radio broadcasts, TV soundtracks and theatre performances including work with the RSC. She is a community musician for The Spitalfields Festival in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, runs voice workshops and teaches at Dartington Music Summer School.

Sat 13th Dec 7:30pm

  johnny coppin

with Paul Burgess and Mick Dolan

All on a Winter’s Night

- with material from three albums and an anthology, Johnny Coppin, one of England's finest singer/songwriters, presents a rich mix of traditional carols and new songs, together with stories , superstitions and folklore from all over the uk and beyond.

Johnny Coppin made his name in the 70s with the cult folk-rock group Decameron but has worked as a solo performer for many years. Joining him for All on a Winter's Night will be multi-talented musician and fine reader of stories Paul Burgess (of the Old Swan Band) on violin and recorders, and on guitars Mick Dolan, who has worked with Steve Winwood, Dr Hook and Show of Hands.

Contact:

Peter Dobbins
Hiron Cottage
Aust
South Gloucestershire
BS35 4AY
Phone: 01454 632306
Mobile: 07949 836503
E-mail: aust.music@btinternet.com