Stornoway

It starts with a breathless, brimming affirmation of enduring love and ends with a becalmed reflection on life and loss as dusk draws in. Between these two elemental bookends Stornoway's superb second album pauses to contemplate birth, death, family, sex, nature, joy, pain and the precise location of home. There are Turkish zithers and there are German spoons. It is the sound of one long song of life unfurling. Singer and principal songwriter Brian Briggs describes Tales From Terra Firma as "an album of stories about rites of passage."

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Stornoway lit up 2010 with their thrilling debut Beachcomber's Windowsill, the culmination of a five-year journey which had its starting point in a Freshers week meeting at Oxford University between Briggs and the band's arranger and multi-instrumentalist Jon Ouin. After hooking up with South African born brothers Rob (drums) and Oli Steadman (bass), the band honed their sound and aims, self-releasing a series of EPs before finally signing to 4AD for the release of Beachcomber's Windowsill in May 2010. Hailed from the rooftops for its melodic magnificence and imaginative arrangements, the album reached the Top 15 in the UK and led to tours of Europe, Australia and America, numerous memorable festival appearances and a sold-out show at London's Somerset House. They even found time to collaborate with Kathleen Edwards on a track on her 2012 album Voyageur, produced by Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

On Tales From Terra Firma Stornoway granted themselves permission to cast the net of their imaginations wider than ever. "I think this album is more complicated in some respects, and it feels like it has more substance, more weight," says Ouin. In the time between their debut and Tales From Terra Firma Stornoway have, says Briggs, "grown up." There have been major life changes: marriage, children, new relationships, sudden loss, career crossroads, relocation. If their debut captured the guileless rush of first love contemplated from a teenage bedroom, the follow up frequently describes a deeper, more complex world and more readily acknowledges the shadow as well as the sun.

Apart from Oli, who is occasionally found sitting in on Zulu music and folk sessions near his flat in Shepherd's Bush, all of Stornoway still live in Oxford, where the band HQ remains the garage whose walls were carpeted by hand and filled with outlandish instruments and South African trinkets from Oli and Rob's childhood. A tight-knit group, that is very much a family affair - Brian's brother Adam Briggs often plays with the band live on trumpet and for the recordings contributed with more home made instrumentation in the form of crisp packets and newspaper scrunching - they have relied on their own creative instincts since the very start and aren't about to change now. During the making of Tales From Terra Firma no one outside the band heard the songs before the final mixes. It all adds to the sense of a band intent on writing their own story to their own exacting specifications, oblivious to trends or outside influence. "We never aspire to be anything other than who we are," says Brian. "We've never felt we fitted in with a particular music scene, it's always been about doing our own thing and being ourselves. It is honest music." [Graeme Thomson, January 2013]

Past Shows


May
13
th
2013
7th St Entry
May
13
th
2013
7th St Entry

Stornoway

STORNOWAY
with Horse Thief

More Shows

Jul
14
th
Turf Club

Mountain Grass Unit

Jun
1
st
Fine Line

No Scrubs 90s Dance Party

Nov
23
rd
The Fitzgerald Theater

Dusty Slay

Jul
30
th
Fine Line

PRIVATE EVENT