Iona Lane & Swinging on Birches - The Attic

7:30 - Doors

8:00 - Iona Lane

8:45 - Break

9:15 - Swinging on Birches

Swinging on Birches is an exciting new trio consisting of Heather Cartwright(singer/guitarist), Madeleine Stewart (fiddle player), and Juliette Lemoine (cellist). The band weave songs, tunes and harmonies across instruments, creating lush, intricate pieces. Their music is drawn from their shared love of Scottish traditional music, though each musician brings her own interpretation from different musical backgrounds. Juliette plays trad/jazz fusion in her own band and studied classical music, Heather sings her own songs as well as traditional ones and plays fingerstyle guitar and folk music, and Madeleine plays in a trad/classical string quartet and has been playing traditional fiddle music since childhood. Each of the trio has been making her mark on the UK music scene individually, and now they are joining forces to form Swinging on Birches.

Swilkie, the new album from Highlands-based songwriter Iona Lane, weaves ecology, conservation, islands and folklore into poetic songs and contemplative melodies. Written during three residencies on the Isle of Eigg, Isle of Mull and Sanday in Orkney, sense of place and landscape are at the core of these songs. From basking sharks to lighthouses, lichen to vanishing islands, curlews to tree planting; the album was recorded in a boathouse on the West Coast of Scotland and the eager listener may even hear the lapping sound of the tide murmuring through the album. Iona's connection to places by the sea is translated through these songs with evolving vocal melodies, subtle guitar and droning shruti box.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Attic, 3 Sheaf Street, Leeds, United Kingdom