The RTS winning composer, Hannah Peel, returns to her childhood town on November 1 to perform her new album, Chalk Hill Blue. The album is a collaboration with New Faber poet, Will Burns, dubbed ‘electronic ruralism’.
Chalk Hill Blue combines spoken word and soundscapes inspired by the natural world, and has received five star reviews, hailed as “Audacious, atmospheric, majestic, suffused with powerful melodies” (The Arts Desk).
Hannah spent her youth in Barnsley, active in the brass and folk culture. Over the last year, Hannah has been a replacement DJ on Radio 6 Music for Elbow’s Guy Garvey. She proved so popular she has been given her own show on Radio 3, Night Tracks. Recently, she has contributed a song to the soundtrack of the Channel 4/Netflix series Kiss Me First and was nominated for an Emmy for her score for Games of Thrones: The Last Watch.
Recent performances include the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican in London, but it is Barnsley which still remains a draw for Hannah. Fresh on her return from LA, where she was nominated for an Emmy, Hannah cited Barnsley poet Ian McMillan as an inspiration.
Hannah said: “One of my memories from my early days, Ian McMillan won’t ever remember it, was him coming to our school and reading poetry, it was my first experience of ever hearing it. He’s got an amazing voice and you’re never going to forget that.”
Jason White, Community Engagement Officer at The Civic, said: “Barnsley is famous for its diaspora of talent in the music, entertainment and creative industries, we are delighted to host the incredibly talented Hannah Peel as part of our ten-year anniversary programming.”
Hannah added: “I was approached a while ago by The Civic to do something for their ten-year anniversary and I said, ‘If you just wait, I think I’ve got something which will really resonate’, because although Chalk Hill Blue is actually about Will’s experience in one town, the town that resonated for me was Barnsley. There’s something resonant about the subject matter that I feel will suit Barnsley really well.”
Hannah Peel and Will Burns play at The Civic, Barnsley on Friday November 1. www.barnsleycivic. co.uk
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CHALK HILL BLUE LIVE
1 Nov - The Civic, Barnsley
Chalk Hill Blue (released by Rivertones earlier year) is the first album that Burns and Peel have worked on together: a record of electronic ruralism channeling lives threaded through the chalk landscapes of Southern England.
Listen to the remix here, released ahead of their final Chalk Hill Blues dates:
https://soundcloud.com/heavenlyrecordings/sets/will-burns-hannah-peel-moth/s-pLlBg
Burns is poet-in-residence for arts-meets-nature-uptown phenomenon Caught by the River, and was a Faber New Poet in 2014. Throughout 2019 he has been working on a major commission for Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture 2019, creating a series of work inspired by Epping Forest for The People’s Forest season.
Peel’s ‘cosmic colliery’ electronica has explored a diverse range of inner and outer landscapes: refracting the science of both the human brain and outer space through analogue synthesisers and community brass bands on her 2017 album, Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia. Her Emmy nominated soundtrack to 2019’s Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch is available now digitally: awal.lnk.to/9QCILnnlWe
Listen to ‘Moth Book’: https://youtu.be/LYWW4WVgInA
Watch the video for ‘The Night Life’: https://youtu.be/KIHOPWm54iM
Listen to Will Burns and Hannah Peel’s Chalk Hill Blue: http://smarturl.it/WB_HP_CHB
Buy the 7”: https://smarturl.it/wbhp_pale-tussock
Buy the Deluxe vinyl of Chalk Hill Blue: https://caughtbytheriver.greedbag.com/buy/chalk-hill-blue-0/
Modern Nature remix of ‘Moth Book’: https://soundcloud.com/heavenlyrecordings/sets/will-burns-hannah-peel-moth/s-pLlBg
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