performing on the night (doors 7pm) will be judy dyble, sand snowman, the use Of ashes and the sleep of reason.
judy dyble, the legendary and reclusive former fairport convention and trader horne singer, has re-emerged with the most powerful and personal album of her 41 year career. co-produced and co-written by no-man's tim bowness and cromer museum's alistair murphy and described by the bbc as 'a sophisticated triumph', talking with strangers is a rich combination of seductive melodies, cinematic arrangements and poignant autobiographical reflections that references aspects of judy's distinguished folk prog rock past, while forging a wholly contemporary identity that draws on judy's personal experiences over the last two decades and her renewed enthusiasm for making music. judy will be performing a rare one off london show at the tonefloat records label night in to celebrate the album's re-release on vinyl. special guest tim bowness will be joining judy on stage to perform songs from talking with strangers as well as songs from her new album.
last year's the world’s not worth it saw sand snowman's gavan kearney working with a handpicked cast of collaborators - including long-time muse moonswift, porcupine tree’s steven wilson, eden house vocalist amandine ferrari and use of ashes guitarist maarten scherrenburg (on drums) - to create a blissful world of unconventional, yet instantly beguiling compositions. whilst still working within a by now familiar territory delineated by folk, ambient and progressive rock at a chambermusical volume, elements from the world of classical music are featuring more prominently than ever, taking the project into a new direction. sand snowman will make a rare live appearance during the first london tonefloat label night.
over the past few years, alongside their own solo projects, dirk serries (microphonics, fear falls burning, vidnaobmana) and jon attwood (yellow6) have been slowly working on a trilogy of albums. this trilogy combines their own individual takes on guitar drone and ambience into something with its own character and style. the resulting music sees their guitars blend into slowly shifting soundscapes that take you to a different place and time. each album is a continuation of the previous one but differs on an almost subliminal level, making the listener realise over time that the sleep of reason is a slowly mutating, thematic and specific musical entity.
born in 1979 as mekanik kommando, the band first surfaced in 1980 with a flexidisc included with dutch postpunk magazine 'vinyl'. mekanik kommando all but instantly found themselves in the midst of the ultra movement, signing with emi's wereldrecord imprint and guesting on the cure's pornography tour. soon, however, they would move on to different musical horizons. once they'd completed the transformation to a krautrock and 60s beat infused eerie blend of folk and psychedelia, the band changed their name into the use of ashes with the release of 1988s the castle of fair welcome. since then, new material has been published with increasing infrequency thanks to the formation's scrupulous attention to quality. following in the wake of firetree (1996) and ice67 (2004), the use of ashes returned to the limelight with the hand of tzafkiel, the first episode of their conceptual white nights trilogy - which they would follow up with glowing lights and, in 2012, flake of eternity.
