Working for Zeus Salt House
Album info
Album-Release:
2021
HRA-Release:
23.06.2022
Album including Album cover
- 1 Working for Zeus 04:03
- 2 Under the Same Moon 03:25
- 3 The Day We Made a Wood 03:30
- 4 Wood of Dreams 04:26
- 5 Sawdust 03:21
Info for Working for Zeus
Separated by the North Sea during the pandemic, as a band we were greatly missing the thing we love most - creating music in a room together. In the depths of winter we decided to try writing new songs together on zoom. It came with it's challenges and distractions -Ewan and Lauren grappling with mediocre broadband in the rural Highlands, Jenny disappearing off camera when she spotted orca out her window in Shetland. But most of all it kept us connected. Still unable to travel far in the spring, we sent our songs on the journey we couldn't physically - to musicians whose work we greatly admire. Their magic and the mixes of Andy Bell brought these songs to life; songs born out of strange days, a long winter, but ultimately from a complete necessity to create.
"A gentle lulling delight" (The Guardian)
Salt House are:
Ewan MacPherson, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, banjo
Jenny Sturgeon, vocals, guitar, keys, harmonium
Lauren MacColl, fiddle, viola, glockenspiel, vocals
Guests:
Maija Kauhanen, kantele (Track 1)
Dean Honer, synths (Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5)
Cahalen Morrison, 5-string banjo, vocals (Track 3)
Petter Frost Fadnes, saxophone (Track 4)
Olav Luksengård Mjelva, hardanger fiddle (Track 5)
Jenny Sturgeon
is a singer-songwriter "who brings together the old and new with a rare skill" (R2 Magazine). Jenny's music is rich with imagery and her songs are bound together by common threads of folklore, nature and the connection people have with the wild.
Sturgeon’s songcraft is at the centre of her engaging and honest performance, with accompaniment on guitar, harmonium and dulcimer she has been described as “a wonderful singer who can change the atmosphere in the room with her affecting delivery” (Boo Hewerdine). Her album 'The Living Mountain' was nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year awards 2021 and in 2020 she won Best Acoustic at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards. In 2018 she was nominated as Composer Of The Year in the Scots Trad Music Awards.
Jenny is currently touring audio-visual project
'The Living Mountain' - a collection of songs and films inspired by Nan Shepherd's book of the same name. Supported by Creative Scotland and Help Musicians.
Musical collaborations include writing and performing in the critically acclaimed alt-folk band Salt House and in the bird and migration inspired project, Northern Flyway; a Creative Scotland and PRS Foundation funded audio-visual project that Jenny co-wrote with Inge Thomson - described as "like watching a David Attenborough documentary but with awesome music!”.
Jenny’s music has been played on BBC Radio Scotland, Radio 3, Radio 6 Music, Radio 2, and Radio Nan Gaidheal - including being featured as artist of the week, live sessions for Travelling Folk and BBC Radio 3 and being on BBC Radio 4 Front Row. Jenny's release 'The Wren and The Salt Air' - a commission for The National Trust of Scotland - featured on national STV news. Her song ‘Charmer’ was featured at number 9 of The Herald’s best 100 songs of 2018.
Ewan MacPherson
lived in Edinburgh for 14 years and spent a lot of time playing music in one of Bert’s old haunts Sandy Bells pub. He also worked for Stoneyport Associates which booked Bert’s Scottish gigs and so was regularly in touch with Loren, Bert’s wife, organising publicity and promotional materials. Ewan plays in a band called Salt House, which is influenced by Bert’s music including Pentangle.
This album contains no booklet.