IMPORTANT NOTICE: This event will be available to watch on Sat 13 Feb as a live performance only. The event will not be available on demand. In order to be able to watch the show in its entirety, please ensure that you book your ticket well before 8pm and your browser page is up in time for the start. Latecomers will not be able to watch the show from the beginning. For information on how to use KPlayer please refer to our guide or see the KPlayer FAQ.
Sam Lee – award-winning inventive singer, folksong collector, conservationist and founder/director of The Nest Collective – joins forces with Chris Watson (pre-eminent sound recordist and former Kings Place artist in residence) for this special online show. Performing in response to and collaboration with Chris’ recordings, Sam alongside pianist James Keay and percussionist Saul Eisenberg weave within these soundscapes a folksong and nature inspired song journey. With Chris’ evocative and detailed capturings of native British birds and acoustically unique landscapes this ‘slow radio-esque’ immersive piece will lead listeners’s ears into the nest and upwards into the high canopies of some exquisite sound worlds. Meanwhile Sam’s ensemble will transform these habitats through their pairings with the ancient ethereal folksongs that have captured the symbolism and characters of these species throughout history. This live commission is the uniting of two devoted nature lovers who have sought, through their recordings and creativity, to tell the story of our natural world and reveal the majestic artistry of our fellow species. This stripped back textural performance will offer never heard before sounds and songs, excavated from both Chris and Sam’s extensive archives. Raptors unraveled, feathers unruffled, Nature unwrapped!
Due to COVID travel restrictions, Chris Watson will be joining the ensemble virtually, live from his home in Northumberland.
Sam plays a unique role in the British music scene. As well as being a folksong collector and singer, he is founder/director of The Nest Collective, an organisation who’ve helped shake up the music scene and injected life back into the folk, trad. and world acoustic scenes.
With his critically acclaimed new album, Old Wow, he takes the listener on a truly compelling and emotional journey that takes his work to yet another level. His first release, ‘Ground Of Its Own’ in 2012, was short-listed for a Mercury Music Prize. Sam’s 2015 album The Fade In Time broke further ground with ‘Lovely Molly’ winning a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track. He also won Artist of the Year at the 2016 Songlines Magazine Awards. Sam wrote and performed the lead song for Guy Ritchie’s Hollywood film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Sam is a committed environmental campaigner whose work includes the annual sell-out ‘Singing With Nightingales’ helping to highlight the threat to these and other endangered species. In 2019, Sam was musical director for the RSPB campaign ‘Let Nature Sing’, which resulted in 3 minutes of bird song entering the Top 20 UK music charts. Sam is a founding member of Music Declares Emergency and is closely involved with Extinction Rebellion. His debut book The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird issue to be released in February 2021 on Cornerstone/Penguin Random House.
Please note, this is the rescheduled date for the event on 18 Dec, and this page is for tickets to watch a live stream of this event online.