Amy May Ellis
Wanderland
Sunday 28th May, 7.30pm
Tickets are £8 (+ b/f) in advance (more on the door) and available from See Tickets.
*This is a seated show with all seats unreserved*
Amy May Ellis
‘A soundtrack for anyone looking to reconnect with the wild, a portable countryside retreat for anyone with an open mind, from the busiest city to the most rural spot imaginable.’
For The Rabbits
‘Amy reaches hr arms around the world with a gentle strength that is soothing and inspiring.’
Willy Mason
Raised in a remote dale in the middle of the North York Moors, Amy May Ellis invites you on a journey through the history and mysticism of this wide-open landscape. Now based in Bristol, Amy’s warm and delicate folk-leaning songs are steeped in the culture, scenery, folklore and wildlife of the countryside that surrounded and shaped her as a child.
Her second single for Lost Map Records, out now as part of the PostMap Club postcard subscription service as well as via digital platforms, is ‘Wild Geese’ – a song with circling guitar patterns and soaring vocals gazing skyward at the allegorical magic of flocking birds in flight. Following the release in January of ‘Rain From the East’ (“a gorgeously muted affair” – For The Rabbits), it’s the latest taster of Amy’s mesmerising forthcoming debut album Over Ling and Bell, which is due for release on limited-edition eco-friendly 12” vinyl and digital platforms on May 12, 2023.
Amy will play live around the UK in May, together with her band – see above for a full list of dates.
About ‘Wild Geese’, Amy writes:
“Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem ‘Wild Geese’, and a man called William Lishman, and a flock of geese that flew over my house in Bristol. The day I saw the geese I had opened my window to try and hear them calling but they were too far away. Later, when my dad called from Yorkshire, he told me he had also seen a flock, though they had been so close he said he could have reached out and touched their wings. There is an ancient magic to the way geese retain and pass down their migratory routs. The arrow formation in which they fly adds to this magic a sense they are trying to guide us somehow.”
Brought up singing around the house with her mother, Amy May Ellis was first inspired to start writing songs aged 15 on a ukulele bought for her by her grandad. She began making her mark as a musician through support slots for touring artists including Michael Chapman, Alessi’s Ark, Hiss Golden Messenger, Tiny Ruins, Ryley Walker and Willy Mason at her local music venue The Band Room in Farndale. “Having artists from all over the world come and play in the tin shed at the bottom of the hill was pretty special,” she reflects. Since 2018, with the support of a growing band of friends, collaborators and fans, Amy has released a series of four EPs, each exploring an element – Weathered by Waves, We Got Fire, Where My Garden Lies, and When In The Wind. She has received support from BBC 6 Music, BBC introducing, Uncut Magazine and Rough Trade, and has played headline tours around the UK and Ireland, as well as performed at Brighton’s Great Escape festival.
Inspired by centuries of human habitation on the ancient North York Moors, Over Ling and Bell was written in a secluded farmhouse there, mostly alone but sometimes with friends. It represents the fullest, finest, and most complete manifestation yet of Amy May Ellis’s nourishing nature songs. Opener ‘Rain From the East’ is a song about “feeling unsteady and the weariness that comes with grief”, formed in time with the shoveling of coal under a gathering storm. Shaped by sinister folktales, ‘Aud Mother’ celebrates witches, mothers, and the power of friendship. Set to softly tumbling percussive loops, ‘Miner Farmer’ references Amy’s grandmother and her sister, who would walk from their dale over the hill to the neighbouring valley, carrying their dancing shoes for a night of revelry in the village hall. ‘Maybe We’ll Wake Up’ is a gently unfurling torch song written together with fellow singer-songwriter Uma Bunnag, while the album’s stunning, shimmering, dreamlike closer ‘Mondegreen’ was written with and produced by Sam Griffiths of York indie rock band The Howl and The Hum. Over Ling and Bell is fresh and youthful and yet crafted in a grand folk tradition, interrogating legend and turning the soil in search of meaning, healing and purpose. A scuttle of coal to light the long dark winter nights.
“It’s named after two types of heather that grow on the Moors,” writes Amy, of the story behind Over Ling and Bell. “When I started writing for this album I went for walks with my uncle around the dale and unearthed a whole load of history which rooted itself in the songs. I’d always thought of the Moors as wild, but during that time I started to see how they had been tamed by everyone who had lived on them. From the miners, farmers and peat diggers to the Mesolithic hunters who settled on the hilltops.
“The history of the Moors led me to think about the taming of the wild things and everything we have done as humans to gain a sense of control over our surroundings and our lives. I wondered what we have lost with this taming. A lot of the songs are about illness, an inevitable product of a world where rest is a privilege and crisis is a constant. During the making and recording of the album, I had periods of feeling very lost and paralysingly scared. I found solace in ideas around navigating rather than taming wildness, and became obsessed with maps. I read Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways and dipped a toe into various philosophies. I still feel lost sometimes, but I’ve started finding things to orientate myself with.”
Wanderland
London and Yorkshire based Wanderland began life as the songwriting project of duo Matt Robinson (Snowpoet) and Natalie Wildgoose. After setting up in a remote old mill next to a waterfall in the north of the Yorkshire Dales, the duo wrote and recorded their debut EP ‘Songs, I’ over six months. The introspective and isolated setting became an incredibly generative time. They dubbed the project Wanderland intentionally as it was born out of the exploration of the wilderness.
The two records ‘Songs,I’ and ‘Songs,II’ were both written and recorded in North Yorkshire. Some songs were written only hours before recording, capturing something deep and open-hearted, you can hear the rainy days and the star speckled nights. Collaborators and friends also show up across the EP including guitarist Tara Cunningham (Tenderhost), drummer Dave Hamblett (The Magic Lantern) and bassist’s Max Luthert (Zara McFarlane and Moses Boyd) and Tom Mccredie (Seafarers).
Several Wanderland songs have been played on BBC Radio 1 The Chillest Show and Annie Mac’s Power Down playlist as well as BBC Introducing, BBC 6 and a live session for BBC York, who nominated their release as Record of the Week.
Amy May Ellis
Wanderland
Sunday 28th May, 7.30pm
Tickets are £8 (+ b/f) in advance (more on the door) and available from See Tickets.