Smoke fairies
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The Smoke Fairies are a British singing and guitar duo consisting of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, often supported by guest musicians. The name of the band is derived from the summer fog and is supposed to arouse fairy associations.
They are influenced by American blues and British folk . The high melody of the vocal duo is particularly characteristic, which is underlined by the folk harmonies of the common guitar playing. The Mojo magazine called it "dark, lusty blues-folk".
history
Blamire and Davies know each other from their school in Chichester ( West Sussex ) who visited her in the mid to late 1990s. They sang together in the school choir and played their parents' guitars.
They spent the year 2002 in New Orleans, where they collected musical inspiration. Back in England, they became enthusiastic about British Folk, which they discovered for themselves at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, where they worked as car park attendants. They then spent another year in Vancouver (Canada) before starting to perform in front of an audience in London.
In 2007 they supported Bryan Ferry on his UK tour and in spring 2009 the band The Handsome Family . Eventually they began to record their own singles and an EP that was played on the radio and received recognition from Mojo, NME and the Times. In the fall of 2009 they toured the UK with Richard Hawley and later played at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. In December 2009 Jack White's "Third Man" label released a 7 "single entitled" Gastown / Riversong ".
In the spring of 2010, Blamire and Davies began working on Through Low Light and Trees . Her producer was Head. The album came out on September 6, 2010. They also made guest appearances on Richard Hawley's EP False Lights from the Land .
After the publication of Blood Speaks (2012), Blamire and Davies got into an artistic crisis of meaning that even meant the dissolution of the Smoke Fairies for a short time . At the end of this episode, in which they had "pretty much questioned everything", however, there was a clear realization for both of them that their music together must continue to play a central role in their lives.
Against this background, the simple title Smoke Fairies (2014) for the following album should also be understood as a declaration of intent and a commitment to one another. Songs like We´ve Seen Birds and Hope is Religion are testimony to this emotional realization process. Musically broader than its predecessors, Smoke Fairies is both a new beginning and a continuation of their musical vision.
With Wild Winter (December 2014), Blamire and Davies presented an album that deals with the topic of Christmas very ambiguously and does not want to spread a conventional, festive mood: " We have a love / hate relationship with winter and the Christmas holiday. When it was suggested Smoke Fairies make a Christmas album the last thing we wanted to do was make a classic, jolly, celebratory album that can only be played once a year. [...] It's buzzy and raw and not one tinkling of sleigh bells can be heard. "In fact, they are consistently continuing the style change that they initiated on Smoke Fairies : away from the blues folk of earlier albums, which was characterized by their harmony vocals, to indie pop ( Give And Receive , Wild Winter ) and more edgy Indie rock sounds ( Three Kings , Bad Good ), which still have a very melodic structure.
Discography
Albums
- Darkness Brings the Wonders Home (Year Seven - January 31, 2020)
- Wild Winter (Rough Trade / FullTimeHobby fth223d - December 8, 2014)
- Smoke Fairies (FullTimeHobby (FTH187CD) - 2014)
- Blood Speaks (Cooperative Music / Universal May 25, 2012)
- Through Low Light and Trees (V2 / Cooperative Music - September 6, 2010)
- Strange the Things (Concentrated People (CP002CD) - 2006)
Compilations
- Ghosts - A Compilation of A Sides, B Sides and an EP from the Recent Past - (released in US only - 453 Music) (March 2010) - Special Edition marbled 12 "with 500 black / white split color special addition Record Store Day pressing copies.
Singles and EPs
- Upstairs at United Vol.6 (United Record Pressing 453-1964 - 2013) 12 "Vinyl EP / 45 rpm
- Living with Ghosts / B-Side Troubles 7 "(Music for Heroes Records) (August 2008)
- Frozen Heart EP 7 "- Frozen Heart, Fences, Morning Light, We Had Lost Our Minds, He's Moving On (Music For Heroes Records) (July 2009)
- Sunshine / B-Side: When you Grow Old 7 "(Music for Heroes Records) (October 2009)
- Gastown / River Song 7 "Single Tri-colored Vinyl (150), Texas-Sized 8" Vinyl (Limited Edition) (Third Man Records) (September 2009)
Guest appearances
- Backing vocals on False Lights from the Land EP (June 2010) (Mute Records) by Richard Hawley
swell
- ↑ UK chart history
- ↑ Jim Carroll: Sprites on a skite. In: irishtimes.com. The Irish Times, December 3, 2010, accessed December 3, 2010 .
- ↑ Interview in MusikBlog from April 11, 2014
- ↑ Smoke Fairies on Rough Trade ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
