I am in love with music. I have played & sung since I was 6. I am so grateful for music. My songs are an expression of that love & are a chance for me to express my passion for folklore & magic in the way I can best. Every month I write, perform, record & mix a song on a folkloric or magical subject. This month I wrote a song on the subject of card divination, cartomancy.

I created the track using lithophone samples randomly loaded into the sampler to create an atonal yet regular motif, over this I overlaid some acoustic guitar, electric bass & layers of synthesizers before spending a day programming drum machine & drum samples. I wrote the topline melody next & then lyrics fell out of me inspired by my researches into Tarot & 52 card cartomancy. (I will be putting out a podcast on the history of the Tarot next week) My friend, Harriet Webb, came over & sang backing vocals & was inspired to record some harp. Harriet is incredibly talented.

My artistic method is a mix of craft process, untethered creativity somewhat akin to automatic writing & focussed writing to ensure that I have hit the standard I have set myself.

Some people keep diaries, these songs I write are my expression of where I am right now.

Other news this week; I am delighted to have found a venue to give live folklore talks in. It’s called The Electric Elephant Cafe & is close to Kennington & Elephant & Castle tube stations & is just off the Walworth Road in South East London. The South East London Folklore Society is a monthly meeting which I have been running for over 10 years & has been running for about 15 years before that. On Thursday December 9th I will be talking & singing about Baba Yaga, the Russian witch of the forest. The lore of Baba Yaga is fascinating & this talk is going to be very interesting. I will be making an online slideshow about it & running an online event about it the following week.

This is what my folklore slideshows are like. This one is about Vampire Lore.

& here is a song about Vampires.

Cheers