A trip to Bristol Beacon on Wednesday 2nd September at 7.30 to hear the Spell Songs.
Conceived and commissioned by Folk by the Oak festival, Spell Songs is a musical evolution of both The Lost Words & The Lost Spells, books by acclaimed author Robert Macfarlane and award-winning illustrator Jackie Morris; creating a listening experience that intersects music, literature, language and art, as a call to reawaken our love of the wild. A third studio album ‘In Thin Air‘ is being released in September 2026, this time inspired by The Book of Birds: Jackie and Robert’s latest collaboration.
The Spell Songs ensemble features the multifaceted talents and collaborative genius of Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter and Jim Molyneux — all renowned musicians in their own right. Together, their music blends a diverse array of sounds from instruments like the kora, electroharp, cello, Indian harmonium and more, which are gorgeously layered with musical and linguistic influences spanning from Orkney to Senegal.
This is a slight departure from the purely classical that is our usual fare, but neither is it pure folk. It is however inspiring and mesmerising and incorporates themes that I think might appeal to U3A members as well as live art being created on stage. I have seen the live performances of the 2 previous albums and they were received with great acclaim and standing ovations. They are coming to Bristol as part of a national tour that includes large prestigious venues all around the country. Folk by the Oak, under whose aegis the projects were so inspired by MacFarlane’s writing and poetry that they brought together this group of international musicians to bring these to life through music.
The previous tours were a sell-out and some of you may have been lucky enough to catch the last tour when it went to the Hay Festival. I can vouch for the fact that this gentle evocation of nature through song is a delight. The Hay International Literary Festival has described the Spell Songs concert as featuring “the art, the music, the sheer, ravishing beauty of the language…” and noted it as “one of the greatest concerts we’ve ever had at Hay”
The tickets are about £35 and so it would be a more expensive trip – probably £50 – £60.
