Brighten The Corners Presents folk nine-piece Shovel Dance Collective at The Church on Sunday 22nd March. Support comes from folk singer-songwriter Muco.
Early Doors is a new series of intimate events with the venue opening earlier and the event finishing earlier.
“Hammered dulcimer curlicues, entwined singing voices, trombone echoing across the gentle roar of the Thames—with close attention, all of it has the capacity to make your hair stand on end’” – Pitchfork
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Time: 4pm - 7.30pm
Venue: The Church, Ipswich
Tickets: £15+bf
Supports: tbcAge Restrictions: 14+ (14- 17s must be accompanied by an adult)
There is step-free access into the venue and the bar / accessible toilet / venue are all on one floor. For further information, please email info@brightenthecorners.co.uk so we can make your visit as comfortable as possible.
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Shovel Dance Collective are a group of nine musicians united by a passion for the beauty, force, and political charge of the traditional musics of Britain, Ireland and beyond. They are committed to Folk music not as an archaeological artifact to be unearthed, but as a living communal activity - inviting and generous to those it speaks to. They arrange the source material into a kind of musique boue (mud music), simultaneously traditional and experimental they engage a deep, cross-temporal synthesis of free improvisation, tape manipulation and field recordings. Their music appears as a patchwork as pieces are stitched together, rearranged and recontextualised. The yarn is threaded with their sense of aesthetic innovation, and with a deep sense of the ways in which traditional music holds the voices of the oppressed and those who, by their labour, create the wealth of the world.
They have performed sold out shows across the UK, with headline concerts at venues such as Cafe OTO, Kings Place and Cecil Sharp House. The collective have appeared at many major festivals: Glastonbury, Roskilde, SXSW, Rewire, Green Man, End of the Road, Sidmouth Folk Festival, Supernormal and Supersonic festivals among others. Publications such as The Wire, Loud and Quiet, NME, Financial Times and The Times have heralded their live performances across the years. Their albums ‘The Shovel Dance’ and ‘The Water is the Shovel of the Shore’ have been championed by The Wire, MOJO, Uncut, KLOF, Songlines et al. and both were named albums of the year by The Quietus.
Their second album ‘The Shovel Dance’ was released in October 2024 by American Dreams Records.
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Muco is a singer, songwriter and composer of British-Burundian heritage whose music is shaped by a love of language and storytelling. He specialises in reimagining medieval folk songs and poetry in Middle and Old English, alongside original songs with lyrics inspired by myth and folklore. His latest projects, 'Summer Crossing' and ‘Book of Voices’, blend influences from his dual heritage, pairing Middle-English lyrics with the music of the ‘Inanga’ (a zither from Burundi/Rwanda). Muco crafts performances which honour historical and folk traditions while resonating with modern audiences, offering an evocative and transportive blend of past and present.