Final Descent x Fanø Free Folk Festival: Alison Cotton (uk) + Emil Palme (dk)

Join us for a drone-filled evening when Final Descent and Fanø Free Folk Festival invite you inside at Valby Kulturhus for a double concert with British Alison Cotton and local Emil Palme.

Alison Cotton's dark and mysterious music is a journey into the darker corners of the mind. Sorrowful loops of voices and viola unite in hypnotic, elongated sound universes that exist somewhere between psychedelic free-folk, goth and doom.

Emil Palme is a composer and guitarist whose practice is rooted in Scandinavian folklore and experimental music. His expanded guitar techniques are further explored on his second solo release, Death by Angel, which this concert celebrates the release of.

Alison Cotton (UK):
Since Alison Cotton made her solo album debut in 2018, she has established herself as one of the great exponents of the new wave of experimental British folk music.

Starting from looped, chanting vocals and mournful violas, Cotton builds enigmatic and otherworldly soundscapes, where the dark, timeless spirit of folk music floats between a multitude of references – from psychedelic neo-folk and goth-rock to high-pitched choral music and crushing doom.

In 2024, Cotton released her sixth solo album, Engelchen – a concept album that tells the true story of sisters Ida and Louise Cook from Sunderland in Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s. Through the international networks they built through their passion for opera, they helped a number of Jews escape from Germany and Poland in the years leading up to World War II. The people they saved affectionately referred to them as Engelchen, and their story is a tale of remarkable courage and humanity.

https://alisoncotton-uk.bandcamp.com/music

Emil Palme (DK) :

Death by angel is Emil Palme's second solo album. The work is a "doom requiem" that illustrates the path from life to the afterlife. The music is inspired by ancient mythology, where the angel of death guides our soul through the unknown. Each movement in the work is a passage, that represents the inevitable journey all living beings must take.

Stones are strung like bows against the strings of the electric guitar, which in chanting and plaintive patterns produces a dystopian and ceremonial primordial sound that lies on the border between composition and Improvisation is used to unfold the music.

There is a kind of primal power and a vital simplicity in the expression, which can be compared to certain of the nooks and crannies of Morton Feldman or the new Malone/O'Malley coalition.

Death by angel is released on the new Danish label Vasen, and is the successor to the debut album Ripen from 2023.

https://firstterracerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ripen

Read more at finaldescent.org

Dansk

Alison Cotton (UK):
Siden Alison Cotton albumdebuterede som solist i 2018, har hun markeret sig som en af tidens store eksponenter for den nye bølge af eksperimenterende britisk folkemusik.

Med udgangspunkt i loopet, messende vokal og sørgmodige violaer opbygger Cotton gådefulde og andetverdslige lydlandskaber, hvor folkemusikkens mørke, tidløse ånd svæver mellem et væld af referencer – fra psykedelisk neo-folk og goth-rock til højstemt kormusik og knusende doom.

I 2024 udgav Cotton sit sjette soloalbum, Engelchen – et konceptalbum, der skildrer den sande historie om søstrene Ida og Louise Cook fra Sunderland i 1930’ernes nazibesatte Europa. Gennem de internationale netværk, de opbyggede via deres passion for opera, hjalp de en række jøder med at flygte fra Tyskland og Polen i årene op til Anden Verdenskrig. De mennesker, de reddede, omtalte dem kærligt som Engelchen, og deres historie er en beretning om bemærkelsesværdigt mod og medmenneskelighed.
https://alisoncotton-uk.bandcamp.com/music

Emil Palme (DK):
Death by angel er Emil Palme’s andet soloalbum. Værket er et "doom rekviem", der illustrerer vejen fra livet til efterlivet. Musikken er inspireret af gammel mytologi, hvor dødens engel guider vores sjæl igennem det ukendte. Hver sats i værket er en passage, der repræsentere den uundgåelige rejse alle levende væsener må tage.

Sten stryges som buer mod elguitarens strenge, der i messende og klagende mønstre frembringer en dystopisk og ceremoniel urlyd, der i grænsen mellem komposition og improvisation bruges til at udfolde musikken.

Der findes en slags urkraft og en vital enkelhed i udtrykket, som kan sammenlignes med visse af afkroge af Morton Feldman eller den nye Malone/O'Malley-koalition.

Death by angel udgives på det nye danske label Vasen, og er efterfølgeren på debutalbummet Ripen fra 2023.
https://firstterracerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ripen

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