Last month, Lily Konigsberg announced her debut solo LP Lily We Need To Talk Now (which will be out October 29th on Wharf Cat).
Following her well-received EP from 2020, It's Just Like All The Clouds, (Pitchfork described it as a collection of left-field pop that sits "at the center of a Venn diagram containing haunted dolls, Arthur Russell, and Ariana Grande" in a Pitchfork Rising feature), and a compilation of her early solo recordings culled mostly from Bandcamp and Soundcloud releases entitled The Best of Lily Konigsberg.
Recorded (like the rest of the album) with producer Nate Amos, whose project Water From Your Eyes recently released their critically-acclaimed LP Structure, "Sweat Forever" departs from the album's guitar-based first single, instead showcasing Konigsberg in a more electronic environment in something closer to her pure pop mode, bringing her unique perspective and melodic sensibility to a song about a moment of transition.
"'Sweat Forever' was the first song successfully recorded for the album," Konigsberg explains. "It's mostly about the bad part of going through a huge change in your life and the confusion surrounding that. But now I'm in the good part, so there's something to celebrate. Sweat on brother!"
When you’ve been a professional musician for over thirty years, you can accumulate a large trunk of songs. The tucked-away tunes that Ireland-born / Los Angeles residing Bren Holmes shares on his solo debut, Everything You Never Wanted, reveal impressive singer/songwriter talents that never got fully displayed during his lengthy tenure as bassist with the Young Dubliners. While old Young Dub fans will connect with Celtic music flourishes that course through this album, they – and all listeners – also will be easily drawn into the spirited rootsy sound that fills Everything You Never Wanted, which arrives September 17, 2021 on his own Bren Holmes Productions label.
The Dublin native and long-time L.A. resident cuts across a range of genres on Everything You Never Wanted. "I don't set out to write a particular song or music," Holmes shares. "Whatever comes out, I just go with it.” Guided by a lovely lap steel guitar, the opening track, and first single, “Sweet Talkin’ Angel” leads listeners into Americana territory, while the delightful roots pop of “You Say” and “Take It All Away” suggest a roughed-up Crowded House. Holmes follows the hooky charmer “Can’t Stop Thinkin’” by taking a darker turn with the brooding rocker, “No Return,” and he mines a spare, bluesy vein - similar to the Stones’ in “Country Honk” mode - on “Love On Your Side – LC Blues.”
While Holmes states that “there’s no particular theme to the record,” he admits that this set of emotionally rich songs is “about loss and heartbreak over a long span of time." This theme might be best exemplified on “Ugly.” Featuring a duet between Holmes and former Donnas frontwoman Brett Anderson, the song ponders a “will-you-still-love-when” question in a “roller coaster ride” of a relationship. Surviving a rocky relationship also is a motif in the album’s sole cover, a catchy reworking of “S.O.S.,” which uses mandolin and guitars to remove some of the gloss from ABBA’s original.
Lafayette, Louisiana musician Renée Reed shares the first single "Tonnerre mes chiens" from a new four-song EP titled J’ai rêvé out November 2, 2021. While this song with a French title is sung in English, the EP also includes two French cover songs and a second English-language original.
Renée says this about "Tonnerre mes chiens": "The title of this song is a colloquial phrase in Cajun French which literally translates to 'thunder my dogs' and is used similarly to 'god dammit.' The song is about listening to someone else’s anger while feeling that my own anger is going unheard. "
These songs were recorded during the same four-track album sessions as her stunning self-titled debut album, released earlier this year. That album garnered early praise from tastemakers Gorilla vs. Bear and Gold Flake Paint and a 7.7 Pitchfork review which describes her music as "full of dreamy, odd notes, and a sense of unreality shimmers around her songs."
Lily Konigsberg, a member of the beloved art rock band Palberta, is announcing her solo debut LP. The album arrives after what has been a busy 18 months for Konigsberg, who released her first solo EP on long-time Palberta label Wharf Cat Records (Water From Your Eyes, Dougie Poole) to an extremely positive reception in March of 2020 (Pitchfork described it as a collection of left-field pop that sits "at the center of a Venn diagram containing haunted dolls, Arthur Russell, and Ariana Grande"), before Palberta released their most critically-acclaimed record to date in January of this year ("a gleefully odd record...perfectly Palberta" according to the New York Times), which was followed by the release of a compilation of her early solo recordings culled mostly from Bandcamp and Soundcloud releases.
Her new album is called Lily We Need To Talk Now (out October 29th on Wharf Cat), with the title taken from a text she received from the album's producer Nate Amos of the band Water From Your Eyes, and the announcement is accompanied by the release of the album's first single "That's The Way I Like It".
Though the album is a characteristically eclectic collection of pop songs, recalling in moments the guitar-driven, punk-adjacent feel of her work with Palberta, to things like mid-Aughts Sheryl Crow, and even Cure-inflected post-punk, its buoyant energy is nicely captured by this single. Backed on drums by her Palberta bandmate Nina Ryser with backing vocals from Amos, the track is a burst of perfectly-formed guitar pop with a slight pop punk lean that displays the imaginative and slightly warped melodic turns that Kongisberg has mastered. It holds a deceptive complexity and yet feels as natural as breathing, and its ease only serves to highlight Konigsberg's considerable gifts as a songwriter.
About the mixed emotions that stems from listening to your head while following your heart, Dublin duo Idle Dream’s second single ‘The First Time’ captures a wild abandonment tempered by responsibility.
Prior to Connor McCabe joining the once-solo project, Chris had already written and recorded ‘The First Time’ with producer Ben Haynes. The duo then put the finishing touches on the song together in Dublin’s Soundcaster Studios.
The essence of the song is underpinned with far more anxiety than the melody’s hopeful, uplifting feel would portray. It deals with the ideas of young love in its later stages, inspired by the idea of falling for someone wholly as you could when you were younger, but being faced with the push-backs and complications of responsibility and personal history.
On the verse, Chris affirms ‘I wanna know you when you’re sober’, digging into the ways in which we mask our trepidation and anxiety at the beginning of a burgeoning romance. The crashing guitars are powerfully emotive, driving the force of this feeling to peaks and troughs throughout.
The first offering from a new batch of upcoming singles – and possibly what’s shaping up to be an EP – ‘The First Time’ is out today August 20th.
New York-based singer-songwriter Mae Krell shares their new single “rest stop” and the accompanying lyric video. There is an undeniable emotional rawness to "rest stop." Underscored by layered, lush instrumentation, Mae’s vocals bristle with palpable emotion as they come to terms with the loss of a friendship: “I’ve been much worse than this / am I not yours unless I'm sick? / was I better to be around / when you had to pull me out?”
Mae started to write the new single when their car broke down in the trucking area of a rest stop. They were feeling lost in life, both figuratively and literally. “I was sad and still processing a really painful friend breakup and just overall not in a great place,” Mae says. “In writing ‘rest stop,’ I was learning that sometimes getting healthier and becoming more independent can end in a loss of a relationship. And, as this specific friendship ended, I started to realize that maybe it wasn't as good for me as I thought it was.”
For the accompanying music video, Mae hit the road with visual artist Caro Hallock to revisit the aforementioned rest stop. The video chronicles the journey back to where the song was first conceived through nostalgic and timeless road trip footage.
Following a two-year hiatus, Mae Krell returned in early 2020 ready to embark on a new musical era. With a newfound maturity and understanding, they have perfected their folk-pop sound and introspective lyrical chops. At just 22 years old, Mae exudes a musicality wise beyond their years. Influenced by revered singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Phoebe Bridgers, and Gregory Alan Isakov, their songs are intimate reflections that confront trauma, self-love, and personal truths. Their singles have amassed millions of streams to date, with last year’s singles “wash,” “home,” and “garden,” all individually breaking over 500K streams.
In addition to their artist career, Mae has worn many different hats in the music industry, photographing live music for Rolling Stone and Sony RCA, founding the online music publication Tongue Tied Magazine and, most recently, starting Bitch Mgmt, a multimedia marketing and PR company. With a multitude of career milestones already under their belt, Mae is taking it one day at a time and focusing on writing and recording songs that reach new emotional heights.
Big Little Lions are an award winning duo who were born out of a collaboration that won them a JUNO Award in 2014. Since then they have been cranking out infectious folk pop songs that are jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies that sound like the product of two people working side-by-side instead of living in different countries.
Big Little Lions continue their monthly releases with 'Finally' which is out Thursday August 19th.
"The young people are leading the way with their ability unabashedly speak up about how they feel. Finally is about finding your voice after a long time of feeling held back and the relief that comes with that." - Helen Austin, BLL
Our families are filled with a rich history of people, lives and experiences, that contribute to shaping the people we become. Singer/Songwriter, author, teacher and coach, Maria Pellicano is releasing her single, ‘My Gift of Love ’today Friday 20th August 2021.
The release is a personal exploration of her own Family Constellation.. A therapeutic approach that helps individuals identify patterns of behaviour that are rooted in family origins and to work towards acceptance of the past, to build towards a healthier dynamic. Maria has published an article here that will provide you with more of an understanding of how Family Constellations work.
Maria tells us “In writing ‘My Gift Of Love’, I found a depth in expressing a very personal part of my own family history.. It was only through learning about family constellations that I feel this song came to life.. my hope is that others can hear this song and it sparks a desire for them to discover the depth of their own Family Constellations”
Maria worked with producer, Joshua Hennessy, of Pivotal Music Melbourne, to craft this heartfelt song with the hope that it will inspire listeners to take courage in exploring their own family constellations.
Church Girls is a band that finds comfort in change. Based in Philly, the band's latest single 'Separated' finds revelation in escape while channeling the spoken-word delivery of The Hold Steady and the sheer force of Mannequin Pussy.
"This song is an ode to my twin brother," vocalist Mariel Beaumont (she/her) explains. "It's about realising home was no longer what we thought it was when a family member's battle with alcoholism came to a head. The song is still hopeful in a way since we knew we'd always have a home in each other. He's still my best friend and the first person to hear every song I write."
At the beginning of 2020, Church Girls signed to Anchor Eighty Four Records, a Los Angeles label that had just celebrated a decade in business and carried weighty alumni like The Story So Far and Grayscale. From across the country, out of Philly, came Mariel Beaumont (vox/guitar), Mitchell Layton (guitar/vox), Vince Vullo (bass/vox), and Julien Varnier (drums/vox) with their sophomore LP, The Haunt, that grounded the band in a gritty, chest-pounding sound.
Now, a little over a year later, they've continued to grow with A84's roster of similarly anthemic acts, and while remaining on the label are also announcing their signing to Big Scary Monsters (American Football/Proper./Illuminati Hotties) for UK + Europe.
Lily Konigsberg: singer, instrumentalist, lifelong songwriter. Since her early childhood, the Brooklyn-born-and-based artist has occupied her time with music. “Basically I was born and immediately started wanting to be a rock star,” Konigsberg told Pitchfork in July of last year (she was a 2020 Pitchfork Rising Artist). By the time she won a five-borough battle-of-the-bands contest as a teenager Konigsberg had already been performing solo sets in cafes around her native Park Slope, and in 2013 she would link with fellow Bard classmates Nina Ryser and Ani Ivry-Block to form the egalitarian art-punk outfit Palberta, a beloved DIY scene fixture who have recently come to wider attention on the back of their critically-acclaimed 2021 album Palberta5000.
Since the early days of Palberta Konigsberg has been posting solo material on her personal Bandcamp page. Between various other collaborations and musical projects she has released three official EPs under her own name beginning with 2017's Good Time Now, a milestone split release with Andrea Schiavelli, 2018's 4 Picture Tear, and 2020's It’s Just Like All the Clouds, her first EP on long-time Palberta home Wharf Cat Records, and a release that began t bring broader attention to Konigsberg's solo work. Today, Konigsberg is announcing a new compilation on Wharf Cat entitled The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now, a release that compiles her three EPs alongside unreleased tracks into a remastered (or in some cases mastered for the first time) collection. To announce the release Konigsberg is sharing "Owe Me," an older track she initiall demoed with It's Just Like All The Clouds producer Paco Cathcart, that features keyboards from Matt Norman (Horn Horse) and final production handled by Nate Amos (This is Lorelei, Water From Your Eyes).
This compilation is a musical omnibus—the first widely distributed Lily Konigsberg physical release as well as the first vinyl treatment for both Good Time Now and 4 Picture Tear. The collection loosely parallels the melancholic narrative behind the latter, where a mental break triggered Konigsberg’s depersonalized sense of her past self. Of the 4 Picture Tear EP, Konigsberg says, “I would look at this photo-booth picture I took with Matt [Norman] and cry because I thought I was looking at the person I used to be in that picture and that person was gone.” In retrospect, these three EPs feel like distinctive vignettes of Konigsberg’s progression as a songwriter, each version of her past selves tethered by an invisible thread to the present through musical alliances and fervent introspection.
“Owe Me,” a song Konigsberg never felt fit on any of her previous releases, now serves as an opening curtain call. “Thank you all for coming to my show,” Konigsberg says to an invisible audience’s applause. “If you didn’t know, now you certainly know.” It’s a transportive moment that combines Konigsberg’s patient steps into the underground pop limelight with her exceptional ability to connect with a diverse and talented cohort of creatives.
"I wrote 'Owe Me' in Petaluma on a trip with my friend Matt Norman," says Konigsberg. "I knew immediately that it was one of those bangers that was gonna rock people’s worlds, but after Matt added some essential keyboard licks, it disappeared into the abyss of my computer accompanying roughly 500 other songs still stuck there. When concept of The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now came together with my friend Trip Warner, I knew this should be released. With the help of Nate Amos who enhanced the beat, added the descriptive sounds, and basically just made it sound amazing, it was finally complete. For me, the lyrics to this song aren’t as important as how much collaboration and friendship can transform a banger into a BANGER. I love my friends."
Born Again is a song about the impact that one may leave on another person in ways that have never been felt before. It’s a song about the discovery of true love, the acceptance of these feelings, and the fear and excitement that comes with it. The distance between you and this other person means nothing because even though they are so far, they always feel so close; they’ve naturally become the missing puzzle piece.
These feelings grow deeper each day; like a never ending field of blooming flowers with scents that captivate your mind and take you to a whole new world of discovery. You can’t get enough of what makes them who they are; everything about this person warms your heart and draws you closer to their dreams that you wish you could be a part of.
Born Again underlines the theme of hope in the sense that you begin to fantasize about how life would be like with this person. The ‘impossible’ has suddenly become the ‘new reality’ and there’s no turning back. You feel ‘born again’ because of how they’ve helped you to see the world differently. Life is full of surprises, and this, by far, has been the most beautiful and life changing one for me. It’s true when I say that, “he makes me feel Born Again.”
As we received it from Michael - My name is Michael Masurkevitch (singer-songwriter under the name "Borrowed Thoughts.")
I am an actor and aging-teen-father, who is able to pursue my dreams because I live in my parents' basement (my 14 year old has a room upstairs.) Funny story, not only am I also a Michael, I also also used to be a beekeeper for a few years.
On March 11, I am releasing my first ever single, "Decompress." The song was conceived when I was meditating in an urban woodlot off the DVP in Toronto, and began to cry with the release of how much I had needed time to process my feelings, and began singing to myself through my tears.
The song felt like a gift from the universe, so I found a talented producer to help me turn it into a gift that can be shared.The result is a cathartic baroque-pop ode to taking time for mental health, with a roguish lilt and notes of my Romani heritage.
The song has been described by listeners as "A quarantine anthem" ; "A really sweet reminder to take time to love myself" ; and, "fun and whimsical, but then with this real sincerity and melancholy underneath."
We are delighted to welcome My Name Is Ian back onto our release schedule after an uncharacteristically long development period for their latest album, Fantastic Company, out via Bubblewrap Collective on 4th June 2021.
Fantastic Company will be preceded by lead single, For Love, on 12th March 2021 offering the first taster of the band’s new sound. The album will be available on limited edition heavyweight black vinyl and across all the usual digital streaming and retail platforms.
The band’s standard ‘prolific-and-terrific’ approach, culminating in no less than 18 releases since 2010, has been put to one side, with their latest being written and recorded over two years, with time spent in four different locales (Cardiff’s Rat Trap and King’s Road Studios, the pop-up Snowbird Studios in Riofreddo, Italy and Axe and Trap Studio in Wells). The resultant LP takes a substantive shift from the garage-pop of previous records and leaps double-footed into a charmingly wonky, indie-dance parallel universe where almost anything seems possible.
Placing centrally the multi-layered, pre-programmed beats of in-house production guru, Joseph Coleby, live instrumentation including electric guitar, four different keyboards and synths, smooth funk-soul bass and hand percussion are also liberally sprinkled throughout. Flanking Reginald Foxwell’s ever-incisive lead vocals are over 20 other singers including members of The Burning Hell, Quiet Marauder, HMS Morris and more. The aggregated effect of this production methodology, musicianship, and spirit of sonic adventurism is a warming, texturally deep and irresistibly catchy set of tracks straddling pop, hip-hop and experimental soundscapes.
Fantastic Company will be preceded by lead single, For Love, on 12th March 2021 offering the first taster of the band’s new sound. The album will be available on limited edition heavyweight black vinyl and across all the usual digital streaming and retail platforms.
Mighty Brother share a new video for 'Summer Road' a song that is upbeat and genre spanning, the musicianship is superb. ===Sergeant Buzfuz latest song is entitled 'Theresa McKee' and it's a short, sharp and very catchy track. === The Cradle featuring Lily Konigsberg just released 'One To Many Times' it has a stripped back yet rich musical backdrop that's just right for the vocals on this singer-songwriter piece. ===Kairos 4tet feat: Emilia Martensson have released the beautiful song 'The Body Keeps the Score' the incredible story behind it is included below, the track itself is exquisite.
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Mighty Brother - Summer Road.
New Orleans band, Mighty Brother, has released their music video “Summer Road” - the second installment of their upcoming double album (The Rabbit. The Owl.), releasing on June 29th. The music video follows the band’s 2019 ‘Summer Road Tour’ across the country, from New Orleans to Denver, onward through Chicago and down the East Coast and captures the ‘simple fortunes’ of the open road, juxtaposing the camaraderie and friendships forged with the demands of touring. The music itself captures the band's genre-bending sound of contemporary Folk Americana mixed with upbeat funk elements and instrumentation. “Summer Road” beautifully encapsulates those innumerable hours of reflection one might find gazing out the window on any long drive, the mind caught somewhere between going and finding, and leaving and lost.
Mighty Brother’s upcoming third album, The Rabbit. The Owl., is a prime showcase of the band’s unique musical flair and serves as an introspective look into Mighty Brother’s exploration of sound, concepts, and ideas. Exploring the emergent theme of duality in the band’s writing, many of the songs pose different perspectives to the same questions. Traversing concepts of introversion/extroversion, light/dark, day/night, spontaneity/meticulous calculation, action/reflection, and the colloquial/poetic, Mighty Brother ultimately challenges the listener to simultaneously both reflect on and look introspectively into one’s own conscience to understand the duality of intent and impact.
Musically, The Rabbit. The Owl. poses two different versions of the band with soundscapes balancing between folk/funk and experimental adventures into new sonic territory. The first half, The Rabbit., is the folk/funk influenced half of the double album, exploring familiar classic rock styles with a tip of the hat to St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Avett Brothers, Decemberists, Rosebuds, Bob Dylan, Marcus Fetch, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Fleet Foxes, Beck, and many more. Described as a “fun summer, day-drive album” The Rabbit. showcases the band’s musical roots and ingenuity that has allowed them to evolve. The Owl. is a sonic adventure into new territory exploring the less conventional, boasting subtle arrangement choices, and thoughtfully approaching poetic content. The Owl. is the more cinematic and patient member of the pair nodding to influences like Alabama Shakes, Pink Floyd, Feist, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Alt-J, Radiohead, and Black Keys, among others.
Since writing the last Sergeant Buzfuz album, 2015's "Balloons For Thin Linda", songwriter Joe Murphy has lost both parents, got married, been a victim of a smear campaign (as a whistleblowing union rep), co-founded charity QQF (a theatre company for adults with special needs) and relocated to his native Sheffield. Joe has also continued to co-run Blang, the DIT* label he started in 2005 (including working on the first album from ex-Fall members Brix & The Extricated) and has worked part-time in special needs schools in London and Sheffield to fund the recording of "Fox Pop".
"Balloons For Thin Linda" received positive press but life events got in the way of much live promotion. The band recruited Joss on bass, Stu on slide guitar and Polly on backing vocals and released the "Humble Pie" EP in 2017. The debut album from the new line-up is finally here. It's the seventh Buzfuz album. It's got tunes bursting out all over the place, lyrics from the head, heart and fist and is rich in variety with two-minute pop songs, ballads, post-punk, freakbeat and strands of the band's Celtic DNA.
Opening track ‘There’s Idiots, Then There’s Idiots With Money’ “is about me imagining I'm attending one of those Mansion House dinners where the Chancellor gets summoned to report to the City.” Says Joe. It’s a stomping working class anthem that quickly gets under the skin with intricately woven shuffling guitars and percussion that make way for a psychedelic flute solo. Second track ‘Theresa McKee’ is a refreshing lively blast of pop peppered with mandolin and acoustic guitar, showing off the band’s more folky roots with finesse.
Other album highlights include ‘Who Art In Seven Hills’, a clever and humorous re-work of The Lord’s Prayer replacing names and places with those of Joe’s native Sheffield (a la Ian Dury's Bus Driver's Prayer). The interlude makes way for the jollity off-kilter harmonies of quirky ‘Rare & Racy’, a busker-esque jam about a second hand record/book shop in Sheffield which had to close when the Council, having to obey new Tory Government planning laws, approved the property owner's plans to turn the building into flats.
‘Fill In The Blanks’ and ‘Rear View Mirror’ are other great moments of raw and instantly familiar catchy classic punk on this album which celebrates real lives and real musicianship through the band’s own unique lens. The album, with its Squeeze & Kinks like anti-folk chant singalongs and storytelling is a perfectly crafted antidote to chart pop, Brexit and the current state of the world. It’s fun and meaningful and a constantly surprising delight from this band who are well sewn into the fabric of the UK music scene.
Buzfuz have played three live 6 Music sessions for Marc Riley and Tom Robinson and had lots of radio support from Gideon Coe as well as press acclaim across the board including from the likes of NME who described them as ‘Universally Charming’.
The Cradle (feat: Lily Konigsberg) - One To Many Times.
The Cradle--the solo project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paco Cathcart (Big Neck Police, Eyes of Love, Shimmer)--today announced his upcoming 21-track album, Laughing In My Sleep, will release August 21st, 2020 via NNA Tapes. Along with the announcement, Cathcart has shared the album's lead single, "One Too Many Times," featuring Lily Konigsberg (of Palberta) on backing vocals. “It’s a lament about miscommunication, and the difficulties of being vulnerable and clear with one another,” Cathcart explains, “It’s about feeling desperately apart from the “vanguard,” that is, those who are fearless and true with their language, politically and personally.”
I recorded this album two years ago, Spring 2018, meaning the songs really come out of experiences in 2017 and early ‘18, which was a dense time with some healthy personal upheaval and a lot of traveling. April ’17’s month long Megabus/Greyhound tour was particularly formative, and found me falling in love with the idea that I could do a successful solo tour without a car, and with the act itself of traveling around the States by bus and all that entails (the song “Society of Men” came directly out of a greyhound bus riding experience from that tour).
In September we got pushed out of our house on Prospect Place in Crown Heights where we’d been consistently putting on shows for three years (we called it “Bottom Bell”, and the song by that title on this album is from a voice memo recorded in the living room), and where a ton of music was written, practiced, and/or recorded, specifically every Cradle album from “Basketball is Beautiful” through “Bag of Holding”.
Kairos 4tet feat: Emilia Martensson - The Body Keeps the Score.
Adam Waldmann, saxophonist, composer and Kairos4tet frontman releases his first piece of music in seven years, a deeply moving ode to his grandmother who would have celebrated her 100th birthday this month. A “beacon of love and optimism”, her motto was “tomorrow may be a better day”. Scheduled for release later in the year, Waldmann decided to share the song, and his grandmother’s incredible story, today, saying “in these uncertain times, now feels the right time”.
Accompanied by a beautifully-shot, in-studio video, the folk-inflected jazzy ballad features the pure and intimate voice of Emilia Mårtensson framed beautifully by Waldmann’s delicate sax, which, through the use of electronics creates a droney sound underscoring the songs contemplative mood.
Waldmann, reflects: “On May 26th, my grandmother Rena Young would have turned 100 years old. I often think of her, particularly during challenging periods. I know whatever I may be experiencing cannot possibly compare to what she and many other victims of illness, war, prejudice and displacement had and have to endure.
Fleeing Nazi invaded Poland only to find herself in Stalin occupied Poland, Rena, along with many other refugees, was sent to a work camp in Siberia where she was given the task of making bricks. This perhaps was the beginnings of her becoming a sculptor in later life. After a harrowing few years she was able to leave Siberia with General Anders Army-in-exile after Germany declared war on Russia. This took her on another epic journey through Russia, the Caspian Sea, Persia, Beirut and eventually to a resettlement camp near Brighton where my father spent his first years. He sometimes speaks about the corrugated iron hut they called home.
When Rena passed away in 2017 after a long and full life of caring for others, she had been suffering from dementia for many years. One of the cruellest of illnesses. Despite all the hardships she experienced, Rena remained a beacon of love and optimism, which was best encapsulated in her well-known catchphrase “tomorrow may be a better day”.
Like most of us, I’ve been left heartbroken seeing recent events unfold around the world. The loss of loved ones in devastating numbers and the actions of some governments has been hard to process. Human lives reduced to mere statistics. At the same time, I am deeply inspired and full of gratitude for all the brave people on the front-line saving lives and keeping society functioning. With all that in mind, I’d like to share this song written in Rena’s memory. It was due for release later in the year on a new album but now felt like the right time.
It’s called ‘The Body Keeps the Score’, the title of the brilliant book about trauma by Bessell van der Kolk. I hope this song in some small way can speak to the spirit of communion and unity needed to see us through this time, and that it honours Rena’s story. It is dedicated to her and the many others who weren’t able to say goodbye. May tomorrow be a better day”.
