NL premiere

Nine-piece folk group Shovel Dance Collective gift their audience with many wondrous things: listen to the instruments drone; hear how water trickles under the songs; notice how the forgotten and blunted edges around regional histories – and regional accents – are whetted by harrowing harmony and thoughtful tune. Their recent album, The Water Is The Shovel Of The Shore (2022), explores the relationships in folksong between a people and the waters that surround them – lakes, rivers, wharfs and all. Reels for banjos are nestled among the bustle of whatever may pass the field-recorder’s microphone. Building perhaps not a musique concrète (concrete) but rather a musique boue (mud), the leaky inherited songs and field recordings of the band’s recent album have a humble air. Vocalist and guitarist of the band Mataio Austin Dean spoke to The Quietus about the project and its ties to folk traditions: “In staying true to [folk music’s] origins, as the music of ordinary working class people through history, that’s where the interesting experimentation happens.” Herein lies the strength of Shovel Dance Collective’s music. In a generous way, they channel the joy and sadness that is held in songs deigned singable by generations because of the power of their simple truths. The distance between different times can sometimes be but a melody’s length.

*This is a seated concert