Emily Barker is an award-winning singer-songwriter, best known as the writer and performer of the theme to the BBC’s hugely successful crime drama Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. She has released music as a solo artist as well as with various bands and collaborations including The Red Clay Halo, Frank Turner, Vena Portae, Marry Waterson and Applewood Road (with whom she released a remarkable album of original songs recorded live around a single microphone, dubbed “flawless” by The Sunday Times) and has written for film, including composing the soundtrack for Jake Gavin’s lauded debut feature Hector starring Peter Mullan and Keith Allen.
Emily Barker’s latest album A Dark Murmuration of Words was produced by Greg Freeman and recorded at StudiOwz, a converted chapel in the Welsh countryside. Lyrically probing, by turns both dark and optimistic, Barker searches for meaning through the deafening clamour of fake news and algorithmically filtered conversation, delivering a timely exploration of the grand themes of our age through the lens of what it means to return “home.” Throughout the ten songs that make up the album, Barker draws connections between the familial, the local, and the global: a mother sings to her unborn child, asking for its forgiveness on ‘Strange Weather’; ‘When Stars Cannot Be Found’ explores the humbleness and comfort of the night sky when far away from home. Other highlights include the nostalgic ‘Return Me’, ‘The Woman Who Planted Trees’, the gloriously defiant ‘Machine’ and the effortless album closer ‘Sonogram’
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On its release, A Dark Murmuration of Words hit number 1 on the Official Americana Album chart in the UK and has garnered widespread acclaim.
“irresistibly catchy…an album replete with nooks and crannies, light and shade” The Australian ★★★★★
“an album of spare, striking beauty” Mojo ★★★★
“…a kind of Australian equivalent of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake” UNCUT 8/10
“bold, direct, uncompromising” CLASH
“One of the most literate and probing folk albums of the year. I really love it.” Ann Powers, NPR Music
**Oceanique **
Winners of the 2022 Folk Alliance Australia ‘Youth Artist of the Year’, Oceanique are a twin sister duo from Western Australia. Their songs are filled with ethereal harmonies and peaceful folk energies, with stories of love, loss and the wonder of time.
Sisters Maddy and Jess have been crafting their unique folk music since 2019, releasing numerous singles and vastly touring their home state. Oceanique and their songs have enchanted many with their powerful harmonies, admirable musicianship and undeniable sibling bond.
They made their first national appearances in 2022 and 2023 performing at the Australian Folk Music Awards in Melbourne and Cygnet Folk Festival in Tasmania. The first of many national shows for the duo as they release their debut album ‘Would the Light Hold Me’ in late March and launch its release at National Folk Festival in April 2023.
Oceanique have the magic of being able to evoke images of time and place in their music, as you dig into the texture of their song writing, the images they create with their aural tapestry come into clearer focus.
