Performing as Jo Quail, she is a cellist and composer of instrumental music that has played live in countries like the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan (Jo previously wrote and performed in the ambient post-rock group SonVer, releasing two albums and three EPs on Line Out and Disconnected Music). In her live solo performance, Jo plays an electric cello and uses looping to combine atonality with rich orchestration and deft percussive sounds to produce ‘majestic soundscapes’ (Irene and I can vouch for this, we had the pleasure to attend to a superb solo concert of Jo Quail just a couple of years ago).
Jo also writes specially commissioned pieces for music, film and theatre companies. Jo’s previous commissions include Orphic Film (Fade – 2008), Teatro Vivo (The Three Sisters – 2009), and Caesar Productions (String Casear – 2010) Paul Schoolman’s latest film starring Derek Jacobi and Alice Krige.
‘From The Sea’ was her debut solo album, a journey from meditative ambience to dark brooding urgency. Her second solo album, entitled ‘Caldera’, was released yesterday (and presented live on 28th June in The Islington, London) and it aims high: the Cauldron is her metaphorical receptacle for all she sees, hears, feels, imagines, experiences, dreams and forgets.
We have chosen the video of ‘Adder Stone’, extracted from ‘Caldera’, as a representative sample of Jo’s style. Directed by Richard Wakefield of FX Media, it was filmed on location in April 2014 at St Leonard’s Church (London) and Pett Level (East Sussex). We invite you to relax, turn up the volume to a comfortable level (and do not touch it until the song ends) and play the video full-screen.
Bonus.- Do not miss ‘From the Sea to the Desert’, a live DVD recorded in St. Leonard Church (London) in October 2011. It features a full ensemble performance of ‘From The Sea’ plus The Pilbara film by Michael Fletcher: eleven musicians and artists from disciplines including rock and post rock, experimental and classical music joined Jo to perform her album From The Sea in its entirety (with such illustrious participants as Tallulah Rendall, Roger O’Donnell from The Cure or Matt Howden from Sieben).
For further information about Jo Quail:
The series of posts ‘A Singular Soundtrack‘ features music videos of songs that we find inspirational, songs that match the aesthetic sensibility of Decimononic and give shape to its universe.
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JF Alfaya
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