Cloudspeakers

If you were selecting three musicians to sensitively refurbish and bring to life old folk songs and poems from dusty bookshelves and vinyl collections, you would probably chose the three that make ... Read more

The Orkney Islands could hardly claim to be the most exciting of musical hubs it’s probably fair to say, but from the mix of passed down traditional folksy ballads and kaleidoscopic 60’... Read more

There are some albums that are discovered like treasure, squirreled away and listened to in private. Then there are others that need to be shared with the world, played loud on the car stereo for ... Read more

There's not much more British than slightly freaky folk music. As if to prove the point, Erland Cooper has mined these pleasant pastures for a debut album of depth and weird beauty.Along with Coope... Read more

A supergroup made up of some not-so-memorable musicians, playing a load of covers? It doesn’t exactly jump out as the formula for debut album of the year, does it? Thankfully, that literal descri... Read more

Fairport Convention and Pentangle used to seek old folk songs to bastardise, and the singer Erland Cooper and the Verve and the Good the Bad & the Queen guitarist Simon Tong have a similar rega... Read more

When did ‘folk’ become synonymous with teary-eyed, beardy, vegan types and not its storytelling origins? E&TC prove it’s less to do with acoustic guitars and meek dispositions and more ab... Read more

Erland and the Carnival comprise folk guitarist and singer Gawain Erland Cooper, keen collaborationist Simon Tong (most recently seen in Albarn’s The Good, The Bad and The Queen, but also previou... Read more

Erland And The Carnival is something of a supergroup. Filling out Orcadian Erland Cooper's band are the considerable talents of Simon Tong (ex-The Verve and The Good, The Bad & The Queen) and David... Read more

Despite nary a bushy beard nor deftly plucked acoustic guitar having impacted on the making of this debut album by Orcadian Erland Cooper, it inconspicuously embraces the folk custom of reworking a... Read more