BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer Of The Year 2018, Karine Polwart is a multi-award-winning Scottish songwriter and musician, as well as theatre-maker, storyteller, spoken-word performer and published essayist. Her songs combine folk influences and myth with themes as diverse as Donald Trump’s corporate megalomania, Charles Darwin’s family life and the complexities of modern parenthood. She sings traditional songs too and writes to commission for theatre, animation and thematic collaborative projects. Karine is seven-times winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including three times for Best Original Song.
News
BBC RADIO 2 BEST ORIGINAL TRACK | I BURN BUT I AM NOT CONSUMED
We are all delighted to reveal that Karine's (mostly) spoken-word poem I Burn But I am Not Consumed (with music by herself and brother Steven) from Laws Of Motion was chosen as Best Original Track 2019 at the BBC Radio…
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SCOTTISH SONGBOOK REVIEWS
Some lovely reviews have started to come in for Scottish Songbook which is released on Friday August 2nd!!
OBSERVER ★★★★ : “A personal testimony from Caledonia’s reigning folk queen”
MOJO ★★★★ : “Heart-stopping...Affecting…Beguiling”
SCOTTISH EXPRESS ★★★★ : “Polwart surprises and…
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SCOTTISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR | Laws of Motion
We are delighted to announce that Karine, Inge and Steven's album LAWS OF MOTION has made the longlist of the SAY AWARD amongst this incredible bunch of albums.
Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert – Here Lies The Body
Aidan O’Rourke…
Next Shows
CELTIC CONNECTIONS | Roaming Roots Revue presents Born To Run: 70th Birthday Tribute to Bruce Springsteen
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The late Scottish humourist, poet, philosopher and surrealist Ivor Cutler’s enduring legacy is celebrated once again in this crème-de-la-crème gathering of Scottish indie, folk, rock and pop talent, launching a new album tribute Return to Y’Hup, jointly masterminded by saxophonist/composer Raymond MacDonald (Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra), Matt Brennan (Citizen Bravo), Malcolm Benzie (eagleowl) and Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit). As introduced on Cutler’s 1959 debut recording, Y’Hup is an imaginary lush, fertile island where its creator claimed citizenship, repopulated here by a host of brilliant Scottish artists including:
Rick Anthony (Phantom Band/Rick Redbeard), Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, Kris Drever, Karine Polwart, ex-Delgado Emma Pollock, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, James Yorkston, Adam Stafford, Duglas Stewart (BMX Bandits), Suse Bear (Tuff Love), avant-pop singer and multi-instrumentalist Kapil Seshasayee, Chris Thomson (The Bathers), Heather Leigh, Sarah Hayes (Admiral Fallow/You Tell Me) and ex-Maple Leaves singer Anna Miles. As well as reworking Ivor Cutler of Y’Hup in its entirety, material includes other related early compositions, alongside favourites from Cutler’s later catalogue.
“Our cleverness has grown prodigiously – but not our wisdom.” Sir Martin Ryle
The Only Light Was Stars – staged exclusively for the Hebridean Dark Skies Festival – is a work-in-progress version of a brand new theatre show developed by Karine Polwart, the follow-up to her widely acclaimed Wind Resistance.
In November 1572, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe observes a “new star” in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It’s not the birth of a new star at all, as it happens, but a death, a supernova explosion. Brahe’s detailed observations revolutionise European understanding of the Earth’s place in the universe. Four centuries later, British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Ryle is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his pioneering work in radio astronomy. Yet Ryle’s last published work before his death a decade later is an anti-nuclear treatise that poses the ethical question: should fundamental science be stopped?
Award-winning songwriter, folk-singer and theatre-maker, Karine Polwart maps a journey that takes in pre-Galilean astronomy, constellation myth, Cold War era jam-making, and the future-proofing challenges of 21st century nuclear waste disposal. In doing so, she wonders: how can we be good ancestors?
Karine will also discuss the ideas behind her new show at 3pm on Saturday 8 February as part of A Day of Creativity and Curiosity.
Every autumn, two and a half thousand pink-footed geese fly from Greenland to winter at Fala Flow, a protected peatbog south-east of Edinburgh. From this windy plateau, writer and singer Karine Polwart surveys the surrounding landscape through history, song, birdlore and personal memoir. Ideas of sanctuary, maternity, goose skeins, Scottish football legend and medieval medicine all take flight, in this compelling combination of story and song.
First produced for the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, Karine Polwart’s exquisite piece of gig theatre has become a favourite with audiences all over the country, winning plaudits, awards and inspiring a record shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year. Wind Resistance returns home by popular demand to enchant yet more audiences and satisfy established fans.
★★★★★ “remarkable and beautiful” The Scotsman
Every autumn, two and a half thousand pink-footed geese fly from Greenland to winter at Fala Flow, a protected peatbog south-east of Edinburgh. From this windy plateau, writer and singer Karine Polwart surveys the surrounding landscape through history, song, birdlore and personal memoir. Ideas of sanctuary, maternity, goose skeins, Scottish football legend and medieval medicine all take flight, in this compelling combination of story and song.
First produced for the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, Karine Polwart’s exquisite piece of gig theatre has become a favourite with audiences all over the country, winning plaudits, awards and inspiring a record shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year. Wind Resistance returns home by popular demand to enchant yet more audiences and satisfy established fans.
★★★★★ “remarkable and beautiful” The Scotsman