The Water is the Shovel of the Shore

The latest release from nine-piece folk group Shovel Dance Collective, orbiting around the concept of water. Combining on-site documentation of traditional songs, folk tunes and field recordings in long-form sound-collages. The results lie somewhere between folk music, music concrete and acoustic ecology. Released collaboratively by Memorials of Distinction and Double Dare. Tracklist - I: The Bold Fisherman, Thames waters off Greenland Dock, The Weary Whaling Grounds, junkyard work next to Dartford Creek, rigging and reeds at Erith Marina, The Bold Benjamin, waterfowl on the Darent, The Herrings Head, water pump in Ladywell, Waves on the Shore, a Creek on the Llŷn Peninsula II: In Charlestown there Dwelled a Lass, Camera flash on the Deptford foreshore, The Rolling Waves, crashing spring waves by the Cutty Sark, Lovely on the Water, lapping waters by Tower Hill, Pump Organ Bellows being pushed by hand, The River Chess Trickles, Watermans Dance III: Tourists feed gulls outside City Hall, The Bold Fisherman, ferry east from London Bridge, A Fishermans’ Song for Attracting Seals / The Full Rigged Ship, clergy of Southwark Cathedral and St Magnus the Martyr bless the Thames, the organ at St Mark’s Clerkenwell, a fence at North Greenwich sings in the wind, distant cranes at Silvertown, The Wild Goose Shanty, slapping Thames water under a bridge, The Drowned Sailor, crashing waves at Deptford foreshore, Waterfall and Rain on the River Chess, Captain Kidd’s Farewell to the Seas IV: Waters of the River Ravensbourne beside Elverson Road DLR Station, Lowlands, The Cruel Grave, pump organs at Nick’s House, The Grey Cock, Dan wading through Elverson Road DLR Station Tunnel, Ova Canje Water

Laying bare the strangeness of their repertoire while connecting centuries-old songs to modern struggles, the London collective approaches folk song as a living tradition, not a museum piece.