By Lloyd Wakeling, Rock At Night Manchester
Review: Karine Polwart’s ‘Laws Of Motion’
It’s always difficult to mix music with anything that doesn’t rhyme with dove these days and storytelling can sometimes feel like a long lost friend that appears only once in a while to prod and rekindle our interest in the world, but listening to the poetic symbolism and reality of a beautifully written song will always have a place at my table. Karine Polwart and her single ‘Laws of motion’ invoke feelings, feelings of despair, of helplessness but ultimately of anger. She is only telling us how it is with her lyrical drama, but how it is, moved me, slapped me and kicked me all at the same time. It is this reality that must be heard and songs like this that must be listened to for us to change the very nature of our future and our right to use the words, compassion and hope. Simply put, storytelling is an art and a story well told will rise above all others and rightfully so, this is one.
Laws of Motion is the latest in an evolving series of collaborative projects across which Polwart has combined music & storytelling with politics & environmental-societal issues. Karine wrote A Pocket Of Wind Resistance (a Songlines & BBC Radio 3 Late Junction Album Of The Year) as a musical companion to her acclaimed theatre debut Wind Resistance, now published via Faber & Faber and selected by Robert McFarlane as a Guardian Book of 2017. The production, which debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival with a residency at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, was written, musically directed and performed by Polwart, winning her the Best Music and Sound Award at the 2017 CATS. Alongside three other nominations, it also placed Polwart on the shortlist for the Best Actor ‘Scottish Oscar’ in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards.
https://karinepolwart.lnk.to/lawsofmotion
UK Tour Dates
17 October LONDON Cadogan Hall
18 October PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
19 October PONTARDAWE Arts Centre
20 October MANCHESTER Royal Northern College Of Music
21 October EXETER Phoenix
22 October BRIGHTON Komedia
23 October CAMBRIDGE Junction
24 October LEEDS City Varieties
31 October SHREWSBURY Walker Theatre
1 November BRISTOL St Georges
2 November BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
3 November KENDALL Brewery Arts Centre
4 November GATESHEAD Sage
Tickets via my ticket.co.uk and karinepolwart.com
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- Album Review: The Sherlock’s ‘Under Your Sky’ - October 20, 2019
- Album Review: The Faim – State of Mind - October 5, 2019
