#572: Natural History Playlist #5: Hedgerow

A lovely song by the progressive rock band: Big Big Train.

The closing track on their 2012 album 'English Electric Part One' which really grew their audience.

Tell me do you know the song of the hedgerow?

I love the repeated refrain at the end of the song, and the brass bands tone...

Song thrush, yellowhammer
Lacewings, ladybirds
Fox earths, rabbit warrens
Badger's sets, partridge nests

Rose hips, haw berries
Hedgerow, dry stone
Dog rose, honeysuckle
Blackbirds, red wing

#399: Natural History Playlist #4: 'Red Tide'

In Samantha's Harvey's Booker Prize winning 'Orbital' in one of many descriptions of the Earth from space, told in the most wonderful descriptive language, she describes the astronauts seeing the impact of humans on the planet.

‘Every swirling neon or red algal bloom in the polluted, warming, overfished Atlantic is crafted in large part by the hand of politics and human choices.'

'Red Tide' is a track from Rush's album 'Presto'. This album came out in 1989, and I bought it on release day of course. The lyrics are fairly clear in their meaning...

I saw the tour for this album as well, complete with giant inflatable rabbits on stage.

Lyrics are by Neil Peart

Music by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee.

Urgent action is needed:

Too late for debate, too bad to ignore
Quiet rebellion leads to open war
Bring a sea-change to the factory floor
As the red tide covers the shore

Now is the time to turn the tide
Now is the time to fight
Let us not go gently
To the endless winter night

Now is the time to make the time
While hope is still in sight
Let us not go gently
To the endless winter night

#344: Jonsi turns to nature...

It's almost exactly 14 years since I went to Latitude festival with the Mission:Explore team. This followed an earlier visit to Glastonbury in the same year.

We were working in the children's area running our missions, entertaining young people amongst the festival goers with our subversive take on the festival and its surroundings. Once we'd finished our shift, we were free to enjoy the music. On the 2nd evening, I headed over to the tent where Jonsi from Sigur Ros was going to be performing that evening. I caught a set from American band Yeasayer who were excellent. I then noticed someone wandering in a familiar tasselled jacket and realised it was Jonsi, and had a brief conversation with him. It was just after the launch of his 'Go' album, which remains one of my favourites.

Later that evening he gave the most amazing performance in this tent, and I was up front as the music unfolded. 

For a taster, catch the track on this film here...

Jonsi's new album was announced recently...

It features a lot of natural sounds such as birdsong...

“Writing this music at a time of manmade global turmoil and unrest for a video game. I imagined First Light as a momentary fantastical, over-the-top, utopian world where everyone and everything lives together in everlasting peace and harmony. Choosing beauty over disorder, hope over fear, our universal divine angel guardians watching over us and connecting us all as one through love, melody, and music.”

Here's one track from the album, which is out at the end of August, and which I'm very much looking forward to:

#338: Natural History Playlist #3: 'Duinne'

The song Duinne by Mari Boine is sung in Sami, the language spoken by the Sami people, the indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The lyrics are about the connection between the land and the people who live on it. It describes the deep connection that the singer has with the land, and how it has shaped her identity. 

She sings about the mountains, the rivers, and the sky, and how they have influenced her life in many ways.

The meaning is explained here.