Beth Orton at O2 Academy, Birmingham

Post

Subscribe

Fri 07 Oct 2022

Singer/songwriter Beth Orton launches her autumn 2022 UK tour at Birmingham's O2 Academy on Friday, October 7. The series of shows, which conclude at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on October 16, will showcase Weather Alive, the 51-year-old's first new album in six years.



Beth reveals that she began work on Weather Alive after buying a used upright piano from a dealer at Camden Market in London for & #8356 ;300.

"Through the writing of these songs and the making of this music, I found my way back to the world around me – a way to reach nature and the people I love and care about. This record is a sensory exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness that I was searching for. Through the resonance of sound and a beaten up old piano I bought in Camden Market while living in a city I had no intention of staying in, I found acceptance and a way of healing.

"This old piano really spoke to me and held an emotional resonance I could explore in a way I wasn't able to on guitar — a depth, or a voice, I'd never worked to before," she enthuses. "For me, the mood and atmosphere were another instrument. They were always consistent."



New single, Fractals, which features jazz poet Alabaster de Plume on saxophone, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and bassist Tom Herbert of The Invisible, was inspired by the 2020 deaths of music producers Andrew Weatherall and Hal Willner, two of Beths's most beloved musical compatriots.

"The track is a beautiful example of the nature of collaboration, where people come in as they are," she says. "You're hearing the first take. I would never have been able to conjure that music without these musicians."



Norfolk-born Beth rose to prominence through her 1990s-era collaborations with William Orbit, Red Snapper and The Chemical Brothers, before striking out on her own with a series of acclaimed, award-winning solo releases, beginning with Trailer Park in 1996, which pioneered a synthesis of electronic and acoustic sounds. Its 1999 follow-up, Central Reservation, also garnered international success. Further albums like the Jim O'Rourke-produced Comfort of Strangers and 2016's largely electronic Kidsticks deepened the breadth of her craft.



Weather Alive is Beth's first self-produced album. Working remotely, she took everything that had been played and spent four months sculpting the raw materials into what became the final record. It was important for her to be at the helm of her own work and, when the time was right, choose collaborators like Tom Skinner and Tom Herbert.

"It wasn't just about proving myself to myself," she says, "but it's true that I've spent a life handing elements of my work over to men in a room before I'm ready and having them reinterpret my perception, add chords to make something else happen and sometimes in the process take the music to a place I had no intention of going. It's subtle the ways that could happen but to be able to hold my own intention throughout has been a powerful experience."

(Photos: Eliot Lee Hazel)

**Beth Orton 2022 UK tour dates:

October 7: O2 Academy 2, Birmingham
October 8: St. Bartholomew's Church, Brighton
October 9: KOKO, London
October 10: Arts Centre, Norwich
October 12: St George's, Bristol
October 13: Classic Grand, Glasgow
October 15: RCMN Concert Hall, Manchester
October 16: Brudenhall Social Club, Leeds **



#bands
#birmingham_city_centre
#central_birmingham
#concerts
#music
#music -venues
#pop_culture
#shows
#west_midlands
#october
!date 07/10/2022 -- 07/10/2022
%wnbirmingham