Projects - Bush Gothic - I FYW I FÔD

We have brought forward the release of our third single, Tra Bo Dau, in solidarity with our friends in Wales. As we emerge from our Melbourne lockdown we send a love song via BBC Radio Cymru The Folk Show on October 28th, to those in Wales who are staying home. Swansea resident Angharad Jenkins sings Welsh vocals on this most poignant of trad songs, given a femfolk treatment by Bush Gothic.

Tra Bo Dau - While There’s Two
Official release Nov 1

Favourites of the UK art-folk scene where they were given a five-star review in BBC Music Magazine, Australian band Bush Gothic take traditional folk music and catapult it into the 21st century.

In spite of the intense disruption of 2020, it is proving to be a year of enormous development for the band, seeing it evolve into an entire production company making music, films and art with international collaborators.

Invited to perform at the Welsh National Eisteddfod - the largest festival of competitive music and poetry in Europe – but unable to attend due to the global pandemic, Bush Gothic collaborated with Welsh composer and fiddler Angharad Jenkins, exploring the stories of Welsh migrants settling in Australia, in partnership with the National Celtic Festival.

A team of ten artists and technicians across two hemispheres and four homes collaboratively composed, recorded and produced new arrangements of old Welsh songs with accompanying film clips: I Fyw I Fôd (To Live And To Be) and Sosbahn Fach, to be released on 20 October via Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Bandcamp.

"This is such an authentic partnership – bringing rich diversity, creativity and passion and importantly a deep connection to culture,” said Una McAlinden, Director National Celtic Festival.

“Just what we need to sustain and inspire us in these times, now and deep into the future."

The Guardian (U.K.) described fiddle-singer and band leader Jenny M. Thomas as an ‘edgy rising folk star’. Together with double bassist Dan Witton, drummer Chris Lewis and The Lonely String Quartet, she brings Australia’s past to a stunning reckoning, skewing preconceptions of its heroes and villains, and bringing new voices into the spotlight. Jenny began her career as a violin soloist in world music after graduating from VCA, and then joined Circus Oz.

“At this moment I feel more Australian than I ever have,” said Jenny. “I escape overseas each year where I feel more accepted, but this year an international festival came to me - and what a wild ride it has been."

“Now, I am a defender of the Australian accent. An avoider of the folk police and a film maker obsessed with my own band whom I have fallen in love with again. Their artistry and their grins over zoom are fulfilling enough, I don’t need to leave anymore.”

Bush Gothic is working on a second collaboration with Swansea-based Angharad Jenkins for the Welsh National Eisteddfod, lovingly tearing apart two more traditional Welsh songs: Tra Bo Dau, a love song & Bwmba, a hate song.

One extols the virtues of faithful love separated by oceans, the other is described by the Museum of Wales as a ‘frolicsome tirade against a worthless wife’. Otherwise known as misogyny.

Worldwide premiere Tra Bo Dau
BBC Radio Cymru - The Folk Hour
28th October 2020

The band is also collaborating on a film clip with award winning visual artist Jacqui Stockdale, Past Carin. Featuring Ma Kelly, Music the stolen horse and Historia (Ned Kelly’s pregnant gun-wielding lover), these two Melbourne artists in lockdown will turn Henry Lawson’s poem into a femfolk mash up of high art and low culture.

With a 5 Star review in BBC Music Magazine and fRoots Album of the Year Runner Up, this daring trio have toured their modern imaginings of traditional Australian songs across the world, including Mona Foma, Rajasthan International Folk Festival (India), Tauranga Arts Festival (NZ), Festival No. 6 (Wales). They have been interviewed and played on major public broadcasters including BBC World on 3, BBC Radio 2, RTE (National Broadcaster of Ireland), Radio New Zealand and ABC Radio National.

I Fyw I Fôd - To Live and To Be
(pronunciation: ee vay-oo ee vawd)

Sosban Fach - Little Saucepan
(pronunciation: sos-bahn vach)