Spiro are a remarkable and stunning acoustic 4-piece ensemble who came together through Bristol’s folk scene. They have developed their very own unique and highly imaginative sound, which echoes, at various points, the work of Steve Reich, Michael Nyman and the Penguin Café Orchestra. The four instruments — violin/viola, acoustic guitar, mandolin and accordion — gyrate around each other in a harmonious fusion of styles, in which traditional English folk meets modern classicism and electronic dance music. Supported by legendary hurdy gurdy player Cliff Stapelton, Spiro play Mwldan for the first time on 14th March to coincide with the launch of their latest album which is receiving huge critcal acclaim.
Following a superb debut on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label and a triumphant, tent-busting WOMAD performance, their latest album Kaleidophonica (released on 20th February) has just been awarded a 5* review in Songlines magazine; ‘Spiro do something altogether different. The mesmeric result is cinematic, breathtaking and beautiful…Folk has never seemed so relevant.’, and a 5* Review in The Guardian.
Richly textured and utterly compelling, Spiro are a totally unexpected gem – sophisticated and adventurous, intricate and full of momentum. They create hurrying, scurrying soundscapes that sweep majestically with cinematic presence, a wonderful, euphoric, acoustic wall of sound. Their last album Lightbox, released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, drew enormous critical acclaim – “positively thrilling” (The Guardian); “staggeringly complex stuff…. breathtakingly moving” (The Word); the release of their new, second album on Real World coincides with their appearance at Mwldan and a full UK tour.
‘In other contexts each part would be a virtuoso performance…It’s all breathless stuff, genuinely unlike anything else, and exciting, rewarding and gorgeous in equal measure’ fRoots
Spiro’s awesome musicianship and a unique musical vision had been honed over a decade before their successful real World CD ‘Light Box’ launched them into the festival spotlight last summer. The line-up – violin, mandolin, accordion and guitar – suggests folk and indeed, they start from folk themes, but in their intricate arrangements and insistent rhythmic approach the music transcends that label, somehow evoking both contemporary classical composers like Philip Glass and stadium rock at the same time – and all delivered acoustically with not a drummer in sight.
With its roots deep in the music of the British Isles, Spiro gives a darker, edgier twist to traditional dance with breathtakingly moving melodies repeating and interweaving, while the majestically sweeping rhythms invoke cinematic minimalism.
Spiro will be supported by by Cliff Stapleton, one of the great British exponents of the hurdy-gurdy and deservedly celebrated member of Coil and Blowzabella, who brings his superb talents to a wealth of distinctive, bewitching English and French hurdy gurdy music, from beautifully menacing “electro-pastoral” pieces to experimental, breakaway improvisations; “a kind of Richard Galliano of the hurdy-gurdy” Jazzwise, October 2008.
High-octane, essentially English, beautifully brilliant folk music of sublime individuality. Tickets are priced at £13 (£12) and are available to book now from Theatr Mwldan’s Box Office on 01239 621200, online at
www.mwldan.co.uk, or via SmartPhones mwldan.ticketsolve.com/mobile.
