FRAGILE SONGS FROM THE CIRCUS OF DESIRE.

A VOICE FROM THE WIND HILL.

Despite having a firm place in British folk and not contradicting it, she is said to not feel completely secure in its zone. Her work incorporates jazz, classical and experimental pop into traditional songs. With a breathtakingly emotional voice, she seems to be writing love letters from the past, but with a modern stamp. A graduate of jazz composition with a multi-instrumental talent, she is not one of those authors who think immediately; she carefully considers her music from all sides. When Olivia Chaney was asked by members of the American indie rock band The Decemberists to cover iconic British folk rock songs with them in the Offa Rex project, she came up with her own concept, free from intended nostalgia, and her album The Queen Of Hearts was nominated for a Grammy. She similarly approached the collaboration with the New York Kronos Quartet on the album Folksongs, alongside Natalie Merchant and Rhiannon Giddens.
Olivia Chaney's perception of British folk simply has quite different dimensions. "We dance with death and fire and we are all in a circus of desire," she said the year before last on her third original album Circus Of Desire, recorded again under the production of American pianist Thomas Bartlett, known from the group The Gloaming, which also puts traditions in counterpoint with contemporary music.
Olivia Chaney has been the subject of much controversy this year, when her moving version of the old ballad Dark Eyed Sailor dominates the new film version of Wuthering Heights, although this might be expected from another soundtrack author, pop star Charli XCX, but director Emerald Fennell insisted: she wanted to hear Olivia Chaney's unmistakably emotional voice in the tense love scene.
She is currently preparing an album of compositions by the baroque composer Henry Purcell, "who wrote for kings and queens, but also went to the pub and listened to ballads". For this purpose, she has put together a folk rock band, News From Nowhere. The line-up also includes violinist Owen Spafford, who will accompany Olivia Chaney at Folk Holidays festival.

Photo on the list of musicians: Sara Porter