The Butcher- Folk Opera feat. Jamie Lawson + More Out May 27th

Courtesy: Cannonball PR

(Press Release) After an exceptional reception to Paul Mosley’s last album and debut for Folkwit Records, Paul has taken his creativity up another notch after tending lovingly to ‘The Butcher’ – his folk opera over the past two years, to reveal what is in fact his seventh solo record. Featuring a stunning 20 songs, with 20 plus musicians from six different countries 'The Butcher' is an epic ghost story told in songs. [Listen to "The World Is Flat" here]

Taking inspiration from Nilsson's 'The Point', Kate Bush's 'The Ninth Wave' and especially Anais Mitchell's 'Hadestown', Paul set out to create something that would bring together his years of singer/songwriter experience and the new skills he has developed as a composer for theatre. A 'piece' that was more than the sum of its parts, that could have layers of ideas, a whole world to explore within the songs. It's that 'the more you listen, the more you hear' thing.
 
No stranger to the sort of cult following that comes with a prodigious career having been part of major alt folk group Moses whose fans ranged from Graham Coxon to Florence & The Machine among the rest of the UK’s music cognoscenti in the early naughties.

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Self-taught and infamously ever-grinning Paul's joy to be playing in this massive musical toy box is infectiously evident throughout his latest opus ‘The Butcher’. Be sure to witness:
 
The 'Nick Drake meets ELO' strings of Jamie Lawson/Esther Dee's character establishing duet 'The World is flat'! - The growling bass saxophone colliding with xylophone and an actual kitchen sink on 'A Lighthouse part 2'! - An army of treated glockenspiels, euphoniums and flamenco guitar conjuring the whirring and chopping of the butcher's machines on the title track! – The balladry of Jamie Lawson morphed into improvised, free jazz instrumentalism - Every impeccable note Josienne Clarke sings!
 
‘The Butcher’ is the story of a good man turned bad.  A lighthouse fails and a love is lost. From the darkness left behind rises The Butcher, a man who has ripped through every scrap of meat a body has to show and never seen a sign of a soul. With nothing to lose the blackened Butcher keeps the lighthouse dark and rises to tyrannical power over the isolated island.
 
Will the work of two awkward scientists - one gazing up to the stars, the other digging down into the past - unearth more to life than the Butcher's endless 'shadows on the wall' to bring light - and hope - back to the island? With a full supporting cast of sentient skeletons, butcher birds and drunken sailors 'The Butcher' is a new story in the skin of something ancient, folkloric.
 
The album will be launched with a full cast gig at The Courtyard Theatre in Shoreditch, London on Thursday June 2nd. Paul is touring throughout the Spring/Summer with various members of the Red Meat Orchestra in different ensembles while a full theatre production - there will be puppets! - has been commissioned for Little Angel Theatre's 'Firsts' festival, Islington, London in Autumn 2016. A series of full cast alternative live sessions will be filmed for Resonance.fm in May.
 
Tracklisting:
 
1.    A Lighthouse (Paul Mosley and Josienne Clarke)
2.    Soul to Save (Paul Mosley)
3.    The World is Flat (Jamie Lawson and Esther Dee)
4.    Introducing... (The Red Meat Orchestra)
5.    The Butcher (Paul Mosley)
6.    Shadows On The Wall (Jamie Lawson and Esther Dee, Moses)
7.   She Has A Mystery (Jamie Lawson)
8.    Chattering Birds (The Red Meat Orchestra)
9.    You Don't Need Love (Paul Mosley)
10.  Satellites (Jamie Lawson and Paul Mosley)
 
11.  A Lighthouse part 2 (Carolyn Mark and Moses)
12.  My Armour (Esther Dee)
13.  No Hound Dog On Your Trail (Paul Mosley and Catherine Earnshaw)
14.  Nothing In The Desert (Paul Mosley and Jamie Lawson)
15.  Darkness (The Red Meat Orchestra)
16.  Galaxies (Esther Dee and Jamie Lawson)
17.  Light (The Red Meat Orchestra)
18.  The Rage (Paul Mosley and Moses)
19.  Wolves (Josienne Clarke)
20.  The Fury (Paul Mosley and Josienne Clarke)
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