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Stornoway - Out Now: Stornoway - Tales From Terra Firma
Stornoway : Out Now: Stornoway - Tales From Terra Firma
11th March 2013

“No curse of the second album for Stornoway, who’ve stretched out without losing sight of the intimacy of their charming debut." Guardian (5/5)
Tales From Terra Firma is admirably imaginative, pastoral-folk-to-jazz arrangements elevating Brian Briggs’s cynicism-free songs to dizzy new heights…"MOJO (4/5)
“Stornoway have boldly struck out and in doing so have navigated the often choppy waters of the second album with panache.”Music OMH (4/5)
“Stornoway’s second album [...] separates the Oxford quartet from the indie-folk bandwagon and kicks them a few steps up the ladder.”
The Independent On Sunday
“An ambitious step forward for the band and, though only 44 minutes long, it feels like a bit of an epic.”The Observer

This week Stornoway release their second album, Tales From Terra Firma, (excl. North America - released 18th March).

It is an album of stories – birth, death, marriage, coming of age: The Big Stuff. The songs were mostly written in a camper van in land-locked Oxford and the bulk of the recording spanned two winters, between December 2011 and November 2012. During this time no one outside the band heard the songs before the final mixes.

It all adds to the sense of a band intent on writing their own story to their own exacting specifications, oblivious to trends or outside influence. “We never aspire to be anything other than who we are,” says singer and principal songwriter Brian Briggs. “We’ve never felt we fitted in with a particular music scene, it’s always been about doing our own thing and being ourselves. It is honest music.”

It starts with a breathless, brimming affirmation of enduring love and ends with a becalmed reflection on life and loss as dusk draws in. Between these two elemental bookends, Tales From Terra Firma pauses to contemplate birth, death, family, sex, nature, joy, pain and the precise location of home. There are Turkish zithers and there are German spoons. It is the sound of one long song of life unfurling.

Stornoway are touring the UK and the rest of Europe throughout March and April before heading over to North America in May. 

Watch the video for their first single ‘Knock Me On The Head’ here or below.

Buy Tales From Terra Firma:
Amazon

iTunes

Rough Trade

Jumbo Records
 


March
11th -
The Kazimier, Liverpool
12th -
Band On The Wall, Manchester
13th -
Cockpit, Leeds
14th -
Rough Trade East, London
15th -
Open, Norwich
16th - Leadmill, Sheffield

17th -
53 Degrees, Preston
19th -
Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
20th -
Concorde 2, Brighton
21st - Komedia Bath, Bath

23rd -
Leamington Spa Assembly, Leamington Spa
24th -
Arts Centre Exeter, Exeter
25th -
Guildhall Gloucester, Gloucester
27th -
The Forum, London
April
5th - Orangerie (Botanique), Brussels

6th -
Motel Mozaique, Rotterdam
7th - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam

9th - Brotfabrik, Frankfurt

10th - Gebaude 9, Koln

11th - Knust, Hamburg

12th -
Bi Nuu, Berlin
13th - Orangerie (Botanique), Brussels

May
1st -
Black Cat Backstage, Washington
2nd -
Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia
3rd -
Maxwell's, Hoboken
5th -
T.T. The Bears Place, Cambridge
6th -
Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
7th -
Il Motore, Montreal
9th -
Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto
11th - Schuba's, Chicago

14th -
The Waiting Room, Omaha
15th -
Hi Dive, Denver
16th -
Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City
18th -
Media Club, Vancouver
20th -
The Crocodile, Seatle
22nd -
Doug Fir Lounge, Portland
25th -
Bootleg Theatre, Los Angeles
July
13th -
2000 Trees Festival, Withington
August
18th –
Green Man Festival, Crickhowell