FOLK musicians who met and formed a band in Jephson Gardens say the park inspired their new album.
Jake Wilson from Leamington heard Polish classical guitarist Adam Jurewicz when he was strumming in the gardens. Some days later he met Kiril Georgiev, founder of Bulgarian folk-group, Lot Lorien in the same place.
And the trio have never looked back, uniting to become new version of the Lot Lorien band.
While it has Bulgarian roots, with one song even sung in the language, the band say the album ‘Common Ground’ is heavily inspired by the place they met.
Jake told the Observer: “The whole project is deeply-rooted in Jephson Gardens – we met each other by chance there, it is where we composed and arranged several of the tracks, and the album cover and booklet feature beautiful infra-red photographs of its trees, which we commissioned from a local photographer.
“The album includes British folksongs with newly-composed musical settings, alongside original songs and instrumentals. It has quite a distinctive sound, with the three of us playing very different guitars, and the combination of my English vocals with Eastern European rhythms and harmonies.
“Its message is timely, as the idea of ‘Common Ground’ – the solidarity of a shared experience, looking for similarities rather than differences, and the value of communal outside spaces like Jephson Gardens – seems particularly important at the moment.”
Jake said the album is in direct contrast one he wrote some ten years ago.
In 2012 he released ‘All’s Well’, a collection of songs imagining the final thoughts of Captain Scott and his party who died on their return journey from the South Pole.
Jake travelled to Antarctica to perform the album, but hopes he and the members of Lot Lorien can take to the stage with Common Ground a little closer to home as venues reopen.
He said: “When I released ‘All’s Well I was determined to play the songs in Antarctica during the centenary period, and managed to secure unique permission to perform them in Scott’s original expedition hut at Cape Evans.
“While that album was about searching for something at the other end of the earth, ‘Common Ground’ is all about finding something special right where you are.
“At the very least, we’d love to be able to perform the songs in Leamington – but we’re also dreaming of the day when we can play further afield and bring the songs to a wider audience.”
Visit www.jakewilsonmusic.com/commonground to buy the album or find out more.
