Jo Mango Murmuration

Jo Mango’s second album Murmuration is set for release on 5th November 2012 via Olive Grove Records. This wonderfully wistful album draws upon Jo’s adventures whilst travelling the world as a member of Vashti Bunyan’s band and her experiences over the last few years completing a Doctorate in Musicology plus her collaborations with David Byrne (Carnegie Hall, NY 2007), Devendra Banhart, Coco Rosie, Teenage Fanclub (Baby Lee, 2011), and Admiral Fallow (Beetle in the Box, 2012) amongst others.

As a lyricist Jo displays the kind of range more often attributed to an accomplished short story writer, equally assured when following the flight patterns of starlings on “The Black Sun” as she is asking difficult questions in the aftermath of a stabbing in Kingdom. Yet, despite the depth of her subject matter, Jo’s music is filled with light; light that comes from her extraordinary ability to paint vivid and enquiring images of the natural world with a voice as delicate and complex as the myriad environments it describes. This beguiling mix is what sets Jo apart in a crowded field of folk-influenced singer-songwriters.

 

The album was recorded and produced by Adem Ilhan (Adem, Sliver Columns) who became a good friend of Mango’s during their time on the road together, performing in collaboration with Vetiver, Juana Molina and Vashti Bunyan in the Zero Degrees of Separation tour and with David Byrne, who curated Welcome to Dreamland, the sell-out show at Carnegie Hall in 2007. What began as a demo EP recording, soon became the beginnings of an album, as the talents of both multi-instrumentalists combined to produce something too special for only four songs. Three years later the album was finally completed, featuring Jo’s trademark combination of guitar, kalimba, omnichord and squeezebox as well as musical saw, harmonium, bowed glockenspiel, and piano.

Jo’s debut album Paperclips and Sand received high praise from the press and her peers. Vashti Bunyan hailed her as “uniquely gifted” whilst The List described the album as “beguiling”, she even won over Rock Sound, with the magazine saying that Jo’s debut “will leave audiences entranced”.

 

These days it can often feel that albums are born in an instant and consumed twice as quickly. Murmuration is one of those rare records that places a gentle but insistent demand on the listener to stop and consider.

1 The Black Sun 

2 The Moth And The Moon

3 Blue Dawn Light 

4 Ludwig 

5 The Freedom Of Seamonsters

6 Kingdom

7 Evermore

8 Every Certainty

9 Crosstides 

10 Cordelia