Spell Songs - Heartwood (Live at The Natural History Museum)

Details

Description

This film features the Spell Songs band performing their song ‘Heartwood’ in the magnificent Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum during a livestreamed concert which raised over £105,000 for the museum’s Urban Nature Project.

Spell Songs is a collaboration between the musicians - Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter and Jim Molyneux, and the authors of The Lost Words and Lost Spells books - Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Robert generously gifted the Heartwood spell in addition to those in the books.

Karine, who led on this song explains:
“This is a turning and whittling of Robert’s ‘charm against harm’, which he wrote in response to the unjust felling of trees, particularly on the streets of Sheffield. It’s a spell in praise of tree, not in blame of woodcutters (who know more about trees than anyone else, when they do need to come down).”

Heartwood is one of 10 tracks featured on Spell Songs’ digital Live album ‘Gifts of Light’, alongside singles Red Is Your Art, Bird Of The Blizzard and The Lost Words Blessing, available here: https://hudsonrecords.ffm.to/giftsoflight

If you would like to find out more about the Natural History Museum’s Urban Nature Project go to: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/urban-nature-project.html