Collaborations

Lush Spa Music

Is this the most unusual and unlikely collaboration so far in folk and rock music? Simon Emmerson, leading light in both The Imagined Village and Afro Celt Sound System, teams up with Lush Cosmetics co-founder Mark Constantine for a set of four CDs that draw deeply on both a love of folk music traditions and bird song. The result is an innovative project, put together partly to act as a sound accompaniment to Lush’s various spa treatments and massages yet also a stand-alone musical pleasure. Given folk music’s use in the past for such social functions as seasonal celebrations, crop fertility and dancing, it must be the first time this has been extended to massage and spa treatments. What will surprise many listeners, however, is that the music here, rather than being a commercial response to this collaboration, remains as bold and innovative as that produced in recent years by The Imagined Village and others pushing the boundaries of folk tradition.

The Sound Approach

Simon Emmerson had also worked with Mark Constantine before on composing the music for a bird book released through Mark’s independent publishing company, The Sound Approach. The book is called Birding From The Hip, and is a collection of amusing birding stories from the pen of Irish birder, Anthony McGeehan. Anthony narrated a selection of his stories which were put to new music from Simon and woven around bird song recorded by The Sound Approach. These compositions were released across two CDs that came with the book, with The Guardian describing it’s author as “a cross between Hunter S Thompson and James Joyce.”

The Sound Approach, as well as publishing their own books, are also a collection of birders who hope to record every bird song in the Western Palearctic. They were founded in 2000 by Mark Constantine, Arnoud van den Berg and Magnus Robb and aim to popularise bird song.