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 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.
If you’ve had a trip to a Lush Spa and enjoyed a treatment, then you’ll have heard the fresh handmade sounds that accompany these transformative experiences. The beauty is, you don’t have to wait until your next visit to the Spa to enjoy the relaxing melodies, performed by Simon Emmerson and his various bands of merry folk musicians.
Music is an integral element to Lush Spa’s unique and individual treatments and it was incredibly important that the finest compositions accompanied the finest massages. Luckily, Mark Constantine stumbled across someone who fitted so perfectly with his ideas for the Lush Spa music.
Like Mark, Grammy award nominated artist and composer, Simon Emmerson has a (not so) secret passion for bird watching. It was inevitable that the two ‘twitchers’ were going to meet one another in a hide one day! Mark asked Simon to compose some inspiring music, exclusively for Lush to use during their brand new Synaesthesia treatment.
Everyone instantly fell in love with The Imagined Village’s sound and as more and more treatments were developed for the Spa, Simon was asked to compose more and more music for them to use. He’s now an integral part of the Lush Spa team, conjuring inspirational masterpieces of orchestral grandeur, entwining majestic soundscapes of bird chorus (provided by Marks publishing company, The Sound Approach) and melodies that reinforce the tranquillity that you feel from the treatments.
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