Jane Louise Weaver[1] (born 28 February 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She runs the label Bird Records, an offshoot of Twisted Nerve Records. Weaver has performed as part of the Britpop group Kill Laura, the folktronica project Misty Dixon, and as a solo artist. She was brought up in the town of Widnes, Cheshire.[2]
Kill Laura began when Weaver was in sixth form college.[3] Between 1993 and 1996 Kill Laura released five singles, two on Polydor and three on the Manchester Records label run by Rob Gretton, owner of The Haçienda and manager of New Order. Kill Laura disbanded in 1997.
Misty Dixon
Weaver formed Misty Dixon in 2002. The band originally consisted of Weaver, Anna Greenwood, Dave Tyack and Sam Yates. Misty Dixon released several singles, and one studio album, Iced to Mode (2003). However, the release of the album was shrouded in tragedy following the disappearance of Tyack in August 2002. Misty Dixon broke-up in 2004.
Solo career
Weaver's solo career began shortly after the demise of Kill Laura. She recorded an album for Manchester Records in 1998, Supersister, but it was left unreleased following the death of Gretton in May 1999. A single, "Everyone Knows Everyone Else", recorded in collaboration with Doves and Andy Votel, was released from the Supersister sessions.
Weaver continued her solo career alongside Misty Dixon. Following a number of singles Weaver's first studio album, Like an Aspen Leaf, was released in 2002.[4] It featured contributions from Andy Votel, Dave Tyack, Rick Tomlinson, Sam Yates, Naomi Hart and two members of Elbow, Craig Potter and Richard Jupp.[5]
Her second album, Seven Day Smile (2006) was a collection of home recordings and material from the Supersister era. By the time of her third album, Cherlokalate (2007), Weaver was exploring more psychedelic folk and Americana influences. The NME review of Cherlokalate (2007) declared that "Jane Weaver is the sound of Cat Power if she'd grown up next door to Oasis, stealing their Beatles records and outshining them at the school Christmas concert".[6]
The Fallen by Watchbird, Weaver's fourth album, was released in 2010. The Guardian wrote "Psych folk is back. It may have died out with the hippies in the 1970s, but now it has merged with folktronica, and the result here is not as twee and pretentious as one might fear… Weaver's fragile, unworldly voice is carefully balanced against more muscular backing".[7] The album also received a four (out of five) star review in Mojo.[8] Weaver wrote a fairytale book to accompany the album.[9] A remix album, The Watchbird Alluminate (2011), featured interpretations by electronic artists including Demdike Stare and the Focus Group.
In 2011, Weaver recorded the library music recording Intiaani Kesä for filmmaker and fashion designer Paola Suhonen[fi] of the brand Ivana Helsinki. A track from the project, "Parade of the Blood Red Sorrows", was also featured in the 2012 film Kiss of the Damned.
Coldplay's song "Another's Arms", from Ghost Stories (2014), featured a vocal sample from The Fallen by Watchbird album track, "Silver Chord". Weaver said that Chris Martin telephoned her directly for permission to use it.[12]
2015's The Amber Light album is an extension of The Silver Globe, with three remixes from that album alongside four new songs and three instrumentals. It was made available both with the "Deluxe Version" of The Silver Globe and as a separate release.
Another album, Modern Kosmology was released in 2017, with Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney performing guest vocals on the track, "Ravenspoint".
During October and November 2018, Weaver completed the short "Loops in the Secret Society" solo tour of England and Scotland, in support of her two most recent albums.[13]Loops in the Secret Society was also the title of her double album released in June 2019 by Fire Records. The album contained reimagined and remixed versions of songs from her two previous albums. The deluxe bookback CD edition, released on 15 November, also contained a DVD featuring the experimental film installation which was featured on her previous tour. It was directed by Nick Farrimond.[14] The first single from the album, "Slow Motion (Loops Variation)", was released in March 2019.[14][15]
Together with Peter Philipson and Raz Ullah, under the name of Fenella, Weaver recorded a reimagined soundtrack to the 1981 cult animated movie Fehérlófia by Hungarian director Marcell Jankovics. The album was released on vinyl only on 8 November 2019 on Fire Records. A second Fenella album, titled The Metallic Index, was released on 11 November 2022 also on Fire Records.[16][17][18]
Jane Weaver at the South Facing Festival 2021
Weaver released a single in October 2020 entitled "The Revolution of Super Visions", from her forthcoming album Flock. A second single, "Heartlow", and official video were released in January 2021.[19] The album was released in March 2021 to favourable reviews, Rough Trade also made Flock their 'Album of the Month'.[20][21][22] On release week, the album peaked at No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart, the first time that Weaver has entered the Top 40.[23] Weaver also announced in October 2020 that she had a UK tour planned for June 2021. The tour was rescheduled in March 2021 to November 2021 and February/March 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[24][25][26]
"Love in Constant Spectacle" is the title of a song and official video released in November 2023, which was followed by two other tracks titled "Perfect Storm" in January 2024 and "Romantic Worlds" in February 2024. Weaver also announced in January 2024 that the title of her new album is Love in Constant Spectacle. It was released on 5 April 2024. The album was produced in collaboration with John Parish. Following the release of the album Weaver will tour the UK and Ireland in April and May 2024.[27][28][29][30]
Bird Records
Bird Records is an offshoot of Twisted Nerve Records and the Finders Keepers reissue label, and is run by Weaver. Bird was founded in 2002 and mainly releases recordings by contemporary female folk artists. These include early recordings by Beth Jeans Houghton and Emma Tricca.
Have You Fed the Fish? is an album released by Badly Drawn Boy in 2002. The album's title originates from the question which Gough asks his daughter each day "to the point where it got to sound like one of those words you say too many times and it sounds silly."
Malcolm Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.
Marissa Nadler is an American singer-songwriter. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, The Path of the Clouds, in October 2021. Her music has been characterized as blending "traditional folk, Gothic Americana, and dreamy pop into an original musical framework". Her music "is rooted in old-school country and folk but brings in elements of experimental and black metal". Sometimes the term "dream folk" has been invoked to describe her work.
Andrew Shallcross, known as Andy Votel, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records.
The Caretaker was a long-running project by English ambient musician, James Leyland Kirby. His work as the Caretaker is characterized as exploring memory and its gradual deterioration, nostalgia, and melancholia. The project was initially inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining, the 1978 TV show Pennies from Heaven, and the 1962 film Carnival of Souls. His first several releases comprised treated and manipulated samples of 1930s ballroom pop recordings. Most of his album covers were painted by one of his friends, Ivan Seal.
These New Puritans are an English music group/band from Southend-on-Sea, England. It consists mainly of Jack Barnett and his twin brother George Barnett. Multi-instrumentalist Thomas Hein was an active member of TNP between 2006 and 2016; keyboardist Sophie Sleigh-Johnson was active between 2006 and 2010. They have recorded four studio albums: Beat Pyramid (2008), Hidden (2010), Field of Reeds (2013) and Inside the Rose (2019).
Dave Tyack, who also recorded under the name Dakota Oak, was an English musician and a founding artist on the Twisted Nerve Records label. He recorded alongside fellow Twisted Nerve artists Badly Drawn Boy and Andy Votel on several releases and played drums with two further bands, Misty Dixon and D.O.T. Tyack was also an artist and his own drawings featured on the covers of most of his records.
Wolves in the Throne Room is an American black metal band formed in 2002 in Olympia, Washington, by brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver. They have released seven full-length albums, two live albums, and two EPs to date. They have stated one of the founding concepts of the band to be channeling the "energies of the Pacific Northwest's landscape" into musical form.
Joshua Michael Tillman, better known by his stage name Father John Misty, is an American musician. He is known for his satirical lyricism and eccentric performance style.
Wendy and Bonnie Flower were American singing sisters, who recorded the album Genesis in 1969 for Skye Records. The album was produced and arranged by jazz polymath Gary McFarland. McFarland at the time was a partner in the ownership of Skye, along with music impresario Norman Schwartz, Latin percussionist Cal Tjader, and guitarist Gábor Szabó.
Susan Christie is an American singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known for her hit folk song “I Love Onions” (1966) and for her critically acclaimed solo psychedelic-folk album Paint A Lady (2006). Her song "Rainy Day" from Paint A Lady is featured in the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer and songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent references to pop culture and 1950s–1970s Americana. Her vintage Hollywood glamour aesthetic is showcased in her music videos. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, two Billboard Women in Music, and a Satellite Award, in addition to nominations for eleven Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Variety honored her at their Hitmakers Awards for being "one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century". In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Del Rey on their list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time", while their sister publication Rolling Stone UK named her as "The Greatest American Songwriter of the 21st century".
Darren J. Cunningham, known professionally as Actress, is a British electronic musician. His albums include Hazyville (2008), Splazsh (2010), R.I.P. (2012), Ghettoville (2014), AZD (2017), LAGEOS, 88 (2020), Karma & Desire (2020); released on Ninja Tune, Honest Jon's Records, and Werkdiscs, a label he co-founded in 2004, and LXXXVIII (2023); released on Ninja Tune. Splazsh was named best album of the year by The Wire.
Bobby Krlic, known by his stage name The Haxan Cloak, is a British composer, artist, music producer and musician.
Jennifer Lynn Wasner is an American musician from Baltimore. Wasner is best known as one of the founding members of the band Wye Oak, along with Andy Stack. They have performed on tour with notable bands such as Bon Iver, The National and The Decemberists. Wasner has completed numerous other music projects as well, including a solo project entitled Flock of Dimes, and a collaboration called Dungeonesse with Jon Ehrens of White Life and Art Department.
Katie Gately is an American musician, composer, producer and sound designer based in Los Angeles, California. As well as her own releases she has remixed Björk and Zola Jesus and produced for serpentwithfeet. Her most recent album, Fawn / Brute, was released on March 31, 2023.
Everywhere at the End of Time is the eleventh recording by the Caretaker, an alias of English electronic musician Leyland Kirby. Released between 2016 and 2019, its six studio albums use degrading loops of sampled ballroom music to portray the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the success of An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011), Kirby produced Everywhere as his final major work under the alias. The albums were produced in Kraków and released over six-month periods to "give a sense of time passing", with abstract album covers by his friend Ivan Seal. The series drew comparisons to the works of composer William Basinski and electronic musician Burial, while the later stages were influenced by avant-gardist composer John Cage.
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Lucrecia Dalt is a Colombian experimental musician who currently resides in Berlin. While her earlier releases were rooted in electronic dance music, her work has evolved over time to become more overtly abstract and experimental.
Love in Constant Spectacle is the twelfth solo studio album by English musician Jane Weaver, released on 5 April 2024 through Fire Records. It received acclaim from critics.
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