Lau

Signing Kris Drever to his Reveal label in 2005, Tom was introduced to a new trio with whom Kris was also  guitarist / singer – Lau.
The following year, after seeing just one performance he met and signed the band, later forging a strong bond with all three members and a shared vision for their future which then lead to the band asking Tom to manage them in 2008, just  ahead of their second album, “Arc Light” .

Formed out of the progressive traditional music scene in Edinburgh, Lau have consistently discovered new musical boundaries with their unique take on ‘folk’.
Lau have won BBC Radio 2’s Folk Award for Best Group three years running (2008, 2009, 2010). They have also been nominated for the national prize “Spirit Of Scotland Award (Music) ” and won  Live Act of The year 2009 at the Scottish Trad Music Awards alongside numerous individual awards and nominations for instrumentalist and musicia, singer  of the year. Lau have released three acclaimed albums (Lightweights & Gentlemen, Live & Arc Light) and in 2010 they will release a series of E.P’s (the first of which is Lau Vs Karine Polwart) .

Lau are:
Kris Drever – Guitar, Vocal
Martin Green – Accordion
Aidan O’Rourke – Fiddle

Kris Drever

Prior to meeting Tom, Kris was a successful and in demand session musician, Tom saw Kris sing just one song “Farewell To Fuinary” during a Kate Rusby concert and immediately tracked Kris down to ask if he’d consider working with Reveal and becoming a solo artist. Kris accepted and his debut album produced by John McCusker in 2006 was a great success, .

Following his debut "Black Water" and inbetween recording and touring with Lau, Kris found some time to write and record with friends John McCusker and (Idlewild front man) Roddy Woomble, their resulting album "Before The Ruin" was also signed by Tom and  later featured amongst Mojo Magazine's Best Folk Albums of 2008, the band toured the UK and ended their promotion with a sold out show at London’s 800 capacity Union Chapel.
A new (second) Kris solo collection (again of contemporary and traditional songs) "Mark The Hard Earth" is scheduled for release in March 2010.

'a serious talent.' **** Mojo

'Kris Drever aligns ancient with modern. A poignant picture of modern Britain and makes the standard live anew.' ****  The Sunday Times

DUOTONE

Sometimes the quietest voices are those whom speak the loudest of all. This is certainly true of the immaculate, hushed multi-layered, acoustic songs contained within Duotone’s debut “Work Harder & Some Day You’ll Find Her”

Duotone is the name under which Barney Morse-Brown (cellist for The Imagined Village, Chris Wood’s Handmade Life and Eliza Carthy’s band) writes and performs his own contemporary acoustic songs and music.

A well chosen moniker, Duotone have recorded a short set of thought-provoking music set to a canvas upon which the two main ingredients featured (cello and acoustic guitar) gently meld with lap steel (BJ Cole) , live loops and strings over which Morse- Brown sings his quietly intelligent, crafted lyrics.

Duotone offer up beautiful flourishes of warmth in contemporary sound, but there are also nods toward England’s acoustic, minimalist classical and electronic past masters. ACOUSTIC Magazine described the album as ‘conjuring up the very spirit of the 70’s Canterbury Scene’.

Coming from a musical family of seven children, Barney’s passion for performance was established early on. He was awarded a scholarship to study baroque cello at the Royal Collage of Music, but during a two-year break from the cello after university, Barney focused his attention on songwriting and teaching himself guitar. For those two years he worked extensively with other songwriters around Oxford, became more and more in demand on the session musician scene, and in his spare time, began to focus on his own songwriting and performing. Now it seems that experience will not have been time wasted as “Work Harder…” and Duotone are fast becoming one of the word of mouth success stories of 2010. Duotone will also soon take to the stage again in support of the album, (having opened for Imagined Village in January) more details for which can be found on Duotone’s Myspace.

'hauntingly ethereal' **** SONGLINES

CHRIS WOOD

The artists Chris has worked with include Billy Bragg, Andy Gangadeen, Andy Cutting, Jean François Vrod and Hugh Lupton (Wood and Lupton's One in a Million won Best Original Song at the BBC 2 Folk Awards in 2006). Recently he has worked alongside Martin and Eliza Carthy and others in The Imagined Village: Cold Haily Rainy Night, performed by Wood and Eliza Carthy, took the award for Best Traditional Song at the Folk Awards in 2008.

He set up R.U.F Records in 1992 and this label continues to carry his catalogue. He also founded The English Acoustic Collective, a movable feast of musicians, writers, photographers and choreographers who look to England's indigenous arts as their inspiration.

His first solo album, The Lark Descending, was released in 2005 to wide acclaim. A lyrical, pensive album ... possessed of a timeless quality - The Observer Music Monthly
The title stands Vaughn Williams' English icon on its head -- Wood's songs make no apology for celebrating what he has called the "unofficial" history of the English people.

In 2008 his album, Trespasser, took on the idea of enclosure: spiritual, intellectual, cultural and physical. Billy Bragg writing in The Independent said Come Down Jehovah, is a measured statement of atheism that puts Dawkins to shame. Wood went on to receive Album of The Year and Singer of the Yea from BBC Radio Two.

He has been more reticent about the genesis of Handmade Life -- but the material clearly stems from a desire to explore a less human-centered world, and a world more engaged with the actual than the virtual.

Chris Wood has developed into an exceptional songwriter - venturing into areas that few artists would dare tackle." - The Guardian

Wood's tongue is truer than most - The Times

It really needs to win an award. The band is a marvel and Wood's unpretentious singing carries real weight - The Independent

The depth of contempt that Wood summons up is astonishing in its power. This is undoubtedly one of the albums of 2010, regardless of genre - Americana UK.com

Highly charged observations on life, love and country - MOJO

Wood delivers masterpieces - from politics to vegetable patches, he has it covered on this expansive new album - Songlines - Top Of The WorlD