January 2020 - Slow Culture Magazine

Aoife Nessa Frances, Land of No Junction – ALBUM REVIEW #17

30 January 20203 May 2020Album Reviews, Music & Records Marc Louis-Boyard

After a deserved highlight on Bandcamp, Irish musician Aoife Nessa Frances released the highly anticipated Land of No Junction (Ba Da Bing Records) on January 17th 2019. Cian Nugent co-produced the album, and the work released is beyond our expectations for a first!

If you liked the sense of intimacy given by Jennah Barry’s Holiday or the musicality of Jason McMahon’s Odd West (out this Friday), you’re in the right place! Thus, don’t change that channel.

Land of No Junction is a beautiful and rich tragedy. In the noble and literary sense. Here are our thoughts on this release that added a lot of magic in the beginning of this year.

Youth, Amber – ALBUM REVIEW #16

26 January 20203 May 2020Album Reviews, Music & Records Marc Louis-Boyard

According to the band: Youth is a vintage journal that you’ve just bought at a local flea market and began filling with beautiful words. Something you carry with you at all times along with your favourite pen. Tucked inside the pocket of your oversized Thrift store cardigan.

The LA-based band released Amber in November 2019. At the time, the album felt like sweet sunrays in the cold winter. What really aroused our curiosity was the gap between the visual identity of the band and the music they recorded. Incongruity generally leading to fascination, Amber has been following us daily (and digitally) for the past three months.

Emma Darwin (writer, Holland House Books) – WHY I WRITE VOL.15

23 January 20203 May 2020Literature, Why I Write Marc Louis-Boyard

Bio: Emma Darwin’s new creative non-fiction, This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin (Holland House Books), was published in 2019; it was acclaimed by the Literary Review as ‘unsparingly honest…wise, witty and informative’. She is the author of two historical novels: The Mathematics of Love (Headline Review) – which is probably the only book ever to have been nominated simultaneously for the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book, and the RNA Novel of the Year – and A Secret Alchemy (Headline Review). Her non-fiction Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction is published by Teach Yourself / John Murray, she has a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, and is a creative writing mentor and tutor with a hugely popular blog, This Itch of Writing (link below).

Picture by JP Masclet.

Why I Write, by Emma Darwin.

Jonathan Pinnock, Love and Loss and Other Important Stuff – BOOK REVIEW #4

22 January 20203 May 2020Book Reviews, Literature Marc Louis-Boyard

When it comes to cynicism, we used to be disciples of Conan O’Brien: cynicism was our least favorite quality. But that was until we read Jonathan Pinnock’s Love and Loss and Other Important Stuff. We have to remind here that Gareth E. Rees recently started our conversion, but Jonathan truly finished it as soon as we put the book down.

This sudden and instant attraction for cynicism totally justifies the fact that we’re reviewing a 2017 book at the dawn of 2020. Three years is not much for a revelation of that kind. It’s still time to join the club.

Jeff Swanson & Case-fitter, Fathoms (jazz, out February 28th 2020) – ALBUM REVIEW #15

19 January 20203 May 2020Album Reviews, Music & Records Marc Louis-Boyard

Almost two years after the enchanting Case-fitter album, Chicago-based guitarist and composer Jeff Swanson comes back with Fathoms (BACE Records). In case you missed the aforementioned album, we’d advise you to listen to his versions of Graham’s before pursuing, it’s worth the half hour.

The notion of conversation is essential in Jeff Swanson’s compositional style, and Fathoms do not escape the rule, for the listener’s greatest pleasure. Gaussian, the first single (listen below) is a perfect illustration of that fact.

Be prepared: this album is heavier than what Jeff Swanson accustomed his audience to. Heavier, but also more colorful and nuanced. Let’s talk about it!

The Emma Press (3 books + interview) – THIS WEEK IN ARTS VOL.3

12 January 20203 May 2020Book Reviews, Interviews, Literature, This Week in Arts Marc Louis-Boyard

Awarded with a grant from Arts Council England only one year after being founded by Emma Wright, The Emma Press has been publishing books for eight years.

Eight years of meticulous combination of quantity and quality, eight years of uncompromising expression, eight years of unwavering determination.

We couldn’t be happier to immerse ourselves into the colorful world of The Emma Press, and couldn’t be more admirative of all the work accomplished so far.