Jim Moray

13 years ago Jim Moray released an album that changed the way people perceived, played and presented English folk music. Sweet England arrived at a time when, with just a few notable exceptions, traditional music was performed much as it had been in the 1970s to an audience of insiders and aficionados.

The album was received with open arms by those who understood that the music of the people has survived for centuries by being just that – an expression of the times. Absent were the familiar affectations of those who sought to preserve an invented historical aesthetic, Jim Moray was a Bowie and Blur fan singing ballads with all of his influences unfurled.

Jim believes it’s time for him to start a new chapter. He’s described the making of his forthcoming album Upcetera as being like 'learning to do it all again from scratch'. Drawing influence from the systems music of composers like Nyman and Reich (another of his formative passions) Upcetera features dramatically orchestrated Child ballads reimagined as torch songs or a kind of English Fado.

It’s an album that places the narrative element of these songs centre stage, with Jim Moray’s supple soaring vocal leading the listener by the hand through strange old stories.