Erland Cooper Sensoria Special

We're really excited to be welcoming Erland Cooper for his first performance in Sheffield.
Hailing from the archipelago of Orkney, composer and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper explores the natural world of landscape, memory, people and place. Cooper believes music often reflects the landscape a musician is surrounded with, be it rural, urban, real or imagined.
His second solo album, Sule Skerry, was released earlier this year as the second in a triptych shaped by Orkney’s air, sea and land, as it was celebrated by Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown. While his acclaimed first solo record Solan Goose (an Album of the Year at 6Music, The Quietus, musicOMH and more)  paid homage to Orkney’s birdlife, the multi-instrumentalist develops this further, turns his attention to the North Sea.
Local stories and mythology appear on the album, most perceptively in the form of the Selkie, a creature who assumes the form of a seal in the water and a woman on the land, beautifully brought to life by voices recorded on the island. Inspiration comes in part from the Norse seafarers who farmed both sea and land and made Orkney their base.
Sule Skerry features several collaborations: Benge on modular Moog, Kris Drever (BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer of The Year), the acclaimed Scottish musician Kathryn Joseph contribute a spoken word narrative, using poetry written for the album by Will Burns (‘Flattie’), Hiroshi Ebina performs modular synth, tape loops and music box Astra Forward lends vocals to ‘Sule Skerry’ and Leo Abrahams appears, performing ambient guitar.
 Originally part of acclaimed bands The Magnetic North and Erland & The Carnival, Cooper has a diverse musical history. Last year’s debut solo album Solan Goose was an Album of the Year at BBC Radio 6 Music, the Quietus, and more; and Sule Skerry has already been crowned a BBC Radio 6 Music Album of the Day. 
Cooper recently scored NEST, a giant kinetic sound and light installation in collaboration with the groundbreaking Marshmallow Laser Feast to open London’s first Borough of Culture celebrations. 

* Plus support from artists featured in the Modern Fairies project.

There are wheelchair user spaces available. Please contact us on info@sensoria.org.uk if you need a carer ticket.