Festival Artist Sneak Peek #5: Spiro
The final sneak peek is one that I have a special attachment to. I’ve been a fan of the English quartet Spiro for many years (they’ve been around for as long as Lotus), but have been frustrated that they have never toured the U.S. So one of my goals in working with Lotus this year was to convince my fellow presenters in the U.S. World Music Festival Consortium to bring them to our audiences in the upper midwest this fall… and now it’s happening! In the process of working on this, I must confess that I’ve gone from being a casual fan to becoming completely sucked into this music.
What Spiro does is take traditional English folk tunes, plus original tunes that have similar sonic qualities, and arrange them using more modern classical “systems music” techniques. Think repeating (but also regularly altered) patterns. This often serves to camouflage the core melodies, so then it’s left to the listener to peel away the layers to reveal the tunes within, which is where the earworms are. This construction seduces you back to the music again and again, which then only sucks you in deeper. It’s a very pleasurable feedback loop!
Picking just five artists to sneak peek has been a major challenge for me, because there is really so much great music to be found in the full Lotus lineup, which will be unveiled July 1. So I strongly encourage you to spend time with the full list, and identify which artists sound the most appealing to you.
And I’ll see you at Lotus!
Rob Simonds
Lotus Booking Consultant and Guest Blogger
Previous Sneak Peeks:
Jupiter & Okwess | Aynur | Hawktail | Rio Mira
