Playing Camp Bestival mainstage - 19 August 2022
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Playing Camp Bestival mainstage – 19 August 2022

by Jonathan on Aug 17, 2022 •
We’re off to Weston in Shropshire to play at Camp Bestival : ) So happy to be invited by Sarah at Twisted Agency to play at this iconic – but most importantly fun – festival. We’re on Mainstage Friday early afternoon and at the Carvanserai stage on Sunday – at...
Summer tour 2021 – launch concert for Refugee Week
News

Summer tour 2021 – launch concert for Refugee Week

by Jonathan on Jun 18, 2021 •
We’re launching our summer festival tour with a special intimate concert at the gorgeous IN GOOD HANDS in Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, supporting REFUGEE WEEK. Would love to see you there x
Orphans of the Storm - four track EP: "I fell in love as soon as I heard it - different, gorgeous - honestly beautiful" BBC Introducing, "a balm for the soul" Angeline Morrison
News

Orphans of the Storm – four track EP: “I fell in love as soon as I heard it – different, gorgeous – honestly beautiful” BBC Introducing, “a balm for the soul” Angeline Morrison

by Jonathan on Apr 24, 2020 •
LISTEN here: https://jonathanday.bandcamp.com/album/orphans-of-the-storm Four songs of love and loss, a distillation of years spent wandering and playing. Presenting stories from a frozen midsummer’s night on a Danish island, the deep countryside of Belarus, streets in Bali and the wide black land of Minnesota, these compositions take their heart from time, silence...
A Spirit Library - available here
Music / News / Store

A Spirit Library – available here

by Jonathan on Feb 3, 2020 •
PRESS RELEASE:  a Spirit Library Following Carved in Bone and Atlantic Drifter, Shropshire borderlands based singer songwriter Jonathan Day releases his third studio album a Spirit Library, at the beginning of April. Recorded at SFG studio in the Berwyn Mountains and at the Magic Garden, the new album’s working title was Vagabond...
a Spirit Library chosen for Folk Radio's Albums of the Year
News

a Spirit Library chosen for Folk Radio’s Albums of the Year

by Jonathan on Jan 20, 2020 •
Delighted that a Spirit Library is a Folk Radio Album of the Year for 2019. Thanks so much to all at FRUK – for me the most innovative and considered voice in the music I love. Thank you, with all my heart, to everyone who has been to a show, shared a...
a Spirit Library on Film - song videos
News

a Spirit Library on Film – song videos

by Jonathan on Jan 3, 2020 •
A selection of visual representations of songs from a Spirit Library  
In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas – An animation made with Shiyi Li
News

In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas – An animation made with Shiyi Li

by Jonathan on Jan 2, 2020 •
In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas. My thanks to amazing animator Shiyi Li for giving light and colour to the dreams, intuitions and memories of which this song is spun.
Spirit Library launch tour: Jamaica, Hong Kong, Austria, Italy, Bangkok, Oswestry
News

Spirit Library launch tour: Jamaica, Hong Kong, Austria, Italy, Bangkok, Oswestry

by Jonathan on Jan 1, 2020 •
Live footage from the launch tour
JONATHAN DAY –SINGING INTO SILENCE: a documentary by Henry Rose
News

JONATHAN DAY –SINGING INTO SILENCE: a documentary by Henry Rose

by Jonathan on Dec 17, 2019 •
Making a Spirit Library with silicon and oxide
Music / News

Making a Spirit Library with silicon and oxide

by Jonathan on Oct 13, 2018 •
Recording between a Garden and the sea…   The new album kind of started with an impromptu. Fingal’s cave in Scotland had the most stunning acoustic, sound sparking off the mostly hexagonal basalt lava columns, spinning in the most entrancing way. Deep in the cave in the almost black, on...
NORWAY - looking for light and wilderness between recordings
Biography / Music / News

NORWAY – looking for light and wilderness between recordings

by Jonathan on Jun 24, 2018 •
There’s something about light. Light wrapped around the day, driving away all but a relic of night. Sun from the north, across the top of the world, preternatural. Full bright on wind blown, mare’s tail waterfalls and a wonderfully strange, quiet, midnight gloaming. Light bursting inside a huge chunk of...
FOLK RADIO interview
Biography / Music / News / Performances / Reviews

FOLK RADIO interview

by Jonathan on May 26, 2018 •
Recent interview with Folk Radio Uk, click the image to view  : )
A Sound of Birds tour 2018
News / Performances

A Sound of Birds tour 2018

by Jonathan on Mar 27, 2018 •
2018 A SOUND OF BIRDS TOUR 24/3 – WORLDBRIDGER, Llanrhaedr (Ugandan permaculture benefit) https://tinyurl.com/y8vevwcn 31/3 EOSTRE fest Y Dolydd 4/4 REGGAE INNOVATION, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reggae-innovation-conference-tickets-43928155295 13/4 The FACE of WATER, the FACE of SNOW with Jane Siberry (Freedom from Torture/Medecins Sans Frontiers benefit) In Good Hands Shrewsbury https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3385303 6/5 WENLOCK POETRY...
Image and Sound
Portfolio

Image and Sound

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
Images, recording, processing, text, music and instrumental performance by Jonathan. An Oriole over the Tian Shan ~ ‘Birdtime’, Hong Kong Art’s Festival 6’17, Hong Kong City Hall.    9th June 1924 (for George Mallory and Andrew Irvine) ~ audience recording, Music, Myth and Realities festival, Bangkok 9’17.   Kupu Kupu...
Perfomance Images, Bangkok '17
Portfolio

Perfomance Images, Bangkok ’17

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
Images from The Dim Lit Subterranea of the Ancient Mind, Bangkok, August 2017. Photographs by Jean Davide Caillouet and Gabriel Camelin. Soft warm wind on the worm brown water, a coiling slither from the deep green heartland, the Temple of Dawn sparkling in the darkness, water around and in everything....
Images created for book 'Lyric'
Portfolio

Images created for book ‘Lyric’

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
Images created for the Fairacre Press/Wenlock Poetry Festival volume Lyric    
Postcards from the Road
Portfolio

Postcards from the Road

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
Selections from my book Postcards from the Road, published by Chicago University Press/Intellect [more selections at http://takeonartmagazine.com/article-details/205 see also http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1772140/jonathan-day-postcards-road http://www.lumenvisum.org/site/exhibition/postcards-from-the-road-jonathan-day-2/  http://www.artnews.com/2014/06/19/new-photo-books-on-cartier-bresson-robert-frank-and-more/ http://www.aicahk.org/eng/reviews.asp?id=326 ]   The Vesuvio Café, San Francisco, is old, like the district. During the Gold Rush, when Chinatown was threatened by the authorities, the shop owners shot at the...
4 recent images
Portfolio

4 recent images

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
PORTFOLIO: 4 RECENT PIECES      
Vagabond Language – recorded moments toward a project
Portfolio

Vagabond Language – recorded moments toward a project

by Jonathan on Jan 8, 2018 •
   
Music and Myth Festival '17, Thailand - the dim lit subterranea of the ancient mind
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Music and Myth Festival ’17, Thailand – the dim lit subterranea of the ancient mind

by Jonathan on Sep 2, 2017 •
  Soft warm wind on the worm brown water, a coiling slither from the deep green heartland, the Temple of Dawn sparkling in the darkness, water around and in everything. A hall painted with shifting light, a hundred instruments new and strange – pulsing the life-beat of these ancient lands,...
Vagabond Language tour '17
Music / News / Performances

Vagabond Language tour ’17

by Jonathan on May 11, 2017 •
Evelyn Waugh captures the evanescence of song so beautifully in these lines from Brideshead Revisited: Perhaps all our loves are merely hints and symbols; vagabond-language scrawled on gate-posts and paving-stones… We scrawl songs and stories as signs, for our selves and each other, of the mystery as we pass. They...
Fundraising for 'World of Hope' Hothouse Flowers, Linda Thompson, Peggy Seeger, Lau, Kris Drever and the Oyster Band,
Music / News / Reviews

Fundraising for ‘World of Hope’ Hothouse Flowers, Linda Thompson, Peggy Seeger, Lau, Kris Drever and the Oyster Band,

by Jonathan on Mar 15, 2017 •
                                Very happy to be able to support POSTCARDS FOR PEACE’s fundraising and awareness project A WORLD OF HOPE. Postcards for Peace works in peace, diversity and inclusion advocacy with young people around the world. The contributors...
Cyprus and Parliament – cross party committee on music
News / Performances

Cyprus and Parliament – cross party committee on music

by Jonathan on Jan 6, 2017 •
Busy schedule this trip – Oxford, Cyprus and Parliament in a little over a week : ) Visual feast to begin with  at the Bodleian and the Byzantine studies institute in OXFORD showing  hidden gospels of the mountain monastery at Garima in Northern Ethiopia. Airports – and Heathrow particularly – not...
BBC interview: Jonathan talks art, sound and song: the makings of an album
News

BBC interview: Jonathan talks art, sound and song: the makings of an album

by Jonathan on Nov 23, 2016 •
INTERVIEW WITH THE BBC’S Jim Hawkins, talking sounds, words and images – the ingredients that make an album. Please click to listen x  
National Poetry Day – performance film
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National Poetry Day – performance film

by Jonathan on Oct 31, 2016 •
Delightful experience with Shrewsbury Poetry at the LOFT, Milk Street, Shrewsbury debuting a number of new pieces, including this : )    
BBC Radio 4/British Library animate us : )
Biography / Film/Video / News

BBC Radio 4/British Library animate us : )

by Jonathan on Aug 21, 2016 •
http://bbc.in/2bxMXoM So delighted with this animation – BBC/ BRITISH LIBRARY took a section of an interview with myself, my daughter and the BBC’s Genevieve Tudor, and animated it. We were talking about touring in Thailand and the story of Rama and Sita. Click on the image to watch… lovely job don’t...
Performance in Iona Abbey cloister - a film about wilderness, old wisdom and hope.
Film/Video / Music / Performances / Songs

Performance in Iona Abbey cloister – a film about wilderness, old wisdom and hope.

by Jonathan on Aug 11, 2016 •
8th century celtic poetry, translated, woven into a song and performed in the beautiful ancient Iona Abbey cloister. A film from the white sands and azure sea, about wilderness, old wisdom and hope.
The INDEPENDENT newspaper features new book 'LYRIC'
Music / News / Reviews

The INDEPENDENT newspaper features new book ‘LYRIC’

by Jonathan on May 7, 2016 •
The Independent newspaper features ‘Lyric’ – a new book I’ve curated, introduced and illustrated – which brings together song lyrics from a range of writers and presents them as poetry.   ARTICLE, full text “So Shakespeare is now officially 400 years dead. This enormously wonderful and argued over figure who...
WENLOCK POETRY FESTIVAL: performance films and 'LYRIC' book launch
News

WENLOCK POETRY FESTIVAL: performance films and ‘LYRIC’ book launch

by Jonathan on May 5, 2016 •
Performing at WENLOCK POETRY FESTIVAL – heart’s homeland, my feet in Silurian earth, wisps of morning caught on warm yellow-grey stone and a distant Wrekin – Speedwell, Stitchwort and Periwinkle wreathing our words. The old stones and alleyways of the little town were alive in a different way – poetry stuffed...
ATLANTIC DRIFTER launch tour: CHINA
Music / News

ATLANTIC DRIFTER launch tour: CHINA

by Jonathan on Apr 20, 2016 •
Atlantic Drifter Launch Tour CHINA TOUR – GUANGZHOU I’d dreamed my way through the markets of Tashkent and rode, in sleep, the thermals of the Tian Shan night, with brilliant coloured orioles and black kites. I woke over the Five Ridges as the sun rose, and watched huge piles of...
FILM: 44th HONG KONG ARTS Festival - MORE THAN FOLK at CITY HALL presented by Bird Time Jazz Club and Hong Kong Folk Club
Music / Performances / Photographs

FILM: 44th HONG KONG ARTS Festival – MORE THAN FOLK at CITY HALL presented by Bird Time Jazz Club and Hong Kong Folk Club

by Jonathan on Mar 27, 2016 •
44th Hong Kong Arts Festival – More than Folk presented by Bird Time Jazz Club and Hong Kong Folk Club ONNAGATA, CANTICLE and NORTHERN SKY PONCHARTRAIN, CAFE IN THE VALLEY OF THE FIRE CHURCH
RADIO INTERVIEW: Jonathan talks ancient music, found instruments and singing into the silence with Gary Wilcox on 'the Quiet Revolution'
Biography / Music

RADIO INTERVIEW: Jonathan talks ancient music, found instruments and singing into the silence with Gary Wilcox on ‘the Quiet Revolution’

by Jonathan on Oct 25, 2015 •
Radio Interview: Jonathan talks ancient music, found instruments and singing into the silence with Gary Wilcox on ‘the Quiet Revolution’
ATLANTIC DRIFTER album available here
Music / News / Store

ATLANTIC DRIFTER album available here

by Jonathan on Sep 8, 2015 •
Critically acclaimed album ATLANTIC DRIFTER “Breathtakingly beautiful” Folk Radio UK, featured album “Very lovely: putting the poetry back into song lyrics” BBC “Expansive, intelligent and eloquent” South China Morning Post “Ton Tussa Solas – one of the most well-observed love songs I’ve ever heard” Folk Radio UK “Day’s guitar playing evokes...
'Song of the Day' on Folk Radio UK
News / Reviews / Songs

‘Song of the Day’ on Folk Radio UK

by Jonathan on May 27, 2015 •
A pre-release from Jonathan’s new album Atlantic Drifter has been chosen as ‘Song of the Day’ by Folk Radio UK – Britain’s biggest folk magazine.    
Lumenvisum show - Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong
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Lumenvisum show – Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong

by Jonathan on Apr 17, 2015 •
來自路上的名信片 Postcards from the Road Jonathan Day  18.4 – 28.5.2015 開幕酒會 Opening Reception  18.04.2015 (六 Sat) 4 – 6 pm 藝術家講座 Artist‘s Talk 18.04.2015 (六 Sat) 3 – 4 pm Jonathan Day 出生的那一年，Robert Frank 出版了攝影集《The Americans》。書紀錄了這位瑞士裔美國藉攝影家花了兩年，開著一輛老舊二手車，穿越48個州分的美國之旅。按Jack Kerouac 的話，Frank「用菲林從美利堅索出一首憂傷的詩歌」。那是1959年。 書後來成為經典，被認為改變了攝影藝術的走向。半世紀後，英國伯明翰的Jonathan Day來到美國，源著前人的足跡，嘗試軿湊書中那「垮掉的一代」的雨零星散。開著租來的車，他在那些通往地平線的公路上，遇上了那些肥大的汽車，那些星條旗，那些十字架，只是，那些符號所指向的早已不是五十年代那浮華世界，而是《The Americans》當代的一章。我們仿佛可以看到，Frank的車就在前面駛過，揚起一片灰塵，裡面載著兩個異鄉人，在作一場跨半世紀的對話。 展覽源自Jonathan Day 同名著作。 The year when Jonathan Day was born, Robert...
Spring in the borderlands - Barefoot Diaries, C12 and an eclipse
News / Photographs

Spring in the borderlands – Barefoot Diaries, C12 and an eclipse

by Jonathan on Mar 23, 2015 •
Skylarks look for lovers over Berwyn – last night’s late snow sullies the high tops – cloudy, dove-grey felt refuses the sun that warms my back. Spring in the borderlands, spring in the mountains. Delighted to have a print series celebrating the arrival of spring featured in the recently published Barefoot Diaries, a...
'Fairytale of New York' with members of the Old Dance School, the Urban Folk Quartet and the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble
Music / Performances / Songs

‘Fairytale of New York’ with members of the Old Dance School, the Urban Folk Quartet and the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble

by Jonathan on Dec 22, 2014 •
A wild wind is blowing from the Welsh Mountains, finding the cracks in my quiet house. The small bells of Sheinton Church are ringing in the blackness – must be Christmas Eve… x  
Mermaids and Volcanoes
Music / News / Photographs

Mermaids and Volcanoes

by Jonathan on Sep 7, 2014 •
Santorini has been a place to settle – find stillness and consider new music from a calm place. The little town a confection of stolid earth walled houses, built one upon another, falling higgledy up the caldera. From a distance it looks like snow crusting the lava… In a deep shadow...
Finishing new album 'Atlantic Drifter' in Santorini
Music / News / Photographs

Finishing new album ‘Atlantic Drifter’ in Santorini

by Jonathan on Sep 5, 2014 •
After the liquid heat of Bangkok and the beautiful people of a two day helter-skelter Welsh festival – watching the evening light flood a mountain valley from my balcony in Santorini is as close to paradise as I can imagine. Sitting in the warm dry Aegean wind, as summer softly...
Thai Tour - Wunderbar and Zoo
Music / Performances

Thai Tour – Wunderbar and Zoo

by Jonathan on Aug 24, 2014 •
Gigs at Zoo club, Pra Nathong and with Ross Ainslie (Salsa Celtica), Alice Orton, Mick Callan and Nigel Richards (IndiaAlba) at Wunderbar in Pra Arthit Today is the day of the winter wind. My friend wrapped herself in shawls against the chill – while I sighed for joy at the...
Thai Tour '14 - Hatti's story
Biography / Photographs

Thai Tour ’14 – Hatti’s story

by Jonathan on Aug 23, 2014 •
THAIS BELIEVE THAT FREEING A LIFE BRINGS BENEFIT AND BLESSING. This one ancient and arcane belief holds within it the heart of mercy, the thing so obviously missing in our grab-it-all society. The reality is more mundane and questionable – on the banks of the river, plastic buckets hold fish,...
Shrewsbury Poetry book launch for 'Postcards'
Film/Video / Music / News / Performances

Shrewsbury Poetry book launch for ‘Postcards’

by Jonathan on Aug 8, 2014 •
THERE’S A SAYING I LIKE that every show is about the audience. Shrewsbury Poetry curated by Liz Lefroy this week had one of the warmest and most engaged I’ve encountered in a long time. It was a joy to be involved – thanks so much to everyone there x  ...
Booklaunch/ Exhibition/ Gig for 'Postcards from the Road' at 86'd Gallery
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Booklaunch/ Exhibition/ Gig for ‘Postcards from the Road’ at 86’d Gallery

by Jonathan on Jul 27, 2014 •
“I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire: For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.” A WONDERFUL time at 86’d GALLERY, stuck in a high window looking over the late-lit Severn, each side surrounded by an engine assault of high day bikers, cruising the strip. Through the open...
Postcards from the Road
Biography / News / Photographs / Store

Postcards from the Road

by Jonathan on Jul 25, 2014 •
Jonathan’s photo book Postcards from the Road (University of Chicago Press) made while touring in the USA available here REVIEW BY NEW YORK’S “ARTnews” MAGAZINE click on image to go there : ) http://www.artnews.com/2014/06/19/new-photo-books-on-cartier-bresson-robert-frank-and-more/
Moon Dappling a Night Garden
Film/Video / Music / Performances

Moon Dappling a Night Garden

by Jonathan on Jul 22, 2014 •
MOON DAPPLING A NIGHT GARDEN An improvisation for a warm evening by Rob Carolan (hang drum) and Jonathan Day (alto). Played in the forest hall at Mellowcroft in the Welsh mountains. Cover image by Ed Lam : )
Wenlock Festival
Music / News / Performances

Wenlock Festival

by Jonathan on Jul 6, 2014 •
WENLOCK FESTIVAL was a haze of summer skies, screeching swifts and rooks squabbling in the twilight. Lovely audiences plumped on strawberries and ice cream – awash with tea and Pimms, willing us on to be our best. Ancient Abbey stones still warm from the sun was all the amplification we...
Folk on the Park
Music / Performances

Folk on the Park

by Jonathan on Jun 30, 2014 •
  Sky is cerulean blue, filled with the appealing screech (who would have thought those words would appear together?) of swifts and martens. Must be summer… and time for a Shropshire festival. Shropshire is divided into the Southern hills and Northern plain, that melds slowly and inevitably into Cheshire. I...
Farewell then, South China Sea, you have been beautiful… but Folk on the Park waits for no one : )
Biography / Music / Photographs

Farewell then, South China Sea, you have been beautiful… but Folk on the Park waits for no one : )

by Jonathan on Jun 30, 2014 •
Farewell then, South China Sea, you have been beautiful… but Folk on the Park waits for no one : ) #AtlanticDrifterTour http://folkonthepark.co.uk/  
Atlantic Drifter in Hong Kong - gigs - Hong Kong Design Institute
Music / News / Performances / Photographs

Atlantic Drifter in Hong Kong – gigs – Hong Kong Design Institute

by Jonathan on Jun 30, 2014 •
PERFORMANCE AT HKDI – I HAVE SO LOVED PLAYING IN ASIA! The warm enthusiasm of Hong Kong listeners is lovely : ) … I’m singing about a neolithic circle, half lost in the North Atlantic – playing a huge Chinese drum that was in the venue – swopped for my...
Atlantic Drifter in Hong Kong - gigs - Peel Fresco
Biography / Music / Photographs

Atlantic Drifter in Hong Kong – gigs – Peel Fresco

by Jonathan on Jun 12, 2014 •
  PEEL STREET FRESCO, CENTRAL, HONG KONG.Walking from the Soho levels down, threading between dark wooden restaurants, Peel street begins with the reek of incense, throat-scratchingly intense. The always burning smoke in a small alcove, red tiled, functional, with an indecipherable inscription hidden in a lockable niche. PEEL STREET FRESCO,...
Atlantic Drifter Tour goes to Hong Kong
Music / News / Photographs

Atlantic Drifter Tour goes to Hong Kong

by Jonathan on May 31, 2014 •
Flying out of Europe in the rain – like pushing through gray felt, fibres catching at the wings. A brilliant blue was with us most of the way, sunshine curling round the top of the world, stained the colour of air. Catching a little fitful sleep I woke to the...
Cefn Ymarfer Coed Naturial festival in Coed Nant Gain
Music / News / Performances

Cefn Ymarfer Coed Naturial festival in Coed Nant Gain

by Jonathan on May 26, 2014 •
: ) Cefn Ymarfer Coed Naturial festival in Coed Nant Gain was a truly exceptional gig : ) Iliffe the forest Steward is 7 feet tall with fiery red hair and as spindly as a birch sapling. Songbirds and insects buzzed a continuo for our songs – yellow archangel, stitchwort...
Atlantic drifter - summer tour '14 : )
Film/Video / Music / News / Performances

Atlantic drifter – summer tour ’14 : )

by Jonathan on Apr 20, 2014 •
Very happy to announce this year’s summer tour. Hope to see you somewhere on the road! x 25.3 Helsinki, Finland   http://www.aalto.fi 26.3 Arabiankatu, Finland   http://www.aalto.fi 27.3 Kapelli, Finland   http://valokuvataiteenmuseo.fi/fi/tulossa-en 2–3.5 Landed Festival, Rhayader, Wales   http://www.landedfestival.co.uk 4.5 Sun Festival, Severn Meadows, Low Town, Bridgnorth   http://tiny.cc/myn9dx 17.5 Celf Ymarfer Coedwig Naturial, Coed...
Finland tour blog
Music / Photographs

Finland tour blog

by Jonathan on Apr 13, 2014 •
Tour blog – music, photo, travelogue mashup goes to Finland  Departures – so nothing and nowhere – it’s a no place and no time. Such marvels, though, wait through the doors at the end of these silver tubes : ) Looking for Noggin. I’m flying, so half my face is...
Music - photo - travelogue mashup goes to Finland
News / Photographs

Music – photo – travelogue mashup goes to Finland

by Jonathan on Mar 22, 2014 •
Delighted to be taking a bunch of songs, pictures and travel stories to Finland, hosted by Aalto University. Weather forecast is icy, with a strong chance of Moomins x      
Gig with celtic trio Triskelion in Shrewsbury - music from the road less travelled
Music / News

Gig with celtic trio Triskelion in Shrewsbury – music from the road less travelled

by Jonathan on Mar 1, 2014 •
Wonderful gig playing with celtic trio Triskelion at the Anchor Inn, Shrewsbury on the banks of the Hafren. It’s an old river boatman’s pub – low ceilings held up by reclaimed ship’s timbers, terracota bricks warm in the firelight. A chance to play some music from the road less travelled,...
Vagabond from the Blue Sky, Part 2. An interview with FolkRadio's Alex Gallacher
Biography / Music / News / Reviews

Vagabond from the Blue Sky, Part 2. An interview with FolkRadio’s Alex Gallacher

by Jonathan on Dec 31, 2013 •
  Vagabond from the Blue Sky, part 2 An interview with FolkRadio’s Alex Gallacher Talking about his experiences of music and the road, Jonathan continued: Life, it often seems to me, is like a string of beads: moments strung like pearls on the fading continuum of my passing. Here are some...
News

A wish for our tomorrows

by Jonathan on Dec 29, 2013 •
Walking over the narrow bridge on the Sheinbrook, I saw three Grey Wagtails fly together along the water. Even without belief I still love the ancient augurers’ ways – predicting the future by the omens of animals. Moments later a deep chocolate brown dipper followed, its white tail like a kite or a nervous ladies fan, pretty against the reflected sky. As it flew into low hanging leaves an azure Kingfisher flashed its brilliance and was gone. Something beautiful is coming and these quiet creatures are its subtle heralds and vanguards x  
Vagabond from the Blue Sky part 1. An interview with Folk Radio's Alex Gallacher
Music / News / Reviews

Vagabond from the Blue Sky part 1. An interview with Folk Radio’s Alex Gallacher

by Jonathan on Dec 29, 2013 •
Folk Life: Jonathan Day – Vagabond from the Blue Sky   by ALEX GALLACHER, FolkRadio   I’ve been a fan of Jonathan Day’s music since he sent his album ‘Carved in Bone’. He’s a very keen traveller and always seems to be off on some journey, so much so that...
Fordhall festival - a farewell to summer
News

Fordhall festival – a farewell to summer

by Jonathan on Dec 22, 2013 •
Across Shropshire in early light after a cold and wonderful night playing our last outdoor festival of summer. We saw our breath as we sang… so now autumn, a season like my soul. A mist skein scarfing the hills, translucent as a jelly fish. Sometimes heavy rain, speaking of winter,...
Farmer Phil's Festival '13 and Shrewsbury Flower Show
Music / News

Farmer Phil’s Festival ’13 and Shrewsbury Flower Show

by Jonathan on Dec 13, 2013 •
Looking out into the darkness from a high place, across a river – the hundred thousand lights are engulfed in rain. A warm rain like a cat that curls around every corner, a quiet voice from a more subtle world. The musical life has brought me here, far from my...
Hong Kong 2013 - Blog
News / Photographs

Hong Kong 2013 – Blog

by Jonathan on Jul 5, 2013 •
Well it’s that time again… said my sad goodbyes – half a world will pass beneath my feet before I stand back on the earth and pick up my guitar… : ) After this wild and windy year, epitomised most by the moorland and meteorological Edale festival a few short...
Thailand - Part two
News / Photographs

Thailand – Part two

by Jonathan on Apr 26, 2013 •
Wandering and playing in Amphawa today … once-was trading port for Siam, water worn timber houses, fragile in the sun, so close to the tidal river and canals they seem in danger at any moment of inundation. Temples necklace the viridian forest, realisation out of water and brilliant light, home...
Thailand - Part one
News / Photographs

Thailand – Part one

by Jonathan on Apr 26, 2013 •
A time of black and white in my Shropshire hills. The Shein brook which winds along to the Hafren/Severn covered itself in ice. Wandering its upper reaches, I found otter tracks. A really profound feeling, silently welcoming back this elusive creature of water and air. I followed its path over...
Agia Napa - Blog
News

Agia Napa – Blog

by Jonathan on Dec 13, 2012 •
Arrival Not the most enjoyable of flights, but I am arrived intact by Budget air : ) Revisited Brussels airport, where as a 9 year old I arrived back from Africa… and breathed with the most profound and lasting joy the chill mist laden air. The Agia Napa accomodation is...
America Tour
Photographs

America Tour

by Jonathan on Nov 20, 2012 •
Rooftop Gig Tsim Sha Tsui
Photographs

Rooftop Gig Tsim Sha Tsui

by Jonathan on Nov 19, 2012 •
Rooftop gig in Hong Kong.
Review "Northern Sky"
Music / Reviews

Review “Northern Sky”

by Jonathan on Nov 19, 2012 •
The Shropshire countryside is embedded in the very fabric of this first proper release by Jonathan Day, a writer, painter and poet whose curiosity has taken him around the world and back on a journey of self-discovery, from Johannesburg to the heart of the Black Country, his true inspirational home....
Review "Folk Radio UK"
Music / Reviews

Review “Folk Radio UK”

by Jonathan on Nov 19, 2012 •
I like the quiet, the animals and the trees. It took me a long time to get here from where I grew up, in between factories, steel hard and iron grey. Long ago most of my family lived in these borderlands; I guess I’ve always been slowly heading home. There’s...
Latest entries
Playing Camp Bestival mainstage - 19 August 2022
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Playing Camp Bestival mainstage – 19 August 2022

by Jonathan on Aug 17, 2022 •
We’re off to Weston in Shropshire to play at Camp Bestival : ) So happy to be invited by Sarah at Twisted Agency to play at this iconic – but most importantly fun – festival. We’re on Mainstage Friday early afternoon and at the Carvanserai stage on Sunday – at 3 40 in the afternoon....
New Single - out 19th August 2022 to coincide with our Bestival performances. The first release from forthcoming album 'Sakura'.
News

New Single – out 19th August 2022 to coincide with our Bestival performances. The first release from forthcoming album ‘Sakura’.

by Jonathan on Aug 17, 2022 •
Listen here : ) https://jonathanday.bandcamp.com/track/isolde Isolde is a love story – it’s autobiographical (always a treacherous area of inspiration : ) and the story I lived has strong echoes and resonances with the Arthurian story of Isolde, Tristan and King Mark. But that’s enough said – I’ll let the song tell its story : )...
Summer Tour
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Summer Tour

by Jonathan on Aug 17, 2022 •
Delighted to be packing up the instruments loading the van and heading out to a bunch of festivals over the summer. They are all delightfully different: Bellan is a boutique festival in an American War of Independence era naval fort. Strange to think people were this afraid of an American/French invasion in the 1770s… I’m...
Summer tour 2021 – launch concert for Refugee Week
News

Summer tour 2021 – launch concert for Refugee Week

by Jonathan on Jun 18, 2021 •
We’re launching our summer festival tour with a special intimate concert at the gorgeous IN GOOD HANDS in Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, supporting REFUGEE WEEK. Would love to see you there x
Orphans of the Storm - four track EP: "I fell in love as soon as I heard it - different, gorgeous - honestly beautiful" BBC Introducing, "a balm for the soul" Angeline Morrison
News

Orphans of the Storm – four track EP: “I fell in love as soon as I heard it – different, gorgeous – honestly beautiful” BBC Introducing, “a balm for the soul” Angeline Morrison

by Jonathan on Apr 24, 2020 •
LISTEN here: https://jonathanday.bandcamp.com/album/orphans-of-the-storm Four songs of love and loss, a distillation of years spent wandering and playing. Presenting stories from a frozen midsummer’s night on a Danish island, the deep countryside of Belarus, streets in Bali and the wide black land of Minnesota, these compositions take their heart from time, silence and the mad, mundane and...
A Spirit Library - available here
Music / News / Store

A Spirit Library – available here

by Jonathan on Feb 3, 2020 •
PRESS RELEASE:  a Spirit Library Following Carved in Bone and Atlantic Drifter, Shropshire borderlands based singer songwriter Jonathan Day releases his third studio album a Spirit Library, at the beginning of April. Recorded at SFG studio in the Berwyn Mountains and at the Magic Garden, the new album’s working title was Vagabond Language; taken from Evelyn Waugh’s...
a Spirit Library chosen for Folk Radio's Albums of the Year
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a Spirit Library chosen for Folk Radio’s Albums of the Year

by Jonathan on Jan 20, 2020 •
Delighted that a Spirit Library is a Folk Radio Album of the Year for 2019. Thanks so much to all at FRUK – for me the most innovative and considered voice in the music I love. Thank you, with all my heart, to everyone who has been to a show, shared a kind word, listened to a...
a Spirit Library: Reviews
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a Spirit Library: Reviews

by Jonathan on Jan 10, 2020 •
Jonathan Day – A Spirit Library (Album Review) _ Folk Radio UK
a Spirit Library on Film - song videos
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a Spirit Library on Film – song videos

by Jonathan on Jan 3, 2020 •
A selection of visual representations of songs from a Spirit Library  
In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas – An animation made with Shiyi Li
News

In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas – An animation made with Shiyi Li

by Jonathan on Jan 2, 2020 •
In Dreams a Crossing of Great Seas. My thanks to amazing animator Shiyi Li for giving light and colour to the dreams, intuitions and memories of which this song is spun.

UPCOMING EVENTS


2022 SUMMER TOUR
24/02 Bellan is a boutique festival in an American War of Independence era naval fort. Strange to think people were this afraid of an American/French invasion in the 1770s… I’m pro revolution – in the Camus sense of a personal everyday renewal, and in the political sense when it is needed.

30/05 Raising Steamcombines equal portions of friendly and strange. Steam Punk is at its heart – but it ranges across theatre, spoken word and couture celebration. All in aid of New Futures Nepal – a charity supporting schools for homeless Nepali children.

26/07 Get A Word In sits atop the ancient warm sea coral reef of Wenlock Edge – expect lots of spoken word, mixed arts and musical improvisations

16 - 18/07 Festival at the Edge is Britain’s oldest Storytelling Festival – we’re doing the opening ceremony performance – light, fire, music, poetry, dance and of course storytelling : )

09/07 Warwick Folk Festival will be a grounding back into the music that has been so inspiring across the years – where are roots are. Something dynamic though that never rests, never becoming moribund.

30/07 Landed is one of our favourites – beautiful people on the banks of the Gwy near Rhaedr, wild, unpredictable, always surprising. A collision of light sound and smiles

05/08 BBC interview with Michaela Wylde and broadcast of our new single
19/08 -21/08 Bestival is the iconic Isle of Wight/South Coast festival that is now moving also to Shropshire. We’re delighted to be playing mainstage on Friday 19th and the brilliant Caravanserai on Sunday 21st. Huge thanks to Sarah at Twisted Agency for sorting this out for us : )

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© 2012 Anna Popovic. All Rights Reserved.

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