We Long to be Haunted – EP – Laura Cannell

“It’s hard not to associate haunting with grief, terror, or darkness but this body of work is about a yearning for a quiet cool space, away from people, heat, intrusive thoughts and constant overload of information, a space to allow the memories to flood in. Some of these memories will be haunting, some will lead us to raw places and some will simply be a moment to breathe and remember how we arrived here.

The five tracks are improvised performances – an experiment in what happens when you enter a space alone, break the silence with music for a brief time and then walk away, nobody knowing you were there. Cannell explores the original loudspeakers that are embedded in the English landscape in the form of medieval churches – always searching for feelings and emotions within the stone walls of these lonely towered buildings.

This time she also introduces field recordings of bells being loosened and the tawny owls who also sat listening. WE LONG TO BE HAUNTED follows Cannell’s critically acclaimed seventh solo album ‘Antiphony of the Trees’, which came out earlier this year.”

BrittenPears Artist Residency 2022

In March 2020 Laura was due to spend time at Snape after being selected as BrittenPears Arts residency artist, on the prestigious development programme. The week she was going was the week before the first lock down, so… this was pushed back a year, then another year and in 2022 it took place with the addition of Kate Ellis on Cello and other instruments. At this point Cannell and Ellis had begun working together remotely and written and produced 1 Album: These Feral Lands – Vol.1 (November 2020) followed by 13 EPs: Winter Rituals (December 2020) and then 12 monthly EPs which was funded by Arts Council England, under the heading: These Feral Lands: A Year Documented in Sound and Art.

Since Cannell and Ellis had built their working relationship and friendship it seemed natural to use the residency time and space at Snape in Suffolk to work together in a live situation for the first time.

The residency resulted in 2 live performances in the Jerwood Kiln Room at Snape, and was a week of composing, collaborating, experimenting and accidentally setting off the fire alarm with a fog machine.
(photos by Livvid)