Humankindweed by Fowl

Humankindweed is a product of Covid 19. For us lockdown has meant remotely sharing lyrics, fragments, ideas, demos, songs, files, tracks and all the virtual paraphernalia that comes with making music with people scattered around the country. It’s not been an easy process and much of the album has been recorded a bit back-to-front. But somehow the need to write and make music and to share sparked a surge of creativity that has produced these ten songs. Whilst this has sometimes been taxing, infuriating, puzzling and all manners of otherings, it has mostly been a joy. And we love the result. We have worked with some brilliant, inspired, and inspiring people; we have wandered into alien territory and found a way out again; we have stretched ourselves in many directions, we have collapsed and got up again. With any luck at least one of these songs will give you a lift. A bit more luck and you might find it all rather wonderful.

Back in 2002 we made a piece for Radio 3’s The Verb that had the remit of involving words and music but not being a song. The result was our celebrated Waiting for Geese/Feeding the Ducks. In the following years our musical paths divided but our friendship continued. In 2018 we reconvened to produce Pigeons Can Distinguish and we adopted the name Fowl. Then, when Covid 19 came along we started writing/composing together again, remotely of course, and that remit – words, music, not a song – hung in the air. The tracks on this album clearly are songs but the spirit of composition was here’s some words, here’s some music, let’s see how they go together.

Hugh Nankivell and Graham Browning have worked and played together for over 20 years. They now call themselves Fowl and they spent much of 2020 and lockdown writing songs together and recording them remotely with contributions from a variety of friends.