Music
The Sorrow Songs : Folk Songs of Black British Experience (Topic Records, 2022)
The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience is produced by Eliza Carthy and features some of her beautiful, soaring string arrangements. The Sorrow Songs was recorded in Cornwall at Cube Studios and is a work of ‘re-storying’.
“The traditional songs of the UK are rich with storytelling, and you can find songs with examples of almost any kind of situation or person you can think of. But whilst people of the African diaspora have been present in these islands since at least Roman times, their histories are little known – and these histories don’t tend to appear in the folk songs of these islands.”
Angeline Morrison began to wonder if she could discover more about the lives of these ordinary and extraordinary Black ancestors, and create an album of songs in the sonic style of UK folk and traditional music, in the hope that this silent space could then begin to be filled with stories. With the help of Arts Council National Lottery funding, Angeline began what became a year of research into this neglected area of Black British history. The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience is the result.
The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs
(Independent release, 2022)
A collection of 10 traditional songs, chosen with love and care. The title track has
been a talisman to me… it allowed me to dream people of colour into the songs of
these islands, long before I knew about the fact of our historic presence here. The
arrangements include multiple vocals, some drones, and as much space and light as
possible.
Ophelia Album (Independent release, 2024)
OPHELIA is an album of 11 original songs, all of which are composed, arranged, recorded, played and sung by Angeline Morrison. The album, formerly a Bandcamp download-only, has now been remastered for general release for Autumn Equinox (September 20th, 2024). Available as a digital download everywhere, & physically from Bandcamp as a pink CD, or transparent blue vinyl.
The OPHELIA album is a series of imaginings and meditations in an eerie, hauntological folk style including found sounds, knives, handmade music box, garden sounds... Each song is an imprint of a feeling, a fugitive thought, a restless story, a spirit. The album's single, He Comes in the Night, is a haunting that turns into a love story.... OPHELIA is the imaginings of Shakespeare's Ophelia as she glides to her watery grave... Clouds Never Move was originally released in 2020 after George Floyd's murder, and is about the importance of speaking your truth... The Fat Lady Sings is a dignified response to Frances Darwin Cornford's 1908 poem, 'To a Fat Lady Seen from a Train'... In Almost But Not Quite, an astrologer casts a chart for a client they secretyly adore...
How eloquently the character of Ophelia communicates the darkest depths
of sorrow, grief and loss, the places from which so many humans shrink.
Lost Things Returning by We Are Muffy (Countrymile Records, 2024)
Following on from 2020's The Charcoal Pool, Nick Duffy and Angeline Morrison (aka We Are Muffy) return with more musical musings on memory, nostalgia, and the way the Lost Property department of Life sometimes gives you a lovely surprise... This album brings you more of We Are Muffy's characteristic Incredible String Band influenced folk sounds, this time with added little messages of upliftment.
"Sounding like a modern-day version of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin" - KLOF Magazine.
"It's as comforting as your favourite sweater, and just as warm" - Popmatters
"Listening to the distant Cornish trappings of We Are Muffy is like stepping into a time capsule of Brylcreem, pinstripes and windy seaside shingle" - Americana UK.
20th Century Folk Hymnal SINGLE by We Are Muffy (Countrymile Records, 2024)
Released as an aperitif to the Lost Things Returning album, 20th Century Folk Hymnal is a song Angeline wrote about what it's like to be a child on the receiving end of racist bullying. It is hoped that misfit children of all kinds will find something they can resonate with in this song.
The Charcoal Pool by We Are Muffy (Tapete Records, 2018)
From somewhere wild and strange in Cornwall come the idiosyncratic acoustic sounds of We Are Muffy, the happy alliance of Nick Duffy (The Lilac Time, Bait) and Angeline Morrison (The Mighty Sceptres, The Ambassadors of Sorrow). With influences including the Incredible String Band, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Sam Cooke, Max Romeo and Shirley & Dolly Collins weaving through their music, We Are Muffy spin poetic narratives of remembered and imagined tales set in Birmingham. Their distinctive strain of folk music combines vocal harmonies with unexpected instrumentation (lyre, music box, cutlery, bottle tops, broken china), in amongst the expected (autoharp, banjo, double bass). Uncut Magazine awarded the album 8 stars, writing that "They summon the dust, stillness and daydreams of Sunday afternoons in 1972."
Bride of the Wintertide by Rowan : Morrison (Millersounds, 2021)
The third album in the trilogy of winter themed albums (following on from Silent
Night Songs for a Cold Winter's Evening and Fields of Frost).
A collection of songs ranging from carols, new and traditional folksong, a Christmas
pop song, a song for Plough Monday, and more beside.