Joe Broughton

Things often get out of hand when working with the folk ensemble… you just mention an idea and before you know it it’s 10 times bigger that what you intended, I guess because the band is 10 times the size of a normal band.

 

This project started out as the single “Sleepy Maggie” and after I mentioned the possibility of doing some remixes, in the pub after rehearsal one night, the ideas started flowing. Before I knew it I had club remixes, Chinese groove-monsters, full on drum n bass and more flowing into my inbox. I thought perhaps we could release a few of these with the single but they just kept on coming. A full scale remix, reworking, reinventing project had launched itself and I started to wonder whether other people might enjoy hearing these radical takes on a traditional tune as much as I was enjoying them. Actually they are radical takes on what I thought was a pretty radical version of the tune I had already made! Also, I had this old live version (Vintage Maggie) that I always loved the vibe of but had no reason to release. It needed mending because of a technical fault in the original recording but I’m so pleased to be able to share it with you after all these years.

 

I hope you enjoy this 10 track single(!) and get a kick out of what a bunch of fantastic young musicians can do with a simple tune and a couple of riffs… Yes it’s pretty crazy at times but it is young people learning tunes in the aural tradition, making it their own and passing it on… you might even call it folk music.

 

JB 1/5/18

1. Sleepy Maggie (Joe Broughton/Trad) 4:28

Arr. Joe Broughton/JB's CFE

This is the full Folk Ensemble single. It was recorded at Birmingham Conservatoire, SAE Studios and The Gighouse Recording Studio. The track was mixed and mastered by Andie Thomson at The Gighouse.

Joe Broughton- Violin

Aria Trigás - Violin

Edwin Podolski - Violin

Emily Dore - Violin

Helena Britten - Violin

Mae Edwards - Violin

Ning-ning Li - Violin

Paloma Trigás - Violin

Rachel Roberts - Violin

Seth Bye  - Violin

Rosemary Wilkes - Vox             

Flora McNicoll - Cello

Victoria Groves - Cello

Nicole Stephanie Szabo - Cello

Julie Claire - Cello

Arjun Jethwa - Flute

Helena Bale - Flute

Natasha Davies - Flute

Kaethe Uken - Clarinet

Katie Jenner - Clarinet

Louis Stanhope - Clarinet

Tommy Hill - Oboe

Josh Dean - Soprano Saxophone

Robert Bark - Soprano Saxophone

Alex Chisnall - Alto Saxophone

Alicia Hillman - Alto Saxophone

Isobel Matthews - Alto Saxophone

Fraser Birchenall - Baritone Saxophone

Adam Davison - Trumpet

Daniel Blanco Albert - Trumpet

Oli Parker - Trumpet

Oliver Lin - Trumpet

Tom Stoneman - Flugel

James Wilson - Trombone

Rob Roberts - Trombone

Samantha Oxborough - Euphonium and Vocal Solo

Tsvetelina Likova - Harp

Harry Thorpe - Accordion

Nick B Hart Octave - Mandola

Joseph Ockford - Electric Guitar

Josh Wunderlich - Electric Guitar

Maarten Benschop - Electric Guitar

Matthew Price - Electric Guitar (including solo)

Sal Broughton - Electric Bass

Sam Baldwin - Electric Guitar

Bogdan Suciu - Acoustic Guitar

Bryn Davies - Double Bass

Jude Crofton - Bassoon

Mark Dilley - Tuba

Ben Weatherill - Cajón & Cymbals

Ed Day - Bongos, Percussion

Tom Chapman - Djembe, Percussion

Rosie Tunley - Glock, Percussion

Thomas Whitehead - Tambourine

2. Restless Maggie (Sybren Holwerda/Trad) 3:24

Arr. Sybren Holwerda/Joe Broughton/JB’s CFE

Sybren Holwerda

Sybren Holwerda is a twenty-year-old violinist from Holland. Sybren studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Nathaniel Vallois, with whom he previously had lessons at the Purcell School of Music. Before moving to England, he studied with Annechien van Blom at the ArtEZ conservatoire in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

Sybren received masterclasses from Liza Ferschtman, Anna Lipkind, Charlie Siem, Natasja Morozova, Sally O’Reilly, John Gilbert, Daniele Pascoletti, Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Itzhak Rashkovsky. Sybren has also participated in the New Virtuosi Violin Mastercourse in Duino, Italy, where he had lessons with Ani Schnarch.

He has played in various ensembles and was a member of the ‘Britten Youth Strings Orchestra’ conducted by Loes Visser. With ‘The Orchestra of the Netherlands’ conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend, he participated in a live programme on national television.

Sybren currently plays a violin, built by Max Möller in 1928, that he borrows from the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation.

 

Restless Maggie

 

"With Restless Maggie I have tried to combine my passion for electronic music with my love for the violin. When Joe asked us if anyone was interested in doing a remix of the folk ensemble track I did not hesitate to take the challenge. I focussed the track around the fiddle and started creating three 8-bar phrases including the different sections of the original Folk Ensemble tune. I had to play around with the order of the sections before I could start putting in the little details. Once I had the structure figured out I basically went through the entire list of instruments that were recorded and took little snippets from most of the recordings. I wanted to involve as many parts of the original tune as I could, without changing the electronic style and I had to be careful not to make it resemble the original too much while trying to keep the connection obvious too.

I hope that Restless Maggie can be a bridge between EDM and folk music and most of all give people a good time!"

 

Sybren Holwerda