ANGELINE MORRISON

With a feral approach, a handmade sonic aesthetic and a belief in the importance of tenderness, Angeline’s original compositions and re-stitchings of traditional songs focus on storytelling and the small things that often go unnoticed. Sounds like solitude, memory, nostalgia, a rainy walk amongst trees…

In July 2022, Angeline was announced as the fourth winner of the prestigious Christian Raphael Prize at Cambridge Folk Festival, which generously supports the development of emerging talent in the folk genre. In December 2022 The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience was voted No 1 Folk album of the year in The Guardian. 

You can also hear Angeline as part of alt-folk duo We Are Muffy with Nick Duffy (of The Lilac Time), and psych-folk duo Rowan : Morrison with The Rowan Amber Mill.

The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience (released October 2022, Topic Records) is a work of re-storying. The historic Black presence in the UK dates back to at least Roman times, yet is often hidden, forgotten or  unacknowledged. The populations of enslaved African people and their descendants in the USA have their bodies of folk song, which are vitally important for containing histories, expressing feelings, giving voice and claiming presence… but the Black ancestors of the UK have no equivalent body of song. The Sorrow Songs begins to address this. It is a gift to the forgotten Black ancestors of these islands, and to the folk community here today. The album uses history and imagination to tell stories of UK Black ancestors in the sonic style of UK traditional and folk music.

The generous support of Arts Council England, Help Musicians UK & The English Folk Dance and Song Society is gratefully acknowledged here, for the album, research and tour.