Following the release of her breathtaking album Murmuration in 2012, Olive Grove Records are to release Jo Mango’s beguiling EP When We Lived in the Crook of a Tree.
This spellbinding four-track EP was commissioned for a special Celtic Connections show in 2012 in support of Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab).
The songs were written and recorded within a month and Mango wanted to draw on the idea of speed, to mirror the creative process of these enchanting songs.
As she explains: “It becomes just like a capture of fleeting moments of inspiration with a lot of fragility about them.”
The songs were based on stories from Angela Carter’s Book of Fairytales, which is a collection of weird and wonderful fairytales from around the world that have female protagonists – Mango fell in love with one fairytale in particular.
“There is a fairytale from West Africa – ‘The Girl Who Stayed in the Fork of a Tree’, I wrote all the songs based on that one tale.
“It’s a surreal and dark tale involving kidnap, armies of babies, evil kings, zebra-tails, talking birds and supernatural mothers, at the heart of it is a story that I think many people can relate to, about fear of the future and of having or not having children.”
When We Lived in the Crook of a Tree catches Mango in a musical and embryonic state, revealing glimmers of melancholy that have never before been as apparent.
Every song paints an exquisite picture and every breath takes you to a place of hypnotic contentment.
You can catch Mango live on December 14 at The Glad Cafe (with Call to Mind) and as part of Celtic Connections and Olive Grove showcase at Oran Mor on January 26.
Rave Child 