Sunday,
May 18; Doors at 8pm
Fern
Knight CD Release Party with special guest
Colleen
Celebrating
the release of their latest full length recording,
Fern Knight brings their epic, orchestral
folk soundscapes to International House. Lead
by guitarist/cellist/vocalist Margaret Wienk,
Fern Knight has become one of the premiere
music groups living and working in Philadelphia.
The group has toured extensively and shared
the stages with Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver and
White Magic. Their first two releases, 2003’s
Seven Years of Severed Limbs (Normal
Records) and 2006’s Music for
Witches and Alchemists (VHF) have
garnered much critical acclaim for the ability
to blend 60s and 70s folk and psychedelic
sounds with influences ranging from eastern
classical music, chamber music, contemporary
rock and electronic sounds.
Fern
Knight,
the eponymous third full-length offering promises
to expand on this musical language continuing
to weave the group’s complex musical tapestry.
As the primary cover for Margaret Wienk's
singing and songwriting, this record fully
unleashes her style of melding acoustic and
electronic sounds, displaying her classical
roots and psychedelic leanings and her careful
orchestration alongside the improvisational
strengths of the quartet, well-placed strings
and crystalline vocals.
Colleen
is a French musician working within a minimalist
and melodic aesthetic using acoustic instruments
and modern technologies. Her shows, with their
wide array of acoustic instruments, reflects
her deep love of those sounds, and the occasional
use of looping and delay pedals brings her
live music closer to the layered feel of her
albums.
For
the past five years, she has been playing
all over Europe, the US and Japan, giving
more than 120 shows in venues such as the
Victoria and Albert Museum and the ICA in
London, various churches in the UK, the Britannia
Panopticon Music Hall in Glasgow, Dublin’s
Spiegeltent, the Brussels Planetarium, San
Francisco’s Herbst Theatre and New York’s
Society for Ethical Culture, as well as world-renowned
festivals such as The Wire’s Adventures in
Music Festival in Chicago, Transmediale in
Berlin, Mutek in Canada, and many more.
Colleen
has three albums on The Leaf Label –
Everyone Alive Wants Answers
(2003), The Golden Morning Breaks
(2005) and Les ondes silencieuses
(2007). She has released a live recording
in the cult series Mort aux Vaches
on Staalplaat in 2006 and a commission by
national French radio station France Culture
in October 2006 resulted in an EP made entirely
with music boxes – Colleen
et les boites a musique.
$8
members; $10 general admission (all-ages show,
must be 21 & over to consume alcohol).
In
advance at 
and 866.468.7619 or one hour before showtime.
