With three stunning EPs under his belt, Roo Panes is pleased to announce the first news of his debut album and a brand new single ‘Tiger Striped Sky’. Due for release on June 9th through CRC Music, ‘Tiger Striped Sky’ is taken from Roo’s debut album which will be released in autumn.

‘Tiger Striped Sky’ highlights Roo’s talent for well-crafted songs. Adept with marvelous vocal intonation, Roo’s rich melodies are underpinned by beautiful string arrangements. A natural wordsmith, his lyrics conjure feelings of wistful reflection and the need to explore: “Think I’ll write a tale of my own / I’m going southbound where the ocean is flirting with the coast / And tell me why / I’m underneath a tiger striped sky”

Roo’s musical education came in part from his grandmother, a classical concert pianist, the hymns of his local church and in part from his parents’ collection of Nick Drake and Bob Dylan records. His songwriting has a subtle power to it, his process raw and Roo has been pleasantly surprised to discover covers of his own tracks surfacing on YouTube already – a testament to their resonance.

Hailing from a small town in Dorset, Roo’s surroundings have a strong influence on his music as well. Like many of his favourite romantic poets before him, he effortlessly stitches the sense of beauty, landscape and space into his songs.

A captivating performer, Roo Panes is painting his own distinct picture with his music and will be showcasing it live on his first full UK tour in May and June.

Upcoming live dates

Wed 14^th May – Cookie Jar, Leicester

Thurs 15^th May – Union Mash Up, Hull **Free show**

Fri 16^th May – Spanky Van Dykes, Nottingham **Free show**

Sun 18^th May – The Mad Ferrett, Preston

Mon 19^th May – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

Tues 20^th May – Fallow Café, Manchester

Wed 21^st May – Leaf, Liverpool

Fri 23^rd May – Independent, Sunderland

Sat 24^th May – Cellar 35, Aberdeen

Sun 25^th May – Hootenannys, Inverness

Tues 27^th May – Ruby Sessions @ Doyles, Dublin

Sun 1^st June – The Yardbird, Birmingham **Free show**

Mon 2^nd June – Moon Club, Cardiff

Tues 3^rd June – Gallimaufry, Bristol **Free show**

Thurs 5^th June – The Taphouse, St Agnes **Free show**

Sat 7^th June – The Night Jar, Truro **Free show**

Sun 8^th June – The Watering Hole, Perranporth **Free show**

Tues 10^th June – The Hope, Brighton

Wed 11^th June – Waterfront Studio, Norwich

Thurs 12^th June – Ace Hotel, London

Tickets on sales Tues 15^th April at 9am from www.roopanes.co.uk

We’re rather pleased to once again be hosting a stage at The Great Escape Festival, Brighton on 8th May at The Green Door Store.

Tennis
Tennis is an American indie pop band from Denver made up of husband-and-wife duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. They released their EP ‘Small Sounds’ via Communion.

Matthew and The Atlas
After two EPs of dreamy, textured Americana on Communion Records (the label’s first ever releases back in 2011) and a subsequent year of touring in Europe and the US, Hegarty retreated home – and to his sometime day job as a landscape gardener – to mull over the songs developing in his head and how best to present them to the world.

In the summer of 2013, he went into the studio and, in a short burst, recorded what will be the much anticipated debut ‘Other Rivers’ due for release 14th April.

The Trouble With Templeton
The brainchild of Brisbane musician Thomas Calder, TTWT have been making waves down under since the release of their debut, self produced mini album, “Bleeders”. Now the band are set to release “Rookie” through seminal UK Indie label Bella Union, on 13th May 2014. Calder’s emotive vocals, coupled with the assertive, driven sound of the band make The Trouble With Templeton ones to watch for 2014.

Beautiful Boy
The five piece band from the south coast create rousing guitar pop songs that they describe as cinematic. They’re set to release a single in May.

Sam Fender
Singer/songwriter Sam Fender is from Tyneside,  he has an honest and witty presence onstage and has supported the likes of Ben Howard, George Ezra and Hozier.

For more details on the full festival line-up and to buy tickets head to http://greatescapefestival.com/

We’re very excited to announce we’ve teamed up with Propaganda, the UK’s biggest indie club night and XFM to bring you a brand new club night in Brixton featuring the hottest DJ’s and new bands.

Taking up monthly residence at Brixton Electric from 31st May, indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club and dark pop band The Horrors will be bringing their own eclectic musical tastes to the DJ booth on the launch night alongside Communion and Propaganda resident DJs.

Get tickets HERE

Our good friend Michael Kiwanuka is organising a very special show in aid of the Ewafe Project. Taking place in St Luke’s Church, Kentish Town on Saturday 3rd May.

The night will feature performances from Marcus Foster, Beth Rowley, Stoke William, CJ and The Birds and of course Michael Kiwanuka himself.

Tickets are on-sale now HERE

Communion Presents…Bear Hands

Inhabiting the centre of Brooklyn quartet Bear Hands is a textbook example of contrasting personalities uniting to craft something more than the sum of their parts. Vocalist/guitarist Dylan Rau, the group’s self-confessed musical Luddite (“I can’t read music but that’s ok because I’m more of an ideas man,”) peppers his supersonic chatter with an infectious collection of witticisms. By contrast his songwriting partner, guitarist Ted Feldman, who grew up playing the cello, carefully selects his answers and admits to being “a bit of a control freak.”

Together, though, these contradictory characters have combined their strengths to deliver their upcoming major label album debut Distraction – a collection in which their love of pop hooks is filtered cohesively through an eclectic collection of genre elements ranging from psychedelic to punk. Giants is perhaps the track that best encapsulates everything that makes Bear Hands special, as it flows from a manic verse full of hollered stream-of-consciousness lyrics into an infectious chorus, in which the universal emotion of “I’m loving you more” is set to a cascading riff.

After the album was completed, one further challenge presented itself: how could Bear Hands present Distraction to the world-at-large? In contrast to the travails that they’d previously experienced, this time luck was on their side. They sent a copy of their album to an independent PR friend based in London who in turn recommended the band to management behemoths Q Prime – home of Muse, Foals, The Black Keys and many more. With Q Prime on-board, Bear Hands soon inked a deal with Warner Bros. Records, who will release Distraction in the summer of 2014.

They headline Electrowerkz on 14th May, buy tickets from Friday 4th April HERE

Communion Presents…LAYLA

South London born-and-raised Layla is an engaging young artist who writes music to “understand how humans operate”. Unafraid to be vulnerable, she produces songs that are euphoric and painful in equal measure, operating in a devastatingly raw and personal framework of jealousy, doubt and the wide-eyed giddiness of youth.

Taking on a convincingly DIY approach, she writes, arranges and records her music at the bottom of her garden in ‘The Burrow’, a fairy light-drenched space where she finds the quiet to “burrow down and uncover things that are hiding inside”. With a striking vocal delivery akin to Feist, the rhythmic and textured arrangements of Efterklang and the pop sensibilities of Kimbra to match, Layla creates lush and powerful soundscapes that carefully maintain a sense of honesty and intimacy, and showcase hauntingly poetic lyrics, gilded melodies and shimmering piano lines that nod gently to her classical piano training and background in English Literature.
Layla’s forthcoming ‘Black Mud EP’ delivers another collection of beautifully crafted and musically adventurous stories, predominantly inspired by 1950s Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. She is preparing to play these new songs later this month at a string of dates supporting Bipolar Sunshine on his nationwide tour, ultimately working towards her debut headline show in April at The Social, hosted by Communion, get tickets HERE

Communion Presents…Leif Vollebekk

Leif Vollebekk spent two years searching for perfect takes. This search took him from his home in Montreal to a studio in Manhattan, from a farmhouse in Woodstock, NY to a mansion outside Paris, and the result is a dusty, polished, new, old record called North Americana.

“I wrote the songs, I found the best band in the world, and then all I had to do was find the right studio, for the right take,” he says. “And it took forever.”

After his 2010 debut, Vollebekk knew the kind of album he wanted to make next: a record like the ones he loves by Gillian Welch or Ryan Adams, that feel old and familiar even when they’re new. But also a record that speaks to the listener through its lyrics, with songs “that can hold up in a storm,” that are packed full of perfect little mistakes. So he started writing. Ten new songs, the best he had ever written, with lines about love and the end of love, about journeys and homecoming, about the death of friends and drinking yourself dry. Now Vollebekk laughs: “I thought the record was done when I was finished writing the songs. ‘All we need to do is record it!’” But when you’re searching for the perfect take, recording is no small task. It happened only piece by piece, session by session, song by song, over the course of seasons.

North Americana took years. “All this time,” Vollebekk says, “trying to get one take.” But the result is a beautiful, alive, human – shambling ballads, noisy folk songs, vivid portraits of a 27-year-old’s watercolour life.

Tickets for his headline show at Servant Jazz Quarters HERE

Forget your roast dinner, every first Sunday of the month we serve a delicious line-up of tasty new music just for you at Communion London clubnight.

On Sunday, April 6th at Notting Hill Arts Club, Communion presents… The Night VI, School is Cool, Happyness, Lovepark, Model Aeroplanes, Osian Rhys + a special guest!

Doors at 6pm; tickets available HERE.

We’re very pleased to announce that London four-piece Cortes are playing a headline London show at The Black Heart on April 29th.

www.soundcloud.com/cortesband

Advance tickets HERE