Session 51 // 15.09.2025
Marlais – Stream of forms (2022)
Ciao,
No Room for Squares is a series that promotes shared listening of genre-challenging music: artists and records that don't fit into specific categories but break the boundaries between them.
Next Monday will be the last appointment in our mini-series dedicated to out-folk. It has been an exciting ride, during which I tried to build an ideal bridge between past and future and had the chance to exchange ideas and views with many other interested people. Thanks again to Teshi for hosting a wonderful session where we explored the old-school Italian side of the movement, and to the beautiful people at Juiced Listening, who gave me the opportunity to present contemporary records.
See you at Rhinoceros,
Alessandro
✨ 15.09.2025 – Listening session 51: Marlais – Stream of forms (2022) ✨
Marlais’s Stream of Forms is a striking reinterpretation of traditional English folk ballads, enriched by global influences and electronic experimentation. Unlike simple renditions, Marlais delves into the essence of each song, recontextualising it with care and sensitivity. Tracks like Bird in the Bush and Blackwater Side showcase inventive instrumentation while maintaining emotional clarity. His singing, reminiscent of Sam Lee, is plain yet deeply affecting, letting the lyrics and emotions stand at the forefront.
Created over five years during a residency in Tusheti, Georgia, the album reflects patient reflection and devotion. Stream of Forms is both immersive and contemplative: “I how these songs draw a listener in by confronting life in a candid way, and how they evoke emotion through communal memories and narratives. They allow us to view a personal memory from an other perspective, giving us a chance to examine the way we remember lived events, or indeed other people. This is one of the many reasons why these songs survive. They are a living history of everyday people, connecting and resonating with each new generation. The songs are a gateway to this history. A singer or performer briefly embodies a song, channelling what is within them through the song, briefly transforming both song and singer. Capturing the emotional force of a folk song is integral. I also have a duty to not abuse the song. These songs don’t belong to me, I am merely inhabiting them for a brief moment.”
✨ Rhinoçerós Bar, Rhinower Str. 3, 10437 Berlin.
✨ The bar opens at 6:30 PM, needle drop at 8:30 PM.
✨ A 5 Euro entry ticket will be charged on the first order. No reservations.
✨ We ask for silent listening during the length of the record.
✨ Come early and stay late for a chat and a drink!
More on Marlais:
- “Out of the window” Video
More music:
Poor creature – All Smiles Tonight (2025 River Lea)
Irish folk and shoegaze? This surprising mixture generate a tension through the whole record, juxtaposing tender voices set against walls of sound; rather than cancelling each other out, these contrasts sharpen the emotional pull of the music, giving even the gentlest melodies a sense of urgency and weight.
VVAA – New Traditions (2025 Wild Raver)
New Gaelic music, from voice experiments to bagpipes. Quoting the work of Alan Lomax the compilation presents interesting artists and also serves as a statement: “This collection of tunes has (an) intent: to consolidate ephemeral words in physical grooves - real as the rigs that still scar the earth - but also a desire to interpret. These versions have the greatest reverence for the originals at heart, but like the architecture of a great gallery, serve to protect and elevate.”
From the bookshelf:
Lally MacBeth – The Lost Folk: From the Forgotten Past to the Emerging Future of Folk (Faber 2025)
What better book to conclude this journey? Lally MacBeth’s The Lost Folk is a playful, insightful, and almost poetic exploration of what we call “folk”: not just as something nostalgic or historical, but as a living, shifting set of traditions, objects, and practices. It was a fun and in spiring read, that sets the tone for my future explorations. And also quotes “Folk as a feminist issue” from Lucy Wright which has been one of the red threads of the miniseries:
”Reclaim folk for women.
Reclaim folk for the poor / benefit class.
Reclaim folk for the queer and Other.
Reclaim folk for radical politics, community-making and care.
Reclaim folk for the environment.
Reclaim folk for art”
Available at Faber.
Upcoming gigs in September:
17.9 – Marta De Pascalis + Sophie Vitelli at Silent Green
16./18.9 – Berlin Solo Impro Festival at Acker Stadt Palast
20.9 – Alexander von Schlippenbach Quintett at Kubiz Raoul Wallenberg
20.9 – Nebbia / Park / Dimitriadis at Sowieso
21.9 – Kantine Musik at Silent Green
23.9 – Schick / Lehmann / Fischer at Alter Schwede
23.9 – Tarozzi / Walker at KM28
27.9 – Bisset / Beins at Satellit