Beth Orton: Promoting new album The Ground Above at Leeds Howard Assembly Room. Picture: Kasia Wozniak
WHAT were the chances? Beth Orton last played Leeds on October 16 2022 at the Brudenell Social Club on her Weather Alive tour. Now she will return on…October 16 2026, this time making her Howard Assembly Room debut at Leeds Grand Theatre as part of her eight-date British tour.
The Norfolk-born singer-songwriter will be showcasing The Ground Above, her ninth studio album (if you include 1993’s SuperPinky Mandy, produced by William Orbit and released only in Japan in a limited-edition print).
Self-produced by Orton, the June 26 album bridges the gap between folk, spiritual jazz and the Great American Songbook and is described by record label Partisan Records as her “most direct and unapologetic music to date; urgent, raw, embodied and emotionally fearless, moving between subconscious expression and expansive, timeless song craft.
The cover artwork for Beth Orton’s The Ground Above (Partisan Records)
“Her voice, as distinctive as ever, delivers melodies reminiscent of classic songbook form. Throughout the album, Orton documents survival and renewal, motherhood and identity, political unease and the ongoing choice to stay – in love, in art, and in the world.”
The slow-building, life-affirming first single, Waiting, with its shades of Laura Nyro, Carole King and early collaborator Terry Callier, is “a celebration of moving out of the holding pattern fear keeps us in,” says Orton, now 55.
“We are all vulnerable beings living out invincible lives,” reckons Orton, whose songs “look through a prism of many years at once” The track listing comprises The Ground Above, Before I Knew, Cigarette Curls, Waiting, Celestial Light, I’ll Miss You, Love You Right and Otherside, crafted in her London home studio, one that houses a battered old piano that she saved from Camden Market.
“We are all vulnerable beings living out invincible lives,” says Beth Orton. Picture: Kasia Wozniak
Through the years, BRIT Award winner Orton has accrued genre-defying collaborations with not only Callier and Orbit but also Chemical Brothers, Andy Weatherall, Red Snapper, Bert Jansch and Jim O’Rourke.
For The Ground Above, she began with live recordings, then sculpted and expanded the songs over a year-long process, working with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, Vernon Spring’s Sam Beste, drummers Chris Vatalaro (Antibalas and Radiohead) and Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim), trumpet player Christos Styliandes and The Invisible’s bassist, bassist Tom Herbert.
Future Sounds presents Beth Orton, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Grand Theatre, October 16, doors 7pm for 7.45pm start. SOLD OUT. More details: https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/beth-orton-2/.