Bronagh Slevin

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer, Bronagh began her songwriting career

in the kitchen at the Coach House, Portishead’s recording studio in Bristol. You can hear cups of tea being poured on some of the original tracks. An album was grafted, little by little, unexpectedly. Bronagh scribbled song lyrics on the back of Spanish and French essays for university and watched the Wild Bunch become Massive Attack, and Portishead and Tricky fight over the bassline of “Glorybox” and “Hell is round the corner”. She was a student at Seville university when the record companies came hunting, hungry for their piece of Bristol Sound.

Bloom

From London’s Jazz Cafè to French festival Les Inrockuptibles, Bloom (Jive Records, 1998) was an underground success thanks to the skilful weaving of Slevin’s dreamlike vocals and poetic songwriting with Crustation’s cinematic beats. The album was produced by internationally renowned Steve Osborne and Ben Hillier. Now, over twenty years on, Bloom is still considered a Trip-hop masterpiece, and has just been reissued on vinyl by Music on Vinyl and is available for purchase on MOV’s online store (Sony Music UK).

Purple was included on many compilations, such as She: a Female Trip-hip Experience and Ibiza Chill, among others. Purple was remixed by legendary J Dilla for A Tribe Called Quest (Ummah remix) and by French Band, Air (Femme d’Argent remix)

Based in Sicily since 2010, Bronagh continues to collaborate with European producers in electronica fused with jazz, Latinamerican and hip hop, such as Los Ladrones (Earth Project), Up, Bustle & Out (Collision Records), Aura (Clatch Records), Inner Blue (Aenaria Music) and Vincent Robischung (Distances) with whom she produced an EP whose single My Flight was commissioned for Décamper, a French project bringing together photographers, journalists, musicians and refugees to dialogue on themes of migration.

A classically-trained musician – Diploma pianoforte (Trinity College London), Diploma violoncello (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) – in 2019 she took up the cello once more to compose and accompany herself singing which has evolved into a radically unique musical poetry. Collaborating with Sicilian folk bands has brought her closer to the pulse of the volcanic island and this has filtered into her songwriting and music.

REWILDING is Bronagh’s current voice and violoncello project where she has gathered songs exploring her journey from one island to another, Ireland to Sicily. REWILDING comes out of a deep connection to earth and water, passes through the metaphorical fork in the moss-drenched forest, invokes the purest mountain air and takes us to the edge of female desire. It tells stories of love and disenchantment that come from the womb, the volcano and the full moon.

REWILDING knows this: scratch beneath the surface and you will find we all want to be wild again. Rewilding is in organic production in studio – watch this space for release dates.

Ritrova la tua Voce is Bronagh’s voice workshop centred on improvised singing to ignite creativity and reconnect to voice. She loves to bring it into the wild, with yoga, mantra and somatics as some of the ways in, to sing our true essence. It is always an extraordinary moment when inner voices are unlocked, the invisible expressed and reconnection to nature occurs. She holds singing circles in alignment with the Celtic wheel of the year, at Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa, Samhain, solstice and equinox.

As cellist with the Alkantara MediOrkestra, Slevin has participated in many festivals across the Mediterranean such as il Festival Adriatico Mediterraneo (Ancona), Ethnos Festival (Castellamare di Stabia), Mediterraneo Jazz di Curva Minore (Selinunte) and the Alkantara Fest (Catania). She performs on the ensemble’s current release, JazzBound. This is their version of A Different World by Sicilian composer Enzo Rao, from their Sicilian tour EASTBOUND last summer.

Come and find Bronagh on her Instagram page.