Francesca Baines Email & Phone Number

Ireland

available only for ecology and community oriented projects, social businesses and NPO's

Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain

Slow Tours is an initiative designed to explore:* how live-music events can help to build community resilience against the impacts of climate change, peak oil and economic instability* how the touring arts trades can enable transition, reduce fossil fuel dependency and greenhouse emissions* how, both on a creative and practical level, live music can help to invigorate the networks that are dedicated to the regeneration of life on Earth - ecological life, social and community life, cultural and spiritual lifeIn 2016, I took my Slow Tour; visiting 10 communities and projects across Western Europe and participating in the GEN-Europe annual conference. Through reflection, further experimentation, and a welcome to collaboration; I aim to provide a workable Slow Tours model for touring artists with participating communities and projects. Other resources will include the Slow Tours map and potentially; Slow Tours recycled vegetable oil depots for converted touring vehicles.Objectives of Slow Tours:* to harness live-music events in gathering collective energy towards regenerative action* to deepen the potency and interconnectivity of ecologically-orientated centres and networks, to strengthen their cultural value and give artistic voice to this culture* to develop an ecologically-sound infrastructure for live events and enable the ecological integrity of a touring artists' work* to enhance artists' professional resilience and their skills in community supported self-sufficiency* to enrich the artist's tour experience and further nourish their creative evolution* to musically amplify and express the vibration of an Earth-caring culture

Global

the intention of muse-ecology is to* sense music and the arts within a deep ecological perspective* explore how permaculture and other tools can enhance artistic livelihood* inspire the music trade to embrace transition and in helping to build community resilience* envision a musical path that weaves healthful networks and systems* serve the regeneration of Life (ecological, social, cultural, spiritual)

Musician's Bio:Through songwriting and performance, Francesca weaves her audiences into dream worlds. These worlds are spun by story tale and poetic imagery, a dynamic voice bold in experimentalism and a diversity of song-form created on banjo and electric guitars.“There is the drama of her light voice wrestling with raw material, her lyrical scenarios, her wandering, mysterious rhythms, sometimes abrupt and unexpected, with their “exotic” folk components, faint ghosts of gamelan and ravanhata. A thinking, innovative chanteuse, she has something of Joni Mitchell, something of Bjork. The Baines sound is a spirited and spiritual intervention in the world-music it celebrates.” Derek MahonBrightening the spectrum of contemporary folk, audiences also liken her to Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, and Bobby McFerrin. Always seeking new horizons to nourish a creative mind; her touring stretches as far West as Chile, as far East as Turkey. Transmitting a universe of raw imagination, in Italy she has been named “una cantastorie dell’ anima”; “storyteller of the soul”.Francesca released her first EP in 2009 in a performance between tides in Rocky Bay caves, and followed with the self-produced debut VelA in 2012. Her compositional approach was to create a sonic setting for stories to unfold, via choice of instrumentation, materials and found sound samples. It was in gathering these environmental sounds that she discovered a heightened state of qualitative listening and a deeper connectivity form between herself and her surroundings.VelA has received regular play on RTE Lyric fm’s “Blue of the Night”, Philip King’s “South Wind Blows” on RTE Radio1, RTE 2 fm’s “The Alternative” and Dublin City fm’s “Off the Record”, Italy’s Radio Off and Radio Cicletta, and Catalonia’s Radio Pinsania, . It has been reviewed by the Irish Examiner, and by the poet Derek Mahon in his essay on innovative musicians.

Europe

Press Release:After dedicating two years to crafting her debut album, Francesca found herself strongly confronted by the inevitable challenge faced by many independent artists; how to continue one's creative work and be self-sufficient in one's art - a riddle perhaps even harder to solve in the currently tough economic times. In November 2012 with nothing to lose, she took a camper van to the road with empty pockets but with an album to sell, and a firm will to bring her music to new audiences and to discover how to make her living through the work that she truly loves.Last-minute booking, playing songs to non-English speakers, long distant travel alone, and warm encounters; these are the characteristics of her journey that have informed her development as an artist and independent musician.Her journey has taken her through France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Spain, where locals have brought her to play in theatres, festivals, churches, their bars, cafe's, restaurants, bookshops and libraries, centres for the disabled and schools, as well as concerts in their own homes, and on to local radio shows. She has discovered on her travels the deep love and connection that is universally felt towards Ireland and the Irish, engaged with communities in methods of sustainability, and participated in a cross-European conversation on crisis, awareness, autonomy and change.

West Cork, Ireland

"..'the music of what happens'..... Uninterrupted, perpetual, music that takes in water, wind and kitchen things, the unstructured symphony of a day, or a night, in the world. Francesca Baines' sensitive, versatile delivery, combines with ingenious instrumentation - banjo, dulcimer, lampshade, sifting pan, matches and teacups, 'prepared piano' (Cage's invention), 'whispering forests' and harbour sounds - to give us back the world in heightened resolution........Derek Mahon"A very beautiful collection of new material"Carl Corcoran, presenter of 'The Blue of the Night', RTE Lyric fmVelA has received regular play on RTE Lyric fm’s “Blue of the Night”, Philip King's "South Wind Blows" on RTE Radio1, RTE 2 fm’s “The Alternative” and Dublin City fm’s “Off the Record”, Italy’s Radio Off and Radio Cicletta, and Catalonia’s Radio Pinsania, . It has been reviewed by the Irish Examiner, and by the poet Derek Mahon in his essay on innovative musicians.