Accredited Teacher Liz Hanks Album Release!

Land is the debut album from Sheffield based cellist and accredited teacher, Liz Hanks. Having moved to Sheffield in the 90s, Liz soon became immersed in the local popular music scene. Long-standing cellist with Richard Hawley & Thea Gilmore, Liz has been influenced and shaped by a varied career, recording and touring with the likes of Liam Gallagher, Smokey Robinson, Self Esteem, Paul Heaton, and folk scene’s own Martin Simpson, Kate Rusby and Jon Boden.

Liz is currently working on projects with sound artist, producer and beatboxer Jason Singh and touring with the sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun. She is also an established member of the Frame Ensemble, a silent film improvisation group that performs throughout the UK.

Land explores just some of these influences; minimalism, folk, Indian classical music and improvisation whilst remaining heavily rooted in her local landscape. Based on the local and natural history of her local area in Sheffield, the record explores both the loss of nature in the urban environment and forgotten natural worlds, whilst celebrating the green spaces that remain.

“As I began exploring ideas for this album, I was drawn to the sounds from my local area in Sheffield. Field recordings gathered from the woods and park made me wonder, what was this area was like before the housing and roads were built?

I discovered that before the area of Meersbrook was built there was a beautiful valley called ‘Rush Dale’. Inspired by reading written accounts of this lost valley and looking at old photos and paintings I set out writing music to recreate these lost times and places. My hope is that these pieces let you imagine stepping back in time, either in Meersbrook, if you have the chance to visit here, or on the land where you live. Every place has history in its soil.”

Recorded in Meersbrook by Liz during the pandemic, when worlds became all the more influenced by our locality, Land can now be experienced in a fully immersive accompanying app which maps out a guided walk of the areas which inspired and feature on the album, the GPS tracker blends the tracks as you walk and you’ll hear specially recorded commentary written by Sheffield writer Sally Goldsmith.

Later in 2023 an EP of remixes of Land from Jason Singh, Haiku Salut, Leafcutter John and Richard Norris will be released on Hudson Records.

Land is released by Hudson Records on CD, Black LP and limited edition Green LP on 5th June 2023. The first single Meer is available to listen to on all streaming platforms now.

LISTEN & PRE-ORDER - https://hudsonrecords.ffm.to/land