Members:
Andrew Barker, Katie English, Mark Kluzek, Rachel Lawrence, Richard Acton, Stafford Glover
The Doomed Bird of Providence started out in London in 2009 as a means for Mark Kluzek to write songs about early colonial times in Australia. Kluzek, who had moved from Australia and been living in the UK for some years had read The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes, a history of convict Australia. His first couple of songs were loosely based on characters in the aforementioned book. Over a period of years a variety of musicians joined Kluzek to perform and record these and other songs.
Early support for the band was provided by the Ex Gratia label who released a song on the Ex Gratia compilation Specialisation is for Insects.
The first release was a four track ep on Laily Recordings. Contributors to this ep were also performing live with The Doomed Bird of Providence; Drew Barker (SOUP, Croft), Stafford Glover (Extreme Noise Terror, Plantman) and Daniel Merrill (Dead Rat Orchestra).
It received some polite press but most importantly sparked the interest of Justin and Helen Watson of the label Front and Follow. Front and Follow offered to release the debut album by The Doomed Bird of Providence. Called Will Ever Pray, the album received high praise from reviewers as well as considerable airplay on BBC6 thanks to the support of Tom Ravenscroft. Richard Acton (ex Limn) and Rachel Laurence made significant contributions to the album and were regularly playing live with the band. Other contributors included Tom Knight and Autumn Ferment artist Flake Brown. The album was mastered by ex-Rothko and current Trace Recordings head Mark Beazley.
The Doomed Bird of Providence by this stage were a nebulous live act that performed with anything from 2 to 7 members. After the album’s release Barney Monger started playing percussion with the band.
The band released a single in December 2011 and recorded a few Christmas themed songs for Tom Ravenscroft’s BBC6 show. 2012 saw the band working on the Front & Follow project Long Division with Remainders (released early 2013), developing songs for a new album and playing live. It has also seen the addition of Katie English (Isnaj Dui) performing flute live with the band.
Katie, along with Richard, Drew, Stafford, Rachel, Mark and violinist Angela Chan all contributed to the second album entitled Blind Mouths Eat. The album was released on 11 November 2013 and received an excellent reception from Wire Magazine, Americana-UK, Clash Magazine, Sounds-XP, ATTN:Magazine amongst others. Bryan Styles (Plantman) joined the band on percussion for a number of shows to support the album release through out 2014.
An EP was released on 13th July 2015. Called You Brought the Knife, it is a string heavy affair. Along with regular contributors, Joolie Wood (violin) and Ian Hothersall (percussion) also play on the release.
The Doomed Bird Of Providence (CDr, EP) Laily Recordings Laily01 2009
Live At The Bull & Gate (File, MP3) Laily Recordings Laily02 2009
EP (4xFile, MP3, EP, 320) Front And Follow F&F007 2010
Will Ever Pray (CD, Album, Ltd) Front And Follow F&F010 2011
The Fedicia Exine Remixes (CDr, MiniAlbum, Promo) Front And Follow F&F011 2011
The Bell Of The Jardines/The Death Flurry (CD, Single) Front And Follow F&F014 2011
Blind Mouths Eat (CD, Album) Front And Follow F&F029 2013
Christmas Songs (2xFile, MP3, 320) Front And Follow none 2014
You Brought The Knife (CD, EP, Ltd) Front And Follow F&F038 2015
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