Morcheeba

Concerts Present
MORCHEEBA
– Alex Cornish

Thirty years ago, a chance meeting at a South London party led to one of the most enduring and creative partnerships in British electronic music. After that first encounter, the budding multi instrumentalist Ross Godfrey from Kent, only 18 at the time, heard that Skye the East Londoner sang and wrote songs, so he invited her round his flat share in Dalston.
“Ross asked me who I sounded like. And I said: ‘I don’t sound like anyone.’” Not, Skye clarifies with an apologetic smile, in an arrogant way. “I didn’t know who I was. So I just wanted to present myself. I played a song on my guitar, very quietly, and they loved my voice. And the rest is history.”
That’s a three-decades-deep history. One that’s encompassed 10 previous studio records, over 10 million albums sold, countless world tours, solo albums, film soundtracks and the inevitable spins of the line-up carousel. You don’t become trip hop royalty without some interesting detours along the way.
And you don’t become enduring artists, beloved of multiple generations and lauded across the music industry – see, most recently, last summer’s invitation from Chaka Khan to headline her Meltdown Festival at the Southbank in London – if you don’t learn how to Escape the Chaos. And if you’re Morcheeba, a musical byword for comfort and calm, you’re taking your fans with you.
“Absolutely,” affirms Skye. “We’ve had a lot of people say to us over the years that our music has changed their lives or got them through something that was really difficult or traumatic. It’s a good feeling that you can help to heal people in your own small way.”
Introducing the 11th studio album from Morcheeba. Escape The Chaos is 12 tracks of balm and boldness, familial strength (that’s chosen family and actual family), community solidarity, exquisite electronic-meets-organic production, and the instantly recognisable and always reliably shivering power of Skye’s vocal.
The album’s opening shot is the single Call For Love. The simmering, rootsy anthem, released in these worryingly turbulent times, the song’s themes of inclusion and support and tolerance resonate with importance.
As Ross puts it: “Call For Love is very grounding, musically and emotionally. The world is so confusing and complicated these days. An apocalypse is always on the horizon, both personal and global. It is comforting to take refuge in music and love with those close to us."
For Skye, that came from acting personally. “When it came to writing lyrics for this song, I thought to myself: 'What would I like to hear from a certain someone, if and when they were ready to say sorry?’” she explains. “As it turned out, it was also what I needed to say to them.”
There’s similar sweetness-in-strength in We Live and Die. Pegged as the album’s second single, it sounds like David Axelrod doing a Bond theme. Soaring with clarion brass and electric guitar squeals, it’s lent wings by another ear-tingling Skye vocal – and we’re…