Acclaimed and much-loved songwriter David Rotheray releases his first solo album ‘The Life Of Birds’ in August. Although it features a whole host of performers, ‘The Life Of Birds’ is entirely Rotheray’s record, a series of autumnal, rustic reflections on life with some astonishing collaborations.

The seed for the album came about with opening track and first single ‘The Sparrow, The Thrush & The Nightingale’, a laidback, upbeat melody with an instantly recognisable whistled refrain disguising an allegorical tale about greed. Deciding to enlist the services of respected folk singer Jim Causley to add juxtaposing vigour to the seething, bilious lyrics, Rotheray hit upon the idea of expanding the metaphor to write an entire album with birds as its loose notional concept, and calling upon some of the UK’s finest folk singer-songwriters to flesh out the music he had written. The result is fourteen superbly crafted songs that touch on some sensitive subjects with subtlety and grace – although Rothery is quick to point out “all pigeons described … are entirely fictitious, and any resemblance to chaffinches, living or dead, is entirely coincidental!”

From the path of the werewolf we have entered the world of Bearcraft, one that combines spectral synths and electro beats with pagan, scientific, philosophical and English folk themes.

Bearcraft’s debut album, Yestreen, will be digitally released on 16th August on Hottwerk Records and is a fantastical, mathematical combination of electro uppers and bewitching acoustic slow-burners spinning folk yarns with an abundance of haunting melodies and the loveliest harmonies.

Today, 24th June 2010 – Midsummer’s Day – BBC Folk Singer of the Year, Jon Boden, launches an ambitious new project – A Folk Song A Day.

From 24th June 2010 to 23rd June 2011, Jon Boden will be posting a traditional song online at www.afolksongaday.com to promote the art of ‘social’ (or communal) singing. Now largely confined to football grounds and places of worship, social singing was once the domain of public houses throughout the land.

SLAM takes a new look at the stars of Mexican wrestling, in a beautiful coffee-table book designed by Fuel, which comes out in july 2010 through To Hell With Publishing. Katinka Herbert is a respected international portrait photographer whose work regularly appears in publications such as the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph, Food Illustrated and Dazed and Confused. Raised on a diet of Giant haystacks and Big Daddy, with a pinch of Evel Knievel, Katinka also recently collaborated with Marco Pierre White on the production of The Best of British cook book.

A few years ago the best known example of Lucha Libre (literally free wrestling, and based on daring acrobatics and spectacular soaring maneuvers), was the film Nacho Libre starring Jack Black and featuring luchador Silver King in the role of Ramses. But since then troupes of luchadores have visited London and been featured everywhere from The Today Programme to The Paul O’Grady Show to Channel Four News and the Daily Star and picking up fans such as Tim Burton and Jonathan Ross along the way.

What the media said about Lucha Libre London debut:
“A spectacle that’s more akin to a rock concert cranked to 11 than your standard British wrestling event. Viva Lucha Libre” Time Out

The Blue Eyed Shark comes from a genuinely unusual background. Taking the nickname from a female friend due to the colour of his eyes and his friends calling him a ‘shark’, the ‘experiment’ part of the name refers to the album, from its inception to delivery and BES’s (Blue Eyed Shark’s) additional musical protagonists.