Bio
The trio of Robin Alderton, Daniel Merrill and Nathaniel Robin Mann has been charting the outer reaches of free folk for over 15 years. Their music has been described as “acutely haunting and occasionally brutal” while remaining elusive and almost impossible to pigeonhole. It is neither improvised nor entirely composed; its exact form never predetermined. Their slowly evolving, multi-layered instrumentals have been embraced by a post-rock audience, while the band’s work remains primarily informed by pre-rock traditions, assimilating broad folk influences from the fife and drums of Scotland to the two-mile swamp hollers of North Carolina.
Their recorded work has incorporated fragments of traditional Hebridean melodies, for the soundtrack of The Guga Hunters of Ness, a film by Mike Day documenting the harvesting of gannets from the desolate isle of Sula Sgeir. They have thrown themselves into the rough music of the charivari, armed with an array of tuned meat cleavers, with performances echoing Indonesian gamelan, campanology and the vigilante “rough bands” of East Anglia. They have sought out the campaign songs of the canal builders, to perform on The Cut – a three week canal boat tour, taking them from London to Bristol via the industrial arteries of England.
In 2015, Dead Rat Orchestra collaborated with director James Holcombe to create the soundtrack to Tyburnia: A Radical History Of 600 Years Of Public Execution. The film explored parallels between contemporary and historical notions of crime in relation to business and property and the spectacular nature of punishment. Their critically-acclaimed soundtrack featured newly-rediscovered broadside ballads, written by and for those condemned to dance the Tyburn Jig, intercut with psychogeographical field recordings, musique concrète and lost songs in the Thieves’ Cant.
The band toured Tyburnia in 2016 and again in 2017 with Lisa Knapp, performing a live soundtrack to James Holcombe’s multi-screen projections.
In July 2018, the DRO embarked upon their Free Folk in Brexit Britain tour with Polish trio Sutari – a tour exploring the cultural impact of Polish (and other European) migration in the UK.
Their live performances and onsite installations have been experienced across Europe, Canada and Northeast Africa, and their soundtracks have featured on BBC Television and at Tate Modern. They have composed works for performance by the London Contemporary Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and the Ukranian Conservertoire.
In 2019, Dead Rat Orchestra fell silent, as each member began work on individual projects. Nathaniel Mann has picked up awards for his multi-disciplinary solo work and created a number of documentaries for BBC radio. Daniel Merrill is now based in Egypt, where he writes and records with composer Fayrouz Kaddal as KaddalMerrill. The whereabouts and activities of Robin Alderton remain, as ever, a closely guarded secret.
New work as a trio, scheduled for development in July 2020, has been postponed due to travel restrictions put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“Luxuriant facial hair aside, Dead Rat Orchestra are far from your typical modern-day folk outfit. To describe them as such would be to undermine their commitment to sonic exploration, with the folk aspect being a mere springboard for their inventive multi-instrumentalist approach.” – The Quietus
“The Dead Rats, barefoot and bearded, have cast aside all cool.” – The Wire
