Music Monday: Marysia Osa - dreaming of the sea in Lewisham

Marysia Osa is a harpist (among other things) who plays with Levitation Orchestra and Transpontine favourite Laura Misch. Moving from Poland to London as a child, she started playing harp at Trinity Laban in Greenwich. Now signed to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings, she has an album coming out on October 18th 2024 - 'harps, beats and dreams'.

The opening track 'seatime' has been released and was played on BBC R6 Music this week, with Mary Ann Hobbs saying that it was  'written in a bedroom in Lewisham dreaming of the ocean'.

Music Monday: Hope 4 Justice with Eska and John Stainer School Choir

In 2022 over 1,000 young people, including students from 27 South London schools took part in Hope 4 Justice, an urgent call to action on the climate emergency highlighting issues such as air quality, ‘throw-away’ culture and housing inequality through performances of music, dance and spoken word. Created and produced by Trinity Laban as part of the Lewisham London Borough of Culture, it culminated in a performance in Mountsfield Park on Saturday 18 June 2022.

Now, to commemorate the project, five songs composed by Mercury Prize nominated artist Eska (with lyrics from Young People's Poet Laureate for London Cecilia Knapp) have been recorded at Trinity Laban with Brockley's John Stainer Community Primary School Choir and students from the TL Jazz Department.  The first track. Air, was released on 15 Feb 2024, the eleventh anniversary of the death of Lewisham resident Ella Roberta Adoo Kissi Debrah who died aged nine after a fatal asthma attack.  Ella was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate.