Finding Home is the award-winning collaboration between pianist/composer Kate Williams (Bobby Wellins, Stan Sulzmann, Pete Hurt Jazz Orchestra) and vocalist/lyricist Georgia Mancio (Alan Broadbent, Ian Shaw, ReVoice! Festival) in a collection of songs, old and newly co-written, arranged for voice, piano trio, string quartet and guitar, linked by the many concepts of Finding Home. The album features the impressive Guastalla Quartet and a guest appearance from Kate’s father, classical guitarist John Williams.
Kate’s multi-layered compositions and arrangements reveal their deeper narrative within Georgia’s searing lyric writing and emotive live performances. From the tragedy of the refugee crisis to romantic spoken word groove, reworked classics from Chile, Brazil and the Great American Songbook and a focus on the natural world, loss and hope: Finding Home prompts many questions and delivers multiple answers.
At its heart is a striking trilogy of songs (The Last Boy on Earth, Halfway, We Walk), seen through the eyes of children, that were inspired by stories and events Georgia was told first hand, witnessed or learnt about during time spent volunteering with refugee groups in Northern France and the UK during the last 3 years.
Complementing this narrative quest for peace and freedom are: Tell The River (a new ballad from Georgia’s collaboration with pianist/composer Alan Broadbent following their lauded 2017 Songbook) and Chilean songwriter and activist Victor Jara’s iconic Caminando, Caminando.
Bookending the album are two further Williams/Mancio originals (One For The Bees and Play) that outline the importance of the natural world and our place in it.
The title track, a spoken word love song, is a reminder that home is both a visceral and literal state, a person and place, local and global – all illustrated to stunning effect by Alban Low’s bespoke artwork and graphics.