www.theciderhouserebellion.com

“THE PLAYING OF BOTH ADAM AND MURRAY IS VIRTUOSITY PERSONIFIED… TWO CONSUMMATE MUSICIANS PERFORMING AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR CRAFT; THERE IS AN EXTRAORDINARY MUSICAL CONSANGUINITY EVIDENT“ – FATEA MAGAZINE

 

Adam Summerhayes has been described as a ‘Paganini of the traditional violin’ (fRoots) and his remarkable playing has been lauded worldwide: “Like the direct descendant of the devil’s violinist Paganini” (Badische Zeitung); ‘Astonishing, all-out virtuosity’. (New York Times); “Intoxicating … virtuoso fiddle playing” (The Times); ‘breath-taking violin wizardry’ (stuff.co.nz). 

This duo, though, is not just about fireworks and virtuosity. Profound and eloquent, epic, haunting and dramatic, Adam Summerhayes’s ‘utterly compelling’ playing (BBC Music magazine) entwines with master accordionist Murray Grainger’s subtly woven tapestries of sound – “Grainger’s accordion with Summerhayes’s fiddle are especially beautiful” (Songlines).

The pair play trad. tunes, particularly from the North East, write their own tunes and specialise in creating music in the moment – it’s this unusually improvisatory focus that is uniquely magical. A quest to create music in the moment, with no conscious thought between conception and playing, searching for unexpected magic and the possibility to create a deeper and perhaps more revealing narrative – “Gorgeous stuff” (BBC Radio 3).

“A work of startling, immediate beauty” – Folk Radio UK

 

2020 has brought three album releases (and one book) from The Ciderhouse Rebellion:

Untold (CD February 2020) A 50 minute improvisation: three tracks, recorded live in three takes. 

The InCider Sessions (CD May 2020) A limited edition of 100, signed and numbered CDs. A compilation of an extraordinary new body of music: 12 traditional and original tunes born of social distancing, forged in lockdown and created despite isolation.

Rúnian (CD and book of poems – September 2020) The two musicians are joined by wordsmith Jessie Summerhayes as Words From A Fiddlers Daughter, for an immersive and cinematic collection of folk-tone-poems woven between and around spontaneously created music.

“I became utterly bewitched by the beauty of what Summerhayes and Grainger had created. It could justifiably be described as a folk symphony, possessing cyclical completeness yet creating a form that is, at once, both elemental and pastoral.” – Fatea Magazine