A master collaborator, songwriter, cellist and artist in her own right, Beth Porter has integrated herself into many areas of the music world.

She will be releasing a new EP this year after working with producers Niko and Jakes from Upcycled Records in London. Her dark, quirky, ethereal Chamber-Pop songs meet Electronica to create a unique sound all carried by Beth’s pure and unaffected vocal. She is also about to release a music video created by Marry Waterson with one of Beth’s old songs remixed by Niko and Jakes.

Beth has been been likened to Cat Power, The Beatles, REM, This Is The Kit, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Radiohead, Sandy Denny, The Incredible String Band and The Kinks. With a classical background, a venture into folk music, and a love of simple pop songs, there’s nothing quite like Beth’s songwriting. It is quintessentially English yet understated and original.

Picked for her songwriting and cello playing, she is one part of Spell Songs (a project inspired by the book The Lost Words by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane) with legends of folk including Karine Polwart, Kris Drever and Julie Fowlis. They were one of Songlines Magazine Best Album of the Year 2019 and was part of a BBC Prom at The Royal Albert Hall where Beth sang a solo with the Southbank Sinfonia. Beth played with Eliza Carthy for over ten years and has previously played with Bellowhead, Jim Moray and The Unthanks as well as many other folk artists.

She is one half of literary duo The Bookshop Band who spend much of their time writing songs inspired by books and playing them in bookshops and literary festivals. They have won a British Animation Award for Best Musical Score and were nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the Aardman Animations Christmas Special, Robin Robin, available on Netflix. The film was also nominated for an Oscar. They are currently working on an album with Pete Townshend of The Who.

In the pop world she has toured with Newton Faulkner, The Heavy, and Peter Gabriel and has worked with hundreds of producers and engineers such as John Parish, Boo Herwerdine, Tchad Blake and Stuart Bruce for recording sessions over the last 20 years. Studios include Real World, Rockfield, Yellow Arch, Castlesound, Moles and Invada. She also does remote sessions from her home in Scotland.

She plays with string quartet Red Carousel who write their own compositions and have a new album in the pipeline which they wrote over Lockdown.

Beth has also been collaborating with Lucy Farrell and Jenny Sturgeon after some creative sessions together over Zoom in Lockdown.

Other film credits include Far From The Madding Crowd (2015) and BAFTA winning animation The Eagleman Stag (2010)

Beth has recently had a role as Musical Director for a play about the Upper Clyde Shipbuilding industry in the 1970s called Yes! Yes! U.C.S! (Townsend Productions) touring in 2022. She was also part of Stewart Macpherson’s Solway to Svalbard which premiered in Dumfries in October 2022

‘It’s pretty damned amazing’ Pete Townshend

‘Quirky, engaging and really rather brilliant’ fRoots Magazine

Photos by Elly Lucas