Sled Island presents: Emma Ruth Rundle (solo piano show), SarrSew and taylor jade

Emma Ruth Rundle 

Disquieting singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle got her start as a post-rock and metal guitarist playing with bands like Red Sparowes (of which she is still a member), Marriages and The Nocturnes, but has emerged in recent years as an auteur of haunted folk. 

Beginning with 2014’s Some Heavy Ocean, her solo discography has largely been led by her voice and electric guitar that conjure pitch-black gothic imagery, setting funereal instrumentals against allegorical tales of graveyards and ghosts.

But it’s 2021’s Engine of Hell that Rundle is celebrating during her stop at Sled Island, where she will perform solo on piano. Recorded live with all acoustic instruments and more directly personal than any of her other work to date, it’s a bare, aching work that — for the first time — prominently features Rundle at the piano bench. 

With its Biblical allusions set in relatably modern scenarios and accounts of bone-crushing grief, the record and its respective live incarnation offer moments of cathartic reflection unlike any other musical experience at Sled Island.

taylor jade

Had this music been released around the turn of the 16th Century, haunting singer-songwriter taylor jade may have been burned at the stake for witchcraft. And this is meant as the most sincere compliment. Dark, leafy green lyrics and hollow, stripped down guitars cast a beguiling spell.

SarrSew

Born in Tehran in 1991, the Paris-based vocalist/lyricist/producer, Sara Bigdeli Shamloo (aka SarrSew) is one-half of duo 9T Antiope and the alternative/electronic Farsi duo Taraamoon. Starting music as a classical violin player, she's created a number of pieces for theatre and film, and is also active as a performer and actor. Majoring in theatre, her music is a melange of storytelling, dramatic lyrics and vocals woven together with electronics and acoustic

 

About Sled Island

The Sled Island Music & Arts Festival is a five-day, multi-venue festival taking place June 21 - 25, 2023. For more information, visit SledIsland.com. 

Everyone has the right to feel safe and included at Sled Island. All festival attendees agree to abide by Sled Island's safer spaces and inclusion policy, which can be found at SledIsland.com/SaferSpaces.

Sled Island acknowledges Calgary as the traditional territory of the Blackfoot and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Ĩyãħé Nakoda First Nations, including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Wesley First Nations. Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.