London artist and composer Phoebe Coco sets forth with a highly anticipated new EP release I Am Not a Machine this coming October the 13th, with a release show on the same date at Saint Pancras Old Church.
Born in the rolling hills of The Bannue* and growing up in London, Phoebe Coco seeks the living contradictions, the wilderness within the cityscapes; the forest within London’s walls. These themes are interwoven in her music, in lilting lyrics and layered landscapes of organic and electronic instrumentation in a quest to marry the two worlds- the natural and the urban.
Raised within a singing matriarchy of grandmothers, mothers and sisters, Phoebe Coco experienced music live from an early age, as songs were sung from around kitchen tables to bohemian parties. Now, on occasion, she invites her family on stage, who then sing with her in ‘blood harmonies’- a phrase coined to describe the uncanny, specific and unusual sound of close relations singing together.
A community and ecological activist; ecological themes are at the foreground of Phoebe Coco’s music and run throughout I Am Not a Machine. Her writings and performances with trees have been aired by renowned author Robert Macfarlane on BBC 4 Front Row, where she sang her vocal arrangement of his ‘Charm-against-Harm’ ‘Heartwood’, which she has performed at numerous protests of tree fellings. For the award winning Urban Tree Festival 2021 Phoebe Coco created both the compositions and a site specific installation ‘Tree Song’ where her music could be streamed directly by the public underneath London’s trees.