Jo Mango'The Lightswitch'Album Launch

This is an event to celebrate Jo Mango's launch of the spellbinding album 'The Lightswitch'.Glasgow songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jo Mango has quietly formed a part of a number of internationally notable musical moments over the past two decades. From joining David Byrne on stage at the Carnegie Hall when his Welcome To Dreamland show brought the progenitors of alt-folk movement to the US's most famous concert hall, to being a key part of the house band for the magical collaborative Zero Degrees of Separation tour, playing alongside Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, and Adem in some iconic venues.. And now she emerges into her own limelight with her soon to be released solo record (The Lightswitch) produced by composer/performer/producer Adem (The Ballad of Wallis Island, Philip Selway, Hot Chip), featuring the Elysian Collective on strings (Pulp, Fontaines DC) and Chris Vatalaro on drums (Brian Eno, Anohni, Sam Amidon).Jo's debut solo album Paperclips and Sand (2006) saw her perform live on taste-making KCRW radio showMorning Becomes Eclectic, with shows at SXSW (USA), NXNE (Canada), live sessions on BBC Radio and Single of the Week on Radio 2. Across the following years, Mango toured extensively in North America and Japan, including appearances on countless legendary stages across the world, including: The Carnegie Hall (NYC); The Roundhouse (London) at the Electric Proms; The Sage (Gateshead) and the Barbican as part of theZero Degrees of Separation tour; The Getty Museum (LA); and international festivals such as Bumbershoot (Seattle), Accelerator (Malmo/Stockholm/Goteborg), Greenman (Wales), Mosaic (Singapore), and Perth International Arts Festival (Perth, Australia). She has collaborated on performances with musicians such as Devendra Banhart, Coco Rosie, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Roddy Woomble (Idlewild), William Tyler (Lambchop), Richmond Fontaine, and played on bills alongside artists as diverse as Bert Jansch, Donovan, Belle and Sebastian, Hot Chip, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Silver Jews and Jenny Lewis.During this time of touring and collaborating, she met Adem Ilhan, with whom she forged a lifelong friendship and musical synergy and this led to their co-creation of her critically acclaimed second album Murmuration (2012) featuring the voices of Scottish (alt)folk luminaries such as James Yorkston, Kris Drever and Pictish Trail. More recently, Jo has been involved in the award-winning gig-theatre piece A Giant on the Bridge, which she co-devised with director Liam Hurley and the Distant Voices Community to highlight issues in the UK criminal justice system and which premiered with a full run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, winning much acclaim. Mango is also a Doctor of Musicology, and along with David Scott (of the BMX Bandits and the Pearlfishers), she co-founded Scotlands first degree in songwriting. The release of her 3rd solo album, after a long hiatus, is sure to herald a new era for the songwriter. One where her formidable talents - honed over decades of international cross-genre creative collaboration and study of the craft of songwriting - are finally brought to a deserved wider audience.Support comes from Raveloe, the project of songwriter Kim Grant.
The alias is taken from the name of a fictional village within the pages of a Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) novel called Silas Marner about a reclusive weaver. Growing up in the small industrial town of Motherwell she found magic and escaped in the small beauties through moments of isolation and difficulty. A thread evident in songs that oscillate from heartbreak to hopefulness, exploring dualities and inspired by magical realism, nature and the human experience.