We Speak Music
Ervin Munir Teams Up With Kate Swanson for “Lifeline”
“Lifeline” finds Norfolk folk artist Ervin working with local vocalist Kate Swanson on a track that takes him somewhere different from his usual output. The collaboration brings a new dynamic to his songwriting, though it’s too early to say if this represents a lasting shift in direction.
The track starts with piano and it provides space before Kate’s vocal enters. Her voice carries a calming presence that suits the material well, and when Ervin joins for the chorus, there’s a natural chemistry between them that works.
Ervin has been remarkably productive since October 2022, putting out more than 20 singles in that span. With that kind of output, you’re bound to see variation in approach and execution. “Lifeline” explores how relationships can pull us out of isolation, a theme he’s touched on in earlier work like “Broken Compass” and “Pure and Simple.” The main difference here is having Kate as a full collaborator rather than just a featured voice, and that changes the feel of the track considerably.
The song is at its strongest when both voices are present. Those moments of interplay give the track its most interesting textures, even if the overall arrangement stays within fairly conventional folk territory. It’s well executed without being particularly groundbreaking.
Since moving to Sheringham in 2011, Ervin has become a fixture in the North Norfolk music scene, co running the “Rock the Lobster” open mic nights and performing around the region. His music has picked up attention from BBC Radio and various music blogs, indicating an audience that extends beyond just the local community.
“Lifeline” shows what happens when Ervin steps outside his typical solo framework. It’s a solid collaboration that highlights both performers’ strengths, even if it doesn’t radically transform what either of them usually does.
You can listen here.
Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.
‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.
The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.
The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:
Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”
About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.
We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”
The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.
Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.
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