As Hal­loween morphs into an ever-more gar­ish orgy of plas­tic spi­ders, eye­balls and and oth­er assort­ed land­fill, how much more sat­is­fy­ing it is to turn to its more ancient and spir­i­tu­al side. Samhain, the ancient Gael­ic fes­ti­val, marks the end of the Celtic year, it’s a time when ‘the veil between the super­nat­ur­al and the phys­i­cal world thins and we hon­our the cycle of life, death and renewal’.

Samhain was marked with a prop­er cel­e­bra­tion at Earth The­atre in Hack­ney. I love unusu­al and thought­ful pre­sen­ta­tions of live music that tran­scend the statu­to­ry gig for­mu­la and tonight’s mys­ti­cal and inspired evening ful­filled that brief. I has­ten to add that was despite its rather odd begin­ning. Arriv­ing at the venue, I joined the end of a mas­sive, excitable queue. Why was every­one about 50 years younger than me, and why the col­lec­tions of fur­ry ani­mals attached to hand­bags? Did they sig­ni­fy some­thing? After about 15 min­utes I dis­cov­ered I was in the wrong queue – I was in the one for a K‑pop band.

Earth The­atre has become one of my favourite gig spaces in the city, it’s atmos­pher­ic with a low, wide stage and tiered seat­ing, per­fect for tonight. The evening opened with the vibrant Cotswold Mor­ris side, The Belles of Lon­don City. The cool troupe are one of a hand­ful breath­ing new life into the ancient tra­di­tion of Mor­ris Danc­ing. They includ­ed a com­e­dy ele­ment in the form of a rather unnerv­ing look­ing horse – also com­ment­ed on by our com­pere for the evening, come­di­an Stew­art Lee. Lat­er, Stew­art donned his man-wulf cos­tume for added effect.

The three artists for the evening were in turn, Lucy Gooch, Samana and Daisy Rick­man. All three fit­ted the brief of bring­ing dreamy, med­i­ta­tive music to nour­ish and soothe the soul as we cross that line towards win­ter and dark­ness. It’s a call to wel­come and enjoy the dark­er sea­son and make the most of its qual­i­ties. This mes­sage is reit­er­at­ed before the last act by Amer­i­can author and mys­tic Tree Carr. I noticed the psych-folk drone of Smote play­ing between two of the acts, pos­si­bly a con­tender for next year’s Samhain?

I have seen Lucy Gooch twice at Green Man fes­ti­val and been very moved by her deeply immer­sive and shim­mer­ing sound­scapes that filled the air, cre­at­ing a still­ness. Samana’s incan­ta­tions fil­tered through the majes­tic and atmos­pher­ic space of the Earth The­atre with Rebec­ca Rose Har­ris’s vocals sound­ing emo­tive and sonorous. This cre­ative duo from Wales write their own mate­r­i­al inspired by jour­neys, cul­tures and tra­di­tions. And final act Daisy Rick­man’s deep and com­mand­ing vocals are mes­meris­ing, set against a back­drop of ban­jo and saxophone.

After­wards, we head­ed back to the bar where the artists and their merch plus a DJ set were wait­ing for us, pro­long­ing the spe­cial evening a lit­tle longer.

Samhain Rit­u­al was pro­duced in asso­ci­a­tion with Ffern Folk Foun­da­tion & NeoAn­cients Weird Walk, host­ed by Stew­art Lee with live per­for­mances from Daisy Rick­man, Samana, Lucy Gooch, Tree Carr and The Belles of Lon­don City. Ffer­n’s per­fumes are pro­duced four times a year, inspired by, and cre­at­ed to cel­e­brate our seasons.

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