September Newsletter: we’re back!

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September 2021 Now that restrictions have lifted in the UK, we are excited to get back into the swing of things and work with a new generation of talent. In the coming months we’ll be working with Only Connect and YMCA North London, as well as HMP Woodhill, HMP Chelmsford and HMP Aylesbury.   Our project with HMP Woodhill starts next week and will be our first prison project in over 18 months. Access to purposeful regime and time out of cells has been severely affected by COVID-19, so it’s vital we get our new projects underway as soon as possible. Things are getting busy! To get us ready, we’ve had a bit of a revamp – check out our new website www.findingrhythms.co.uk and let us know what you think. As always, we’ll be sharing highlights over on Instagram and uploading our new music to Bandcamp, so make sure you’re following us across our platforms. We’ll be back soon for the next update. Have a good month and stay safe! – FR team _____________________________________________________________________________________________________   Bandcamp Friday 03/09/2021 Bandcamp are waiving their revenue share tomorrow, Friday 3rd September, as part of their #BandcampFriday initiative. This means artists get 100% of the proceeds on all music purchased. All the money we make from Bandcamp goes back into prison education and rehabilitation, so please head on over and buy a track or album!  Suggested donation £1 per track/£10 per album. Listen here _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ New Music We are proud to bring you our latest project, Pathways, produced in conjunction with our partners School Ground Sounds, with artwork by Stee Moglie (@steemoglie). Stee was a participant on one of our community projects back in 2018 and is now going from strength to strength as one of our practitioners.   Despite some difficult circumstances back in June, the participants and practitioners on this project persevered and absolutely pulled it out the bag with this album. Like smooth flow and chill beats? Listen to Life featuring Pacemaker, Emmanuel, Shannon and Trevor.   Another project we are delighted to introduce is Rhythms and Flow Series: Part 1, produced in conjunction with our partners Only Connect. One of our participants on this project, Joe, was recently on National Prison Radio discussing his experiences with Robin Harris and radio host Lachlan Macara. Wind down your summer with Joe’s excellent track, Sun Goes Down. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________   Impact Report 2020-21 Despite the unprecedented challenges of the past year, we are very proud to report more excellent outcomes. Thank you to all our practitioners, partners and participants that have stuck with us and delivered such inspiring projects. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Podcast Over the last 8 years, our practitioners have created some amazing moments and music working in some of the most challenging environments in the UK. Our rich catalogue of over 50 albums is testament to the latter, but until now we have not been able to capture some of the incredible stories and experiences of our musicians. FR Founder and Creative Director, Robin Harris, carried out a series of engaging and insightful conversations with musicians to create a podcast series, available on Spotify now. Our latest episode is Understanding Rapping Simply (Part 1). Music producer Fred talks it through from a technical perspective, and Rapper/MC Kenny describes simple flow and rap from a lyrical perspective. Listeners are encouraged to learn from the greats, copy their styles and innovate. Please share with any budding rappers/MCs! Rapping not your thing? We’ve got episodes covering everything from song writing tips with producer Mahlon to an acoustic drum beats 101 with Amy Winehouse’s dummer, Nathan Allen. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________   ICPA Conference 2021 Finding Rhythms Director, Robin Harris, presented at this year’s ICPA conference to discuss how COVID-19 has disrupted service delivery. The pandemic has highlighted the need for videoconferencing technology to keep learners in secure settings engaged when face-to-face activities are unable to run. As such, Finding Rhythms and Unilink are exploring the feasibility of delivering music-based engagement that fits the prison context whilst continuing to ensure real value for residents.  _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Expanding We are looking to build our community partnerships and deliver more music projects in London and the Southeast. Are you a local authority, youth club or community organisation interested in working with us? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Please e-mail our Business Director, Dami, at [email protected] for more information and visit our website to see what we do.  Copyright © 2021 Finding Rhythms, All rights reserved.