Welcome to the Listening Room! Some of the best local emerging bands/artists are hand-picked every season for a night of indie, folk-y music

Join us on Saturday 4th November:

Jess Hall grew up near the coastline of North Devon and started writing songs about the quirks of love and life just before moving to the starkly landlocked Oxford eight years ago. Since that time she has established herself on the local scene with her simple stunning clarity of voice and images of coastal love and loss.

Jess will be accompanied on the night by Barney Morse-Brown (also known as Duotone), cellist with multi-platinum artist Birdy, BBC Folk Award winners the Imagined Village, Chris Wood and Jackie Oates.

"Jess Hall's voice - limpid and elegant, as pure as clear cut crystal, variously playful, pretty and almost hymnal - as wonderous and natural as the Devon beaches that provide so much of her musical inspiration." - Nightshift

Anne-Marie Sanderson's voice is evocative of birds in flight - soaring, gliding, swooping - and it finds its home among the tall trees of her deft guitar work. Describing Sanderson's distinctive indie-folk music in these terms is apt; she is an artist who casts a careful eye and attentive ear to the natural environment, alternating between wide-eyed wonder and wry observation. As well as drawing from a host of musical influences, some of Sanderson's songs pay homage to literary greats, and she is currently recording a collection of songs inspired by authors including Robert Macfarlane, Barbara Kingsolver, and Doris Lessing.