Karousel Music Publishing is proud to announce that highly acclaimed songwriter and composer Jamie Doe, aka The Magic Lantern has joined the publishing family. He is the latest addition to the company’s burgeoning roster of international artistic talent, and one whose body of work encapsulates a singular vision of life’s complexity and beauty.

“Intriguing, compelling… exceptional. A man to watch…” The Guardian
“Very, very, very special” – Lauren Laverne BBC 6Music
“An exciting new talent – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2
“Bitter sweet, beautiful music” – Verity Sharp, BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
“A classic album, I love it!” – Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2
“4 **** Beautiful, engrossing music” – musicOMH.com
“Something quite special I’m sure you’ll agree” – Tom Robinson, BBC6 Music
“Rather lovely, just quite beautiful” – Stuart Bailie, BBC Radio Ulster
“Haunting songs, memorable singing and remarkable finger style guitar playing. You can’t go wrong with what must be an early collection from an important singer songwriter” Americana UK
“Fused with a mix of emotions but with gravitas and great wisdom there’s is a certain Jeff Buckley quality to the arrangements and diction, and a songwriting capacity that, like Joanna Newsom’s, is utterly otherworldly and densely descriptive. Each song is a mini-overture to the craft of music lovingly rendered. This is warm music for lonely hearts” – Folk Radio UK
“His charm warms us like a Christmas fire. His performance thrives in the hushed intimacy” – God Is In The TV

With a voice whose richly delicate, warm and heartbreakingly fine tones draw frequent (and deserved) comparisons to Chet Baker, Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake, Jamie Doe is an undeniably powerful and exciting artist. Whether writing and performing as The Magic Lantern, in collaboration with other artists, or in his recent work on scores for numerous theatre productions and films, the uniqueness of his ability to confidently reach beyond the boundaries of traditional songwriting – and in doing so corral and formulate his own ideas of peace, truth and beauty – marks Doe out as a man whose evolution as an artist is certain to enchant and impress in equal measure. Karousel Music Publishing is excited and honoured to welcome him into the family.

Born in Canberra, Australia but raised in the U.K. from the age of 12, Doe first began writing and performing as The Magic Lantern while studying for a degree in philosophy at the University of Bristol; the city’s deep-rooted DIY music scene proving fertile ground for nurturing his nascent talent, alongside fellow performers including This Is The Kit, Rozi Plain and Rachael Dadd. A move to London followed, where the project became a fully-fledged group with the addition of four uniquely talented musicians from hugely different musical backgrounds – from jazz to Brazilian music, folk to blues via contemporary classical and funk. What began as a unique distillation of one man’s influences took on a timeless, borderless quality that saw simple folk songs transformed into genre-bending (and often semi-improvised) paeans to the great life force that is the undercurrent of performance and creativity: collaboration. The band’s acceptance into the hugely influential F-IRE collective (featuring Mercury Music Prize-nominated artists such as Kit Downes, Basquiat Strings, Seb Rochford and Roller Trio) and Doe’s role in creating The Hectic Eclectic – a similarly supportive and unique group of artists – is further evidence of his openness to influences from across the musical spectrum.

It was through Hectic Eclectic Records that the debut Magic Lantern album, entitled A World in a Grain of Sand, was released in 2011. Produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno/Paul Simon) and garnering immediate critical acclaim (from the likes of Bob Harris and Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2, and Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music) for the extraordinarily deft and complex songwriting and musicianship it demonstrated, the album is a melting pot of lyrical acoustic ballads that transcend the often narrow parameters of the form. Jazz and folk-inflected songs of loss, love, hardship, heartbreak and anger are punctuated by delicately fingerpicked guitars, earthy woodwind tones and polyrhythmic percussion, offering a truly widescreen vision of a world music that defies categorisation.

In keeping with the ever-evolving landscape of his work, the second Magic Lantern album – Love of Too Much Living (2014) – was lovingly crafted by Doe alone following two years’ of successfully building a loyal fanbase through constant touring and live performances. Keen to explore the intensity that comes with a pinpoint focus and the stripping back of extraneous material, Doe performed the songs live in the studio without any backing. Of this decision, he says:

“In the same way an artist implies a face with a few lines, I spent a long time in the studio thinking about how I could make each song more powerful by the space I leave around it. I know for some people, all they’ll hear is what is there, but I like the idea that with so much space, you leave room for the listener to colour in the arrangement themselves.”

The resulting set of songs again saw The Magic Lantern receive a glowing set of reviews, with the Guardian praising Doe’s “intriguing, compelling [and] exceptional” songwriting, and naming him “a man to watch”; while BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne declared him “very, very special”. The record finds Doe looking to the future and finding “the death of innocence” as a necessary catalyst for change and progress: each single fading strand of one life’s story morphing inexorably into the next, transcending love and passion and finding hope in the passage of time and the seasick shifting of the seasons.

We’re delighted to welcome such an intelligent, driven, insightful writer, and wonderful musician to Karousel. If you’d like to commission Jamie for a score, or use one of his tracks for sync, email sync@karouselmusic.com