Gifts From Crows Trio

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Richard Laurence is a composer of neoclassical and ambient piano music with a colourful background in post-rock and electronic studio projects.  

Working under the name, ‘Gifts From Crows’, Laurence released his debut album, “Holding a Thought Forever”, in February 2021, a hauntingly beautiful collection of piano instrumentals augmented with samples, electronics and string arrangements.

The 2nd album, 'Stories in Slow Light', followed in Feb 2022 featuring members of the Northern Film Orchestra, with whom he recorded 2 E.P.s of orchestral arrangements of his work.

The 3rd album of the trilogy, 'Etudes of the Crow' was released in January 2023 to critical acclaim.

Clarinettist & saxophonist Helen Southall started playing clarinet when she was twelve years old. She has played alto saxophone with the National Youth Wind Orchestra, studied clarinet and saxophone with Paul Harvey, and taken part in saxophone masterclasses with Gerard McChrystal and Richard Ingham. 

More recently, she was a founder-member of the jazz-rock group C-City, has played in a classical duo with the pianist Raewyn Bailey, and has played at the Buxton Festival Fringe and other venues with the Sovereign Saxophone Octet.  She has played clarinet with Russell Grant and Garfield Southall in Trio Siabod, and an assortment of wind and percussion instruments with free improvisation groups in North Wales and Liverpool.  She was lead alto for five years with the Norman Roy Orchestra, (now the Northern Rhythm Orchestra), and deputised with the Hootin’ Annies Big Band and Dr. Jazz & the Cheshire Cats.  She also plays bass clarinet with the North Cheshire Wind Orchestra.

Percussionist Garfield Southall, comes with drums in his blood, following in his father’s footsteps as a big band drummer.

Garfield has played in small jazz combos and free-improvisation ensembles for almost 30 years, with such international artists as Maggie Nicholls, Damo Suzuki, Phil Morton and Brigitte Kuper.

He plays percussion in the North Cheshire Wind Orchestra, and he and Helen were also two-thirds of Trio Siabod.