Marlais is the stage name of Michael Culme Seymour, who has been living and working in Berlin since 2011. After gaining a following on Soundcloud for his remixes of Alt-J and his folk-sampling beat driven instrumentals, Marlais consolidated this style into his debut EP “Dreams of Jarvis”, inspired by the literary fantastical folk worlds created by Dylan Thomas, whose middle name Marlais adopted to be his moniker. 2016 saw a directional change musically: “Warm at Last”, his debut full length album hosted traditional ballads and songs from Britain and Ireland, sung to experimental electronic arrangements. Slotting in between songs were a mixture of instrumentals, slow moving drones, whirling guitar loops and ambient explorations.
During this time he also co-hosted with Phil Smith “We Just Met” on Berlin Community Radio for several years until the station shut down. In 2019 saw the release of “Meeting is a Pleasure” with Stuttgart label Treibender Teppich and in 2020 with the same label the EP “Died For Love” in 2021, songs of love and heartbreak featuring Phil Smith on piano. In July 2022, Marlais self-released “The Nightingales Are Drunk” an album of 10 traditional folk songs sung unaccompanied, recorded directly on tape while on a residency in Tusheti, Georgia. Marlais also hosts a show on the Tbilisi based Mutant Radio, entitled “Gurkenmusik”.
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