OUT NOW!  Asante Sana is the anticipated second album from Amy Mayson (formerly Amy & The Calamities). The six-track EP was recorded at the historic Angel Studios in Islington, North London, in a brief window when the lockdown was lifted in the winter of November 2020. Asante Sana means ‘thank you very much’ in Swahili and echoes a lyric in the first track of the album, Seven Day Blues. The previous month, Georgina Leach (violin) and Amy Mayson (née Wawn) had just finished a residency at One Night Records’ brief but spectacular production of Lockdown Town under the stage personas of Amy & The Calamities on the Dustbowl Stage, to crowds of free and elated humans under the arches of London Bridge. Riding on that energy, they decided to dive straight into the studio and with the expertise of sound engineer and producer Hugh Fielding, recorded the bulk of this album live in one session, lending this record it’s raw and honest character. Besides the signature sounds of Amy & The Calamities – the acoustic guitar, vocals, and stomp box (Amy Mayson) and violin (Georgina Leach), the listener will also note the sombre song of the cello and low droning hum of the accordion (Leach) as well as the deep rolling rhythm of the double bass and flairs of percussive elements, contributed by Nick Pini at a later date. After waiting through another lockdown, the tracks were mixed in Fielding’s Moreton-in-Marsh country studio on his beloved 1975 Soundcraft series II; a class A, discrete circuitry, transformer balanced, inductor. To put it in very British, layman’s terms, this analogue desk makes music sound rather quite nice, and it does so with a distinct vintage flair.

We hope you enjoy this record as much as we did making it. Thank you for  listening!