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Sam Lee 🌈 He / Hymn

@samleesong

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Call for submissions • Ffern Folk Foundation

Summer’s balmy, languid days can be surprisingly productive, as we look to the year ahead. If you are working in folk and are looking to invigorate your practice, the Ffern Folk Foundation Grant 2027 could be an empowering place to start.

Applications for next year’s cohort close in under one month, 17th August at 6pm BST.

You can find out more about the Foundation and apply for the 2027 grant on our website. Our wonderful Guild is so excited to review your submissions! 🌿

Illustrated by @lukastheillustrator and animated by @levelj.co 🐌 by @samleesong

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5 days ago

“We are fallen in mostly broken pieces, I thought, but the wild can still return us to ourselves” @robgmacfarlane, The Wild Places.

I have had a pilgrimage practice for over 30 years now.

When I am lost or broken, that mysterious call to the wild, fireflies deep within.

It is in those wild places that I experience a kind of soul retrieval. A re arranging of all parts of me into primal coherence. A deep cleansing of my inner landscape. It is in those places that I return to the essence of my being.

In 2023, after letting go of my business of 20 years, then my father, I answered that call with an invitation to The Carpathian Mountains, one of Europe’s largest and most ecologically in tact mountain wildernesses.

I joined a trip hosted by @we_wilder, a social enterprise under the umbrella of WWF, tracking a pristine environment for bison that roamed the forests and meadows of central and Eastern Europe for over ten thousand years.

Over time they slowly shaped the land creating ecosystems and habitats for other species. By the 18th century they had all but disappeared. A story of human relentlessness.

17 May 2014, as part of a new vision, 17 bison from European breeding centres were reintroduced to the 30,000 hectare park. August 2023, there were more than 200 wild bison reclaiming their land.

That month our journey was guided by South African tracker and a pioneer of WeWilder, @messerergeorg and English folk singer, @samleesong.

Over 6 days, we pilgrimaged deep into presence.

Yellow oriole trilled the air; swift swooshed aphid clouds; seas of beech billowed skyward; tawny owls hooted the night sky; showers rainbowed morning dew; a cool mist pinked the pines; lemon turquoise peacock moths caterpillared mud crusts. And somewhere in the distance bear and bison stirred silently.

“My experience in wild nature has convinced me that if we are serious about reversing biodiversity loss and climate change, we must trust nature, and give her back space, time, and integrity to unfold her inspiring potential,” Georg Messerer.

The next @we_wilder expedition with Radu @natu.rl.px leaves this month 10-16 July. 2 places still available.

Photographer @louisderohan taken in Carpathian Mountains, Transylvania by @samleesong

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23 days ago

Love singing a gig where you have to climb to the top of a UNESCO World Heritage Geo-Park above the world’s deepest Fjord first. @fordefestival and it’s midnight daylight being everything I remember from back in 2014 when I first came. So wonderful to share old British folk songs under the Storehesten (Big Horse) Mountain to the brave and mountain goaty Norwegian audience (mostly a third my age older too). And then spend a couple of hours cruising across the conglomerates and sandstone Roche Moutonnée. Some speedy icepool swimming some brevitied botanising ( hello wintergreen chickweed, cloudberry and dwarf cornel amongst so many glorious alpine plants and lichens) Then for a festival opening of fireside processing with Joiking and Norwegian songs (and a wee English folk round to get the ceremony going) love love love. And now for the ‘proper’ shows with amps and band and all that professional stuff. Which one makes me a real musician I sometimes wonder.. by @samleesong

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24 days ago

As the crowd held the frequency of the vibration of SOLSTICE, raconteur and singer @samleesong invited us to not be strangers to the land. by @samleesong

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25 days ago

Marking my inaugural @globalrewildingalliance event as Artist Ambassador with this world changing group of exceptionally brilliant humans. We gathered from all the ecological niches of the world in @broughtonsanctuary to unite the multiple visions and strategies of lhow to enrich nature in Human friendly ways. I am so aware that despite this group being an unbelievably skilled, experienced and successful cohort we did not shy away from the spiritual adherences and presences that are needed to guide the intention and impact the GRwA seeks to have. I am so in awe of the team guiding this especially @alister.scott.67 @rewildingdriver @mayscott_rewilding @chloeckert @bengoldsmith @journeys_with_purpose @rogerhtempest @conservation_carpathia @rewildingeurope and many others. Let’s make nature great again shall we taken in Broughton Sanctuary by @samleesong

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a month ago

Gratitude to old Father / Mother Thames who this weekend was the post heatwave chiller unit. Spent with Wonderful friends who held celebrations camping besides the river but I also got the pleasure of getting my coracle out (some people have yachts… I have a coracle and I made it too) and splashing about with a couple of heroes of mine @davidriversabram David Abram and @nickhayesillustration Nick Hayes. We even got to boogie along with a Reed Warbler (the nightingale of the wetlands) possibly the world’s grooviest bird. Thank you moon for doing your moon thing and the football for stealing everyone’s attention so I could swim quietly in the night waters. by @samleesong

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a month ago

Best Solstice Ever Ever Ever mystically mastered by the magickmakers that are @houseofhackney & @earthpercent in Cornwalls Trematon Castle. It was the silliest stilliest solstice ever.. we made out with mother earth and married ourselves to the land! We Boss Morrised @boss.morris the Sundown with wild witch Tree Carr and soiled ourselves with rituals and pure high summer play. the Ancestors were gleaming on us, im sure of it.. some might have also been quite shocked. Up the ancestors. We love them so much.
All the best souls were there and praise and love to the collective effervescence created by the following earthlings.. Happy solstice to everyone on planet earth!!

@friedagormley @javvymroyle @sophiashnapp @williamtempleton @jesshundley @tree_carr @deadbeatboris @jeremydeller @dazeaghaji @louisinthefield @cosmosheldrake @florascottwallace @orbanwallace @mooncanyon @field.system @arveene @madamegandhi @hannahmarshwrites @nikkitrott @jackharries @christabel_rose @mysticmoyo @anna_spirals @itslouisvi @hooesyurts @leo.r12 @alicepelly @matthew___shaw @paul.powlesland @alexishotchip @alexmerryart @madamegandhi @thelibraryofesoterica taken in Trematon Castle by @samleesong

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a month ago

Our new episode is a special one, as we head deep into the woods for @singingwithnightingales - a unique experience that sees musicians and nature collaborate 🪕🐦‍⬛

Before the performance, our Resident Birder @jasonsinghthing chatted to singer and founder @samleesong about how this extraordinary event came into being 🪶

Watch the full episode now, only on @youtube, and join The Flock membership club for access to the exclusive bonus episode - available via the link in bio 🔗

#getbirding #podcast #birds #nightingale #wildlife taken in Barcombe by @samleesong

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a month ago

This July 10-16th I’ll be back into the Tarcu mountains of SW Romania co-leading with Romanian wilderness guide and tracker Radu Luchian @natu.rl.px and the team of @we_wilder in search of the rarest largest land mammal in the northern hemisphere. The European Bison. A mighty ecosystem engineer saved from extinction when 100 years ago there were only 13 left alive! Now thriving but elusive and a joy to track alongside many other charismatic large animals and birds inc wolves bears lynx and a coterie of magnificent birds. We will travers remote meadows so rich in fauna you will weep. Come for the Bison but go deep into a very rare last surviving primeval wilderness with a small group to adore, revere and connect songfully and profoundly into the land with. Flights to Timisoara and all transfers arranged from there. Full info in bio by @samleesong

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2 months ago

London Climate Action Week 2026 #LCAW2026 is just two weeks away, and we’ve got something special to bring to central London!!

@samleesong and I are bringing @singingwithnightingales to @polygon.live in Soho!
 Wednesday 24th of June, 10pm (strict time, come at 9.30pm)

This time I’ll be able to push the performance spatialisation to the next level!

I can’t wait to perform with this system. If you know me, you’ve heard me talking about Polygon, one of best immersive systems I’ve experienced, it will be incredible.

Hope to see you there xx

#LondonClimateActionWeek #LCAW #ClimateAction #ClimateActionNow taken in Soho, London UK by @samleesong

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2 months ago

Seeking submissions • Ffern Folk Foundation

After a wonderful year, the Ffern Folk Foundation is once more out searching for adventures - in the shape of exciting new projects in British folk.

The Folk Foundation was founded in pursuit of our quest to enrich our relationship with the natural world, and with each other. We believe this is something folk can do, and that more people should be able to take part in folk traditions.⁠

The central pillar of the Foundation is our annual grant - awarding between £5,000 and £20,000 to multiple folk practitioners to support innovation and access in British folk arts and traditions.

Applications are now open for 2027! You can find out more about the Ffern Folk Foundation and apply for a grant at www.ffern.co/folk-foundation - or follow the link in our stories.

If you’re in need of inspiration, take a look at the incredible work of our previous awardees @boss.morris @mud_cic @thelostgiantmakers @blackbritishfolk @flossyandbootheatre 🌿 by @samleesong

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2 months ago

NATURE LIKES TO SING.
It’s tough following the nightingales.
@samleesong at SOLSTICE.

Trematon Castle, 19–22 June.

Enter the Garden.
gardenoftomorrow.org.uk

#SOLSTICE #NatureIsTheArtist #GardenOfTomorrow by @samleesong

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2 months ago