IPSWICH THINGS TO DO

Btcp: Jim Ghedi

The Smokehouse, Ipswich

Information - Btcp: Jim Ghedi

“Ghedi’s combination of intensity and sublimity recalls Lankum to some extent, and yet where that band’s doom seems to descend from above like a thick black cloud, there’s something more earthen to Ghedi’s work – the horrific, terrifying beauty of a collapsing planet, turned into sound.” The Quietus

On his new album Wasteland, Jim Ghedi has created something huge. Intense, brooding, bold, at times apocalyptic, and remarkably vast. A profoundly bold sonic statement that is some of the most rich, far-reaching and ambitious work that Ghedi has created to date – pushing the boundaries of what what folk music can be in 2025.

Wasteland is a record that is unafraid to plunge into the darkness of the modern world and embrace the weirder, edgier and more unnerving moments that come from doing so. It is an album that captures all the enormity of life from the micro to the macro, zooming in on the personal as well reflecting on broader societal issues.

“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”

Lead single ‘Wasteland’ sets the tone for the album, a remarkable and one of Ghedi’s entirely original composition. A stunning piece of work that while rooted in an environment being corrupted and broken – “there’s violence on these hills” Ghedi sorrowfully sings, before claiming this is no longer somewhere that can be called home – it is also a stirringly beautiful composition that soars and glides as it opens up, as sweeping strings swoop and in and out of Ghedi’s twangy electric guitar.