Originally from Lancashire, Frank Birtwistle has lived in Sheffield since the early 1990s and has played the guitar on and off since the age of 12. Over the years, a love of fingerstyle guitar ranging from Classical, Flamenco and Folk plus a general love of great songwriting from artists such as Kate Bush, Clannad and Nick Drake to name but a few, he has slowly developed his own sound.
After a recent 10+ year hiatus, the playing started all over again after hearing Lucy Rose’s “Shiver” just over 6 years ago and inevitably the writing shortly followed a year or so later. Since then, a large collection of 100+ new compositions and song ideas have emerged – some of which have been compiled onto four extended instrumental eps and are being performed live and some others are being worked on in partnership with Sally Doherty, a Sheffield based singer, as a duo act called Summerisle.
Inspired by life, love and nature, the acoustic-based music has a very pastoral and poetic feel and sits somewhere between Folk and Alternative Folk. The vast majority of the music released so far has been curated into the British Library Sound Archive where it will hopefully live for many generations to come.
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