Patrick Wolf emerged as a singer songwriter and producer at the age of 19 within the British experimental electronic music movement of the early millennium, with his first production equipment given to him by Fat Cat Records at 15, followed in a few years by a release on Mike Paradinas label planet-mu and his debut E.P in 2002 on Capitol K’s record label, making shockwaves across the U.K music scene and to first radio plays with his audacious new sound. it would be the beginning of a decade of groundbreaking albums, artwork and visuals ahead of their time, spellbinding world tours and magical collaborations.
London born to English and Irish parents in 1983, Patrick studied in junior music academy as a violinist, violist, harpist and composer, while spending his free time, writing and producing songs in his bedroom studio, sending them off to labels and making his debut solo show at the age of 15 at the garage venue in London. Precociously ambitious to share his work with the world, while all these adolescent years creating the work that would form the debut album “LYCANTHROPY”. which when released in 2003 would be received with much critical acclaim in the U.K and USA, the NME voting it one of the 100 best British albums of all time.
“It may be tempting for some to judge Wolf in terms of his age, but this would be doing a disservice to a lyricist of such courage.with Lycanthropy, Wolf has constructed a themed record that deftly manipulates myths while brazenly striding into new, tumultuous territory.” – 8.2 – Pitchfork.
“the 20-year-old’s debut unleashes an artistic howl almost as powerful and eccentric as Allen Ginsberg’s. – Slant Magazine
Self produced, arranged, without any co-writers and art directed, the work and the act “Patrick Wolf”, presented live with home-made clothes and instruments rarely seen onstage at the time, he also bewildered and intimidated the U.K music industry in equal measure. It would take a german based label “Tomlab” to re-release this debut album and sending him off on an extensive forensic tour of Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Canada and America, that kept on going straight into the release of 2005’s sophomore album “WIND IN THE WIRES”, Wolf would continue in this way, living his life on the road and growing a rapidly increasing organic audience, year to year in the backseat of a car packed with his viola, an electric piano, laptop, organ and baritone ukulele.
“WIND IN THE WIRES” a nocturnal english folk album, traditional and futuristic in equal measure was received globally and to instant critical celebration this time, Pitchfork media again led the wave of praise with an 8.2 rating
“elegant pools of glitchy beats, found sound collages, crackling electrical sounds, and gothic shadows. Wind in the Wires is like Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn if Nick Cave had made it, a fertile nexus of tradition, technology, and Wolf’s powerful pipes”.
As the non-stop tour continued around the world that begun with his debut, his first appearances on the festival circuit were met with raptured audiences, this would lead to a bidding war between major labels at a sold out Halloween show at the London Scala, leading to signing with Polydor records and immediately beginning to record and produce his third album The Magic Position.
“The third outstanding album of his career” -Uncut Magazine.
“A lot of artists are creatively bankrupt by their third album. But being still only 23, you suspect Patrick Wolf is just coming into his own” – Mojo
The release of the album in 2007 would usher in a hysterical era of success and unexpected celebrity, released in 2007, featuring a duet with Marianne Faithful and artwork by the legendary photographer Gered Mankowitz, embarking on a grand two year world tour, breakthrough moments happening along the festival seasons at Glastonbury and Benicassim, a tour with Arcade Fire and asked by Amy Winehouse to support her on the “Back to Black” USA tour, Appearances on “The Conan O’brien show” and “Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel” further heightened the success of this era. Patrick would be selected as the face of Burberry A/W 2007 with an international billboard campaign, the dizzying heights of the MAGIC POSITION era would be documented by portrait by photographer Tim Walker, entered as a British Icon by Vanity Fair into The National Portrait Gallery archives.
In follow up to the technicolour and joy of the MAGIC POSITION album, Patrick went to Berlin to collaborate with his childhood hero Alec Empire, of Atari Teenage Riot which led to a creative fallout with his label and an early crowdfunding system was experimented with to rescue the production of the album, raising an at the time record breaking 100,000 pounds, the album went on to bridge a genre defying gap between english gothic folk music and german industrial noise, featuring monologues from the actress Tilda Swinton, a duet with folk legend Eliza Carthy and scored for String Octet, Patricks first collaboration that invited a string arranger to translate his composition, this was a cinematic and abrasive musical world created, named “THE BACHELOR”.
“it’s clear that Wolf has achieved that rare artistic feat: total catharsis. And a beautiful batch of it, at that. A-“- A.V club
“The Bachelor’s overall tone reflects a nihilistic view of both romance and humanity, making for an about-face from the relative sunshine of 2007’s “The Magic Position,” and this tone is reflected in some of Wolf’s most ambitious, baroque compositions to date.. 9/10″ Slant Magazine
At this time the composer Angelo Badalamenti would write a song inspired by and for Patricks voice that they would record together for the Dylan Thomas topic “The Edge of Love” in 2008, as a similar series of events that occurred at the end of his second album tour were underway after the release of “The Bachelor”, increasingly larger venues were being booked alongside high profile festival billings, culminating in a rapidly sold out London Palladium show with guest appearances from Florence Welch and actress’ Gwendoline Christie, a moment that would lead to him being signed to Mercury Records in anticipation of his 5th album.
At this time Patrick was commissioned by his friend the photographer “Nan Goldin” to make his first composition outside of his own work, for her masterpiece “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency”, Goldin had been supporting Patricks work since his debut album, using his song “The Child Catcher” in a 2004 Paris solo show. This new soundtrack commission would be performed live in the vast Tate Modern Turbine Hall in London, an iconic creative punctation mark to the The Bachelor era.
During the downtime between this album and release of his next album, while playing an intimate show at The Dylan Thomas poetry festival.. he would meet PATTI SMITH, which would go on to be a creative branch of his tree that would continue growing for many years, as a violist, harpist and sometime guitar player, Patrick would play with Patti everywhere from the Paris Olympia, The Orpheum Theatre L.A, for Yoko Ono in a live recreation of John Lennons’ “Double Fantasy” album to a magical two person show where they composed a new soundtrack for Armenian director, Artavazd Pelechians “Pelicans” at the Cartier Institute.
Patricks 5th album “LUPERCALIA ” released in 2011 would be an experiment in high fidelity, big budget and great romance, composed around a 24 Piece orchestra, recorded in the iconic room one of Air Lyndhurst studios, it would go onto be Patricks most commercial success to date.
“Lupercalia is a pretty irresistible album, even given that it contains a reworking of a Manx folk song arranged for Duduk and crystal Baschet – the former an Armenian “apricot horn” declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Unesco, the latter a “playable sculpture” made of oscillating glass rods” – The Guardian
Another world tour ensued, with his biggest band and production to date, but with little label support for the album in the States, the album experiencing its moment in the spotlight of Europe and The U.K, the era was signed off with the winter solstice themed BRUMALIA E.P, with it’s front cover portrait taken by Patti.
“(Brumalia) occupies a strange utopia, where erratic hormones, existential dilemmas and endearing idiosyncrasies run riot under a fuck-off magnifying glass.” – NME
Patrick would soon move to bring his decades work to a creative conclusion and close the first chapter of his career with a retrospective “SUNDARK AND RIVERLIGHT” A double album recorded in the traditional English folk style at Real World Studios, re-workings of his audiences favourite songs from his catalogue. During the creation of this album, patrick spent time in Barcelona with one of his heroes, the songwriter Buffy St Marie who mentored Patrick on his song-writing process and reframed his perspective on this back-catalogue, going as far as to oversee his re-writing of some of the lyrics to long finished songs.
After the final shows of the SUNDARK AND RIVERLIGHT world tour, Patrick finally unpacked after a decade of intense adventure and whirlwind success, setting up a music studio in South London near to where he grew up, and embarking on writing his first book of poetry “THE GHOST REGION”, while over the years continuing to dip into playing Viola for Patti and her band, duetting with Anna Calvi, along with selective and rare one off special concerts and composition commissions, but a long sabbatical of creative retreat, change, circumstance, healing and growth in privacy was already underway.
Patrick now 40, lives on the Kent Coast of England, where he has recently marked the 20 years anniversary of his first release with his E.P ‘ THE NIGHT SAFARI ‘ followed by a collection of Bsides and other rarities ‘ THE CIRCLING SKY ‘ . A new album will follow in April 2025 alongside a film documenting his career to date.
The Guardian – “Many kinds of Wonderful”
New York Times – “One of Britains most appealing young singer songwriters”
Lady Gaga – “Fantastic, Amazing, I listen to him, I meditate”
Rolling Stone – “There’s nothing not awesome about him”
NME – “Britains foremost pop pioneer”
Tilda Swinton – “My feeling is that we certainly come from the same planet: kith and kin. His music sounds like the great unexpressed soundtrack of a great film I want to see – and try to catch every night before I go to sleep..
