Bethany M. Roberts is a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Bristol, UK. Her voice carries elements of folksong honesty and choral clarity as she weaves melodic lines over intricate fingerpicked banjo and guitar. There’s a hypnotic intimacy in her performance that invites audiences to commune with the quieter parts of themselves, drawn in by her ever-shifting harmonic patterns. As a solo performer, she has supported a varied spectrum of artists including Rachel Sermanni, The Magic Lantern, Martha Tilston, Solana and Haiku Salut, and she’s currently preparing to record her debut solo album.
Since 2017, she has been writing and performing with dreamfolk trio Hands of the Heron, known for their mesmerising vocal harmonies and reverberant songwriting. She is also half of poetry/soundscape duo House of Figs, creating an otherworldly choir with voice and electronics around Beth Calverley’s tenderly powerful poetry and exploring collaborative improvisations.
She plays violin and double bass in Hedera, a newly-formed instrumental quintet playing music from various European folk traditions, and has recently toured in Germany and the UK with fellow sonic experimentalists Ben Osborn and Malo Moray. She has also collaborated with notable emerging artists Emily Isherwood, Waldo’s Gift, Amy Yon, Rowan Elliott and Ishmael Ensemble.
She co-founded Cuculi Records in 2020 with Heron bandmate Bec Garthwaite, and has subsequently produced and released collections by songwriters Claire Vine, Bea Piper and Anna Anise. She curates Cuculi Presents, a popular ongoing series of intimate gigs in listening spaces around East Bristol featuring artists from the label, as well as upcoming acts from around the UK.
She teaches singing and music theory, and has led workshops encouraging adults to overcome vocal inhibitions and find a more effortless way of singing. She occasionally writes about music in a space called Burnout Musicology.
Cuculi Records 