This is the first EP by The Salt Flats.

Recorded in Belfast in early 2011, it includes adaptations of traditional and modern folk songs, inspired by dusty 78s, LPs and field recordings made at a Yorkshire Shanty Festival.

It features modern and traditional elements including vintage synthesizers, rhythm boxes, omnichord, harmonium, guitars, percussion and lots of harmonies.

The Salt Flats are:

Katie Richardson (no relation to Mark or Ewan) is a musician, actress, and performer who will turn her hand to anything if you ask nicely or give her some wine. She loves to perform with lots of different musical outfits but especially her own, Katie and the carnival! She has built and played with puppets in Belfast, Belgium and Italy, acted, designed and composed music for theatre productions in the uk and Ireland, done a film course in NYC, climbed mountains in lots of different continents and has had highs including performing at the meteor awards with duke special and singing in venues such as Westminster Abbey and the Royal Albert Hall! Lows include sitting down and being bored briefly back in 2006.

Cara Cowan (not related to any other members) is a musician, artist, fashion follower, vegetarian and very passionate animal lover. She began gigging at the tender age of 16 and since then has been a member of many band lineups and has experimented with many different musical styles and hairdos! She has settled on a distinct sound of her own that fuses conventional pop with a modern folk element. Currently Cara lives in Belfast with her two guinea pigs, Macey and Ginger. She likes many things including playing her guitar and omnichord, composing her own songs, wearing extremely high heels, rollerblading, painting, selling and buying things on eBay, smiley potatoes and rose wine!

Mark Gordon (no relation to Ewan) lives by the sea in Northern Ireland, with a variety of people, young and old, cats and dogs, analogue keyboards and fresh mint by the handful. He writes music for all sorts of reasons-for television programmes that range from national BBC1 dramas through to kids tv shows, as a performer and remixer who has reworked artists on labels including Moshi Moshi, Saddle Creek, Second Royal and the Richter Collective, and as a reformed former DJ who played everywhere from warming up the crowd for Fleet Foxes on the main stage at Bestival to….Siberia (at which point he clicked his shoes and hung up the headphones).

Ewan Gordon lives by the Sea in the North East of England with an expanding collection of books, instruments and whiskey. He has toured throughout Europe and recent work as Coney Island Sound has aired all over UK radio. Along the way he has picked up a taste for field recording and a Master’s in Music. He is currently researching a PhD on the History of Stereo recording. Whilst writing new material he is developing production music inspired by the likes of Bosworth and KPM, and he currently tends an eclectic colllection of thousands of 78s and Reel to Reel tapes in a temperature controlled bunker in deepest Yorkshire. Ewan is not allowed to take his accordion into the Archive.

They also make music as:

Katie and the Carnival:
www.myspace.com/katieandthecarnival

Cara Cowan:
www.myspace.com/carafayecowan

Skibunny:
www.myspace.com/skibunnyclub

Coney Island Sound:
www.myspace.com/coneyislandsound