my debut album “FORMATIONS” is out today ! its been a journey to make this — thank you to everyone who’s been a part of it especially Sam at @callingcardspublishing for trusting me and all the graft — cant wait to share it 🤍
Mary Hurrell FORMATIONS (CCP012)
Available from today on 12” Vinyl or via digital platforms. Buy and stream now via linkinbio
Mary Hurrell’s debut album FORMATIONS explores the voice as a centre of gravity and a live material to anchor the body into the present. Created through vocal and choreographic improvisation, field recordings and performance scores; the album is a meditation on inner and outer landscapes, in-between space and visceral poetics.
FORMATIONS was recorded between the winter solstices of 2022 & 2023 in Akureyri (North Iceland), North Devon (UK), Aldeburgh (UK) and Santander (Spain). Released by Calling Cards Publishing on vinyl and digital formats with original artwork.
Written, Performed and Produced by Mary Hurrell
Mastered by Adam Matschulat
Artwork and Design by Mary Hurrell
Calling Cards Publishing 2024
#maryhurell #callingcardspublishing #helpmusiciansuk
#experimentalmusic #vinyl
new track ‘roses the whole place’ out today on @somewhere.press v/a compilation ‘The Black Hill, The Glass Sky’
thank you tim & lizzie for including my work on this stunning release so honoured to be part of it <3
cassette available via bandcamp & @boomkatonline
credits
released February 5, 2026
Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval
Photography by Somewhere Press
Design by Musheto Fernandez
Text by Eloise Bennett
I’ve been archiving performance costumes I made between 2005 to 2025 alongside writing & scores, it’s been fun to show them this weekend @spikeisland open studios ~ thanks to everyone who popped in to say hi 👋
04.06.26 at KIT FORM gallery
Perpetually Stew introduces our first artist of June’s exhibition, Mary Hurrell
Mary Hurrell (South Africa/UK) is an artist and composer based in Bristol, working across experimental music and performance.
Her practice explores forms of language, movement and voice in relation to physical and psychological experience.
Hurrell released her debut album FORMATIONS in 2024, with recent live performances at venues and festivals including En Masse Festival, Bristol Beacon, Strange Brew, Cafe OTO, The Old Hairdressers and Jupiter Rising Festival.
Her work has been exhibited and commissioned by institutions including Pallant House Gallery, motor dance journal, Nicoletti Contemporary, and Flat Time House; with residencies at Britten Pears Arts, PRAXIS (Spain), Gilfélagið (Iceland) and Yamakiwa Gallery (Japan).
Perpetually Stew is a recurring live art exhibition in Bristol, platforming performance artists from across the UK to exhibit and encounter each others practices.
Join us for our next instalment on Thursday 4th of June and duly stew.
@maryhurrell@kit.form
Tickets Available on Headfirst/ via the link in our bio
big thank you to @gane.trust for awarding me a materials grant toward building a sound proof booth inside my studio @spikeisland ⚒️ bit more to do before it’s up and running but almost there thanks to help from spike tech team 🦾
excited for this ~ 🎟️ linkinbio x
Strange Brew presents @strange_brew_briz
Jan Jelinek & Ben Bertrand & Mary Hurrell
Friday 13 March 2026 | 19:00 - 22:00
#janjelinek @ben.bertrand.music@maryhurrell
Autumn 2025 ~ River South Esk on 35mm / Stills AutoMat Edinburgh / research “like sound, skin-to-skin touch of human hands is also sensed as an oscillating wave of vibration through the nervous system. Current ways of thinking say that what is being vibrated differs (air, flesh), and the nerves and brain region processing the vibration are different. But that is only one way of cutting this experience into intelligibility” Sticky Metaphors, Cannach MacBride, Bodies of Sound / Clarice Lispector x Roni Horn / Orion’s Belt on iPhone
In the studio with @maryhurrell 🎀
Taking inspiration from the likes of Yoko Ono, Bjork, Enya and Meredith Monk, Bristol-based multidisciplinary artist Mary Hurrell uses her voice as an instrument. Having grown up playing music and later training as a dancer, it was her sculptural practice led her back to sound. On her debut album ‘Formations’ (2024), she explores sound’s material quality, focusing on the tactile, textural and somatic aspects of the voice. Ahead of her show at @document.uk where she will open the En Masse 2025 music programme, @uncannieparker heads to her studio to get an idea of what’s to come.
Head to the link in our bio to grab a ticket to see Mary play alongside DJ Python, Coby Sey & Continue and Abdullah Miniawy. The opening show on Thursday 9th October at Document is also included in the festival pass.
Produced by @uncannieparker
🎉ANNOUNCEMENT: In partnership with artist Phil Toy, Spike Island is delighted to announce artist and studio holder Mary Hurrell as the Lingua Franca Award laureate 2025!
Over the coming year, the mentorship and financial support provided by the Lingua Franca Award will enable the production of a new body of work in which Mary will focus on developing and writing vocal scores for live performance, alongside archiving performative traces as artworks.
Combining spoken word, electronic music, movement, image and sculpture, this new work will expand on Hurrell's ongoing interest in the body as a fluid substance, and movement as an embodied form of language.
The Lingua Franca Award is dedicated to supporting artists whose works bridge the gap between visual and verbal languages at a key point in their career, in partnership with writer, artist and former Spike Island studio holder Phil Toy.
Learn more about the Lingua Franca Award at the link in our bio 🔗
Image Credits:
1. Mary Hurrell (2024). Photograph by Olivia-Grace Smith
2. Mary Hurrell, 'FORMATIONS' (2024). Image courtesy San Mei Gallery and the artist, photograph by Jack Elliot Edwards.
3. Mary Hurrell, 'Movement Study 4 (Dorsal/Breast)' (2024). Image courtesy San Mei Gallery and the artist, photograph by Jack Elliot Edwards
one year today FORMATIONS my debut album was released with Calling Cards Publishing ~ it was a journey to make this album and go deeper into exploring my voice as an instrument and material ~ i’m so grateful for all that putting this into the world has opened and excited for what’s next ~ thank you to everyone who bought the album, came to the shows, the stockists and support 🤍
FORMATIONS was released July 12, 2024 by @callingcardspublishing on 12“ limited edition white vinyl and digital formats with original artwork poster inlay.
Recorded between the winter solstices of 2022 & 2023 in Akureyri (North Iceland), North Devon (UK), Aldeburgh (UK) and Santander (Spain). Written, Performed and Produced by Mary Hurrell. Mastered by Adam Matschulat. Artwork and Design by Mary Hurrell. Calling Cards Publishing 2024
STOCKISTS
@mattsgallerylondon@cafeotodalston@good_press@normanrecs@tobirarecords@objectsandsounds@repressedrecords@fluent.books
