Biography

Diagrams is s project of Sam Genders, former co-frontman and songwriter of experimental folk band Tunng.

A solo project of sorts, Diagrams sees Genders working with a rolling cast of collaborators including Danyal Dhondy (string arrangements), Laura Hocking (vocals), Hannah Peel (backing vocals and trombone) and drummers Matt McKenzie and Tom Marsh. Live it expands to an all conquering nine-piece who made their debut to an ecstatically full tent at this year’s End Of The Road festival. It’s named Diagrams for the defining sound of clean, sharp production and programming Genders has cooked up with co-producer Mark Brydon. “I feel like this music is less lo-fi than the music I’ve made in the past,” says Genders. “It’s quite precise and angular in places, so Diagrams felt perfect.” That idea extends to Diagrams’s visual side too: graphic artist Chrissie Abbott has created Flatland-inspired imagery incorporating clean lines and polygons.

The title, Black Light, sums up Genders’s experience: “I like the idea that good and bad or dark and light aren’t always so clear. Sometimes the most difficult experiences can lead to the best things in life. Life is full of good and bad, dark and light. That’s just how it is.”