Mouthful are a 4-piece a Cappella vocal group who make innovative, exciting and original music using only the human voice as an expertly-played and finely-tuned instrument. Bex Mather, Dave Camlin, Katherine Zeserson and Sharon Durant create and perform a diverse range of vocal material, with an exciting and accessible repertoire that ranges from Georgian to gospel, folk to funk, including jazz, country and outdoor Scandinavian ‘yoiking’ along the way. Be prepared to have your preconceptions about vocal music blown out of the water by powerful and exciting original work, and sophisticated and unusual arrangements…
Mouthful is very much a 'live' experience, but if you'd like to listen to us in the comfort of your own home or car, you can also enjoy us on Spotify…
We create our repertoire together through playing out loud with songs, with sounds, with feelings, with ideas and with our voices. We compose, arrange and mess up all kinds of musical material. Our sound world is by turns tender, groove based, mysterious, harmonious, discordant and celebratory, with influences from Finnish and Georgian singing traditions sitting alongside funk and beatbox, jazz, pop and contemporary music; all refracted through the prism of ‘The Mouthful Way’.
Equally at home in prestigious venues as diverse as Sage Gateshead, RSC Stratford, British Museum, Glastonbury Festival, up a Cumbrian Mountain or on rural tour of Northumberland churches, Mouthful make all of their own vocal arrangements, charming audiences extensively across the UK and beyond.
“Mouthful are an extra- ordinary combination of voices, with each member having their own wonderful sound, but with the ability to blend and create a uniquely musical instrument. They are all great composers, drawing from a huge range of musical influences and the immaculate rhythms, beautiful harmonies and highly inventive arrangements create a body of song that uplifts, engages and inspires their audiences. They are great collaborators too, If you get the chance to see them, on a stage, up a mountain, under a waterfall… Go!”
“Your singing sends shivers up and down my spine. You are completely ‘in the zone’ and bring your audience into the zone with you.”
“‘Stunning vocal extravaganzas and a wildly playful and joyous performance style’ ”
“I had the pleasure to work with Mouthful as part of my show at the Baltic in 2018 Missing Time. They are an incredibly versatile and experienced group of performers and singers. I needed a group of singers who were willing to work with an artist and untrained musician, were able to hold specific frequencies and notes for sustained periods and were willing to experiment and be outside of their comfort zone. Mouthful ticked all these boxes and more, they are incredibly professional and moved sublimely through my sometimes quite vague direction. They are brilliant at collaborating with one another and they made me feel like an honorary member of their group which put me at ease and enabled us to develop a mini space opera together in a very short period of time. Their openness to work in a way that was unfamiliar to them was amazing and inspiring. They made the process fun, exciting and utterly enjoyable. We worked on a series of projects after Missing Time because I enjoyed working with them so much and knew they would always rise to the challenge and they did each time.”
“It’s an overused word, but in this case it fits: Mouthful is quite simply unique. Each singer a superb talent in their own right, as vocalists, improvisers and workshop leaders, the group as one brings whole new possibility, along with extraordinary range of expression and emotion and laugh-out-loud entertainment to their performances and workshops. I’ve never heard audiences actually gasp in wonder at a vocal ensemble before, but these singers inspire that: and their vocal dexterity never gets in the way of the songs they sing and the stories they tell. Book them - and be nourished and amazed. Em Whitfield Brooks, Helmsley Arts Centre and Hull Singing City 2017”