Wolfe was born in South London, to an English journalist mother and an American bookseller father. She attended the Young Blood Theatre group at the Riverside Studios between 2000 and 2004 where she wrote and performed in a number of plays at the Riverside Theatre and Lyric Theatre. Wolfe attended Ibstock Place School from age 3 to 16. Following Ibstock, she attended Goldsmiths, University of London where she studied English literature. For her dissertation, Wolfe wrote about Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.[19]
Notable Projects
The UN project Beatie Wolfe's "From Green to Red" at COP26
From Green to Red
From Green to Red by Beatie Wolfe takes over Denver Downtown Screens
From Green to Red, described by the artist as an environmental protest piece, is a dynamic visualization of 800,000 years of atmospheric carbon dioxide data that Wolfe created in 2019 in response to the climate emergency. The woven data is set to Wolfe's song “From Green to Red,” which she wrote in 2006 after seeing the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The project has been shown at the inaugural Nobel Prize Summit[20] where the artist spoke[21] and performed after Al Gore and Sir David Attenborough in the summit's opening ceremony. From Green to Red has also been presented at the New York Times’ Climate Hub at the United Nations COP26 along with a full scale projection of the piece onto the conference center which was covered live by Channel 4 news.[22] It was also selected to be installed at the 2021 London Design Biennale[23] curated by Es Devlin in its interactive version. The project won Silver at Webby's Anthem Awards[13] and was selected as a finalist for Berlin's Falling Walls. It has also been shown at TED Women, Boston Science Museum, SXSW, the Barbican Centre, and Virtual Design Festival.[24]
Postcards for Democracy
In 2020, Devo frontman and film composer Mark Mothersbaugh and Beatie Wolfe created Postcards for Democracy, a collective postcard art demonstration that "calls for tangible public interest and action in saving United States Postal Service - an essential civic institution and fundamental element of the United States".[25] The pair's aim was to encourage people to support the United States Postal Service and to remind people to vote ahead of the 2020 election. The campaign went viral[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and the pair received tens of thousands of postcards which were exhibited at the Rauschenberg Gallery in Florida in an exhibition that ran from May 17 to Aug 8 2021. South by Southwest[37] invited Beatie Wolfe and Mark Mothersbaugh to present the project as part of its first online festival. The Smithsonian Museum has archived part of this project in its permanent collection.
Barbican Centre Documentary
In 2019, a documentary about Wolfe's work was commissioned by the Barbican Centre[38] in London where it premiered in October of that year. The film was directed by Los Angeles filmmaker Ross Harris.
Victoria and Albert Museum (Solo Exhibition)
In 2018, the Victoria and Albert Museum invited Wolfe to hold a solo exhibition of her "world first designs for music in the digital age".[8][39] In addition to her existing album designs Wolfe also created the Space Chamber, a Mylar-wrapped anechoic room within which visitors could experience the Raw Space live AR stream via a coin-operated viewport.
Live 360° AR Stream (Raw Space)
Beatie Wolfe in the anechoic chamber at Bell Labs
Responding to the streaming age of music becoming the principal way of listening and continuing her approach of trying to reunite music in the digital age with a sense of tangibility, ceremony and storytelling,[40] Wolfe released Raw Space as the world's first 360° AR livestream[41][42] in collaboration with Bell Labs[43] and Design I/O. This was a first in the world for combining live, 360˚ stereoscopic video and real-time AR visuals, creating a modern, Fantasia-like live streamed album experience.[44] In an interview with Hoboken Life, Wolfe described the thinking behind Raw Space:
Raw Space touches on the themes I’ve been exploring since my first album but in perhaps the most extreme and technicolor way. For this album, it began with a question. What would the anti-stream of today look like? With Raw Space, I wanted to create the antithesis of our current streaming experience and really celebrate the world of the album—it’s artwork, arc, narrative, music—in a fully immersive and multi sensory way, which has the effect of placing the listener at the centre of this dynamic world.[45]
The live stream started on 5 May 2017 and ran continuously for 7 days straight. A turntable physically played Wolfe's album Raw Space on repeat from inside the Bell Labs' Anechoic chamber while people logged on via YouTube to listen to the music and explore the room in 360-degree video with the Augmented reality animation bringing the album's artwork, lyrics and visual landscape to life in real-time for the viewers.[46] The Augmented reality animation was also part-generative, which meant that with every spin the visuals would evolve and listeners might experience different things. The Raw Space live stream was given high praise by TechCrunch,[47]Axios (website), Fast Company,[48]Wired[49] and New Scientist, who described it as "like walking around in a dream someone had made for me"[50] and the BBC Radio 4 called it "transformative"[46] and "an extraordinary production: music and visuals" for "operating in this liminal space between online and offline."
Raw Space Galactic Broadcast
Beatie Wolfe standing at the Holmdel Horn Antenna from which she broadcast her album into Space
In addition to the live stream, Wolfe also pioneered the world's first live, generative Augmented reality performance for songs "Little Moth" and "As You" as part of the launch of Raw Space.[52][53] This was achieved by using Kinect's motion-sensing devices to track Wolfe's movements in the chamber and allow the Augmented reality animation to respond to her specific location in real time. New Scientist described this as "an enchanting effect," with the song's lyrics streaming out of her mouth as her sung and the graphics following her round the room in real time.[54]
In addition to the musical jacket, 'Montagu Square' was released as the world's first NFC Album Deck[63] in collaboration with MOO. The Next Web called this release "a brilliant inspiring idea that transcends novelty"[60] and Wired called it "bleeding edge." The Montagu Square album deck comes as a pack of printed cards with each card corresponding to each track off the album and featuring artwork, lyrics and an embedded Near field communication (NFC) chip – allowing listeners to tap the song cards onto their phone to play the music and access its content.
Theatre For the Palm of the Hand (8ight)
In 2013, Wolfe created her first album innovation by turning the mobile phone into a “theatre for the palm of the hand”.[64] This "world’ first"[65] format was positively received by various critics such as Wired magazine who described it as an "ingenious 3D layered view that beautifully brings to life her captivating folk sounds"[64] and British British GQ magazine who stated that Wolfe "continues to innovate with her beautiful new album 8ight". Several magazines noted that Wolfe was "the first artist to introduce the Palm Top Theatre to her product".[66] Following her 3D Interactive App release, Apple Inc. invited Wolfe to perform at its worldwide flagship event theaters – London, New York & Berlin. Live interviewers included Spin and Billboard editor & chief Craig Marks, GQ editor Charlie Burton and Debug Founder Sascha Kösch.
Beatie Wolfe standing in her album exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Music
Musical style and influences
Wolfe's style has been described as "low fi and honest"[67] indie rock with a "strong percussive sound and bluesy overtone" and as "expertly played, beautifully sung chamber pop".[68] Praised by GQ Magazine for her "smoky captivating melodies that envelop the listener in tales of love and loss" Wolfe's music pulls from the brooding poeticism of Leonard Cohen, the intimacy of Elliott Smith and occasionally veers into Americana and grunge territory. Wolfe's live performance has been hailed as "absolutely breathtaking" by The New York Times Magazine and "a profound delivery of depth and soul" and Wolfe has been described as a "beguiling, excellent live performer.[65]"
Calm Compositions
Beatie Wolfe was the first original content creator on the world's leading meditation app Calm (company)[69] and continues to create Sleep Stories and Sleep Music for the site.
Raw Space (Album): 2017
Wolfe's third album Raw Space was conceived at Bell Labs' Anechoic chamber, cited in the Guinness World Records as the quietest room in the world. The album features "Little Moth", a song written in tribute to singer songwriter Elliott Smith and described by Spindle Magazine as "a tender homage with the intimate double vocals, distant mellotron and all round low-fi sound, very much in the spirit of Smith’s style and production."[70]Highsnobiety named Wolfe as one of '10 Ways Music Will Change in 2017.'[71]
Raw Space was released in May 2017 and reviewed positively by BBC Radio 4[46] who called it "delicious", KCRW who called it "raw, gritty and honest", Jazziz[72] who praised the song arrangements for having echoes of George Martin, New Scientist who described it as "intimate, like the sound of secrets whispered under bed covers," and Nathan Brackett who called it "amazing" and made it an Amazon Music album of the month.
Montagu Square received positive reviews with The Independent newspaper calling the album "absolutely gorgeous"[73] and praising Wolfe for being a "pioneering songwriter", Forbes calling it "extraordinary,"[58]The Huffington Post highlighting its "strong percussive sound with a bluesy overtone" and praising its "refreshingly low fi and honest"[74] sound and Monocle Magazine describing the album as: "pure and simple; a short, sharp flip-it-over-and-listen-again LP of well-made, expertly played, beautifully sung chamber pop."[68]
8ight (Album): 2013
In July 2013, Wolfe released her debut album 8ight as a vinyl, lyric book and 'world's first' 3D interactive album app[64] which British GQ premiered in its magazine, online and via its app[75] and described as "the sultry songstress enraptured us with her smoky, captivating melodies about love and loss." It was also positively reviewed by Monocle as "Beautiful, it's hitting me like lovely records do"[76] and called "Raw, brooding and so diverse it features everything from spongy bass to ukuleles, the record is an irresistible collection of melodious three-minute pop nuggets."
Burst (EP): 2010
Wolfe's debut EP, Burst was released in January 2010 as an iPhone App as was one of very few artist apps available. GQ Magazine[77] reviewed the launch concert at St Pancras Old Church as "the best concert [they'd] been to all year."
In July 2011, Wolfe performed at Secret Garden Party in Huntington. In August 2011, she was selected by EMI and Roundhouse to be featured in its 30/30 compilation album. This was released in December 2011 on Roundhouse Records. In August 2011, Wolfe shared the bill with American jazz musician Wynton Marsalis at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Following the show, Wolfe and Marsalis became friends and he became an important musical influence and mentor.
In 2014, Beatie Wolfe launched the philanthropic research project Power of Music & Dementia[80] supported by The Utley Foundation. Wolfe was inspired by the work of the neurologist Oliver Sacks after family members became inflicted by the condition.[81] The findings of the project which recorded the beneficial effects of using music for people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease included significant improvements in communication and memory, and received positive press from The Times,[15] Independent, Guardian, BBC Radio 4,[82] and Wired[83] as the first study to both test and show the benefits of new (novel) music. The Power of Music & Dementia research project was the first known study to look at new music for people living with dementia and has been described as "ground-breaking"[84] for testing music unconnected to memory.[85][86] It has been endorsed by the Alzheimer's Association[87] and Stanford University[88] and recently turned into a charity Music For Dementia where she continues as an ambassador alongside Lauren Laverne. Wolfe gave a TEDMED[89] talk about this project in March 2020.
Awards and nominations
Won Silver at Webby Awards's inaugural Anthem Award[90] in recognition of From Green to Red.
Beatie Wolfe was invited to join Stephen Fry as one of the first sleep story narrators on the meditation site Calm (company)[69] with Wolfe writing, producing and narrating the first original content on the site. These stories became so popular Wolfe released each story's soundtrack.
Album Lyric Books
On 19 February 2014, at Mayfair's Maggs Bros Ltd on Berkeley Square – one of the longest-established antiquarian booksellers in the world – Wolfe launched the first edition of 'Words of 8IGHT',[101] her lyric book to accompany the album. For her second album Montagu Square, Wolfe released her lyric book with SecondHome Libreria.
^"Music, Art and Alzheimer's". Alzheimers and Dementia Blog – Alzheimers Association of Northern California and Northern Nevada. 13 December 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
