Biography
The Magic Lantern is the moniker of British / Australian singer-songwriter and composer Jamie Doe. His music shimmers in the gaps between folk and jazz, examining the limitless depth of human experience in our search for meaning.
Born in Australia, before moving to the UK at 12, Jamie adopted the stage name of The Magic Lantern and began writing songs while studying philosophy in Bristol. He lives in London and has released five full length albums and two EPs in addition to a compilation of other artists versions of his songs for the male suicide prevention charity CALM.
To Everything A Season, released in October 2024 on the French La Buissonne label, is his unashamedly emotional fifth album written in the months following his daughters birth and his fathers death six weeks later. Describing their brief meeting in a dementia nursing home Jamie says:
“In that cathartic moment I saw myself in my father, and my daughter in me and I felt joy and grief in overlapping waves, beautiful and complicated, which continue to ripple outward. These songs are my attempt to make sense of this incredible time where both ends of the circle of life touched.”
The Magic Lantern has cultivated a fiercely loyal international audience having toured the UK, Europe and Australia including alongside artists as diverse as This Is The Kit, Sam Lee and Alabaster Deplume. He has recorded at Abbey Road Studios as part of Help Musicians UK's ‘Music Minds Matter campaign, sung with nightingales in the Sussex woodland and as a guest vocalist at the BBC Proms, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.
An independent musician, The Magic Lantern's music elicits strong emotions and through word of mouth has connected deeply with fans and musicians around the world, including his most famous song 'Holding Hands'.
His songs has been used by the Sydney Theatre Company, recorded by multiple artists from Swedish jazz singer Emilia Mårtensson to the RTV Slovenian Big Band and Vancouver Youth Choir while album artwork has become tattoos from San Francisco to Manchester.
In his own words, Jamie says:
“Making music has always been a way of working out what I think, but in the midst of this intensely emotional time, it has also been a raft when the ground has given way. But as much as music helps me, I don't make records for myself.
I do it because I believe that music has a social function in allowing people to project themselves into and onto songs to come to know themselves and their own lives better. This belief gives me a sense of purpose and that is the spirit in which I offer this music to you, that it may be useful if it’s what you need”
The Magic Lantern has received praise from numerous supporters at radio including BBC 6 Music’s Guy Garvey, Lauren Laverne, Gideon Coe, Tom Robinson; BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks, The Verb and Late Junction; BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens; BBC Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum, Mark Radcliffe and Bob Harris; Jazz FM's Helen Mayhew and even BBC Radio 4's Christmas Day 'Archers' special.
He has been reviewed in publications such as The Guardian, Acoustic Magazine, Atwood Magazine, Folk Radio UK and Fortitude Magazine among many others.
In addition to writing and performing Jamie is a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and gives workshops and masterclasses in songwriting and creative practice, regularly teaching at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden among other institutions.
Music
The Magic Lantern has released five full length albums and two EPs available to stream below.
- 'To Everything A Season' LP (2024)
- 'A Reckoning Bell' LP (2022)
- 'My Soul Is A Strange Country' EP (2020)
- 'The Life That I Have' EP (2020)
- 'To The Islands' LP (2018)
- 'Love of Too Much Living' LP (2014)
- 'A World In A Grain of Sand' (2011)
Jamie latest record is accompanied with a full length, richly textured visual album directed by French director Giovanni Di Legami. The film weaves the narrative threads of the mundane and magnificent together, examining overlapping waves of joy and grief, into something unique and deeply affecting.
Live
The Magic Lantern predominantly performs with his core quartet drawn from London's genre bending jazz scene, or expanded to a sextet and beyond depending on the concert. He also enjoys playing solo and in duo.
Upcoming 2026 live dates:
- 9 May - Village Club, Thornton Hough
- 3 June - Donau 115, Berlin
- 14 July - St Marylebone, London
- 28 June - Morvala Festival, Cornwall
Press Highlights
“ Joyous, beautiful. This stopped me in my tracks. Just one of those artists who sounds totally like himself.” - Jamie Cullum BBC Radio 2
“Excellent, intriguing and compelling, a man to watch.” - The Guardian
“Extraordinary. Beautiful poised singing amazing lyrics and hypnotic production. Devastating. One of my favourite artists of recent years” - Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music
It’s an overwhelming weight and a dazzling thing of beauty, all at once bringing pain and joy, passion and euphoria – but perhaps most of all, as Doe sings in his lyrics, it gives us purpose and fills our days with meaning. “Without love a clanging cymbal be.” - Atwood Magazine
“It’s beautiful and I love it” - Guy Garvey BBC 6 Music
“Dreamy, beautiful. Something very, very special.” - Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music
"Every now and again you come across a piece of music that will completely take your breath away. It might not be instant, but it will. The Magic Lantern’s ‘Holding Hands’ is one of those pieces of music." - Fortitude Magazine
"Bitter sweet, beautiful music" - Verity Sharp, BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
“Fused with a mix of emotions but with gravitas and great wisdom there's is a certain Jeff Buckley quality to the arrangements and diction, and a songwriting capacity that, like Joanna Newsom’s, is utterly otherworldly and densely descriptive. Each song is a mini-overture to the craft of music lovingly rendered. This is warm music for lonely hearts" - Folk Radio UK
Contacts
Booking (UK & EU): Jamie jamiefdoe@yahoo.com
Booking (Australia): Emily-Rose bespokefolkmusic@gmail.com
Publishing & Management: Chris chris@karouselmusic.com