Friday 24 February 2017

Baluji Shrivastav - Inner London Visions


Baluji Shrivastav
Baluji Shrivastav - sitar and vocals
Fereshteh Khosrujerdy - vocals

Date - 22nd February 2017
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Current album  - Pre-order Best of Baluji Shrivastav iTunes: http://geni.us/fOFi7M

Future Performance

Fereshteh Khosrujerdy
Indian sitar star Baluji Shrivastav on this A World In London! 
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-22nd-february-2017/ 

Could 2017 be the pinnacle year for Baluji Shrivastav? Decades have passed since the talented boy from Uttar Pradesh arrived in London ready to share his musical gifts across the world. This Sunday he launches his Best Of.. CD via ARC Music, with an OBE added to his name & numerous credentials. Balu is also about to  become the first ever artist-in-residence at Rich Mix with his Inner Visions training project. References to Stevie Wonder’s seminal album are potent, as a blindness has proved to be no obstacle for either of these music visionaries. Indeed, Balu has collaborated with Mr. Wonder, Massive Attack, Annie Lennox, Shakira, Boy George, and many more, but perhaps the most fruitful and consistent collaboration has been with his talented partner, singer Linda Shanovitch. Celebrity and honours aside, together they support up and coming musicians with sight impairments as well as other disabilities through the Baluji Music Foundation, creating essential opportunities & thrilling platforms for great music. One such protégé is Iranian vocalist Fereshteh Khosrujerdy who came to the UK just in order to be allowed to sing at all. You can hear her gorgeous vocals on this AWIL, dueting with Balu, in a glorious multi-lingual exchange of harmony.

Linda Shanovitch
22/2/17 – AWIL at Res 115  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-22nd-february-2017/  Pics by Layla Gatens. Sketches by Alban Low. Production by Sofia Gaetani-Morris & Norman Druker. Also this week, Bernard O’Neill with IRL’s ‘Terraforming Analogue Space’ at SOAS Radio! Next week Idan Raichel@ SOAS Radio and Kongo Dia Ntotila @ Resonance.

#AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Juan Maria Solare - White shadows, black pool


Juan Maria Solare

Date - 20th February 2017
Venue - The Wren Church of St Martin Within Ludgate
Current album  -  "Sn" (Stannum / Estaño / Tin) released 19th Feb 2017

Future Performance
Sunday 19 March 2017 - Johanniterhaus Bremen gGmbH, Bremen, Germany
Sunday 07 May 2017 - Speicherbühne, Bremen, Germany
Sunday 03 September 2017 - Speicherbühne, Bremen, Germany
Wednesday 01 November 2017 - Johanniterhaus Bremen gGmbH, Bremen, Germany
Thursday 02 November 2017 - Kulturkirche St. Stephani, Bremen, Germany

A delicate and emotive concert by Juan Maria Solare in the pooling stillness of The Wren Church of St Martin Within Ludgate. Sitting in the shadow of its domineering cousin St Paul's Cathedral this little church hosts concerts every Monday lunchtime between 1.05pm and 3pm. Free entry. Next week, Mon 27th February 2017, is the Imperial College Chamber Choir with  Latin American Baroque music, including pieces by Padilla and De Araujo.

Solare's audience was a modest one compared to the masses who bustled and bumped just a few yards away on the overflowing London streets. The pews of the Ludgate Hill church were populated by a mysterious bunch of intriguing misfits. They came from many countries, with flaming redheads and dark Latin beauties, old men gently snoozed and young men sat tall, straight-backed and attentive. They watched Solare  as he sat beneath the dark wainscoting, his face underlit from his sheet music, catching the flecks in his salt and pepper beard.

The concert was titled White Shadows, a paradoxical term that can refer to problems in life that don't leave negative sequels or by-products. It also means: foreshadows of good things to come. And if shadows are like a mirror of our bodies (or souls), a 'White Shadow' reflects the luminous part of us. Translated into everyday language: it's about music that underlines our most positive aspects.

Most of the pieces are part of the upcoming album «Sombras blancas» (White Shadows).

Danzarín (Julián Plaza)
Waltz in E major, B. 44 (Frédéric Chopin)
Para una mano pequeña (Juan María Solare)
Under the Silver Moonlight (Chinese Folksong)
Barcarola (Juan María Solare)
Melodía de arrabal (Carlos Gardel)
Truro Road (Juan María Solare)
Huellas del silencio (MARIANO GARCIA BERARDI)
Tengo un tango (Juan María Solare)
Gazing (Juan María Solare)
Nada que ver (Juan María Solare)
Flats (Juan María Solare)
Calambre (Astor Piazzolla)
Departure (Juan María Solare)
Zwischen den Jahren (Juan María Solare)
La Puñalada (Horacio «Pintín» Castellanos)

Friday 17 February 2017

Joji Hirota - Blazing Taikos!

Joji Hirota
Joji Hirota

Date - 15th February 2017
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Current album  - Japanese Taiko 3 (Released April 2017 on ARC Music)


Legendary Japanese music-maker Joji Hirota on this A World In London! 
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-15th-february-2017/

If you’ve ever seen Joji Hirota’s thrilling performances with the London Taiko Drummers, you’ll know that his live sets are unforgettable! A blaze of blistering beats pounded on giant drums that leaves audiences breathless, but Joji is not ‘just a drummer’. He’s a distinguished composer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, with a career that spans over three decades, and sixteen sensational albums! Awards, accolades, and collaborations with the likes of Jah Wobble, London Metropolitan Orchestra, and Royal Shakespeare Company have happened along the way, and Joji is the man to credit for filling the void of mystery that surrounds Japanese music. He is its finest interpreter and dedicated ambassador. He’s also a master craftsman, that  carves intricate and delicate string arrangements for Japanese folk songs, boasts a celestial singing voice, and is a master of the Shakuhachi flute. On this AWIL, hear an exclusive preview of his 17th album, ‘ Japanese Taiko 3’, forthcoming on ARC Music this April.



15/2/17 – AWIL at Res 114  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-15th-february-2017/  Pic by Layla Gatens. Sketches by Alban Low. Production by Sofia Gaetani-Morris & Norman Druker. Also this week, NAMLO and Ali Azimi live at SOAS Radio! Next week Syriana’s Bernard O’Neill @ SOAS Radio and Baluji Shrivastav OBE @ Resonance.

THURSDAY FEB 16TH A WORLD INLONDON LIVE at CLUB INEGALES –Fundraiser for Resonance FM – with NAMLO, IYATRA QUARTET, AILM, JOJI HIROTA & THE LONDON TAIKO DRUMMERS!!! Get tickets here: http://bit.ly/2kWU62a  https://www.facebook.com/events/154245781745840/  Support Resonance FM Fundraising Week Feb 13 – 20th  London’s ONLY independent arts radio station - fundraiser.resonance.fm  #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 



Monday 13 February 2017

Tad Sargent and Loïc Bléjean – Fire and Fervour

Tad Sargent
Tad Sargent and Loïc Bléjean

Date - 8th February 2017
Venue - Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith, London, UK
Current album  - Tad Sargent and Loïc Bléjean (Market Square, 2017)

Future Performance
21/02/2017: Concert à l’Eglise, St Laurent/Oust, 8:30pm – facebook.com/events/1067132986728352/
22/02/2017: Brittany Winter Shool, Arzon, 9pm –  bws-irl.com/groups

A night of shadows and sparks from two Celtic firebrands in the newly reopened Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, UK. The high ceilinged performance room could have given the air an empty chill but the audience filled out the hollow space and the warmth from the musicians brought colour to the cheeks on this bitter winter evening. The bald headed Bléjean is the smouldering coal in the fire pit, he glowed in the red light, still and pulsating. In contrast Sargent is the spitting spark that erupts from this combustible collaboration, always on his toes, twisting and flickering in the night.

Loïc Bléjean
Tad and Loïc share the same musical passions for the Irish tradition, for innovation, for style and flair and for ‘getting it right’. They met formally, if you like, at a session in Flynn’s Bar in Ealing, west London, in late 2013 and immediately hit it off. Loïc called Tad a few months later, as he was keen on putting a duo together for the festival he runs in his beloved Brittany. There followed stays and rehearsals at Tad’s fabled flat in Barnes, then gigs in France and England, all leading to the two of them opening the show for “The Taming of the Shrew”, the widely and wildly acclaimed 2016 production at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

And meanwhile, they were making this album…. Recorded at Sylvain Barou’s studio in Brittany, it has Sylvain himself guesting on flute, Jean-Baptist Boclé on keyboards and Ben Somers on double bass and backing vocals, each one highly regarded in his own right. Well, class attracts class!
The album has nine tracks, six sets of tunes in what has become their trademark manner – percussive, driven, with a complexity of rhythm from Tad underscoring the precision and beauty of Loïc’s melodic lines. There is sensitivity too; it is not all fire and fervour and when the tune merits a light and gentle touch, that it receives! Tad adds three songs, “Missing You” (J. MacCarthy), “Dunnes Stores Girl” (J. Spillane) and “Beeswing” (R. Thompson), each with a fitting new arrangement and delivered with his fine vocals.


Vocal Global - Voice Acrobatics

Noga Ritter
Vocal Global
Noga Ritter - voice and piano
DavidX - voice/beatbox and violin

Date - 8th February 2017
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Current album  - L'Odyssey (Released on 26th February 2017)

Future Performance
26th February 2017 - Vortex Jazz Club - album launch

Sonic phonic duo Vocal Global on this A World In London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-8th-february-2017/

DavidX
Seeing is believing, which is why the blistering voice acrobatics of Noga Ritter and David X, combined as Vocal Global, really MUST be experienced live! Unless you witness them in action, it’s impossible to know which instruments are for real and which ones VC have perfectly replicated, tongue-twisting their way through trumpets, talking drums, and tablas. Beatboxer extraordinaire, David, lays down the jaw-dropping & jaw-emanating rhythm section, transporting the duo through a nomadic journey of beats carved up with jazz and hip-hop. Noga’s rich and powerful voice, sprung from Middle Eastern roots, glides through continents, languages, and meaningful lyrical compositions highlighting global issues & personal stories. VC’s stunning artistry and dynamic dance through song pivots them as profound communicators across all platforms - in care homes with special needs children through their work with Live Music Now - or in clubs/festivals where their exhilarating Vocalstar Galactica performance thrills bedazzled & breathless audiences! See Vocal Global on stage at Dalston’s Vortex Jazz Club, Feb 26th, launching their hotly anticipated, kaleidoscopic debut album, ‘L’Odyssey’! www.vocalglobalmusic.com

8/2/17 – AWIL at Res 113 Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-8th-february-2017/ Pic by Layla Gatens. Sketches by Alban Low. Production by Sofia Gaetani Morris & Norman Druker. Also this week, great new global music on AWIL at SOAS Radio featuring Mokoomba, Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha, Mulatu Astatke (Official Artist Page), Orchestra Baobab, Susana Raya, Juwon Ogungbe, plus Koral Society in the studio Next week NAMLO @ SOAS Radio and Joji Hirota @ Resonance.
THURSDAY FEB 16TH Joji Hirota, Namlo, Ailm, Iyatra Quartet: A World in London Live at Club Inégales –Fundraiser for Resonance FM!!! Get tickets here: http://bit.ly/2kWU62a Support Resonance FM Fundraising Week Feb 13 – 20th London’s ONLY independent arts radio station - fundraiser.resonance.fm
#AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4 www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio mixlr.com/soasradio
#London #globalmusic #folkmusic #beatbox #drum #percussion #MiddleEast #Africa #Caribbean with Vocal Global's Debut Album Launch ! ! ! Adesh Sundaresan Resonance 104.4FM Outerglobe Caroline Trettine Alison Rayner Mosi Conde Sama Arts Network WORLD MUSIC

Thursday 9 February 2017

Loudest Whispers 2017 - 38 GREEN CARNATIONS

Jones Tensini
Loudest Whispers Opening Night
Alex Green - Master of ceremonies
DJ Ritu
Sarah Caulfield
Jones Tensini
Nicci Gladwin
Lucinda Sieger
Sarah Vista and the Sheriff

Nicci Gladwin
Date - 3rd February 2017
Venue - The Conference Centre, St Pancras Hospital, UK


This year's LOUDEST WHISPERS exhibition has attracted a dynamic mix of talent both professional and self taught. With 100 pieces of artwork from 38 artists gracing the walls of The Conference Centre at St Pancras Hospital. This vibrant and dazzling exhibition is open until 20th April 2017, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Sarah Vista and the Sheriff
The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a work titled 38 GREEN CARNATIONS that is inspired by the incarceration of Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol in 1895.

The opening of 2017 LOUDEST WHISPERS gave the gallery at St Pancras Hospital its biggest night in its 13 years history. 500 visitors arrived for this eagerly awaited annual exhibition of LGBT art, an evening rich in energy, enthusiasm and sometimes the baring of flesh

Lucinda Sieger
Visitors were rewarded with a glittering night of entertainment and thought-provoking performance. The exhibition was opened with impassioned speeches by Nadia Shah, the Mayor of Camden, Deputy Mayor Richard Cotton and inspiring words from Leisha Fullick the Chair of the Foundation Trust.  Nigel Harris, director of the Camden LGBT Forum rallied the crowds as sales topped £2,000 in the first few hours of the exhibition opening. 


Sarah Caulfield
Master of ceremonies Alex Green and his eclectic alternative Good Old Days brought together songs and dance inspired by George Michael, followed by the poetry of Sarah Caulfield and the mesmerising performance art of Jones Tensini. DJ Ritu (Club Kali) spoke from the heart in a personal and inspirational speech that brought a swelling pride to her artist-in-residence at radio programme A World In London (Resonance FM, Wednesdays 6.30-7.30pm).

Music was strongly represented by Nicci Gladwin, Lucinda Sieger and Sarah Vista & the Sheriff. All with individual voices and original repertoires that ultimately brought the night to what felt like a premature close.
Susan Kreitzman
There is a special one off screening of Stephen Haupt's beautiful love story THE CIRCLE this Friday 10/2/17 at 6pm.

Monday 6 February 2017

Savita Sundaresan - Carnatic Resonance

Savita Sundaresan
Date - 1st February 2017
Venue - A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK


Sublime and sensitive South Indian music vocals by Savita Sundaresan on this A World In London! 
Click to listen:https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-1st-february-2017/

Performing at AWIL can be something of an occupational hazard. Gone are the days when it was just me and the musician/s in the studio. Now we have an entire team of production assistants, resident artist, and other ‘interested parties’. So for 19 year old Savita Sundaresan, our guest on Wednesday, her debut on British radio turned into a recital in front of a mini but largely appreciative audience. However, at times, some of AWIL crew are prone to becoming a little rowdy, especially the parental contingent. Savita explained her life to us – she’s an engineering student at Imperial College, a Bharatanatyam dancer, as well as an up-and-coming talent in the world of Carnatic music. Her distinguished music guru is Dr. Mala Swamy in Chennai, and Savita often wakes up at 5.30am to start her music practise before heading off to one of the best universities on the planet. In every sense, Savita is accomplished, learned, and joyful. She has performed on stages across India & the UK in front of the most critical and discerning pundits of South Indian classical tradition, yet nothing could have prepared her for AWIL... The trouble started after I said ‘You’re a model daughter. What more could your parents possibly expect from you?’ Then one of the crew piped up with ‘When are we going to get grandchildren?!’ Another shouted ‘clean your bedroom more often!!’ Someone at the back squealed ‘you don’t eat enough greens!!’. It was only after Savita began to sing, gliding effortlessly through multiple octaves, intricate raags and krithis, moving mountains with her magnificent voice, that the heckling was finally silenced, as the rabble retreated into blissful serenity. Hear Savita Sundaresan and her brother Adesh on THIS A World In London!

Adesh Sundaresan
1/2/17 – AWIL at Res 111  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-25th-january-2017/  Sketches by Alban Low. Production by Sofia Gaetani-Morris & Norman Druker. Also this week, great new global music on AWIL at SOAS Radio featuring Orchestra Baobab, Baro Drom Orkestar, Susana Raya, Juwon Ogungbe, Baluji Shrivastav, Srdjan Beronja, Nguyen Le, plus Oxford Maqam in the studio Next week The Koral Society @ SOAS Radio and Vocal Global @ Resonance.

THURSDAY FEB 16TH A WORLD INLONDON LIVE at CLUB INEGALES –Fundraiser for Resonance FM – with NAMLO, IYATRA QUARTET, AILM, JOJI HIROTA & THE LONDON TAIKO DRUMMERS!!! Get tickets here: http://bit.ly/2kWU62a   #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS ELEVENTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio