Monday 18 June 2018

Balladeste - Free & boundless



Tara Franks
Balladeste
Preetha Narayanan - violin
Tara Franks  - cello

Date: 13th June 2018
Venue: A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Album: Relic (2017)

Spiritual string duo Balladeste on this A World in London! 

Preetha Narayanan
Synchronicity takes on a new meaning when hearing Balladeste’s circle of trust, strings, and sound. Where South Indian violinist Preetha Narayanan begins, British cellist Tara Franks ends, except there isn’t a beginning or ending and we get blissfully immersed in their circular empathy. Both women are classically trained, but now  running free & boundless, having forged a unique partnership over ten years, weaving in and out of each other’s voices as musicians and composers.  They converse fluidly from string to string, undulating through time and space, drawing listeners inside their melodic boudoir, and  melting the universe into a single entity. Balladeste’s debut album Relic is available on Bandcamp and iTunes now, plus a CD of devotional songs is already in the pipeline as a follow up. Listen out for that as it’ll be sung via violin and cello through one perfect voice called Balladeste. www.balladeste.co.uk

Franks senior and junior
13/6/18 – AWIL 170  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-13th-june-2018/ Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling, and sketches by Alban Low. This week on SOAS Radio #SoundsLikeLondon singer/songwriters Bryde & Karima Francis. Click: https://soasradio.org/music/episodes/awil-264-bryde-karima-francis  Next week Eliza Shaddad at SOAS and Kabantu at Resonance. #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS TWELFTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio 

Sunday 17 June 2018

Thrive - Frustrations - Admir Selimovic

Frustrations
Clemens Wabra - Guitar 
Fabian Supancic - Keys 
Thomas Milacher - Bass 
Jasmin Sultanic- Drums 

All songs Produced by Jasmin Sultanic
Album: Thrive (Mustache Records 2018)

The Austrian band Frustrations are embarking upon a mission, a giant leap into the unknown with their new album Thrive. It is an album that not only contains their trademark pulsing rhythms but also an openness, a desire to stare into the dark void, and to keep those eyes wide in anticipation.

Image:  Admir Selimovic. 
Design: Marlene Bettel
Our journey into this black void is inspired by the music of Frustrations and mapped by Admir Selimovic, the artist who has created the album art for Thrive. Ahead of us we see a pulsing mass, a planet of sorts, yet we know it is not stable. The undulations of its surface blister and puss, a molten volatility bubbling underneath. Not a suitable location to harbour a new colony of humans. Yet there is something there, the irregularity piques our interest. Together we sit alone in the night.

This is what we think is out there. It is a future charted through it's geographic points, and not one seen by a thousand eyed media. You will not find this world on a colourful wall chart, it is not a popular destination for rich tourists. It is a blueprint, one that exists in fertile minds.

Frustrations
The Band Frustrations was founded in 2014 by the Jazz drummer Jasmin Sultanic as a Jazz Trio. After touring through 9 countries and playing more than 30 concerts the band split up during the recordings of their first album because of difference of opinions of the band members. Sultanic kept the concept and the name of the band and continued working on it with Fabian Supancic (Piano), Clemens Wabra(Guitar) and Thoms Milacher (Bass). Three musicians with the same taste and understanding in music.

Admir Selimovic
Admir Selimovic is originally from Bratunac in Bosnia and Herzegovina but moved to Živinice in 1992 when he was three years old. After completing elementary school in Tuzla the bright lights of Vienna beckoned. As Selimovic's studies ended at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna he began his doctorate at the prestigious Federal Technical University (ETH) in Zurich, Faculty of Architecture. His graduation project at the Academy in Vienna was the avant-garde film "Moon" which brought him to the attention of critics and film festivals alike. He has directed a number of films and regularly exhibits his work at locations including International Human Rights Film Festival (Vienna), Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna), Bad Eisenkappel, Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung (Vienna) and Künstlerhaus (Vienna).

The album Thrive consists of six missions into the new world. Within these journeys there is always an element of danger, we feel on the verge of descending into chaos yet we are never abandoned to uninhibited freefall. Check out Selimovic's cinematic vision of Thrive HERE.

Thrive, the title track, charts hundreds of possible landing sites. Graceful and lyrical pinpricks of light shimmer with their melodies. The keys of Fabian Supancic joining the dots. Yet these worlds are never within reach, always seen from a distance. Fusion is a throwback, a thought of what we have left behind as we hurtle into our futures. The scientists examine new life forms under their microscopes. What they see is a writhing mass of organisms, pulsing under the percussion of Mr. Stephan Maass (Kruder & Dorfmeister, Randy Brecker, NDR Bigband, Georg Danzer, Benny Greb). Inside they find a fever, an epidemic that has every chance of running out of control.
Ether is the laidback rock, an asteroid rotating slowly and deliberately. Full of latent power yet never reaching impact, it is the dark beauty of this album. Hyberbola sparks and fizzes, snaps of light, dancing colours and ephemeral kaleidoscope.
We hear the echo of a human in the guitar of Clemens Wabra, a forgotten voice trapped in the music and drama of About Everything. Radio contact is intermittent, you feel the sheer scale, of those down there and you alone up here.
Last Song is our dying star, wistful, vast, an unknown future.

More from Frustrations.
Bandcamp
Website

Friday 15 June 2018

Gazpacho - Tufnell Park Dome, London

Jan Henrik Ohme
Gazpacho
Jan Henrik Ohme - vocals
Thomas Andersen - keyboards, programming
Jon-Arne Vilbo - guitars
Mikael Krømer  - violin, mandolin
Kristian Torp - bass
Robert Risberget Johansen - drums & percussion

Kristian Torp
Date: 28th May 2018
Venue: The Tufnell Park Dome
Album: Soyuz (2018)

Future:
23/06/2018 – NO – Oslo, John Dee 
30/06/2018 – ESP – Barcelona, Be Prog! My Friend Festival
Robert Risberget Johansen
Norwegian Art-rock progressive outfit Gazpacho showcase a brand-new album Soyuz at the vibrant Tufnell Park Dome.

Known for their distinctive art rock that balances tense and beautiful arrangements, sinister and soulful melodic lines, Gazpacho's Soyuz furthers their experimental output.  A band who are used to seizing headlines with bizarre stories, including The Independent (UK) branding Molok as "An album that could destroy the world", Gazpacho have a holistic approach to the album writing process, imbuing each with a captivating concept. 

Thomas Andersen
The themes of Soyuz were born from the idea of how beautiful moments pass and cannot be “saved for later”, so within Soyuz are interconnected tales of people and lives “frozen in time”. Taking inspiration from a multitude of eras and subject matters, including the doomed Russian space capsule Soyuz and its iconic captain Komarov; the Tibetan Buddhist funeral practice in “Sky Burial”; the inclusion of the oldest recording of the human voice from 1860 and the Hans Christian Andersen inspired “Emperor Bespoke”.

Mikael Krømer
Recorded at Krypton Planet & St. Croix Fredrikstad in Norway, engineered by Thomas Andersen, Kristian Torp and Mikael Kroemer, mixed by John Rausch and mastered by Sonovo Mastering's Thor Legvold. The artwork, designed by painter Antonio Seijas, is inspired by Russian Cold War colours and fonts from the Soyuz One flight era.
Jon-Arne Vilbo


Friday 8 June 2018

The Art of the Violin with Alban Low

Alice Barron

AWIL Violin Special
Alban Low
Alice Barron
Richard Jones

Date: 6th June 2018
Venue: A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Chapbook: London Violins (p.2018, Sampson Low, ISBN 978-1-910578-77-3)


Genius artist Alban Low presents his wonderful new London Violins project on this A World in London!
Click to listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-6th-june-2018/ 

Richard Jones
For two years, Alban Low has been capturing some of our finest guests on AWIL with his pen, adding an extra luscious string to our bow and gifting bands with unique, bespoke portraits of themselves in action. It’s bowed strings that form the centre-piece for his brilliant new chapbook, London Violins, an illustrated summit of eminent musicians matching Alban’s visual virtuosity with their violins, and amongst his gallery of stars you’ll find Irish fiddler James Patrick Gavin, Indian-fusion maestro Robert Atchison, klezmer queen Olga Baron, and live on this show, iyatra Quartet’s Alice Barron and Balagan Cafe Band’s Richard Jones . In recognition of Alban’s outstanding talent, the world renowned Yehudi Menuhin School commissioned him to create an exhibition featuring some of the most prominent British violinists, working in the Jazz & World sector,  and that project has now blossomed into the first of a series of compact, colourful chapbooks, bringing art together with music, vibrant and accessible for all.  Alban’s artist eye harmonises perfectly with the musician’s ear, and his lightning one-line sketches are rich in fluidity and spontaneity, simultaneously expressing music in motion through art. Alban says, ‘‘I like the challenge of trying to represent movement on the static page, and yet you still want it to dance before your eyes. You want to hear the music in the lines .’’ With a swish of the pen,  a pluck of the strings, and a stroke of genius, hear from the brilliant mind behind London Violins on this AWIL, and the man we are so proud & privileged to have as our radio show artist-in-residence. London Violins will be stored at the British Library and at other fine institutions but grab a copy for yourself here: https://sampsonlow.co/2018/06/04/london-violins-2018-dj-ritu-and-alban-low/  


6/6/18 – AWIL 169  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-6th-june-2018/ Production & pics by Sofia Gaetani-Morris, Norman Druker, Sophie Darling, and sketches by Alban Low. This week on SOAS Radio Djanan Turan. Click: https://soasradio.org/music/episodes/awil-263-djanan-turan  Next week Sounds Like London at SOAS and Balladeste at Resonance. #AWorldinLondon – IN ITS TWELFTH YEAR! Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4  www.resonancefm.com & 4pm SOAS Radio  mixlr.com/soasradio



Monday 4 June 2018

AKA George - Blazing Youth

AKA George

Date: 30th May 2018
Venue: Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, London, UK
Listen: Stone Cold Classic

AKA George is an artist to watch. He was thrust into the spotlight after his innovative cover of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky turned the heads of Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, with Pharrell hailing him a ‘genius’, a glowing endorsement that piqued the interest of many Record Labels.

However, for AKA George, the time scale of these events meant he simply could not work the way he wanted to, and he felt that his music was suffering as a result of this. He turned away two labels that were vying for his signature, and instead vowed to work at his own pace, and to retain his integrity as an artist and performer.

His latest releases, Stone Cold Classic, and BLAZING really showcase his musical prowess, and what perhaps sets George apart is the fact that he is such a multi-instrumentalist: as well as a top vocalist, he is a pianist, guitarist, and drummer, to name a few. As a standard bearer of the Vlogger generation he blurs the barriers between kitsch, eccentric, bold and outrageous in a way that is buoyantly reflective of everything we love in great showmen of the past and everything glorious about the fearlessness of today’s youth.



Sunday 3 June 2018

Jennings Couch - Hoxton Wild

Jennings Couch
Jennings Couch

Date: 30th May 2018
Venue: Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, London, UK

Future 2018:
June 6th - Nobody Listens to Silence, Nambucca, Holloway Road, London, UK
August 27th - The Half Moon Putney, London, UK

Born in the wilderness of New York City, raised in the quiet tranquillity of rural England and made on the streets of West London, Jennings Couch is an artist who embodies the virtues of his environments. Since writing his first songs at the tender age of seven, he has gone on to craft a unique - and eccentric - pop voice. It is this distinctive voice that got Jennings to SXSW 2017, gaining the attention of a wider global audience with shows at The Apple Music House and the BBC British Music Embassy.

Whether the result of his influences, travels or tendency towards the obtuse, one thing is clear; in an era of copycat faux-musicality, Jennings Couch is a refreshingly unique proposition.


Saturday 2 June 2018

Addictive TV - Orchestra of Samples

Mark Vidler
Graham Daniels
Mark Vidler

Date: 30th May 2018
Venue: A World In London, Resonance FM, London, UK
Current album: Orchestra of Samples (2017)

Future: 2018
Jul 13 - Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK
Jul 23 - Milton Keynes International Festival VERY SPECIAL GUEST: Performing with Addictive TV for a special one-off show with be world-famous percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.
Jul 27 - People's Production Lab, Preston, Lancashire, UK
Jul 28 - Storyhouse, Chester, Cheshire, UK
Sep 26 - The Junction, Cambridge , UK
Oct 04 - Constellations, Liverpool , UK
Oct 19 - Phoenix Arts Centre, Bordon, Hampshire, UK
Nov 17 - Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, UK


Fantastic music on DJ Ritu's #AWIL with audio visual sound scientists - Addictive TV, who played new tracks, as well as tracks from there album ‘Orchestra of Samples’. Graham Daniels and Mark Vidler spoke to Sophie Darling and Norman Druker in the Resonance 104.4fm studio about piecing together their 200+ puzzle of human musical samples.
Graham Daniels
Together they travel the world gathering global snippets from various improvisations, visiting countries, schools, villages, individuals to collect, cut up and re-connect various improvisations and musical clippings. The result: the Fantastic ‘#Orchestra Of Samples’ released last year, and now they’re touring with an all-out tech filled show.
Normally accompanied by multiple live musicians, and a large immersive video depicting the musicians playing their improvisations as they appear in the songs, the audio - VISUAL elements become imperative in their live performances, as you’re treated to the 5th element of the band: the screen, that clarifies what samples and instruments you hear in each piece.

They have just embarked upon an exciting UK tour, Addictive TV are continuously creating, collecting and producing new and exciting mash ups. If you go on their website: http://www.orchestraofsamples.com/ you can download a collection of the samples they have collected FOR FREE as part of a ‘remix’ initiative.
Be sure to catch them on their coming dates in: Poly Arts Centre, Capitol Theatre, Harwich Festival, Marine Theatre, Int’l Festival, Prod’n’lab, Storyhouse, Junction 12, Constellations, Pheonix Arts Centre, Cresent Arts Centre.

Special thanks to Norman Druker Sofia Gaetani Morris Alban Low Francoise Lamy Graham Daniels Mark Vidler DJ Ritu Resonance 104.4fm SOAS Radio
#addictivetv #OrchestraofSamples #awil #DJRitu #SOASRadio #SophieandNormanTakeover #SoundsLikeLondon