Arhai - Where Light Resides

Jovana Backovic

Arhai

Jovana Backovic

Adrian Lever

13th March 2019
A World in London, Resonance FM, London, UK

Radiant new rays of musical light by Arhai on this A World in London! 

Click tolsiten: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-13th-march-2019/

One of our favourite London duos is back with a brand new E.P. called ‘Where Light Resides’ and they’ll be launching it tonight at Library London in Covent Garden! Vocal-sculptor Jovana Backovic and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Lever are the talents behind ArHai, fusing a path between ancient music and digital tech, through electronica, folk and EFX, with tamboura, dulcimer, darbuka, and that most divine instrument of all, Jovana’s pure and powerfully elegant voice. ArHai released their critically acclaimed debut album, Eastern Roads, back in 2013, so we’re all thrilled to welcome in their new material! This fine pair of London musicians explore every nook and cranny of what their instruments are capable of, pushing their boundaries, and as we heard in their live session on AWIL last night, Adrian even squeezes sitar sounds from his tamboura, while Jovana filters her voice through the prism of Ableton, drawing out a magnificent spectrum of rainbow sounds. Lyrically, one of the potent messages from Arhai for our Brexiting  times, was poignantly expressed by Jovana who grew up in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia: ‘I come from a country that was broken, and still is. Music is my way of putting myself back together’. Where the light is, the love resides too – feel it with ArHai! More about Arhai here: www.arhai.com

Adrian Lever

13/3/19 – AWIL 201  Online: https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/a-world-in-london-13th-march-2019/ Production & pics by Norman Druker, Sophie Darling, Lucas Keen, artist Alban Low, and Jess Low. Also this week Kurdish-Celtic connections with Peyman and Parastoo Heydarian at SOAS Radio, click: https://www.mixcloud.com/SOASradio/awil-292-peyman-heydarian/  Next week Branford Marsalis at SOAS Radio and Blue Zoo at Resonance. Download the AWIL Album Wonderland 2018 from #Spotify! Top 50 global CDs handpicked by #AWorldinLondon – Click here: https://open.spotify.com/user/34igi7n6p14p56303se0gtkyj/playlist/5hjexMuYohZ6d4zjuoGIfm?si=Gy0ckfI_QaWw4xqKQ-VGhw  #TheSoundofDiverseLondon #ConnectingCulturesThroughMusic – thirteen years - #DJRitu. Live on Wednesdays 6.30pm Resonance 104.4 https://www.resonancefm.com/ & 4pm SOAS Radio https://soasradio.org/  Online worldwide at #Mixcloud  http://www.djritu.com  EqualisingMusic

Arhai & Jon Sterckx Drumscapes

Jon Sterckx - drumscapes

Jon Sterckx added his drumscapes to Arhai's wandering vistas at RichMix this week (14/09/2014) in an expansive panorama that let the mind break free of its urban shackles. This was not my first visit to hear Arhai duo Jovana Backovic and Adrian Lever, the last proving a struggle for a man who felt completely out of his depth.

Alex Teymour Housego -
Bansuri

Jon Sterckx and flautist Alex Teymour Housego sat cross-legged between the standing Arhai pair. This was a relaxed and collaborative affair that projected ease and pleasure through its complex themes. Sterckx latter produced a second set solo performance that allowed the audience to experience these layered narratives without us being dab hands at the cryptic crossword.



Jovana Backovic - Arhai

Linchpin Jovana Backovic was the thread for the whole performance and as ever her vocals were possessing. Rarely did you, or could you, focus on the content of her lyrics. Changing between 6 languages is in itself disorientating. More than that the words become chants and motifs rather than hooks to hang meaning onto. To either side of Backovic were keyboards linked up to a computer full of earthy noises. The combination of traditional instruments and electronic gelled seamlessly which allowed Backovic's voice to float above in her trademark ethereal stream. She continuously caught the eye, with a presence more enchanting than Morgan Le Fay at her seductive best.

Adrian Lever - Arhai

Amongst the gypsy spells and Balkan beats the cross-legged Alex Teymour Housego rotated his collection of Bansuri. His grey socked toes peeped out from under his black robes. The dancing beats bobbing them back and forth as though they were little mice eager to escape from their holes.

If Jovana Backovic was our Le Fay then Adrian Lever was our Merlin. Possessing rapid dexterity his willowy figure towered over us on Medieval dulcimer and tambura. After several aborted attempts I captured broadcaster and turntablist DJ Ritu in my sketchbook. She not only provided us with tunes before and between performances but also interviewed the musicians post performance.


DJ Ritu

It was night of layered sounds and textures that transported the mind and imagination. Jon Sterckx's drumscapes were the pinnacle of this sentiment. A revolving door of percussion instruments were played into his computer and spat out with an energising fruitfulness. The permutation seemed endless, the avenues that lay before us boundless and his performance understandably spoke of freedom. With a drum as big as the moon sitting on his knee he conjured up the image of a storyteller. While his sound spoke in a tribal voice that swelled in the pit of our stomachs.

AL.



ArHai - Lets Get Lost

Adrian Lever - Tambura

It is not often I feel lost, or get lost.
With a good sense of direction and hopefully being an observant fellow I am not accustomed to that dead swell in the stomach or the gravity defying sweats that swell the blood in thundering temples.
Is it a good thing to lose oneself?
Well yes is the answer, and I lost everything with ArHai at Rich Mix last Saturday (04/05/2013).

A master of London's transport network, working the buses, tube and trains to my advantage I arrived in good spirits and of stable mind. Alert and darting, my gaze absorbed the clues I would need for the rest of the evening and to help write this of course. I searched for traces of the two protagonists, Adrian Lever & Jovana Backovic and the stage revealed plenty of leads amongst which sat a tambura, dulcimer, keyboard, electronic boxes and a bodhran secreted in the shadows.

Sebastian Merrick

I was welcomed in the pit of the venue by Sebastian Merrick, tonight's promoter. His easy smile settled me but I was eager for more information and was disarmed when he said, "I'm not totally sure what to expect myself tonight, I've been burning the candle at both ends with other projects and rather left this performance to evolve itself."
I suspect this wasn't quite true because as the atmosphere gently bubbled he leapt onto the stage to introduce the support.

Gokce Kiliner

Gokce Kiliner is one cool cat. Playing the guitar and languidly introducing her tunes, she never once broke sweat. Her playing was of the plodding unnerving kind, the slow strums felt like footsteps on an empty road. More than once I felt a chill of Lynchian delight as Rich Mix's red and green lights reminded me of my lonely late night retreats from music venues, crossing intersections, accompanied only by the winking of silent traffic signals.



Jovana Backovic

Kiliner's set revealed nothing of what was to come so I asked the DJ, Vince Millett from 'The Secret Archive of the Vatican'. Now this man should know some secrets, no one has kiss-and-told on this most covert of organisations. Unfortunately as he pressed his mouth to my ear the main act ArHai immerged.

Adrian Lever is unusual for a public performer, a tall slim introverted figure he most resembles a heron, planted in his spot with occasion movement from one leg to another. He exudes calmness and is devoid of aggression or machismo. His right hand on the Tambura is quite the opposite, frantically grating an imaginary coleslaw, the tone of the instrument is light and steely. Accomplished like a master acupuncturist, you flinch as his needling notes assail your ears only to find you're achieving a new state of ethereal being.

Tad Sargent - Bodhran

In contrast Jovana Backovic's voice has the best qualities of a darkened room on a summer's day, soothing and disorientating. In a long red robe with sleeves that stretched to her knees I was transported to Mongo, where Ming The Merciless' daughter Princess Aura weaved a heady mix of beauty and magic over me.

Despite a long association with Jazz and my recent 6 month residency at folk venue Twickfolk I was totally out of my depth. As the tunes washed over us all in the dark depths of Rich Mix, I found myself more and more lost. Whether this was a totally positive experience I am not sure, all I know it was a powerful one!

Tom Arthurs - Trumpet

We were given a lifeline of percussion when Lever and Backovic introduced their first guest, Tad Sargent, who rescued us from the effective but dripping projected visuals. It resulted in some clarity for this album launch, their interpretation of 'Beneath the Tree' became a focal point on what was a beautiful yet intangible landscape.

It only got better with the addition and swell of Tom Arthurs on trumpet and we were treated to a strong determined finale to tonight's proceedings. Despite a little indecision amongst the quartet, Arthurs helped steer us homeward and for me personally into a more familiar and beautiful territory.

Only after getting lost can you appreciate both the length of your unshackling and the path you have taken.
If in Ralph Waldo Emerson's words “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

Then Life had blindfolded me, spun me around several times and hand in hand we have walked deep into the Balkan sunset.

AL.