CLOWNS, MARY HAMPTON, CRAYOLA LECTERN 5TH SEPTEMBER

“CLOWNS without a doubt one of Brighton’s finest live bands, turning wherever they play into a sweaty, heaving mass. Oh and they rock like one mean bastard. For the uninitiated among you, expect peculiar and twisted tales set to dirty garage rock riffs, combining the rockabilly swagger of the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster with the pop sensibilities of early Squeeze. Disturbing yet darkly playful, if you haven’t had the live experience before then where the hell have you been? Prepare to be well and truly clowned.” Source Magazine

MARY HAMPTON‘s style has its roots in mauve, turn-of-the-century European chamber music, with frequent nods to the hairiness of older forms, and ripened under the influence of even more primitive sounds from the real world.

Fetching out old songs from the silent archives of the traditional canon, and winching up new songs from her imagination, she then sets them both to work alongside each other. In this way, she can play with certain dynamic tensions that are perpetually at work in the world: the past and the present, the natural and the civilized, the extraordinary and the familiar, the symbolic and the real, the pillar and the post etc.

CRAYOLA LECTERN ‘This album frequently feels like the sonic equivalent of life flashing before the eyes.’
Musicomh

The Fall And Rise Of…
‘An exquisitely eccentric debut album. 8/10’
Uncut Magazine

‘A warm, reflective and deeply human record. From Worthing, with love.’
The Quietus

‘The Fall and Rise Of has considerable tenacity for a debut-album…and there’s enough weird ear-candy to satisfy the most picky kid on the Wonka Chocolate Factory tour before and after he’s necked the burping cola.’
Flipside

Join us at CdA 10 Phoenix Place, Lewes, BN& 2QJ for a very special night and only £5 entry. There will be a fully stocked bar open til late.

 

TONIGHT KRISTIN MCCLEMENT. BIRDENGINE & STUART WARWICK AT CdA

An incredible line up of musicians awaits you tonight at CdA with an open bar and a backdrop of unusual visuals.

Kristin McClement will perform her stripped down, beautifully finger picked songs with her dark and melancholic vocals.

Birdengine is the musical project of Lawry Joseph Tilbury, whose unique music has been described by The Independent as ‘beautiful, backwards weirdness’ and by WARP Records as ‘an unknown supernatural force’.

Stuart Warwick‘s lyrically provocative and spellbinding songs, perfectly showcasing the haunting purity of Warwick’s voice, hushed musical delivery, and his dark tongue-in-cheek humour.

Come on down only £5 on the door, see you there!

 

David Devant And His Spirit Wife 20th June

Cult band David Devant and his Spirit Wife will be joining us for A Quiet Night Inn Friday 20th June and will perform a one off show with special guests The Indelicates.

David Devant And His Spirit Wife are a groundbreaking group of chaps who have been making music since emerging from Brighton in the early 1990’s. Their legendary live shows are a thrilling mix of glam rock, art pop and music hall theatrics.

The party will continue afterwards with guest DJ’s and a licensed bar until 2am.

Tickets are £10 (+small booking fee) can be purchased online from wegottickets or from The Union Music Store Lewes or on the door.

Doors open 7:30pm-2am

A percentage of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the Lewes Phoenix Rising cause which aims to acquire and develop a portion of the land within the Phoenix Estate to be funded, built and managed by the community, for the community to provide genuinely affordable, adaptable, innovative homes for local people, maintain and enhance the creative, industrial and social quarter at the heart of town and provide premises for new businesses that will create local jobs and create a landmark not-for-profit development that is worthy of the South Downs National Park (SDNPA)

The Quiet Night Inn

Come down to CdA this Friday for The Quiet Night Inn. Enjoy meeting like minded folk in our bohemian arts space, bring some music, play some games and be merry. Doors open 8pm, £5 on the door and BYO drinks and we’ll provided the delicious food!

Quiet Night Inn TONIGHT!

The CdA doors are opening tonight for A Quiet Night Inn our weekly Friday event. £5 on the door and bring your own drinks. We’ll also be serving a simple pasta dish, see you there!

‘The Quiet Night Inn’ Launch Party April 4th

On 4th April we will be hosting the first of our new fortnightly event “A Quiet Night Inn” which aims to be your inside out kind of evening.  We will be providing informal suppers, an open bar and we will also be offering “BYO” with a small corkage fee.

Relax in our cosy space, meet new friends and connect with old chums, play board games, sample good wine, choose records and even get up and recite a bit of poetry if the mood takes you as we aim to have a little showcase for your creativity during the course of the evening.

All are welcome to join in this alternative to a night out in Lewes.

April 4th 7pm til late

Our special introductory launch offer includes free entry and all glasses of wine, shorts and cans are priced at £3 only!

Corkage costs: bottle of wine £4 , can of beer £1, spirits £10 per bottle

A Quiet Night Inn will continue on the first and third Friday of every month (fortnightly)

SKETCHES OF MEXICO CONCERT & WORKSHOPS

             Album cover designed by Malcolm Llanas Citrico Grafico

CdA welcomes back virtuoso Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski this month with his groundbreaking new show ‘Sketches of Mexico‘.  This unique  project curated by Szymanski and Sarabande Records is a collaboration with visual artists from Mexico, Portugal the UK and China. Through the marriage of both sonic and visual mediums, we are transported on a magical, multi sensory journey through Mexico’s sounds, colours, dances and styles.

The project focuses on the 20 Sketches of Mexico by guitarist and composer Julio César Oliva (1947-).  One of Mexico’s most famous classical guitarists, Oliva has composed over 300 works, bought a full program of Bach’s music to Mexico and is also an arranger, advocate and conservationist of traditional Mexican music. Oliva’s works are complemented by six songs by Manuel María Ponce (1882-1949), Mexico’s foremost composer and father of Mexican nationalism. Throughout his life he collected melodies and themes which are present in his compositions. The selection of popular pieces and songs reflect Ponce’s unending devotion to the guitar and his close relationship with Andres Segovia.

“I always wanted to record a CD of Mexican music. I found, completely by accident, the sheet music for the sketches years back in a music shop in Amsterdam as I was looking for Bach’s lute suites. They remained in a box for ages until I found them again one day and started playing them.”

Listen: Estrellita

Originally, Oliva’s Sketches of Mexico were never intended as concert works, but rather as a stylistic and didactic collection for young guitarists to become acquainted with traditional Mexican rhythms and musical forms. The characteristic simplicity of the work romantically conjures up vivid impressions, images, ambiences, sounds and colours of Mexico’s distinct and varied geography which is portrayed in a mixture of pre-hispanic, popular and modern sound worlds, taking the listener on a musical voyage through famous locations such as Acapulco, Oaxaca, Yucatán, Chiapas, Veracruz. Imagery is present in the music in homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the two famous volcanoes – Popocatépetl and Ixtaccíhuatl – the pyramids of Teotihuacan and the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now embraced by the sprawling capital, Mexico City.

“They are not intended as concert works, but that simplicity is still appealing, relaxing and conjures up all sort of images.” Surprisingly, the works had never been recorded. “I had always loved Olivas work, but his music is only known in Mexico so I thought it was a good opportunity to promote him. I decided to record them as no one else had done so and it would be the world premiere recording.”

The eureka moment which gave birth to the idea of uniting art and music came to Morgan whilst jogging in the Peak District.  Why not commission artists to paint images inspired by these beautifully evocative pieces of music? “I really liked the idea of doing exhibitions-concerts”.

“I love painting and had the idea of doing some sketches for the CD cover but they were awful.”  So Morgan approached artist and friend Alvaro Verduzco along with Andres Almeida and Fernanda Gavito to take part in this unique collaboration.  They were asked to provide their own interpretation inspired by the music in the form of sketches, paintings and designs which accompany the music and everyone was interested. “My agent suggested Sally McKay. I had some sketches by Jane Williams so invited her too and she invited Catherine Hope Jones. By then we had a great group of artists so I decided to invite my friends Ben Crawford (UK),  Elisa Lima (Portugal), Peter Crann (Ireland) and Martin Barnes in Beijing.

“And that’s how we ended up with twenty artists, one for each sketch but some produced more than one. Oliva’s work really gets the imagination going and I suppose that is what the artists found appealing.”

Guanajuato Mummy By Alex Cox

The show is further enhanced by artist Joseph Fairweather-Hole who cleverly manages the projections of the images, animating them and bringing them to life with the music.

The following day, Morgan will be conducting workshops for children based on this same principle.  Children are invited to bring musical instruments and arts materials and together with Oliva’s Sketches and the projections of the especially commissioned art works,  Morgan will guide them on an immersive, educational creative and sensory journey through Mexico’s sights, sounds, colours and cultures.

For more information about this project and the artists involved, visit Sarabande Records. To buy the album click here.

Tickets are priced at £10 (+ a small booking fee) and are available online from wegottickets and also from the Union Music Store Lewes.  Tickets on the door will be priced at £12

Sketches of Mexico Concert Saturday 25th May 2013

Doors open 7pm

Sketches of Mexico Workshops Sunday 26th may 2013

Ages 5-10 12pm-1pm

Ages 11-16 2pm-3pm

Tickets are also priced at £10 (+ a small booking fee) and are available online from wegottickets and also from the Union Music Store Lewes.  Tickets on the door will be priced at £12

Please contact us 07545 075 198 if you have any queries or email us:cafedesartisteslewes@gmail.com 

BILLIE HOLIDAY NIGHT THIS SATURDAY 31st MARCH

Next Saturday 31st March Café des Artistes Lewes welcomes you for a very special one off performance by the fabulous Helen McDonald jazz trio as they play the songs of the late great first lady of jazz Billie Holiday.

Helen will be accompanied by Vladimir Miller on piano and Adrian Northover alto and soprano saxes.

 Helen’s stunning voice and brilliant song writing skills have led to collaborations with some wonderful musicians in the world of Jazz, African music, dance music and beyond. Roy Ayres, Jean Toussaint, Dave Murray, and Nana Tsiboe.

Helen is also known for her interpretation of Billie Holiday songs which she has performed in the play ‘The Life of Billie Holiday’ to critical acclaim in theatres throughout the UK.

This performance will include many of the songs that made Billie famous including ‘Summertime’ and the controversial ‘Strange Fruit’ together with other evocative songs from her repertoire.

Using these tunes, storytelling and visuals, the musical life and times Billie lived in will be recreated.

Doors open 7pm

Concert begins 7:30

Bar open til late
Light bites available at the bar

Tickets £10 only available online now at wegottickets or pop into the Union Music Store in Lewes

Tickets are subject to a small booking fee.

Burlesque-ploitation – THIS SUNDAY

This Sunday at Café des Artistes, Burlesque-ploitation explores all that is good about the neo-Burlesque scene.  It offers a celebration of the reappearance of a genre originally grounded in parody and social commentary.

Film-maker Fiona Geilinger will be projecting “Wallpaper” which she recently showed at the BFI London Film ‘International Animation Panorama Programme 2’ in October this year.

Fiona makes pattern-based and print-inspired short videos using the moving body and in this film, using elements of clothing, pattern and architecture.   She uses effects to separate the performers from their backgrounds then animates the human movement trajectories. These are scaled up for moving fabric-like repeat patterns and scaled down to reveal individual human endeavours. Passionate about drawing her body became a vehicle for that inscription process; the body as a moving mark maker.

In “Wallpaper” a woman hides and reveals herself using elements of clothing, pattern and architecture, through which a transformation occurs. The body, dress and architecture become one. A narrative interplay unfolds between her body and these elements, until she chooses to abandon her identity by absorption into the fabric of her surroundings. By the power of her imagination the woman abstracts herself to the point of becoming a part of a pattern, a surreal visual spectacle.

Following on from Fiona’s film, pole dancer, historian, traveller and VJ Julia Hart will be performing a burlesque pole dance in what she likes to call live animation ‘Burlesque isn’t very clean, it’s a bit sleazy. It’s encouraging naughty thoughts and the part of us that is sort of sleazy’. A theatrical film which celebrates the female, in its historic and contemporary form, will be projected onto her body, reminding us of the consequences of its whimsy. Aerial dancer Ethan Kith will close the show with another breathtakingly athletic performance, this time on silks.

The show will be followed with Balkan music by 9 piece band Jackson & the Kingkickers in the bar.

Jackson: soulful, soaring vocals and fluid folk funk guitar
Jim Best: Rock n roll accordion
Massive vocals
Ash: Thunder bass
Emma: fiddle, Irish Balkan stomp
Sean: Technical tub-thumping
Sam Bone: Latino, jazz
Anna Sax: Jump up, horns
Adam Horn (with a little mariachi & soul)
All mashed up

Mince pies will be on offer and the mulled wine will be flowing, come and see us! Tickets on sale now from wegottickets or on the door £6. Doors open 7:30.

Featuring, in running order: Fiona Geilinger; Julia Hart; Ethan Kith ; Jackson & the Kingkickers

Virtuoso Vibrations

 

Last Saturday CdA was treated to a truly special night when two internationally acclaimed virtuoso musicians performed in our intimate concert venue. More used to playing the Wigmore Hall and selling out five thousand seat arenas around the world, Harriet Mackenzie and Morgan Szymanski played for an audience of just under 60 in our newly built cyclorama.  Simply lit by a single Par Can light, the two musicians cut dramatic silhouettes against the pristine white backdrop and their notes rolled magnificently off the curved walls, filling the auditorium with a naturally amplified sound.

Harriet’s unique approach which finds her classical technique accented with the passionate vibrations of gypsy, tango and Arabic music and Morgan’s technical mastery and musicianship mesmerised the audience as they played through a range of works from Bach, Pagannini, Ponce, Barrios and Bartok.  Morgan peppered the concert with witty and informative descriptions of the pieces and their composers which gave a personal and friendly tone to the evening.

In the interval the 3 piece Djangonaughts, 2 guitars and clarinet, entertained us with their sparky  jazz manouche whilst the audience sat in the candle-lit cabaret club inspired setting around small round tables enjoying bottles of Spanish red and our Spanish inspired “tablas” with Jamon Serrano personally sourced on a special mission from Las Alpujarras, award winning queso Mantec Gallego from Brighton based The Spanish Food Company , garbanzos con espinacas (chickpeas with spinach), fresh tomato pulp, Sarasa olives, Marcona almonds, tortilla with waxy potatoes and home-baked bread with garden herbs and rock salt.

Nicely warmed and filled with good food and wine the audience ascended the stairs to enjoy the second half which ended in a standing ovation and an encore.  After a few drinks for the road from the bar, some people made their way home, exhilarated and touched by such magical performances. Those who stayed behind at the bar were provided with more great sounds by our Dj Dan who played away to the early hours.

We filmed the concert, and hope to put some footage online soon.  We are inviting Morgan and Harriet back in the New Year with even more exciting concerts to come, watch this space for further details.

It was an amazing night and thank you to all those who came and welcome to the those who signed up to our blog on Saturday.