Music As Medicine: Sat, February 18th, 2017
Following a sell out debut event back in November 2016, the 2nd installment of Music As Medicine returns to the Wonder Inn for a night of acoustic roots, folk and funk, conscious lyrics and healing sounds.
4 unique live acts will be joined by DJ Gavin Kendrick (Suncébeat, Southport Weekender)
Nessi Gomes
Caulbearers
2babs
AuralAurum
Each artist has their own unique way of raising the vibration, lifting the heart with their music and attempting to untangle the knots of the human condition through their lyrics.
Nessi Gomes: Winner of best British Unsigned Female Artist 2016. The wonderful Portuguese/UK singer joins us as part of her Diamond and Demons UK album tour, after playing 17 European countries.
2babs is the sound of kora, voice and balafon in a West African tradition, courtesy of Holly Marland and Andy Garvey.
Caulbearers will host the night again, raising the vibration with their archaic funk fables and soul migrations
AuralAurum is a brand new project showcasing the transcendent guitar compositions of Andrew Mucha, with Damien Mahoney accompanying on tabla.
Gavin Kendrick (DJ / Live Set) combines his intuitive dance floor selections with live musical overdubs using a collection of sound healing instruments sourced from across the world.
More detailed info below.
6pm - 2am
Nessi Gomes
Diamonds & Demons is the debut album by the British - Portuguese musician Nessi Gomes.
Born on the tiny Island of Guernsey to a Portuguese family, Gomes channels influences from both sides of her ethnicity, blending the essence of the traditional, emotional and larger than life Fado folk music with British contemporary inspiration.
The turning point in Nessis musical expression took place six years ago when she lived in Central America. The years she spent away from her home shook her world and reshaped her writing. She shifted from the more obvious themes of love, loss and broken hearts to ruthlessly exploring her inner geography, insecurities, beauty and light that she found there.
In October 2013, Nessi returned to the west with her deeply personal raw material and with a vision to record her songs onto an album. The task to slow cook the project was given to the Grammy nominee producer and film maker Duncan Bridgeman (1 Giant Leap, Hecho En Mexico).
Since then, over the last one and a half years, inside a rusty little blue boat on Londons Regents Canal, Nessi and Duncan recorded her debut album Diamonds & Demons.
Some acclaimed musicians joined them during these 18 months, colouring the music with immense talent. Amongst them are classical violinist Viktoria Mullova, modern classical cellist Matthew Barley, indie whiz kid Cosmo Sheldrake, folk singer Sam Lee, rising jazz talent Misha Mullov-Abbado, German Guitar maestro Rainer Scheurenbrand, electric guitarist Dave Randall (Faithless) and tech wizard Nigel Butler.
The album revealing an authentic and heartfelt search for light, depth, hope and truth. It is a quest of art, love and trust. It fulfils Nessis wish to deeply touch and shake the audience, to stir and shift something within them, to speak of the uncomfortable so that it may pass, and to expose and sing the human experience to its fullest expression.
"A record that is no self-indulgent wallow but an exercise in shaping beauty out of despair."
Music Week
"Stunning debut from a composer and lyricist of rare invention and beauty"
Folk Radio UK
http://www.nessigomesmusic.com
Caulbearers
Archaic funk fables and soul migrations from this hybrid musical ensemble, who's songs explode with heavyweight grooves, fervent vocals and rich instrumentation.
Vocalists Julie Gordon and Damien Mahoney combine and take turns to tell bitter-sweet tales of the self, soul and society.
Soaking up inspiration from afrobeat to post-punk, Indian ragas through to reggae and acid house, Caulbearers' music is full of dynamic, twisting structures and sonic invention:
This is roots music from the rainy city. Psychedelic soul with poetic, social observation.
Typically a full-power groove machine with 8 members, including horns and strings, this gig sees the Manchester-based act in a rare, scaled-down acoustic form reworking and improvising their material on the night.
http://caulbearers.bandcamp.com/music
https://youtu.be/ieJ2BZ4STwI
2babs
Holly Marland (Kora, Voice) and Andy Garvey (Balafon) have been training on kora, voice and balafon in The Gambia during January 2017 with their eminent teachers Hammay Saho and Yusupha Suso. They will play a selection of pieces they have recently been working on as a duo as well as a mixed programme of traditional West African pieces and original composition.
Holly Marland is a singer, kora player,composer and music therapist widely acclaimed for her engagement with diverse audiences and passionate about musics role in society.
Holly has performed as Kora soloist with the band Delphic at Manchester International Festival, played with string quartet at the British Museum as part of a large scale RNCM event, toured New York performing in a variety of hospitals and healthcare settings, arranged and performed commissioned works for Kora and choir with the BBC Daily Service Singers for a live broadcasts on Radio 4 and given many solo concerts across the UK.
Holly plays Kora with Manchester International Roots Orchestra, a fusion ensemble who were given a five star review for their debut performances at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has also performed with the group Testimony alongside Lis Murphy and Emmanuela Yogolelo.
She has done several recording projects with Dominik Johnson, an expert in recording acoustic instruments from around the world and composer for EMI, including recording Kora solos for Sonys Bollywood film soundtrack Amarakaaviyan which was No 1 in India for weeks.
Andy Garvey: 'Fresh out of Salford uni in 2011, after a taste of ethnomusicology, Andy ventured out to Senegal and came back with a balafon and a lifelong love and passion for traditional west African music... Nearly six years later and he has become more devoted than ever, making regular trips to study under different tutors and was awarded the prestigious Finzi Scholarship to study with one of the worlds top virtuosos: Sory Diabate. Andy joined the longest running UK based West African percussion troupe 'Tanante' five years ago and has travelled around Britain and even as far as Sudan performing and teaching this style of music with his fellow musicians and the UK's most prolific Djembe master Iya Sako!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HmxbLPMXe4k
https://hollymarlandmusic.com
http://balafon.co.uk
Aural Aurum
A new project showcasing the transcendent guitar compositions of Andrew Mucha, with Damien Mahoney accompanying on tabla.
Andrew Mucha was inspired to play the Guitar after hearing and seeing some of the great Guitar legends, from the likes of Steve Hillage, John McLaughlin, and Alan Holdsworth, through to contemporary player's such as Dufour, Gomm, and Mckee, and further folk influences.
He takes his inspiration from the idea of cosmic notes and chords ( a note played in scale or chord sequence which has a resonance with the body/mind/ like acupuncture points) that can create harmonic healing and resonances.
Currently exploring African, Indian and Celtic musical influences, Andrew works with different tunings and capo's to split the fretboard up to sound like a Kora or Sitar. Two fretboards are better than one! His creations creations are spacious, tranquil and vibrant tunes of aural gold.
Mostly inspired by nature, these tunes evoke the forests, hills, moors and streams, where the ancient music really sings if you listen.
After graduating in Anthropology, and Homeopathy, and with a lifelong interest in Tibetan Buddhism, Shamanic and Yogic disciplines, Andrew has used his knowledge to help others through their own healing. He also feels that the Guitar can produce wonderful resonances that can have healing benefits. He saw a sign on a Tree at the Deeply Vale Free Festival in 1978 which said Tree's are Cosmic, Love Them.
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-mucha
Gavin Kendrick (DJ / Live Set)
Gavins 15 year DJ career has wound through longstanding residencies at the legendary jazz venue Ronnie Scotts in London, the magical beachside terrace at La Escollera in Ibiza, and the Southport Weekender offshoot festival SuncéBeat in Croatia.
In 2015, he trained as a sound healer in Spain with Michêle Averard and Nestor Kornblum, the founding members of the International Association of Sound Therapy, and now combines his intuitive dance floor selections with live musical overdubs using a collection of sound healing instruments sourced from across the world.
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