Live music listings: May 2007Roll the mouse over the dates on the calendar below to see who's playing, then click on the date for the full listing and ticket info.Click on the mailing list link to your left there and enter your email address and we'll let you know, at the start of every week, who's playing in the next seven days and for how much, and leave you to peruse the full listings here at your liberty and leisure.
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Wed 16th The Luminaire presents ADJAGAS + Ed Laurie + Guests 
Doors 7.30 Rarely has the phrase “you’ve never heard anything quite like this before” been more accurate… “Hypnotic, open-ended and sweetly dolorous… Should hit the spot with fans of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Sigur Rós and Cowboy Junkies.” [Uncut] Adjágas music is gentle, peaceful, hypnotic, quietly passionate, dreamlike, deeply spiritual and utterly engrossing. It is, at the same time, strangely alien. Lyrics are unrecognisable, startling vocals delivered in a style that veers between whispered but crystal clear sweetness, unbridalled emotion and all points in between, sometimes hitting notes that may previously have never existed. “Few are more beguiling than Adjágas.” [Q] Produced by Andreas Mjřs (Jaga Jazzist, Susanne & The Magical Orchestra), Adjágas’ songs sound as though they were recorded in a small hut in a snow covered forest clearing, or perhaps around a campfire. There is an unfamiliar intimacy to it all. Moments sound reminiscent of other artists, but nothing with which one can draw a straight comparison. Talk Talk’s ‘Laughing Stock’ comes to mind, as does The Cowboy Junkies’ ‘The Trinity Sessions’, or Low, La Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, even an acoustic Sigur Ros. But none of these really do the record justice. “This debut is an enchanting snapshot of another world that will keep you going back for more.” [Time Out 5/6] Adjágas are a surprisingly young Sami duo, Sara Mariella Gaup (23) and Lawra Somby (26). Sara, from Guovdageaidnu / Kautokeino, has been singing since she was a child, performing on stage since the age of 12. Sápmi is the territory at the very northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland, spreading into Russia. Lawra learnt his musical skills from his father Ánde. Despite growing up in Oslo city centre, he comes from a proud Sami family, and to this day travels almost perpetually, within and outside Norway. The two deeply charismatic ‘yoikers’ work with a revolving core of musicians and producers, and their live show – which sheds a different light on their music and its tradition – is as captivating as their debut album. “Strikingly beautiful.” [The Times, 4/5] Adjágas is the Sami word for the mental state between waking and sleeping and as a name it is utterly appropriate. Don’t tag this as simply ‘world music’, though, unless you already label the likes of Sigur Ros or Cocteau Twins as such. ADJÁGAS’ appeal encompasses that, but simultaneously stretches far beyond. They will no doubt bring the concept of Sami culture to many people for the first time. But, first and foremost, they will bring a music of immediate, immaculate, intimate beauty to people, one that crosses all cultural boundaries. It is the definitive Music For Ever. “The dialogue between ancient and modern, known and unknown, is spellbinding.” [The Guardian, 4/5] Main support is brought to you by Ed Laurie, "a singer-songwriter with a similar emotional warmth as such legendary troubadours as Leonard Cohen. A sweet offering if ever we've heard one! [The Stool Pigeon]. Ed paints a haunting and exotic landscape with his unmistakable baritone and Latin-tinged rhythms picked out on a nylon-stringed guitar. Musical magical realism. Think the child of Cesaria Evora if she was involved in a bizarre love-in with Jose Gonzalez, Leonard Cohen and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “When people talk of ‘modern classics’, this is the kind of thing they mean. Outstanding.” [Play Music Magazine] |
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