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| 0 | EDINBURGH: The Pleasance Cabaret Bar |
|---|---|
| P | Friday 17th February, 2012 |
| N | 7:30pm |
Powan Presents and Edinburgh University Middle Eastern Society brings you an evening of Eastern Mediterranean stimulation for body and mind! This tour sees the rare pairing of American musicologist/record collecto...r, Ian Nagoski, talking about and playing music from his latest release 'To What Strange Place' as well as the return of the great Anatolian-psych jams of Bradford’s The Family Elan.
Ian Nagoski (Tompkins Square, Mississippi Records)
http://mangkunegaran.tumblr.com/
Nagoski is a radio presenter and musicologist based in New York who has received great plaudits in recent months for the 3cd package he compiled for the excellent Tompkins Square label, To What Strange Place : The Music Of The Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929
Along with the extensive notes contained within the package, Nagoski has produced a tantalising treasure trail relating the stories of the countless intertwined lives of people originally from Anatolia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Levant who migrated to the US in the early 20th Century and the music they brought with them.
Ian will play and discuss a selection of tracks from the collection and relate stories of migration, the embryonic record pressing industry, cultural dispersal and interweaving – he’s delivered several such presentations in the US, where the musical mix of deep contemplation, utter tragedy, blazing jams and some hilarity has left deep impressions on his audiences.
”Comparisons with Harry Smith’s anthology or Revenant’s AmericanPrimitive are in order, not least because this is American music witha capital A, animated by the same feelings of desperation, nostalgia,the quest for cheap kicks and the agony of loss. Like Smith, Nagoskiis a Walter Benjamin visionary, using his collection of 78s tohallucinate a history that actually happened but which remains hiddenbeneath official dogma and nationalisms.”-The Wire, August 2011
”I was entranced; I was FASCINATED. It is one of the most worthwhile purchases you will make this year. I went and got mine; I think you should, too.”
- Henry Rollins, KCRW
“Ian Nagoski’s To What Strange Place is a work of great beauty.”- Jace Clayton / DJ/rupture, WFMU
“It feels as essential to an understanding of American music as anything else.”- Pitchfork
The Family Elan
http://thefamilyelan.com/
Delving into the same mine of influence as To What Strange Place, and dipping musical toes in Uzbekistan, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, Chris Hladowksi will be bringing the latest incarnation of his clan Elan back to Caledonia to bathe us in their psych-folk jams.
The Family Elan has been the vehicle for Chris’s own musical endeavors outside of his collaborative work (A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Nalle, The One Ensemble, Scatter, Costa and Nero) over the past decade. After releasing their debut album on Locust Music (Sir Richard Bishop, Josephine Foster, Henry Flynt, Espers), the Family Elan presented us with their second LP ‘Bow Low Bright Glow’ in 2010 drawing new musical constellations that follow the gypsy trail from India through Asia Minor and into outer space.
‘When Hladowski achieves instrumental levitation, the ghosts of Comus, Jan Dukes De Grey and The Incredible String Band might be hovering over his shoulder; there’s a similar sense of acid-spiked, dervish abandon. Like the latter, he references ethnic music - Indian ragas, Balkan gypsy dances, Greek rembetika - but with a rare feeling and finesse, and not a trace of whimsy.’
Wire
‘The Family Elan reveals the right combination of dexterous playing and unstudied feeling to qualify as a success.’
Dusted
