EAR Present

EAR

January 26th 2008

This specially created club night showcased everything from poets to MCs, classical instruments to avant-garde electronica, singer-songwriters and DJs

Among the artists who performed were singer Natascha Eleonore; bassist Renell Shaw with his band Descendants of Quest; flautist and beatboxer Shlomo; multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Catherine Anne Davies; vocalist and viola player Nila Raja; singer-songwriter Sam Carter; experimental electro-ethnic artist Mieko Shimizu; composer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, amongst others. 
 
In addition, a collective of young artists from Central Saint Martins, Camberwell School of Art, and London Metropolitan University were engaged to design visuals across the spaces in the Spirit Level including a life-size tree installation in the Spirit Level Foyer.

Welcome...I appreciate you passing through.

EAR

2007 was a turbulent year with many highs… Glastonbury Festival, BBC 1Xtra, residency at The Southbank Centre as an Emerging Artist and collaborating with the amazing Nitin Sawhney on his new album…
I feel the foundations have been set & throughout 2008 I’m going to chase my dreams with everything I have.

I want to use this online facility to connect with those of you who feel my music & want to join me on this crazy journey. Check out the myspace for more info / music / blogs / videos etc. www.myspace.com/organicurban ~ the brand new material produced by legendary production team ‘Bacon & Quarmby’ (Finley Quaye, Ziggy Marley, The Pretenders etc.) will premier on there soon.

In turn, I hope 2008 brings you the motivation to shed old fears and hesitations and gives you the opportunity to find the strength you need to pursue your dreams with fire-like determination.

I am trying to learn from the mistakes I made in 2007 and leave them there…I woke up this morning with a sense of urgency to put right what I can and to not feel down about the things I cannot change.

I feel a sense of freshness in the air and excitement looming at the changes to come. I have chosen to leave fear behind. My resolutions will embody the emotions that I am feeling right now, so that in months to come, when my strength may seem diminished or the fire in my determination seems somewhat extinguished, I can recall what made me write this right now. My documentation here today will be my testimony to my friends and to myself. I intend to try my very best to be all I can be this year.

I wish you all the same. May strength be with you and please stay in touch,

Much love & respect

x~Natascha Eleonoré~x

Resolutions

EAR

last year/this year:

last year I:

-wrote 56 songs mostly about ------ and ----- and recorded (most of) them with Paul draper and Nitin Sawhney and blue may and some by myself
- sold 500 copies of my ep on pre-order and make my fingers bleed stamping each and everyone by hand. Then had to make 500 more.
- felt a little bit weird about getting reviewed in the daily mirror. felt better when i read the review. 
-promised myself i would learn how to play banjo PROPERLY. Failed miserably. spent too much time emailing instead
-got asked to be artist in residence at the southbank centre and got to see Brian Wilson sing "god only knows" 
- finally succumbed to the mac and got myself a proper pro tools set-up so i can join in the geeky boy-conversations
- gave the old dark side a chance and fell in love with the shins, didn't fall in love again but carried on torturing myself (mostly) about the same old same old, reinventing the contemporary malcontent
- continued to successfully abstain from drinking until may, then august. fell into a vat of rum in December and drank myself through the entire tom waits back catalogue, watched five movies without actually watching them and made my left eye bleed,
- went deaf in one ear for a day
- played islington academy and drunk so much baileys before i even got on stage that it seemed like the room was swaying in time with each rush of blood
- supported scout niblett in Brighton and tried to stop looking puzzled every time someone called her "Emma"
- visited two aquariums and fell in love with a skate called mister ray.
- got three buses to play a gig in hackney and got accidentally hit in the face with a flying guitar amp 
- got lost on hampstead heath
- got lost in little venice
- stood on a train platform in harrow wanting to die 
- didn't get invited to your birthday (you know who you are)
- shouted and swore at some guys in the audience for talking only to find out later that they were actually shouting about how much they loved the music... 
- danced like a fool to old suede songs at "feeling gloomy" and gave myself whiplash whilst scaring the life out of Tim (probably)
- cried so much i lost my voice but acquired two more tones in my upper range
- played in front of a bazilion people with nitin sawhney at the royal festival hall
- got to take a shower in the rfh dressing rooms before the builders had really finished...
- acquired mysterious bruises but stopped feeling sick every time i ate.
- had a terrible birthday (again)
- played at the bbc electric proms
- got my first national radio play and won the bbc introducing listeners' vote 
- felt disappointed in patrick wolf and the dresden dolls but played "videotape" by radiohead on repeat and became addicted to the shins
- bought another piano even though i shouldn't/couldn't/will live to regret it
- lusted after too many guitars and not enough boys 
- cried at the rufus wainwright old vic show when he played "the art teacher"
- spent 15 days in hospital waiting rooms, waiting.
- thought about dyeing my hair blonde at least four times then accidentally dyed it blonde by leaving in the highlighting lotion too long the day my dad's father died and it no longer seemed important to wash it off.
- spent around a month of my time travelling on trains, mostly travelling backwards.
- got given an iPod but never used it
- hoped it would be fatal
- thought about starting an emo super-group comprising solely of female musicians 
- listened too much and didn't demand enough
- drank too much white wine in the sun at reading and became fixated by trent reznor's leather gloves and enjoyed lost prophets a little bit too much.
- took too many taxis
- spent an amazing and exhausting two weeks writing and rehearsing ten completely original compositions for the re-opening of the royal festival hall. almost learnt to love reggae.
- got asked by Courtney Love to join her band. got scared and turned it down.
- recorded a cover of The Magnetic Fields' "The Book of Love" on Christmas Eve and tried not to laugh too much whilst playing sleigh bells and making my friend Duncan sing really low backing vocals.
- read about 250 books whilst finishing my doctorate. Felt old about finally leaving university but kept getting ID'd in the supermarket anyhow.
- didn't get a proper job
- wore fake eyelashes whilst holding imaginary cigarette holders that leave trace a ladder of smoke that leads to the stars...
- nearly broke my guitar whilst wearing ridiculously high heels at the Jazz Cafe. because i could. 
- finally impressed my parents by being on the same album as Paul McCartney (out next year)
- got addicted to rum and ginger beer which surpassed the cream soda and martini cocktail of the winter of 2004.
- thought about emigrating to America, Iceland, Poland, Paris, the end of the garden. 
- didn't leave the country once
- finally made it to iTunes.
- blagged a comprehensive knowledge of the life and works of Sylvia Plath after being invited to sing and talk about her at the ICA not having read "The Bell Jar" for nearly 10 years because it made me feel so ghastly.
- ran around in the butterfly house at London Zoo
- got terrible skin for 3 months and finally empathized a little too late with all those girls at school...
- started making mixtapes again

this year -

- i want to be in technicolor...

Shlomo with special guest DJ Yoda

EAR

Friday 22 February 7.45pm

Part of Sholomo's ongoing Music Through Unconventional Means series, this event sees Artist in Residence and beatboxer Sholomo collaborate with DJ Yoda, who mixes everything from nursery rhymes, country, soul and reggae to drum and bass and 1980s pop. In 2007, DJ Yoda has played to packed clubs from Beijing to New York and supported Fat Boy Slim on tour,

Tonight's collaboration will see DJ Yoda's groundbreaking audio-visual performances combine with Sholomo's beatbox antics, culminating in a specially created piece in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, folled by a party set from DJ Yoda in The Front Room.

More info/Book tickets

Camilo Tirado

EAR

Camilo has studied Tabla with Hanif Khan, Mohammed Asani and Keshav Sathe. He is currently working towards a degree in Music Technology at the University of Huddersfield. His music palette includes electroacoustic composition, dub, dance music and Indian classical. He draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Taoism, physics and global politics. 

Braydz

EAR 

An MC, poet and lyricist. He is part of the hip-hop duo Blind Alphabetz, whose debut album Lovolution was recently released at the end of 2007. Blind Alphabetz have supported Dead Prez, Public Enemy, Guru, RZA from Wu-Tang Clan, and Saigon, amongst others.

Read Braydz blog here

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

EAR

A jazz vocalist, cellist, pianist and composer. She studied composition with Errollyn Wallen and Andrew Poppy and now studies with Alwynne Pritchard at Trinity College. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Colourful Radio and Resonance FM. Ayanna has played with artist such as Soundspecies UK, the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, Soul II Soul and Jason Yarde, with whom she worked as assistant orchestra for the Hugh Masekela and LSO project.

Named by Courtney Pine as 'one of our rising stars of the future', she performed with him at the Barbican recently. She also played at the London Jazz Festival at Southbank Centre.

Read Ayanna's blog here

Natascha Eleonoré

EAR

A singer who performs an eclectic blend of soul, reggae and hip-hop, moving between hard-hitting lyrics and smooth soulful singing. She has been featured on BBC 1Xtra and BBC Asian Network, and performed with Catch 22 at Glastonbury this summer. Her forthcoming debut album features Afro-Cuban rhythm legends Horacio 'El Negro' Hernandez, Robby Ameen and Richie Flores. She played recently at Southbank Centre on as part of B.Supreme – the UK’s Festival for Women in Hip-Hop.

Read Natascha's blog here

Catherine Anne Davies

EAR

A multi-instrumentalist who writes dark and twisted songs and sings with "A voice that sounds like a lake of black honey." (Metro)

Currently recording tracks for her debut album with producer Paul Draper (Mansun, Skin, Komakino) Catherine is also collaborating with Nitin Sawhney for his forthcoming album London Undersound. She will be performing as part of the Girl Friday event at Southbank Centre, programmed in collaboration with The Lipster, in March 2008.

Read Catherine's blog here

Emerging Artists in Residence (EAR)

EAR

Southbank Centre's Emerging Artists in Residence (EAR), is a multi-talented group which came out of the Aftershock London project directed by Nitin Sawhney in 2007. Featuring some of London's hottest new artists including singer - songwriters, rappers, MCs and beathboxers alongside spoken word artists and DJs.

The EARs are:

Each EAR has their own page which you can access by clicking here