The City Gallery, Granby Street, Leicester
Saturday 12th May. 8:30pm, prompt start!
£6/£5(concs)
tel: 0116 223 2060
NALLE
are a Glasgow-based psyche/folk trio, formed in the summer of 2004. The group comprises
Hanna Tuulikki (vocals, kantele, flutes), Aby Vulliamy (viola) and Chris Hladowski (bouzouki,
clarinet). All three group members have performed with the free-folk/jazz ensemble, Scatter,
and Chris and Aby also play in The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden (from Volcano the Bear),
as well as the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra. Nalle makes primitivist psychedelia that r
esonates with African, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Northern European folk traditions.
Nalle's naïf music is almost pre-modern in its sensibility, an off-kilter hybrid of the
Incredible String Band and The Wicker Man, wrought with an array of string and wind instruments
(oud, acoustic guitar, kantele, clarinet, viola, bouzouki, flute) and a mysterious artifact called
a shouti box. Indeed, their debut album, 'By Chance Upon Waking' (Pickled Egg 2006)
feels so deeply organic that it's hard to imagine it
was recorded anywhere but some enchanted rural idyll, aeons before civilization, when even
language itself was new. Hanna Tuulikki's idiosyncratic, strangely phrased vocals give the
impression that words are novel to her (think of Björk as an idiot savant); these fragile,
eccentric songs, which evoke music's earliest ritual and communal functions, likewise
captivatingly childlike. Nalle have performed at numerous prestigious festivals, including the
2006 Greenman, the 2006 Latitude festival in Suffolk, the Alter Schlachthof
festival in Germany, as well as the 2005 and 2006 Pickled Egg Records showcase festivals at Leicester's
Phoenix Arts. Pickled Egg released their debut album, ‘By Chance Upon Waking’, in March 2006,
and their follow-up album will be released in August, on the highly-regarded US label, Locust
Music (Espers, Michael Hurley, Lau Nau, Josephine Foster).
"By Chance Upon Waking is easily the best thing I've
heard in 2006 thus far, and I reckon it's going to be hard for anything to come
close" [Brad Rose,
Foxy Digitalis
Liverpool quartet ZUKANICAN have been likened to an unholy
hardcore collision between Can, The Soft Machine and Art Ensemble of Chicago. Theremin battery,
skippy keys, s-bending bass, drill pattern drums, siren organ in continuum, other pulses muscling
in on the action, a diversion into free-funk with sci-fi white noise cutting across. The line-up
comprises James Pagella on drums, Tom Sumnall on bass, Dr Harry Sumnall (electronics and percussion),
and Phil Lucking on Spanish trumpet. Their free-flowing improvisations, Krautrock grooves and jazz
flourishes, paint a huge aural canvas with thick layers of colours inspired by such luminaries as
John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Bablicon. Zukanican's debut full-length album, 'Horse Republic', was
released on Pickled Egg in 2006. And they’re one of Seb Rochford’s (Polar Bear, Fulborn Teversham,
et al) favourite bands!
THE GOOD ANNA is the Nottingham/Leeds-based percussion/guitar improv duo of Patrick Farmer and
Graham Jones. Their music is played with a ferocious emotional intensity, simultaneously playing
out of the rock and jazz tradition while creating something new, totally wild, free and improvised.
Farmer is one of the finest drummers in the UK, his effortless experimental style and grace being
reminiscent of a young Chris Corsano. Jones’ guitar work is equally experimental, incorporating
everyday objects such as paper clips. Guaranteed to confuse!
Make Pickled Egg some extra cash by following the Egg credit card link