ADRA Promotions as part of The Victoria Theatre’s Antidote series presents A Guiarati Gathering. Some of the finest guitar playing from three of the UK’s leading guitarists.
Gwenifer Raymond (Tompkins Square):
Gwenifer Raymond began playing guitar at the age of eight shortly after having been first exposed to punk and grunge. After years of playing around the Welsh valleys in various punk outfits she began listening more to pre-war blues musicians as well as Appalachian folk players, eventually leading into the guitar players of the American Primitive genre.
In 2018 she signed to the American label 'Tompkins Square' and released her first album 'You Never Were Much of a Dancer' to widespread acclaim. In 2020 her second album 'Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain' shifted somewhat from straight Americana and started to take more of a spiritual influence from the landscape of her homeland of Wales. Recalling from her childhood memories of spooky trees, black against the grey sky and breath misting in cold air there is present a style of guitar playing that could be referred to as 'Welsh Primitive'.
Gwenifer has toured extensively throughout the UK and the Europe and has established herself as one of the leading lights of the scene, and not to be missed under any circumstances.
Media Praise for Gwenifer Raymond
“A fierce live performer” – Uncut
“Transporting, beautiful, intimate and intense” - The Guardian
“Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, Raymond’s staggering second album, leaves no doubt that she is among the most vital, dynamic voices within the still-teeming solo guitar orbit” – Mojo
“Just about anybody with an interest in the new school of American primitive will tell you that Welsh guitarist Gwenifer Raymond is one of its most promising proponents. “I’ve been blown away by Gwenifer Raymond,” says Jeff Conklin. Josh Rosenthal agrees: “She’s just a fascinating person—a great example of somebody taking the raw elements [of the style] and making them more personal.” - BandCamp Daily
“It’s intricate folk melody is Welsh and Celtic in style but American Old West in practice. The rhythmic patterns mimic the swift dynamics of a fiddle with a country twang. Western music was originally influenced by traditional folk music from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; Raymond’s seamless crossover grows from these historically intersecting roots.”- Stereogum
Website: https://gweniferraymond.com/
Watch:
Sometimes There's Blood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfLJvXNeY-M
Bleeding Finger Blues - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pAm0uqkXAI
Chris Sharkey (Leaf/Discus Records)
Chris Sharkey is a musician from the North-East of England primarily interested in the intersection of improvisation and electronic sound.
Based in Leeds since 1999, Chris has dedicated the last 20 years to making forward-thinking new music that blurs boundaries between improvisation, production, composition and the associated genres of these often-separated fields.
He co-founded the Leeds Improvised Music Association (LIMA) which drew national attention to Leeds in the early 2000s. He is an active national and international artist, performing with Charles Hayward (This Heat), Jack Wylie (Portico), Roller Trio, Anton Eger’s Æ, Joshua Blackmore’s SiZE, Acoustic Ladyland, trioVD, Shiver, The Geordie Approach, and as a solo artist.
As a producer Chris has recorded, mixed, remixed and mastered music for for Keeley Forsyth, Matthew Bourne, Seb Rochford, Oliver Coates, Troyka, World Service Project, trioVD, Shiver, Lara Jones, J Frisco, The Geordie Approach, Roller Trio and more.
Label clients include Leaf, Edition, Naim, Discus, Babel, NEWJaIM.
He is part of Not Applicable: a group of musicians, composers, visual artists and filmmakers collaboratively developing and openly prototyping new approaches to their respective artistic pursuits.
Media Praise for Chris Sharkey
“Find space, time and dissolve your thoughts in Sharkey’s electric murmurings. The more you listen, the more there is to hear…” - A Jazz Noise
“Fiercely inventive, powerfully independent” - The Guardian
Website: https://www.chrissharkeymusic.com/
Dean McPhee (Blast First Petite/Folklore Tapes)
Dean McPhee plays a Fender Telecaster through a valve amp and subwoofer with kick drum and effects, and he is influenced by Dub, Modal Jazz, British Folk, Underground Electronic Music and Psychedelic Rock. A self-taught musician with a fluid technique and an inventive approach to sound, his music is melodic, hypnotic and trance-inducing with a deep sense of space.
Dean has toured the UK and Europe and opened for artists such as Thurston Moore, The Magic Band, Acid Mothers Temple, Michael Chapman, Meg Baird, Michael Hurley, Josephine Foster, Emeralds, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Charalambides and Wolf People. His music has received international radio play and has been acclaimed by the likes of MOJO Magazine, The Wire Magazine, Dusted, Louder than War, Uncut Magazine, Brainwashed and The Quietus.
Media Praise for Dean McPhee
“At any given time, there are always a handful of visionary guitarists who carve out their own compelling and distinctive niche, as well as many more who exhibit virtuosic technique or write consistently great songs. McPhee’s work checks off all three of those boxes, but his greatest moments reach another plane altogether where it feels like he is channelling something much deeper, more timeless, and almost supernatural" - Anthony D'Amico, Brainwashed
“Set within an electric ancestry that includes Michael Karoli’s solos in Can, the hymnal rock of Popol Vuh’s Daniel Fichelscher and the sonic spaciousness of dub, as well as the emotional punch of John Martyn’s dawn lit Echoplex epic, ‘Small Hours’.” - Frances Morgan, The Quietus
"Definitely one of the leading contemporary guitar stylists in the UK, and in the world" - Steve Barker, BBC ‘On the Wire
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSnRM45xyRI
Website: https://deanmcphee.co.uk/
This event is taking place on Sunday 27 August, 7pm in the Victoria Theatre Green Room Bar
Tickets: £10 (£8 concessions )
Antidote is a programme of artistes that see things from a slightly different point of view, for audiences who like to challenge their understanding of live music. Each of the events in the Antidote series are curated by internationally recognised composer, musician and songwriter Aby Vulliamy and feature some of the UK’s finest musicians and performers. This event is guest curated by Halifax-based artist, musician and arts organiser Andy Abbott - www.andyabbott.co.uk.
