A reminder about the upcoming Weekend Of Phun this Friday and Saturday.

Friday 24 May: GRAVENHURST SOLO SHOW IN LONDON

A one-off solo Gravenhurst show in the beautiful Heath Street Baptist Church in London’s leafy Hampstead, and promoted by Sonic Cathedral. I’m planning to shake things up a bit and play quite a few songs I’ve not played in a very long time, plus some songs I’ve never played live before. Keeping with Gravenhurst tradition, I’ll be sure to play some songs I don’t know how to play; you’ll know when I venture into that territory, that’s when I stop and ask you what the words are.
I’ll be supported by my friend Mary Epworth who will be playing songs from her beautiful and fearless debut album ‘Dream Life’, and I’m delighted to announce that she’ll be joining me for a duet on one of my songs.

We are also joined by psych-folk duo The Left Outsides, who have just released their excellent new album ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ via Dead Meadow’s Xemu label.

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Doors are at 7pm, and music will finish in good time for you to take the short, five-minute stroll back down to the tube. And just in case you were wondering, THERE WILL BE A BAR! I wouldn’t subject you to my misery without letting you drown your sorrows now would I? That would be cruel.

Rough timings for each act:
The Left Outsides – 7.50pm – 8.20pm
Mary Epworth – 8.40pm – 9.10pm
Gravenhurst – 9.30pm – 10.45pm
If you want to let other people know that you’re coming, here’s the Facebook event page

Saturday 25th May: Planet Mu Party Featuring Heterotic & Gravenhurst and more

Heterotic are a group formed from husband and wife production team Mike Paradinas and Lara Rix-Martin. Mike is the boss and founder of Planet Mu, and a celebrated producer in his own right as µ-Ziq. Last month saw the release of the album ‘Love & Devotion’ which consists of four instrumental tracks and four Gravenhurst collaborations.

The album has had an amazing reception, and to celebrate the release we are going to perform the tracks live, one time only, in London at Corsica Studios. We are sharing the bill with an impressive list of artists from the Planet Mu stable, including the awesome futurist synthtopia of Kuedo, whose Severant LP I gushed over in my favourite records of 2012 list. As it’s Saturday night we’re going to stay up really late, but the Heterotic set will be on at a reasonable time, normal gig hours, with the mental electronica and DJs going on into the early hours:

Doors: 10pm – 6am
Heterotic featuring Gravenhurst stage time: 10.30pm
Venue: Corsica Studios
TICKETS HERE

The Quietus ran a news piece about both shows here:

Heterotic & Gravenhurst track ‘Blue Lights’ also made The Quietus Editors’ Picks of the albums and tracks of 2013 so far
Watch the video for the track ‘Blue Lights’ here
Preview and buy the album here

Greetings people of refined taste

There are some interesting developments on the horizon.

Weekend of Phun: HETEROTIC LONDON SHOW & GRAVENHURST SOLO LONDON SHOW

Last month saw the release of the Heterotic album ‘Love & Devotion’ Heterotic are a group formed from husband and wife production team Mike Paradinas and Lara Rix-Martin. Mike is the boss and founder of Planet Mu, and a celebrated producer in his own right as µ-Ziq. The album consists of four instrumental tracks and four Gravenhurst collaborations.

The album has had an amazing reception, and to celebrate the release we are going to perform the tracks live, one time only, in London at Corsica Studios. This will be strange for me as I have never sung without playing the guitar before, so I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with my hands. I guess I’ll find out, and so will you if you come. We are sharing the bill with an impressive list of artists from the Planet Mu stable, including the awesome futurist synthtopia of Kuedo, whose Severant LP I gushed over in my favourite records of 2012 list. As it’s Saturday night we’re going to stay up really late, but we’ve been assured that the Heterotic set will be on at a reasonable time, normal gig hours, with the mental electronica and DJs going on into the early hours.

Doors: 10pm – 6am
Heterotic featuring Gravenhurst on stage around 10.30pm.
Venue: Corsica Studios

TICKETS HERE

For those of you who missed out on the last mail out, here’s a bit of info on the album from the press release….

Love & Devotion displays a love of hazy, dreamy eighties influenced electronic pop shot through with the dynamics and space of modern electronic dance music. The lyrics describe a world that is profoundly haunted by its past. While the allusions to a key event are cloaked in ambiguity, their echoes in the present are described in visceral and magical detail. The result is an album of tightly coiled melodies cloaked in an insomniac haze, subtle harmonic shifts and strong vocal counter-melodies conveying sweeping sketches of a troubled, neon world.

Watch the video for the track ‘Blue Lights’ here
Preview and buy the album here
The Quietus review is particularly well written, here,
and John Doran interviewed us about it too.

GRAVENHURST SOLO SHOW IN LONDON

In order to help you make the most of your weekend we’ve arranged for you to go out two nights in a row by arranging a one-off solo Gravenhurst show the night before… on Friday, May 24 in the beautiful Heath Street Baptist Church in London’s leafy Hampstead, and promoted by Sonic Cathedral.

I’ll be supported by my friend Mary Epworth who will be playing songs from her beautiful and fearless debut album ‘Dream Life’, and psych-folk duo The Left Outsides, who have just released their excellent new album ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ via Dead Meadow’s Xemu label.

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Doors are at 7pm, and music will finish in good time for you to take the short, five-minute stroll back down to the tube. And just in case you were wondering, THERE WILL BE A BAR!

If you want to let other people know that you’re coming, here’s the Facebook event page.

That’s all for now, hope to see you in London
love Nick

Hey gang

Some interesting developments… This week sees the release of the Heterotic album ‘Love & Devotion’ which consists of four instrumental tracks and four Gravenhurst collaborations. This is the first time I have composed in this way, writing lyrics and vocal lines for a different project. Heterotic are a group formed from husband and wife production team Mike Paradinas and Lara Rix-Martin. Mike is the boss and founder of Planet Mu, and a celebrated producer in his own right as µ-Ziq. The album is available on LP, CD and digital download. The vinyl LP comes with a free digital download code.

Love & Devotion displays a love of hazy, dreamy eighties influenced electronic pop shot through with the dynamics and space of modern electronic dance music. The lyrics describe a world that is profoundly haunted by its past. While the allusions to a key event are cloaked in ambiguity, their echoes in the present are described in visceral and magical detail. The result is an album of tightly coiled melodies cloaked in an insomniac haze, subtle harmonic shifts and strong vocal counter-melodies conveying sweeping sketches of a troubled, neon world.

For the press release I went into some detail about the creative process behind the record:

“Gravenhurst has always been a completely solitary project, I’d never written lyrics and vocals for someone else’s music before, so Heterotic presented me with a challenge, it required me to compose in a completely new way. The tracks Mike sent me were already melodically strong; I had to create worthwhile counter-melodies rather than just echoing what was already there. The vibe of the music was nostalgic for me, it evoked the dance music of the late eighties and early nineties, when I first started to go to raves and experience the euphoria of that scene. This got me thinking about the fragility of memory, about the idea of the unreliable narrator, and how we so often fill in the blanks and idealise the past. I’ve often told anecdotes only for my brother to say “that happened to me, not you!”. Telling stories, often quite tall stories, is integral to our sense of self-identity; we develop a pleasing narrative about ourselves, we recreate and redevelop our sense of self all the time. Our identity is totally dependant on memory, but given that memory is demonstrably unreliable, we have to accept that we are incoherent as people. The only way in which we exist beyond death is in the minds of others; for those who have no relatives, when the last house clearance is completed and the family photos dumped on a landfill, those people may as well have never existed. That is a profoundly melancholy notion, but it simply means that we have a duty to embrace the present, because the present is the only reliable dimension. You must find your peace and purpose in the present or not at all. This is the common theme of the four vocal songs on this record, and I believe they hang together as among the best lyrics I have written”.

Watch the video for the track ‘Blue Lights’ here.

Video shot and produced by Rand Rosenberg with Prismaview Productions. Gravenhurst footage shot by Sam Wisternoff.

Most importantly, this is where you can preview and buy the album:
www.planet.mu/discography/ziq328

The Quietus review (here) is particularly well written, as ever, and John Doran interviewed us about it too:
http://thequietus.com/articles/11604-heterotic-mike-paradinas-gravenhurst-interview

and here’s a few more articles about the record:
http://www.factmag.com/2013/03/01/mike-paradinas-and-lara-rix-martin-on-heterotic-the-early-days-of-%C2%B5-ziq-and-the-ascent-of-planet-mu/
http://www.factmag.com/2013/03/20/love-devotion/
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17526/reviews/4146189?ticker
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/records/304133-heterotic_love_devotion_ft_gravenhurst
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/blog/stream-two-tracks-off-heterotics-forthcoming-planet-mu-release-love-devotion-featuring-gravenhurst-117603
http://www.electronicbeats.net/2013/01/31/mix-of-the-day-heterotic/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/31/new-band-of-day-heterotic

A sole live performance of this Heterotic three-piece line up is being planned for May… watch this space…

Cheeeeersss……

Nick

Gravenhurst’s Spain shows start tonight:

Friday 8 February, CASTELLON, Tanned Tin Festival
Saturday 9 February, HONDARRIBIA, Psilocybenea
Sunday 10 February, BARCELONA, Apolo w/ support from Simone White

Limited number of £9.50 tickets available now.  Once they’re gone, they’re gone.  Buy here

The Stranger The Better Festival is an exciting three day mini-festival of modern-day existential songwriting, brought to you by Kings Place and The Local.

£10 tickets available now. When they’re gone, they’re gone. Then tickets available at £15.

BUY TICKETS FROM:
http://tickets.crackmagazine.net/checkout/view-event/id/6633/chk/3158
http://www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/

VENUE:
www.themotorcycleshowroom.com

http://www.platoo.at/index.php/autumn-leaves/das-festival

Advance tickets available here and here.  Tickets also available on the door.

http://thecastlehotel.info/

http://www.bidolito.co.uk/content/competition-8