Bitch ‘n’ Monk
‘Beatboxing soprano’ & guitarist Heidi Heidelberg and experimental flute-player Mauricio Velasierra first met in a tent in Taunton, fought over melodies in Paris, and are now gaining an eclectic set of fans from Yoko Ono to Ray Davies (The Kinks).
Angular melodies and seemingly irrational harmony may come from nights listening to Prokofiev and Wayne Shorter, or just from a shared fetish for the tritone. Inexplicable groove on the strangest of bar lengths might reflect their affinity with West African rhythms, or just a belief that anything – however bizarre – can be spectacular if played with commitment and energy. Since forming they have been known to roam the stages of London’s Royal Festival Hall, Paris’ La Cigale, Rich Mix and the V&A Museum.
From the bedroom to the chapel Bitch ‘n’ Monk release their debut short album ‘Fulafalonga’, which documents the raw free improvisations that gave birth to a series of songs and compositions recorded at London’s Union Chapel.
Heidi Heidelberg – Vocals, guitar & live orchestration
Mauricio Velasierra – Traditional flutes & effects
Laura Moody
Laura Moody is a wildly alternative cellist, vocalist and avant-singer songwriter. Fascinated not only with words and songwriting but also with sounds, noises and textures she eschews laptops and loop pedals to explore what is possible using only solo cello and voice. She creates emotive songs that reveal a multitude of influences and inhabit a unique space between the contemporary avant garde, classical music, experimental pop and singer-songwriter tradition. Having achieved much international acclaim as a long-standing member of innovative string quartet the Elysian Quartet, which is known for its pioneering performances and recordings of contemporary classical, experimental and improvised music, she has also toured world-wide as a member of physical theatre string ensemble The Gogmagogs and with the Meredith Mork Ensemble.
All of these elements are brought together in Laura’s solo work, as The Arts Desk noted of a recent performance, “it seemed almost as if she had taken every musical influence that had come her way and put them in a blender…certainly extraordinary and sometimes disturbing. But what surprised me most …was just how often it became mesmerising.” Tonight she will be performing music from her highly personal and long awaited debut album Acrobats.
“Calling Laura Moody a cellist is a bit like describing Heston Blumenthal as a chef; it’s correct, but tells you less than half the story.” Nightshift
“… for enjoyable astonishment, nothing quite beats the singer-cellist Laura Moody. She plays lyrically; then as if it was a box for sound effects. She sings her own almost-pop songs, gurgles, hoots, wails, taps her throat with the bow. Yet it’s all seamless, as if she, the cello and the music are a single organism.” The Irish Times
