The Review - MUSIC - grooves with ROISIN GADELRAB Published: 21 August 2008
Basquiat Strings set to play at the Roundhouse
Basquiat sound plucked from a myriad of styles
PREVIEW: BASQUAT STRINGS Roundhouse
FRESH from gigging at Barcelona’s hybrid-dance event, the Sonar Festival, Basquiat Strings’ European folk, bossa nova, gypsy jazz sound is coming to Camden on Wednesday. Leader Ben Davis on cello, an unprecedented instrument in the jazz world, is a long-standing member of the free-improv scene.
No ordinary classical ensemble, Basquiat includes a virtuoso group of accomplished, experimental musicians, including violinists Emma Smith and Jenny May Logan who make up one half of the Elysian Quartet.
After the lush chord voicings, speedy strings and tight rhythms of their simply named Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford (the big-haired drummer from Polar Bear), the band were nominated for a Mercury Prize last year.
When the elephant screeching subsides from the domed interiors of the Roundhouse on Wednesday night, fans will be left wondering what their next album will offer. SARA NEWMAN
* Basquiat Strings plays the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, on August 27, 7pm,
£12. 0844 482 8008
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