Bastien Keb

Bastien Keb - is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from The Midlands. Initially cutting his teeth in funk and hip hop bands, Keb branched out in his early 20’s and began writing and recording music in his makeshift bedroom studio. Borrowing and buying an array of broken instruments he was unable to play, through his obsession of making music ‘properly’ like his idols (Bernard Herrmann, Curtis Mayfield, Tom Waits) he began to get to grips with cello, clarinet, flutes and trumpet. And dived into creating his own sonic world, one where you’re half awake and half asleep. In the back of a taxi on the streets of New York in the night time. Hearing whispers of sounds only the city makes, jazz clubs, street preachers, Turkish restaurants. Keb’s obsession was to make all these small pieces of music himself, spending days making organic Ethio- jazz tracks, only to use those tracks for 30 seconds covered in reverb, panned hard left and placed between tracks on the album simply to set the scene. After finding a voice through instrumental music, Keb branched out into using his own voice as the focus point, knowing this is where the real honestly lies. Trying to find a connection between the likes of Bon Iver, The Delfonics, Bowie and all the cinematic pieces was maybe the biggest channel, and led to years of obsessively world building. Never seeing an album as ’your 10 best songs recorded over that year’ and seeing an album as a piece of art, an experience, where every sound and every word helps the audience see the world through the eyes of Keb. Shaun Curtis - Emerging recently after a 13-year hiatus from music making - a period spent curating some of Merseyside's most iconic live music experiences - Shaun Curtis brings his stellar song writing back for his first ever London show. His latest collection of songs - running the spectrum somewhere between After the Gold Rush and Ambient 1: Music for Airports - is a musical bonfire of lush vocal harmonies and vivid world building lyrics.