Photo Gallery
Black Heaven Trailer
Featuring Oh My Love by John and Jehn
Faculty Music and Media - the University of Westminster's student operated record label - have demonstrated their increasing ability to link their students to the top of the music industry by confirming that John Leckie will be giving a lecture and Q&A at the university on 13 May.
Schedule Wednesday 13th May 2009
Live Blogging and Press interviews will be set up through out the day.
The event, part of Faculty's India Soundpad collaboration with the Radiohead and Stone Roses producer and British Council, follows the 12 May release of an accompanying record showcasing four of India's top alternative bands.
The bands: Indigo Children, Swarathma, Medusa and Advaita, who were handpicked and recorded by Leckie in a West Mumbai studio, are also coming over to the UK for the first time for a mini-tour that will take in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Oxford and The Great Escape Festival in Brighton.
“I’ve a lways been into Indian music after working with Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad and Gopal Shankar Misra doing records for Real World,” says Leckie on why he chose Indian bands. “I also produced K by Kula Shaker which was a million seller.”
The bands will be performing in Brighton, and are scheduled to talk and answer questions at the festival’s India Focus Panel discussions on 14 May before taking to the stage at venues across Brighton during the festival days.
The discussions will look at ways to link the alternative music scenes in India and the UK, including addressing ways to develop effective touring circuits in India for local and international artists, creating and nurturing new relationships and removing real and perceived barriers to effective communication, collaboration and partnership.
India Focus at the Great EscapeFor more information, contact gareth@namemusic.co.uk or gareth@namemusic.co.uk
Music Week 4.04.09
Release Date - April 20th 2009
French duo John and Jehn return with the first new material to follow 2008's critically acclaimed eponymous debut LP.
The duo have been recording in a secluded rural location in South West France soaking up late seventies and early eighties records by the likes of Donna Summer and Robert Palmer.
John and Jehn are set to release the first new tracks from this session, Oh My Love on April 20th through Faculty Music Media. Oh My Love is an undulating mix of Grace Jones lo-fi obscure and Gaelic warmth, which hints at the wide screen vision of their new material.
Jehn's sultry vocals soar throughout and as John's voice slowly joins the mix, the track climaxes into a spectacular foreboding finish of Timpani drums, noir strings and keyboards.
Lookin For You on the single's flip-side, is more swift in its delivery with fanatical drum machine beats, over-driven bass and brooding piano lines rushing to a huge, distorted conclusion.
The band's debut album was released at the back end of 2008 in their native France to great fan-fare (they had always been thought of as an English act by their homeland, due to living in London). The album's success has seen them play large shows at Palais Tokyo and at Transmusicales (where they were voted Band of the Festival) as well as making big waves at Eurosonic festival in Holland.
While their first album was defined by Jehn's banshee like vocals mixed with drones and white noise, it's follow up looks likely to be more cinematic in scope coupled with heartbreaking melodies.
John and Jehn return to Paris this Spring and will be finishing recording their second album over the summer.
UK live dates to be announced soon.
Band:
John - guitar and vocal
Jehn - bass, organ and vocal