JAH WOBBLE'S ODE TO JOY TOUR
FEATURING PHILIP JECK, MOLAM LAO & DEEP SPACE
A DUB, WORLD, AMBIENT, AVANT-ROCK EXTRAVAGANZA
To listen to extract of the live show press : Ode To Joy (56 MB. This will take about 45 min on broadband, or upto 5 hours on 28.8 connections)
Jah Wobble takes to the road with a fantastic aural journey through the worlds of dub, world, ambient and avant-rock music accompanied by the cult visuals of photographer Marc Atkins. Avant multi-turntablist Philip Jeck joins forces with Wobble’s inimitable bass to present an interpretation of the famous Ode To Joy theme as never heard before, followed by the extraordinary world dub of Molam Lao from Laos and culminating in the driving musical force of Deep Space. Molam Lao will re-issue their excellent album Molam Dub and Jah Wobble also launches a new solo album in celebration of this unique tour.
Commissioned by North West Arts Board to compose a new and very different interpretation of the Ode To Joy theme, Jah Wobble investigated a host of collaborative options but settled on the inventive turntablism of Philip Jeck as musical cohort. Famous for his subversive Vinyl Requiem (feat. 180 dansette record players, 12 slide projectors and 2 movie projectors) which won the Time Out performance award, Philip Jeck will deconstruct and reconstruct Beethoven’s famous theme alongside Jah Wobble on bass to thrilling effect.
Wobble’s Ode To Joy project is indicative of his continued thirst for musical experimentation since his years with P.I.L, having pioneered industrial dub and embracing world music before contemporaries such as Peter Gabriel. His albums with Invaders of the Heart won him commercial success and critical acclaim, making him one of the best known names in popular music, playing with the likes of Primal Scream, Holger Czukay, Orb, Molam Lao and Sinead O’Connor to name but a few. Despite his commercial success Wobble has always continued to experiment with new ways of working which he achieves through his own label 30 Hertz and live performances with Deep Space and Solaris.
A huge fan of the Southern Laos 1000 year old musical tradition of Molam, Wobble seized on the opportunity to work with one of the form’s finest exponents Molam Lao. Having met in a refugee camp following their escape from the Communist regime in Southern Laos (some swam across the River Mekong as their only form of escape) this superb group of musicians were discovered by French ethnomusicologist Jacques Brunel who enabled them to gain passage to France where they have lived since 1976. Despite having one of the largest Laos community outside of the country itself, Molam Lao are the only group who have preserved this remarkable singing tradition outside of Laos where it is something of southeast Asia’s answer to Reggae. However, although the group perform at all the Laotian community events in Paris and alongside Jah Wobble at events such as the World Festival of Sacred Music (initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama), the group still earn their livings not from music but from domestic and building work which they combine with a fearsome appetite for hedonistic activity!
The whole programme finishes with a set from Jah Wobble’s band Deep Space whose reputation for improv trance/world ambience continues to grow apace. Deep Space are: Clive Bell (flutes and pipes), Mark Sanders (drums), Jean-Pierre Rasle (bagpipes, crumhorns and early instruments), Chris Cookson (guitar) and Harry Beckett (trumpet and flugel horn). The driving rhythms of Deep Space’s music never fails to take the roof off and as such provides the perfect climax to a brilliant evening’s music. If all this was not enough photographer Marc Atkins, joins the tour to add a visual dimension to the concert with an exhibition of his striking photography being projected onto the band throughout the performance.
For any interviews/reviews: Interviews
Reviews on 'Ode To Joy' live show
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/music/live/jahwobblelive1.html (Hartlepool)
http://designermagazine.tripod.com/JahWobbleLIVEREV1.html (Manchester)
Jah Wobble's 'Ode To Joy' Tour is supported
by 30 Hertz Ltd and British Arts Council Northwest