Sphinx
Sphinx
Nov 18. 2022. St James Church
Susheela Raman, Jason Whittaker & Guests: William Blake in Songs & Words
TICKETS HERE!
““I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.”
““I give you the end of a golden string”, ”
Programmed in collaboration with The Blake Society. Part of St James’ William Blake season, Visions & Voices: Echoes of William Blake.
Acclaimed for her audacious cross-cultural musical creations, singer/composer Susheela Raman’s latest adventure encounters the magical imagination of one of London’s most creative sons, William Blake, who was born in Soho and baptised at St James's Church Piccadilly.
Susheela's original settings of Blake poems, such as the epic “Proverbs of Hell”, are threaded with spoken word performances of Blake's writings by Jason Whittaker, author and Blake expert and accompanied by inventive guitarist and composer Sam Mills.
Blake summoned his visionary art and poetry from many sources and continues to fascinate and inspire countless writers, music makers and visual artists. The “Golden String” offered here unwinds in words and music though Blake, from the Renaissance magic of Shakespeare’s “Tempest” to William Burroughs and David Bowie.
Susheela Raman will be supported by eminent musician and composer Charles Hayward.
Nov 18 2020 Doors 6:30pm. Event 7pm-9:15pm with short interval.
TIX: eventbrite.co.uk/e/susheela-raman-jason-whittaker-guests-william-blake-in-songs-words-tickets-439494559057
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Susheela Raman as singer, composer and curator moves between genres, across frontiers and into new musical spaces with uncanny ease. Born to South Indian parents in London and raised in Australia. Susheela’s unique work in recent years has involved collaborations with a variety of sacred music traditions, including Sufi Qawali, Javanese Gamelan and Eastern Orthodox chant. She is known for her beguiling and incandescent stage presence and The Guardian described Susheela is “wildly original, passionate and dangerous”. She is currently completing a new album, based on the poetry of William Blake.
Featuring:
Jason Whittaker has been researching and writing on William Blake for more than thirty years, specialising in the reception of the Romantic artist's words and images by later generations of painters, writers, musicians, film-makers and thinkers. He is the editor and author of a number of books on Blake, the most recent being Divine Images: The Life and Work of William Blake (Reaktion, 2021) and Jerusalem: Blake, Parry and the Fight for Englishness (2022). He also regularly publishes on Blake at zoamorphosis.com.
Sam Mills first made music as guitarist in 1980s experimentalist group 23 Skidoo. After a decade of living in Asia and getting a doctorate in Anthropology he returned to music, producing and performing on a number of records for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. He has worked closely with Susheela Raman since 1998 both on stage and in the studio, and together they have created a series of acclaimed albums and live projects.
Supported by:
Charles Hayward is an English drummer and was a founding member of the experimental rock groups This Heat and Camberwell Now. He also played with Mal Dean's Amazing Band, Dolphin Logic, and gigged and recorded with Phil Manzanera in the group Quiet Sun project as well as a short stint with Gong. He was a session musician on The Raincoats' second album, Odyshape, and on one occasion played drums for the anarchist punk band Crass. Since the late 1980s, Hayward has released several solo projects and participated in various collaborations, most notably Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.
Susheela Raman is supported by PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music