Great news! LIMBO tickets are selling like hotcakes and the TOLLWOOD FESTIVAL organisers have decided that they would like to add another matinee show on 21st December 2014.

Act FAST to book your ticket before they run out! (Click the image below.)

Right there back then in 2006, at the HERE theatre in New York, a little Charcoal Boy was born to the theatre world by the minds of Designer ERIC NOVAK (click his name to see the puppets he made for this play), Director SARAH PROVOST and myself. His adventures, acted out by the fantastic puppetry team, were set to music I composed and performed live with my band NERVOUS CABARET.

THE ADVENTURES OF CHARCOAL BOY, which received support from the JIM HENSON FOUNDATION, The MacDowell Colony, St Ann’s Warehouse Labapalooza, Meet The Composer (now called New Music USA), and PS 122‘s Mabou Mines, portrays the story of an unlikely hero – a charred stick!

One of the featured songs, TREES ARE STUBBORN, describes how his fall from a tree that was struck by lightning led to his awakening to a strange world and how his journey of self-discovery and revolution began. Central characters in the play, such as CATHEAD, a world-weary side show impresario and FLAME GIRL an enigmatic dancer in the cabaret, are also depicted in song.

Watch the video, below, to see me sing FLAME GIRL with 17 HIPPIES four years ago at the KESSELHAUS in Berlin.

In my recent Newsletter, I talked about the theatre company I set up in the mid 90s in New York City, The Dean Street Field Of Operation, otherwise known as THE DEAN ST FOO, when our group of performance artists from Dean Street Brooklyn realised we needed an outlet for our craft. CORINNA HILLER, JEPH GURECKA, JOHN MCCORMICK, KEVIN MCCORMICK, THOMAS THORPE and myself became regular residents at PS122 with our theatrical shows incorporating dance, music, film and mime.

The video, below, is the 16mm black and white filmed version of BABBEL DRONES, directed by Thomas Thorpe and starring John McCormick and myself. It incorporates Mime, COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, and Slapstick to tell a story loosely based on The Old Testament’s psalm THE TOWER OF BABEL, here symbolised by a found 16mm loop of the NAGASAKI nuclear explosion. (During the original theatrical productions, the film loop would be projected above the stage onto a cloud made by Jeph Gurecka.)

BABBEL DRONES was just one chapter in the larger story “I WAS A RECORD PLAYER“, a live theatre play performed by THE DEAN ST FOO in OFF BROADWAY productions in NYC between the years 1995-2000.

“The Greatest Party between Heaven & Hell…”

After an enormously successful run at LONDON WONDERGROUND, circus cabaret LIMBO has evolved to the next generation – much like DR WHO – with Band Leader SXIP SHIREY passing the baton to ELYAS KHAN.

Click the photo below for performance dates and times, including the grand finale on 31st December. Why not treat yourself and your family to a New Year Celebration Extravaganza at the SILVESTER GALA performance?

First reports in from production company STRUT N FRET is that Elyas played a blinding first night, opening the show at Munich’s TOLLWOOD FESTIVAL yesterday, with his New York band NERVOUS CABARET‘s track, SLEEPWALKERS:

My recent festival performance at TOUR DE CHAUFFE with one-time NERVOUS CABARET band mate SAM KULIK made me think back to when the whole band was together. We’d do shows with some awesome artists such as JIL IS LUCKY at LA CIGALE in Paris and AMANDA PALMER of THE DRESDEN DOLLS at MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG in New York.

One of the things I love about performing with people like this is the fabulous range of musical instruments and found objects that make weird and wonderful noises. My GENTLEMEN & ASSASSINS bandmate and LIMBO showman SXIP SHIREY is great at finding these, as you can see in our performance of THE TING TINGS‘ song That’s Not My Name with Amanda Palmer HERE. Incidentally, it was also Sxip who invented the SXIPENSPIEL which was made as a gift for Amanda’s husband, writer NEIL GAIMAN, and was sampled on my single BELLS.

This week’s video starts with all the members of NERVOUS CABARET and AMANDA PALMER playing the THEREMIN as an introduction to her song GUITAR HERO.

Those of you who regularly read my news posts will already know that my single BELLS featured in ANNA KOHLSCHÜTTER‘s film REBECCA, which premiered in Berlin this summer, and that my drummer ROMAIN VICENTE composed the soundtrack. The film was well received at this year’s MESSAGE TO MAN FILM FESTIVAL in St Petersburg, Russia, and was featured as part of the “KURZ UND GUT” programme on German TV channel WDR in September.

NEWS JUST IN!

REBECCA has been selected to be screened at the DÜSSELDORF FILM FESTIVAL 2014 on Wednesday 19th November, at 6:30 pm. Click HERE to see the festival timetable.

Even more excitingly, REBECCA has also won 3rd place at the DEKALOG FILM AWARDS and this will be presented on 30th November 2014 at 8 pm at the VILLA ELISABETH in Berlin-Mitte.

In ALL THIS NOTHING that is the universe, all we are is dust in the wind, dude. But with the help of MICROGRAVITY this MOONDUST MUST condense to form beautiful shapes and tune to frequencies that change our moods and impact on our lives.

It’s a small world, so it is said. I’d say that is true, especially when it comes to the number of artists who have walked the lesser travelled path. This path led me to writing GARDEN OF FAINTING STARS for THE BOOK OF KNOTS, a collective of New York and San Francisco based musicians. They chose the name of my song for the title of their album, which featured special guests BLIXA BARGELD of THE BAD SEEDS and EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, MIKE PATTON of FAITH NO MORE and MR BUNGLE, and MIKE WATT of MINUTEMEN.

While I was in San Francisco recording GARDEN OF FAINTING STARS, I met a very nice gentlemen named STEVEN RASPA (one of the masterminds of THE BURNING MAN FESTIVAL) who gave me a tour of their San Fran HQ.

Video  1 of 2:

Video 2 of 2:

Follow me in here to read the review on Musicks and the Low Cost City, written by Paloma Calpainova:

Hey there folks! Ever wondered how we got here? The winds of the universe had my future, they had my ready made soul, and birthed me in London. As a small child, I found myself in Pakistan, then back in London, until Minneapolis called us there.

Ever the optimist, the hedonist, the preparationalist for nothing at all, I ventured alone to New York City, met a chick who would later become my wife and join me on this journey to Berlin…

I’ve been a dancer, an actor, a singer, a multi-instrumentalist. No event stands alone; there is always a lot of overlap and indeed one event spawns another and not necessarily in chronological order.

This week, I’d like to show you a short documentary directed by PAMELA MADDALENO, about GENTLEMEN & ASSASSINS‘s recording of “Lowest Of the Low”.

Watch the video to discover the faux ethnic musical instruments such as the traditional Schlungawungabinga and the sheep herder’s Hair-Krishna brush. I may not fit the expectations of my ethnicity, but I’m happy and zappy. I’ve been playing with a stun gun. It’s called the stun gun of life. I was stunned… by the gun… of life.

Salut mes Poules! Ce weekend je monte dans la camionnette avec Daniel Richter, batteur du groupe allemand ALICE DAISY et puis, à Bruxelles, nous passons prendre mon pote SAM KULIK, le tromboniste avec qui je partageais la scène au sein du groupe NERVOUS CABARET. Mais cette fois-ci, ce n’est pas seulement un “buddy roadtrip”. Nous traversons à peu près 900 km par voie terrestre surtout afin de vous rejoindre au festival TOUR DE CHAUFFE à LA FERME D’EN HAUT, VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ en France.

En premier partie de mon concert joue la magnifique MANIC MAYA, elle aussi un fan de mettre la basse en valeur dans la mélodie d’une chanson.

Venez nombreux, avec vos familles et familiers ce samedi le 8 novembre. Nous espérons vous voir parmi la foule! Cliquez sur l’image ci-dessous pour plus de renseignements sur les billets et comment se rendre sur place…