Pizza Express Live approaching, Theatre Shows on the horizon and Raf and O Celebrate 20th Anniversary of Pennyblackmusic Live at The Water Rats
May 18, 2018 § Leave a comment
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We did it, we launched The Kick Inside – The Songs of Kate Bush project! Thank you to Kaparte Promotions! Here are the magical photos by Angelique Le Marchand capturing the night beautifully. We also had a wonderful time on the deXter Bentley Show, Resonance FM on the 40th anniversary of Kate Bush’s debut album. Listen to the podcast. Very grateful for the audience reception and the excellent reviews and blogs!
After such a great response, we are playing in London again, this time appearing at the legendary Pheasantry in Chelsea, Pizza Express Live on 1st June.
If you’ve missed the launch or fancy another dose of stripped down Kate Bush material, come down and spread the word, we’ll be waiting for you! x
TICKETS
FB EVENT
The show has also been booked at The Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft, Suffolk, at The Penny Theatre in Canterbury in the autumn and more to be confirmed
dates and tickets here
“Kate’s early songs performed like this make us want to be in some candlelit cabaret club in Paris or Berlin cosying up to a large glass of red in a plush velvet booth” Kate Bush News
“Alluring, atmospheric duo Raf and O launch their THE KICK INSIDE project – a beautifully realised, heartfelt re-imagining of a Kate Bush who kept on playing live…” Adrian Specs
“Utterly fantastic!” Dexter Bentley, London Resonance FM
“There’s a very real sense that Raf made these songs her own and created a Kate Bush persona in which to perform them. It takes a very special talent to bring this off: Raf possesses it and deployed it brilliantly last night” Jeremy Clarke Reviews
“I was blessed to attend the premiere of a performance of Kate Bush’s songs by Raf and O an experimental music duo” Peter Cook, Human Dynamics
In the meantime Raf and O “as themselves” shall also be playing live shows whilst putting finishing touches on the upcoming fourth album; we have been invited to be part of the excellent Pennyblackmusic Magazine 20th anniversary at The Water Rats, London (TICKETS); can’t wait to perform! And tonight, 18th May we are making a live appearance at Scaledown #139, The King and Queen, Fitzrovia, details on the Live page. There will be more special shows in the latter part of the year as we gear up towards our latest releases …..!
Watch/ Listen to the live video montage of the night we put together (below) from The KIck Inside Launch and then get your tickets for the Pheasantry or other dates here! Big thanks to Peter Cook, Katya Fowler, Lee Winter for phone footage.
Love
Raf and O X
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Electronic Sound Reviews Portal, Raf and O Cover Scott Walker, Bowie Reflections, Italian Summer, Live on Radio and Magic on Video, Halloween DJ’s and other outings.
December 18, 2016 § Leave a comment
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Well, this year is “almost” over and before the new one begins we thought we’d endeavour to bring you news, thoughts, collection and recollections of the last 4 months and this will include the playlist for a special dj set we did at this year’s Kaparte Oxjam. In July we launched our new album ‘PORTAL’ (available ‘HERE‘) at the wonderful St James The Less in Pimlico (see previous blog). It has now been reviewed on Electronic Sound Magazine!
“Raf and O specialise in floaty and delicate musical paintings. Raf’s dreamy vocals leading the way but more often than not melting into the instrumentation. The highlights include a track based on the words of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 62’ and a version of David Bowie’s ‘Win’ which is almost unrecognisable and utterly charming. All in all, this is beautiful stuff.”
Push, ELECTRONIC SOUND
(See picture below for the whole review).
We also launched an EP containing two tracks from Portal and two tracks with Raf and O working alongside electronicist and Grace Jones’s collaborator Robert Logan (available HERE).
Now, the latest! Raf and O have covered the very beautiful Scott Walker’s ‘Such a Small Love’ as part of ‘Plastic Palace People’, an exclusive streamable and downloadable album curated by God Is In The TV Zine! We’re thoroughly proud to offer this Seasonal gift, which we recorded in Florence for your festive digestive. Listen and free download below.
The portal will lead us into 2017. 2016 has been a very strange year, a lot of crazy things happening and a lot of people left us David Bowie included. A very recent trip to the wonderful Lazarus Musical brought forward this consciousness, stirring up feelings and sadness, a shared feeling by Bowie fans across the world. But Lazarus is also a celebration of his artistry and alongside Blackstar, the inner workings of a man facing up to his own mortality. This summer we returned to Beckenham for Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity (formerly Memory Of A Free Festival and Beckenham Free Festival) and it was a complete joy/ honour to perform again as Raf and O. Huge love unified all performers musicians, organisers workers and the crowd, all celebrating the Starman. Lovely contributions by many, a real pleasure to share the stage with Maggi Ronson and the band Jona Lewie, David Live, Clifford Slapper, Amory Kane and more. Thanks to all involved who contributed to make this day very special especially Wendy Faulkner who worked very hard in bringing this year’s festival together and it was brill catching up with Mary Finnigan again who organised the festival with Bowie in 1969. We’ve got some footage shot by the lovely Rhianna, that we’ll post soon, so watch out for that! Alongside new Raf and O material, our set included Bowie’s ‘Lady Grinning Soul’, ‘Win’ included in our last album ‘Portal’ and even a short rendition of ‘After All’.
This is us doing our thing captured beautifully by mister Gaz De Vere. Continues below.
Raf and O Live at Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity aka Memory Of A Free Festival © Gaz De Vere
A Starman in the sky. picture by O.
Since the festival, we traveled to Italy to do some writing and recording including our Scott Walker cover, played a few parties and the excellent Frame Live Club In La Spezia (see press above) on the Ligurian Coast where we were warmly welcomed and throughly enjoyed playing the show to such a receptive audience. Thanks to Alan Pride for keeping things running smooth and on our return to the UK we were kept fairly busy supporting TE Morris from Her Name Is Calla at Chaos Theory’s Whispers and Hurricanes, putting together a special Dj Set (see above) for this year’s Kaparte Oxjam at the Slaughtered Lamb and we played a live session on the Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM alongside The Monochrome Set.
In the words of Dexter Bentley “the original post-punk / arch-pop pioneers The Monochrome Set, plus ethereal, futuristic folk duo Raf & O”.
And Monolith Cocktail also featured ‘Portal’ in the top albums of 2016.
Here below is the podcast Raf and O live on Resonance FM and following that is our live performance of ‘Magic’ from ‘Portal’ lovingly filmed and edited by Riff Underground and Peter Junge. Many thanks to them both and to Chaos Theory for this video.
And to bookend the year, Raf and O just performed at the Xmas edition of the one and only Scaledown in the heart of London. We have a few things brewing but for now wishing you all a peaceful, productive, engaging holiday and see you back in 2017.
Love
Raf and O X
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A wonderful Space-Time and South London’s Calling
October 19, 2015 § Leave a comment
Raf and O live at the Apiary, June 2015 Photo by Philip Seargeant.
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October greetings!
It was one year this month since Richard Strange staged ‘Language Is A Virus From Outer Space’, a multimedia celebration of William S Burroughs at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank.
Raf and O were invited as special guests alongside a stellar cast and we outed our latest version of ‘Dream Machine’ to a full house! The whole event was extraordinary ending with a sea of Burroughs…; great memories, a wonderful space-time! (see last year’s blogs here and here )
Mitra Music For Nepal is now released and as mentioned before Raf and O present a previously unreleased original track ‘With Fatzer’ (featuring piano/ vocals & electronics) alongside other artists and legends including, Sakamoto, Wolfang Flur, Scanner, The The, Nick Cave and Anni Hogan. Hogan, pianist extraordinaire and Marc Almond’s collaborator has painstakingly put together this wonderful project. Now you can get to hear it and if you haven’t bought the compilation yet, do it, you can get it here or many other digital outlets (all proceeds go to charity).
Talking about timings, this coming Saturday (October 24th) we’re once again sharing a bill with Anni Hogan, also Autorotation and Robinplayschords (who we’ve recently remixed for his 12″ release ). Full line up and details on the live page and on the flyer below. Really looking forward to join all and return to the stylish settings of The Ivy House, a little gem on local ground, South London, a Kaparte Oxjam and a charity event, don’t miss!
All details and tickets available here.
TICKETS
FACEBOOK EVENT
Continues below
Photo of The Ivy House by Klarita Pandofi Carr
In summer we were commissioned to provide sound design and music for a new play, a tribute to Cocteau. Premiered at Camden Fringe, ‘That Woman’s Voice’ was devised/ performed by Simona Continente and directed by Klarita Pandolfi Carr. O did the live tech and lights and together we wrote the music.
It was a priviledge to be a part of the play and to imagine and externalise the inner turmoil of Simona’s character through sound and music. A great experience!
Continues below
Simona Continente at ‘That Woman’s Voice’. Photo by Raf Mantelli
Thanks to Scaledown for inviting us to perform last month, a really enjoyable night at the one and only King and Queen in the heart of London town.
“Aesthetically stunning and sonically astounding ….it’s Raf and O.” Scaledown aka The Orchestra Pit.
Londoners and South Londoners alike, get yourselves to The Ivy House this coming week-end! See you there!
Love
Raf and O x
Back to RAF AND O’S BLOG/ NEWS PAGE
Raf and O live at the Apiary, June 2015 Photo by Philip Seargeant.
David Bowie Official Features Raf and O’s New Album; ‘Time Machine’ is Out Now!
April 25, 2014 § Leave a comment
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Raf and O’s new full-length second album is OUT NOW!!!
Finally, we’re so proud to present Time Machine, self-released on Telephone, available on Bandcamp, iTunes and all good digital stores.
Latest press says:
“A beguiling slice of noir-pop…a total treat.”
The Girls Are
“Tripped-out hypnotic Raf and O embody the exploratory art school/mime period Bowie from bent out of shape Air meets folkloric avant-noir to ESG and Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief”
Monolith Cocktail
A special gig was staged at the beginning of the month to celebrate its release.
“She’s a tongue twisting storm, she will sing at the show tonight…”
David Bowie Official featured the launch for our new album.
We are absolutely thrilled !!!
“One of the more memorable events of the Beckenham Festival in September 2013 was RAF AND O’s haunting performance of David Bowie’s Lady Grinning Soul (http://smarturl.it/liveRAFnOlady)… Lady Grinning Soul is included on that new LP: Time Machine” David Bowie Official
The front cover captures Raf and O performing on the Beckenham Bandstand
GET IT HERE!
See picture to read in full. Continues below
We’d like to thank all who came down and once again Kaparte for the wonderful hosting.
More live performances are scheduled. Today we’re off to play at the ‘genuinely alternative after-office’ Scaledown. For more details, address etc, see our LIVE PAGE. Then next up is South East London in May; we shall be performing at Vinyl in Deptford. Details again will be added HERE.
Raf and O x
Back to RAF AND O’S BLOG/ NEWS PAGE
Pictures by Angelique Le Marchand, Adam Donen and Lee Winter
Time Machine And The Sun Machine – Memory Of A Free Festival 2013
August 7, 2013 § 1 Comment
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Raf and O announce the new album ‘Time Machine’ will be out in the autumn. We are extremely pleased to say that our album will be out before the year’s over; July called for some splendid sun, we’ve been walking and replenishing! We’re now making plans for our new release and will keep you posted.
On the gigging front, we’ve been playing some fresh material. Performing on the carpet where Bob Dylan stood and played London for the first time, Scaledown 90 at The King and Queen was our recent live outing. On the night also a powerful solo performance by the brilliant Charles Hayward. Thanks Scaledown for hosting us, it was a great night!
X
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Raf and O performing ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ December 2012 and Raf and O in the studio
We’re playing ‘Schrödinger’ And It’s Scaledown!
June 24, 2013 § Leave a comment
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Hi folks,
our next live outing will be at Scaledown a regular and welcome monthly night from the promoters of The Orchestra Pit.
Raf and O are so looking forward to join this month’s line up which will also see the splendid Charles Hayward performing!
Bird Radio’s birthday also beckons this July, we shall be joining the cocktail of musical elements in celebration at Stoke The Fire – details will be posted on our Live page.
Thanks to Jude Cowan for hosting us at the Full Stop last month where we tested out our new song ‘Schrödinger’ and to those who were there to support the experiment.
First up, this Friday, Scaledown 90! Upstairs at the King and Queen, London, W1.
Details HERE and FB EVENT
Raf and O x
From Quiet To Loud
May 15, 2012 § Leave a comment
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We had a lovely time stripping down (the equpment that is!) at the intimate Scaledown, a busy and cool line up made for a great eve with fabulous audience reception, thanks Mark and Shaun!
We’re gathering more video footage to be sharing with you shortly.
Pictures from the event can be found HERE
Our next gig will be the full Raf and O sound – that’s this Saturday 19th May an exciting fundraising night at the Victoria Dalston, a special line up which includes our lovely friends Gertrude. Come on down, it looks like it will be a very busy evening!! x
FACEBOOK EVENT
Raf and O New Video Footage + Live News
April 24, 2012 § Leave a comment
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Hello lovely people!
After our Remix for Nedry’s Violaceae, we’re still buzzing from our latest gigs and we have some new video footage!
Big thanks to Luigi Altilia for filming us in action at The Others and to the Rude Mechanicals for inviting us down and Punkvert VJs, brill night! Here it is!
Gig 3 of 2012, Below U @ Power lunches was a great night, Raf and O would like to thank Snorkel and Low Bias for performing, Anthony GDLI, all who came down, took part and made it a really cool event. More live events scheduled for May.
Next up, this friday, we’ll be doing a short stripped down set at the ‘genuinely alternative after-office’ Scaledown in the heart of London!!
Details HERE
FACEBOOK EVENT
Raf and O 
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