Now Available on streaming Platforms: Tom Skinner - Voices of Bishara Live at “mu”
*just released*
IARC0076
Tom Skinner
Voices of Bishara Live at "mu"
OUT NOW ON ALL
STREAMING PLATFORMS
Today, June 4th, 2024, London based drummer/composer Tom Skinner releases Voices of Bishara Live at 'mu' in full on all streaming platforms, following its earlier (May 10) release on deluxe 2LP/CD/DD via International Anthem.
"It is remarkable that the album has made the transition from the studio to the stage so effectively...what happened was sonic lightning, and it has struck again, in the same place.” - Chris May, All About Jazz
“Vivid and daring...A live album that conveys its energy so easily: it sounds like everyone involved is having fun, and it makes you wish you’d been there too." - Kevin Hyde, Molars
"Tom Skinner and Tom Herbert form one of the best rhythm tandems in jazz today. What a joy to hear these men play together, growing effortlessly and grandly with each performance and recording" - Dick Hovenga, Written in Music
Stream + Order Voices of Bishara Live at “mu” here.
<<< Tom Skinner ON TOUR >>>
Tom Skinner is hitting the road to bring the Voices of Bishara live experience to some amazing venues - see below for the latest dates and ticket links.
Jul. 6 - EnergiMølla (Kongsberg, Norway) - TICKETS
Jul. 7 - Copenhagen Jazz Festival (København, Denmark) - TICKETS
Sep. 1 - Rendez-Vous de l’Erdre (Nantes, France) - FREE
Sep. 5 - Cologne Jazzweek (Cologne, Germany) - TICKETS
Sep. 14 - Flagey (Brussels, Belgium) - TICKETS
Sep. 22 - THT/Paradiso Noord (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - TICKETS
Oct. 15 - Fasching (Stockholm, Sweden) - TICKETS
PHOTOS: Voices of Bishara
Live at “mu” release show
On Monday May 6th, 2024, drummer Tom Skinner and his Voices of Bishara ensemble (with bassist Tom Herbert, cellist Kareem Dayes, and reedists Chelsea Carmichael & Robert Stillman) returned to "mu" – the very same North London venue where IARC0076 was recorded – to perform and celebrate their new deluxe limited 2LP live release.
Photographer Andre Baumecker was on the scene and delivered these fine snaps.
((( photo by Monika S. Jakubowska )))
London based drummer, composer and producer Tom Skinner has been a vital and central figure in the burgeoning underground music scene in London throughout the last 20 years.
Tom is presently a member of The Smile with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Their debut album A light for attracting attention was released to critical acclaim in June 2022 and they are currently touring Europe with Worldwide dates to follow.
In 2012, Tom released his debut self-titled solo record under the alias Hello Skinny to critical acclaim, MOJO Magazine describing it as “…existing in that fertile zone where jazz, dub, techno and avant-pop deliquesce into an exhilarating free-for-all.” The second Hello Skinny album Watermelon Sun, released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label in 2017, featured a collaboration with acclaimed veteran New York composer and trombonist Peter Zummo.
Tom is also an original member of award winning band Sons Of Kemet alongside band-leader and frequent collaborator Shabaka Hutchings. Their third album Your Queen Is A Reptile [Impulse! 2018] garnered worldwide critical acclaim including a Mercury Prize 2018 nomination. Their last album Black To The Future [Impulse! 2021] has been met with rave reviews, NME giving it 5 stars, claiming the album to be the band at their “most dynamic and urgent”.
In 2022, Tom released his eponymous debut Voices of Bishara via the three label collaboration of Brownswood, International Anthem & Nonesuch Records. Featuring Kareem Dayes on cello, Tom Herbert on bass, Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia on woodwinds, the album was called “a terrific affirmation of what makes Skinner so interesting as both a drummer and now a composer” by Treble. Following the album’s release, Tom reformatted his Voices of Bishara ensemble for live performances, with woodwind players Chelsea Carmichael and Robert Stillman in place of Hutchings and Garcia.
Throughout his career, Tom has performed and recorded with many notable musicians such as Jonny Greenwood, Graham Coxon, Grace Jones, Kano, Zero 7, Floating Points, The Invisible, and many more.
In January 2023, Skinner and his ensemble performed material from his recently released Voices of Bishara album at “mu”— a venue on Kingsland Road in North London founded by the curators behind the neighboring Brilliant Corners and named after the seminal Don Cherry live album. Skinner augmented the band’s performance of his original compositions with a rendition of a Tony Williams tune and three pieces by Abdul Wadud (whose 1977 self-released solo cello album, By Myself, was one of Skinner’s main inspirations for Voices of Bishara in the first place). The woodwinds featured on Skinner's original Voices of Bishara album — Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia — had already been replaced in Skinner's live ensemble with the saxophonists Stillman and Carmichael, and the band (still rounded out by the double bassist Herbert and cellist Dayes, with Skinner on drums) had tightened across several late 2022 performances.
Captured in full on that legendary January 2023 night, Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" kicks off with an extended version of Skinner’s composition “Bishara,” as the band explores the same relationship to rhythmic/tonal freedom found in the Abdul Wadud cello work that inspired the band, album, and song title. That aesthetic and spiritual connection is even more explicit in the band’s stunning interpretation of Wadud’s “Oasis,” which culminates with a scorching sax solo by Carmichael.
Limited Edition Deluxe
2LP Vinyl & CD packages
Voices of Bishara Live at “mu” is available in a deluxe package designed by Paul Camo of Studio Camo.
The limited edition of 1200 vinyl 2xLPs come in screen-printed, hand-numbered jackets (pressed by Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST, and production management by Minus Kungl of FOUR).
A limited edition of 700 deluxe CDs are also available, packaged in a hand-numbed bespoke tip-on CD jacket with a 3-layer spot print, including a gloss UV relief.
