130: Music Never Dies or “All farewells should be sudden, when forever”

The last 2 Sacre Noir live shows were a joy to take part in; firstly showing off our stripped-back duo set at The Monarch Bar in Dunfermline then ripping it up at The Safari Lounge in Edinburgh with a full-on electro/rock showcase which featured Phil on guitar.

We’ve had a blast over the years playing with many wonderful live musicians in many wonderful venues across the UK & Europe and these are experiences we’ll never forget.
From our first live performance at Tam Dean Burn’s Politikal Manifesto night back in 2008 at the beautiful Tron Theatre in Glasgow to supporting Chrysta Bell this summer at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms and all the other crazy shows in Paris, Berlin, London, Liverpool, Gateshead, Glasgow and many more locations… it’s all been amazing!

The 2017 tour video will be online soon but in the meantime you can look back at all our other adventures via this playlist on YouTube.

One of the highlights of this year’s tour was playing in Paris – you can now watch our 2017 arrangement of Everything We’re Running Away From (Sinking Into Darkness 2012 – Savage Recordings) live at La Cave Cafe in Montmartre, on our YouTube channel.

Another Paris highlight was being able to perform something from our E.P. with Canadian artist D.Soul the Soulsamurai (our good friend and label buddy at Dejine:Rec). We’ve had some amazing feedback from this release and it’s something that both Alexis & I were super keen to make happen during our final year writing and recording as Sacre Noir. So when we were invited to be the featured artist at Paris Lit Up at Culture Rapide, we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to arrange a performance of ‘Stories Begin‘ from Scattershot.

We’ve got a lot to thank the good folks at Dejine:Rec for – they really believed in us at the very start of our journey and it was a privilege to have our music featured alongside some of our favourite music makers (James P. Honey, Asthmatic Astronaut and Marco Donnarumma to name just a few).

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Over the next few months we’ll have some more videos from this year’s tour, some behind the scenes from our final video shoot (Rebels & Loners – Nothing Falls Apart 2016 – Savage Recordings) and a few other surprises… keep an eye out for new posts on our YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

 

“All farewells should be sudden, when forever.”
―Lord Byron

124: Follow That Muse / Open Secret, Paris

For our next two shows in Paris we were being hosted at events curated by poet a musician David Leo Sirois.
We met David last year when collaborating with Antonia Alexandra Klimenko as they are both involved with the Spoken Work Paris community. This year David has been a great connection and has been responsible for arranging these shows for us in two fantastic basement venues.

Tuesday 8th AUGUST Follow That Muse @ Le Cave Cafe
The first of our shows for David was hosted in the fantastic Cave Cafe in Montmatre, Paris.
Moments away from the iconic Sacre Coure, run by an American music fan and frequented by the artists and art-fans of today, this superbly cool bistro, bar and venue was exactly the kind of place we’d be hanging out in if we stayed in Paris.

We played two different sets during the evening; one filled with acoustic songs, readings and some spoken word, the other was our loops and beats electronica set. Everything was great apart from the electricity blowing a fuse half way through the final song in our electronica set (which we had chosen to play first due to the set up of the evening and other acts booked to play).

This was a great night; filled with love and laughter, friendships old & new and a feeling that we may have finally found the ‘core of the Paris scene’.

Wednesday 9th AUGUST Open Secret @ Le Bistrot des Artistes
In the second of our two shows for David we found ourselves in the uber-trendy BDA (Le Bistrot des Artistes) alongside some of the cities best new and established jazz poets and blues singers, beat-poets and acoustic artists. The drinks were flowing upstairs with the house mojito getting a lot of love from the crowd.  Downstairs the vibe was reminiscent of the speakeasy joints you see in Hollywood movies (a cave filled with moody lighting and a few tables with bench style seating).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was an intense show – people cried and not just because we were swimming in an excess of spilt beer and mojitos, but because there was a closeness in the room that all who entered were dragged into. Each act and audience member focused intently on the performances; giving 100% attention to the content and absorbing the emotions.
At the end of the evening a bunch of us stood outside chatting about “the state of the world” and other topics that had been raised by the theme of the night (which we were honored to have been ‘Rebels & Loners’ inspired by our current single). We’ve met some great people on this trip to Paris, some of whom I’m sure we’ll never see again, but others I’m sure we will stay connected to for many years to come.

NEXT UP
10/08/2017: Radio Kaoss Caribou – Interview and live recording session

123: A day off in Paris

Monday 7^th August 2017
We started the day with coffee at Culture Rapide and then made our way to Saint-Cloud for a day away from the cities busy streets.
We got the metro to La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle, an area we’ve visited a couple of time in the past (the Albert Khan Gardens and Parc André Citroën are close by) and walked across the Seine to the small suburb of Saint-Cloud. With Le Château & a vast parkland (classified as a Historic Monument and includes Marie Antoinette’s rose garden) this small area to the west of Paris is a hidden gem.

Saint-Cloud offers a lovely view over Paris as it sits above the Seine and with everyone settling into ‘holiday mode’ the town centre seemed very sleepy and relaxed.
We had a lovely day in the sunshine and enjoyed seeing a different area of Paris.

In the evening we ate at le mezze du chef on Rue Ménilmontoant; a bijou but busy veggie bistro with a few set menu offers and a great range of authentic Turkish treats.

NEXT UP: 8th August (Follow That Muse) & 9th August (Open Secret)