Thu 12th October, 2017
8:00 pm - 10:30 pm (Doors: 7:30pm)
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Bookings are closed for this event.
CHAPEL ARTS CAFE IS OPEN THIS EVENING – last orders 7.00pm, to book a table please call: 01225 920256
“How the guitar would want to sound if it could play itself”…
Pierre Bensusan is back in the UK & Ireland. Over the past 44 years, acoustic guitar virtuoso and vocalist Pierre Bensusan has taken his unique sound to all corners of the globe. Winner of the 2014 Independent Music Award in the Live Performance Album category for his triple live album “Encore”, voted Best World Music guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine reader’s Poll, winner of the Grand Prix du Disque at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, “Près de Paris”, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century. Described as a ‘genius’ by the likes of Jon Gomm and Melody Maker, immortalised by the tune ‘Bensusan’ written in tribute by the late Michael Hedges, and referenced as an important inspiration to many other great musicians, Pierre Bensusan is a one-of-a-kind artist whose music transcends genre and time, with an uninhibited sense of musical freedom and expression, a sense of something both playful and serious, otherworldly yet right here, right now. His “manner” of playing defies classification – crossing world, classical, jazz, traditional, folk, pop and more. None can be isolated as simply “World Music”, “Celtic”, “Arabic” or “French”; rather, they represent our world in its current state, a world sharing itself. A great ambassador of France and peace. Not to be missed!
Select press clippings and quotes
“I had gone along to the theatre disgruntled – by too many things happening in my life. By the start of the second half I was in a state of quiet euphoria, totally at peace with the world. I was even moved to the odd tear. Music at its best is like that, isn’t it? It’s magical; it can make a difference, and Pierre Bensusan makes a difference.” Clare Brotherhood, UKTheatre.net (UKTheatre)
“Pierre’s music is an example of how you can revitalise and justify the term « World Music »… Neither jazz nor folk nor Spanish classical, neither rai nor chaabi, nor flamenco (old or new), it nonetheless contains all of these – a translucent, fully-realised and seamless chamber-acoustic melange, played softly and without affectation.” Dan Chinn, Misfit City Music Blog (Misfit City) (London, UK 2016)
“To say that Bensusan is a master of the guitar is like saying Albert Einstein was good at math.” Woodstock Times, by CHARLES LYONHART on Apr 29, 2016 (USA)
“Bensusan is very much his own animal. It’s like listening to a butterfly, to dappled sunshine coming through quaking aspens. His music flits and darts around like fish in a pool. And his compositions manage to encompass both the calmness of the pool and the flashing of the fish. It’s an entrancing, almost hypnotic thing to watch and hear, as he seems eager to share his journey, his light. I was struck by how the aim of each song was to be beautiful. Not witty, not avant-garde, not new, necessarily, but beautiful. A great craftsman plying his trade. A shepherd with his flock. As I left I felt all of a sudden that I’d been to temple, my own sort of temple, and by the end of the service I felt purified, cleansed, and ready for the new year.” Nyack News and Views (USA, NY, Dan Cohen, Oct 4, 2015)