CRISTOBAL AND THE SEA
London based cross-European group Cristobal and the Sea are excited to announce news of their debut album ‘Sugar Now’, which is set for release 2nd October via City Slang. The first single ‘Sunset of Our Troubles’ from the record is online now.
The ongoing dispute over explorer Cristobal Columbus’ nationality shows some country disputes will stay unresolved, but others are born to harmonise, in the case of Cristobal And The Sea. The London-based union of Alejandro ‘Ale’ Romero (bass, vocals, Spain), João Seixas (guitar, vocals, Portgual), Leïla Seguin (flute, vocals, Corsica/France) and Joshua Oldershaw (drums, UK) harnesses an altogether fluid, rhythmic and exquisitely melodic energy as colourful and evocative as their band name, forged from different strands of DNA, primarily bossa-nova, Afro-pop and Western folk and rock, but even here it’s varied, as much Animal Collective as it is Arthur Lee’s Love.
The rich variety of sound apparent in ‘Sugar Now’ makes it hard to pin down the music’s true origins, “We don’t ever consciously make our music sound like a genre.” says João. Instrumentally, it’s led by Leïla’s jazzy flute as much as João’s bossa-nova preferences: “the Latin element is always there,” says Josh, “but it naturally adapts to whatever theme is most prevalent, whether it’s psychedelic, or more poppy, or sometimes a bit disco.”
A much stronger influence is Cristobal’s willingness to follow intuition rather than more rigid plans. That spirit, and their intrinsic jubilant and bittersweet mix, is infused in their album title. “We struggled to name the record for ages,” admits Ale, ‘Sunset of Our Troubles had a long outro, so Rusty decided we sing over it, but we didn’t know what… Throwing out pure spontaneous syllables, he just blurted “sugar now, sugar now!”… It was the opposite of everything else we’d thought’
+ special guests
Moth Club
Old Trades Hall, Valette St London E9 6NU
7.30pm
£8
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