Bhajan Bhoy (Netherlands) and ADRA Live in Sowerby Bridge (MATINEE)

Name: Bhajan Bhoy (Netherlands) and ADRA Live in Sowerby Bridge (MATINEE)
Start: 2025-02-16T14:00:00+00:00
Location: Puzzle Hall Community Pub

Schedule

Sun, 16 Feb, 2025 at 02:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Puzzle Hall Community Pub | Halifax, EN

Sunday February 16th 2025
ADRA promotions and Puzzle Hall Inn present …
Bhajan Bhoy (Netherlands)
Dutch musician Ajay Saggar creates psychedelic kosmiche raga electronic soundscapes and guitar heaviness. Presenting new album Bhoy On The Wire!
https://bhajanbhoy.bandcamp.com/
ADRA
Andy Abbott looped acoustic instruments ambient music for psychiatric wards
https://andyabbott.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-psychiatric-wards-and-fluid-structures
at Puzzle Hall Inn, 21 Hollins Mill Lane, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 2RF
2pm - 4pm
FREE ENTRY with donations for acts gratefully accepted.
----- Further Info ------
Bhajan Bhoy
Drawing from a deep well of psychedelia, Bhajan Bhoy further shifts the parameters of the genre with a beautiful and meditative set of tracks. Within this kaleidoscopic sonic universe, you will find raga-esque excursions, meditative Dream House drone, Laurel Canyon-recalling folk, electronic soundscapes and heavy guitar riffola (sometimes two chords are enough!). This is the sound of freedom! Imagine Pandit Pran Nath, Spacemen 3, Pauline Oliveros and Don Cherry drinking psilocybin tea and letting loose in a studio.
"a unique soundworld broad enough to encompass wild psych-noise guitar, dream-pop lullabies, and futuristic drones with thrilling results" / Mojo Magazine
“With BHAJAN BHOY, Saggar synthesizes all of the stylistic approaches he’s explored over the years, swirling them into an intoxicating musical blend, with an earthy spirituality. Even the project’s name reflects the dual aspects of Saggar’s upbringing coming together in harmony. In Hindi, a “bhajan” is a devotional song, sung in the mandir, or temple, while “bhoy” is a Scottish and Irish derivation for a young man. There’s a searching quality to Bhajan Bhoy, as if Saggar is still hunting for transcendence with each track, whether through an expansive drone, an orchestral facility on the piano, or an electronics-augmented raga that threatens to dip into noise” (Erick Bradshaw / writer and WFMU DJ).
This album presents a rich and varied set of compositions that showcase Saggar’s skills as an incredibly talented and accomplished composer and musician. With each and every Bhajan Bhoy LP, you are are carried to a higher place. With ‘Bhoy On The Wire’, the 35 minutes laid out unfolds like a cosmic tapestry, an extraordinary exploration that shimmers and reverberates with newfound vibrancy. The songs were broadcast as part of a session on Steve Barker’s “On The Wire” radio show in April 2024. They were a gift to Steve and his team for 40 years of broadcasting. “On The Wire” is simply the greatest radio show in the world. As Ajay explains in his own words :
“In September 1984, I started a degree course at the University of Lancaster. On a wet and soggy Sunday afternoon towards the end of September, I sat in my room staring out at the grey Lancashire landscape, and decided to alleviate the boredom by seeing if there was anything to listen to on the radio. Most of the stations I tuned into were as dull as the weather outside. However, as I neared the end of the FM dial (and was about to give up hope), I chanced upon a station where I was taken by the music being played. That show was “On The Wire”, introduced by Steve Barker. From there on in, every Sunday, between 2-5pm, I tuned into Radio Lancashire to listen. Steve’s shows had an incredible and wide reaching selection of music and genres, that thrilled your ears and left you wanting more. Tied to that, his deep knowledge of the material he played helped the listener dig into the sounds even more, and also left you in admiration of this trait. In 1985, I started putting on DIY shows in Lancaster (inviting the likes of Bog-Shed, bIG fLAME, The Membranes, The Wedding Present, etc etc) and Steve was kind enough to mention the shows on-air, which helped in getting people from different parts of the county to come to the shows. At the tail-end of 1985, he invited me to the studio to come and hang out. When in 1988, the group I was in, Dandelion Adventure, released our first (demo) cassette, it was Steve, who not only played tracks off it, but invited the group to the studio for an interview. Now if you’re a young band, that is a massive thrill! And in 1990, when Dandelion Adventure did a John Peel session, I actually used “On The Wire” jingles (that Steve had put on a cassette and given to me a few years before) on the track “All the World’s A Lounge”. Since then, the show has been a mainstay for me, and so many others around the world, to get turned onto incredible sounds from around the world. And over the course of 40 years, Steve has always supported my music. These six tracks are a 40th birthday gift to the “On The Wire” team (Steve, Michael “Fenny” Fenton (an absolutely critical part of the show), and Jim Ingham (engineer who keeps the technical side of things going)) for sharing so much amazing music, and making the world a better place. They were originally broadcast as an exclusive session in April 2024 on “On The Wire", and are here for your listening pleasure. Music like shower”.

ADRA
Andy Abbott is an artist, musician and writer who lives in West Yorkshire, UK. 'ADRA' is the name under which he releases improvised or more experimental work. In 2024 Andy released 'Music For Psychiatric Wards (And Fluid Structures)'; a compilation of recordings inspired by his experiences as a creative practitioner performing ambient music in psychiatric wards across Yorkshire in 2023
"a beautifully structured hour of ambient music; reflective and calm with endlessly unravelling layers."
- Uncut
“...a genre-defying album that is as fluid as its title would suggest. From the patter of the steel pan to the whirr and drone of the organ, what unfurls in between these two harbours is a deeply searching travelogue; at times water-like, at others light-filled as if in some kind of morning glow.”
- The Quietus
'a remarkably affecting series of tracks that vary quite wildly in terms of mood and instrumentation ... I could listen to it for weeks.'
- Norman Records
"the album is reminiscent of composers like La Monte Young, Hans Otto or Arco Part, where the approach is to pick out a nuanced emotion and explore it fully. That said, there is also adventure in the album’s minimalism. It feels much like a meandering, richly-adorned Greg Foat composition, split out into its constituent parts, each given the chance to live and breathe independently of one another.”
- Dirty Sunbeams