11/2
LONDON
Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin St
E8 3DL
8pm £7/8
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/ian-nagoski-the-family-elan.shtm

12/2
BRIGHTON
the Prince Albert
48 Trafalgar Street
BN1 4ED
2pm £4/£5

12/2
HASTINGS
Lower Durbar Hall
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
Johns Place, Bohemia Road
TN34 1ET
8pm £12 (£6 to Bohemia Club members)

13/2

OXFORD
The Old Boot Factory
102-104 St mary's Rpad
OX4 1QD
8pm £7
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/153033
https://www.facebook.com/events/229116117170402/

14/2
MANCHESTER
Kraak
11, Stevenson Square
M1 1DB
http://comfortableonatightrope.blogspot.com/

15/2
GLASGOW
13th Note
50-60 King Street
G1 5QT
8pm £5
http://www.13thnote.co.uk/
+ Wounded Knee

16/2
PARIS
Le Batofar
Port de la Gare
75013 Paris
7pm €12
http://www.batofar.org
+ Glenn Jones

17/2
EDINBURGH
Cabaret Bar
60 The Pleasance
EH8 9TJ
7:30pm £6
http://powanpresents.tumblr.com/

18/2
SOWERBY BRIDGE
Sowerby Bridge Library
Hollins Mill Lane
HX6 2QG
7.30pm £6

http://www.facebook.com/events/256921401045651/

19/2
AMSTERDAM
OCCII
Amstelveenseweg 134
1075XL
8.30 pm € 6
http://www.occii.org/

This February sees a rare pairing of two musical entities divided by the Atlantic but united by a mutual love for obscure musical outpourings from under-heard sections of diverse cultures.

Ian Nagoski is a radio presenter and musicologist based in New York who has received great plaudits in recent months for the 3cd package he compiled for the excellent Tompkins Square label, To What Strange Place : The Music Of The Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929

http://www.tompkinssquare.com/archives/159

Along with the extensive notes contained within the package, Nagoski has produced a tantalising treasure trail relating the stories of the countless intertwined lives of people originally from Anatolia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Levant who migrated to the US in the early 20th Century and the music they brought with them.

To What Strange Place has made quite an impact on adventurous music listeners everywhere:

”Comparisons with Harry Smith’s anthology or Revenant’s AmericanPrimitive are in order, not least because this is American music witha capital A, animated by the same feelings of desperation, nostalgia,the quest for cheap kicks and the agony of loss. Like Smith, Nagoskiis a Walter Benjamin visionary, using his collection of 78s tohallucinate a history that actually happened but which remains hiddenbeneath official dogma and nationalisms.”-The Wire, August 2011

“”I was entranced; I was FASCINATED. It is one of the most worthwhilepurchases you will make this year. I went and got mine; I think youshould, too.”
- Henry Rollins, KCRW

“Ian Nagoski’s To What Strange Place is a work of great beauty.”- Jace Clayton / DJ/rupture, WFMU

“It feels as essential to an understanding of American music asanything else.”- Pitchfork

Ian will play and discuss a selection of tracks from the collection and relate stories of migration, the embryonic record pressing industry, cultural dispersal and interweaving – he’s delivered several such presentations in the US, where the musical mix of deep contemplation, utter tragedy, blazing jams and some hilarity has left deep impressions on his audiences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur3JHkbkTuE

Nagoski’s playback and discussion will be followed by the arrival on stage of The Family Elan, the ongoing project of renowned multi-instrumentalist Chris Hladowski, who you’ll also know from his work with A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Nalle and The One Ensemble.

Delving into the same mine of influence as To What Strange Place, and dipping musical toes in Uzbekistan, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the current formation of The Family Elan as bouzouki/bass/percussion has inspired involuntary dervishes in audiences across Europe on recent tour dates and will no doubt do the same on this tour.

Currently a trio, with Hladowski on saz and bouzouki backed by bass and drums to form something akin to an Anatolian power trio, the influence of The Incredible String Band on The Family Elan has been well charted, but only makes sense when also acknowledging the heavy homage to the music of Eastern Europe, and Asia Minor, as well as Turkish psych. This new configuartion that Hladowski has assembled makes The Family Elan more dynamic and propulsive than ever.

"When Hladowski achieves instrumental levitation, the ghosts of Comus, Jan Dukes De Grey and The Incredible String Band might be hovering over his shoulder; there's a similar sense of acid-spiked, dervish abandon. Like the latter, he references ethnic music, Indian ragas, Balkan gypsy dances, Greek rembetika but with a rare feeling and finesse, and not a trace of whimsy." (Keith Moline, The Wire)