Author: pierre

Classic case of black consciousness raising

Chris Searle

“It’s a marvel that such a small urban space as Cafe Oto, in the hard streets of Dalston, can contain all this music with its profound messages.”

REVIEW: Vocal Classics of the Black Avant-Garde at Cafe Oto

Geoff Winston

“Whereas the originals pushed the envelope of their times and, on listening to recordings where available, still unnerve convincingly, the interpretations presented at Cafe Oto pushed today’s envelope in equally uncomfortable directions as, by implication, they reflected and acknowledged the issues in which society remains deeply mired.”

Mitchener And Yarde Break Blues Boundaries As Black Avant-Garde Comes To Cafe OTO

Kevin Le Gendre

“This gig is a potent, provocative event that underlines the blues as a foundation for progressive black culture”

Vocal Classics of the Black Avant-Garde, Café Oto, London — a taste of the age of experimentalism

The band captured the genre-bending energy of the 1960s and 70s

Mike Hobart

“The band captured the genre-bending energy of those times without imitation and added emotional force to the songs presented. (…) Mitchener was a syllable-stretching, sound-crunching force of nature throughout.”

Classical review: London Contemporary Music Festival

Paul Driver

“b r e a d t h b r e a t h had a genuine vitality”

The week in classical: LCMF review

Fiona Maddocks

“Elaine Mitchener’s b r e a d t h b r e a t h (2018, world premiere LCMF commission) had an improvisatory mystery, arriving and departing slowly and delicately.”