Archives: Artists

Camille O’Sullivan is a singer/actress who enjoys an international reputation for her interpretations of the songs of Nick Cave, Brel, Waits, Bowie, Radiohead and more. Her headline gigs include Royal Festival Hall, Sydney Opera House, The Apollo, The Roundhouse, Barbican, Kennedy Centre, National Concert Hall with the Symphony Orchestra and she appeared on Later with Jools Holland (BBC) where she was voted “One of the top 25 performances in the history of the programme by the Daily Telegraph.

“When she sings it’s as though her breath is soaked in paraffin – one spark, and the whole room would ignite” ***** Daily Telegraph

“Ravishing, a superb performer and great singer… the star is her singing voice, a deep sultry instrument that might have been created to express desolate love” **** The Guardian

Previously an award-winning architect and painter, Camille was born in London to a French mother and Irish/English father, she grew up in a village in Cork, Ireland (delighted to receive her Irish citizenship this year) listening to her parents eclectic music collection that shaped her into the unique interpreter she is today. Chameleon- like on stage, each song has a different character with its story to tell. As much a storyteller as a singer, or actress interpreting a monologue.

She received an Australian Helpmann award, Brighton, Melbourne and Edinburgh Fest awards for her music shows and a Herald Angel Award for her solo acting performance in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Rape of Lucrece’ which she and pianist/composer Feargal Murray adapted into a play creating the original music/songs. She recently received a Doctorate from University of East Anglia.

“A cross between Sally Bowles, Patti Smith and P J Harvey… a major star “ ***** Scotsman

“A masterclass in living a lyric – mesmerizing” ***** – Mail on Sunday

“A courageous and singular performer, Camille is one of the most gifted interpreters of narrative songs yet to appear” Irish Times

One of the original stars of Olivier Award-winning La Soiree/La Clique, Camille was chosen by Yoko Ono to perform Double Fantasy Live – Meltdown Royal Festival Hall alongside Patti Smith and Siouxie Sioux.“O’Sullivan’s lyrical performance the real showstopper” Mojo Mag. She’s performed yearly at Edinburgh Fringe Fest since 2004 ‘Queen of the Fest’ BBC. Film/theatre include Stephen Frears Mrs Henderson Presents, A Christmas Carol, Sweeney Todd (Gate Theatre) Woyzeck (Barbican) Rebellion (Countess Markievicz RTE). She’s toured with The Pogues, Barbican shows, Martha Wainwright, Todd Rundgren, Tim Robbins, Alex Kapranos, Hal Wilner’s Rogues Gallery and Shane McGowan’s celebrations alongside Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor, Bono, Bobby Gillespie. She recently toured her Cave show “She burns just as bright as Cave, if not brighter. Where Cave longs to see the face of God, O’Sullivan danced last night with the ecstasy of one who has seen Him and lived to tell the tale.” Auckland Review releasing Camille sings Cave Live CD (Mojo ****) that was included on the special Mojo Mag edition to Nick Cave. Last year she filmed Losing it in Lockdown for Cork Midsummer Fest, a journey through her house singing from morn to night.

English songsmith released  his third and most stripped back studio album to date, Milkteeth, in 2020 with Erased Tapes. Milkteeth sees Douglas become confident and comfortable enough with his own identity to reflect on both the joys and pains of youth. In doing so, he has established himself as a serious 21st century singer-songwriter with an enduring lyrical poise and elegant minimalist sound.

Douglas Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. “Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,” says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup and is draped with layers of white linen, acting the part of a Greek muse. “I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.”

He has often been compared to James Blake, but Milkteeth contains timeless ballads, and his sound becomes more introspective, a late night sound world that evokes both loneliness and comfort.

Dare signed to Erased Tapes after being spotted in his early 20s by founder Robert Raths. His debut Whelm (2014) was made on a battered grand piano, and on it he inhabited other people’s voices from historical sources; Aforger(2016) interrogated ideas about how we lie to ourselves, dealing with coming out to his father, and deployed a huge ensemble of instruments. “The last album was dark in every way,” he explains of Aforger. “And it had everything in – including the kitchen sink. With this record I wanted to show a lighter side, both instrumentally but also in the spirit of the album.”

His star keeps growing; in 2017 he was asked to contribute a re-interpretation of Dance Me To The End Of Love to the Leonard Cohen exhibition A Crack In Everything at the Contemporary Art Museum of Montréal, currently showing at The Jewish Museum in New York before opening at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco in September 2020. He was invited by Robert Smith to perform at his Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in 2018, followed by the David Lynch-curated Manchester International Festival alongside Anna Calvi in 2019.

Dare’s music speaks of his own experiences of universal themes like love, loss, and childhood. Perhaps most importantly, his music gives a voice and a sanctuary to anyone who’s ever felt unusual or out of place. Whether he’s singing of the pain of those in the Magdalene Laundries as on Whelm, describing coming out to his parents on Aforger, or processing his own childhood isolation on Milkteeth, Dare has a graceful honesty and an abiding clarity of vision in his simple and distinctive sound.

Forever fascinated by the purest possibilities of sound, since forming in 2001 Efterklang have consistently adjusted their sonic modus operandi to suit very specific inspirations. The name Efterklang comes from the Danish word for “remembrance” or “reverberation.”

Constantly pushing the boundaries of pop experimentalism over the course of critically acclaimed albums Efterklang have combined remarkably studied songcraft and emotional resonance. The drive to experiment informs an approach to live performances, garnering the band plaudits for playing in diverse settings – whether alongside the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia (‘Performing Parades Tour’), Northern Sinfonia (Piramida Concerts) or to the company of family members (Vincent Moon’s, An Island documentary).

Piramida, and The Piramida Concerts, which Music Beyond Mainstream made possible in the UK in collaboration with Royal Northern Sinfonia, is perhaps the band’s greatest achievement: an album and live show bringing the outside in, informed by frozen time and the relics humanity leaves in its expanding wake. Piramida’s roots were laid in 2010, when the band first saw photographs of a forgotten settlement lying, slowly dying, on Spitsbergen, an island of the Svalbard archipelago midway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. This ghost town, which the trio eventually visited in August 2011 (drummer Thomas Husmer left before Piramida’s commencement), would give their fourth album its title, and comprise the conceptual catalyst for its contents.

The band performed a unique concert together with Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester (South Denmark Philharmonic), Sønderjysk Pigekor (South Denmark Girls Choir), Hans Ek (conductor) and a string of special guests in 2014. It was named ‘The Last Concert‘, and featured songs from their entire discography as well as unreleased and so far unknown Efterklang songs. Esteemed cinematographer Vincent Moon documented and interpreted the concert in one long take.

They called it ‘The Last Concert’, but Efterklang are indeed still around and busier than ever with a string of projects.

ESKA is a vocalist, composer, actor and producer whose genre-hopping career has included collaborations with artists such as Grace Jones, Zero 7, Matthew Herbert, Bobby McFerrin, UNKLE, designer Rick Owens and of course Tony Allen. Alongside making international festival appearances, ESKA has had sold-out performances at Southbank and The Roundhouse. Her self-titled debut album was Mercury nominated and she is currently working on her follow-up album alongside composing her first opera, commissioned by the Royal Opera House.

An amzin’ singer!