Diary of a Separation

Monday 23rd April 2018

Off to the Village Underground in Shoreditch tonight to watch one of the most mesmerising concerts I have been to for a long time. Ariwo, an experimental jazz/fusion combo produced one of those sets that stays on one’s mind long after the lights have been turned off.

More than mere fusion, Ariwo specialises in a hitherto little-explored musical phenomenon: that of the crossover of electronica and Afro-Cuban beats. The band’s emphasis on sound (hence the name Ariwo, which translates as “noise” from Yoruba) is evident all the way throughout their set, rendering the concert a deep sonic experience. Trumpet loops, saxophone riffs and conga solos turned the night into both a foot-tapping and eyes-closed, fists-clenched experience.

Wednesday 25th April 2018

What draws the spectator into Une Jeunesse Allemande from the word go is the fact that there once was a type of cinema that was radical and uncompromising. In the current cinematic climate of endless comic book franchises A German Youth was a much-needed, much-welcomed visual balm. Even allowing for some bourgeois-driven idealism, the times the documentary depicts — the 60s and 70s and the foundation of the Red Army Faction in West Germany — were characterised by a questioning of the status quo. That the means used were not…