What a month.. our album Girl is finally out on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms! Thanks so much to everyone who's already bought/heard it—I've loved all your messages and listener impressions ༝༝
Some great reviews so far in The Quietus
"She layers contrasting textures and melodies to capture the spectrum of emotions tied to reinvention and belonging ... Lolavar's music is a vector for the complexity of being: it is screaming, laughing, finding peace and sorrow at once." Read here
Night After Night
“[Saviet is] accompanied with muscular elegance by the brilliantly named, London-based, Australasian activist chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and conductor Kelly Lovelady—who sustain a fever-pitch intensity throughout this gripping debut album … it’s a knockdown debut.” Read here
and in the April print edition of The Wire
"Kelly Lovelady conducts the London-based chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru in this engrossing set of performances of music by Soosan Lolavar."
Our beautiful Limited Edition CDs are for sale and postage worldwide at ruthlessjabiru.bandcamp.com
Our release day also included the release of our video art for Soosan Lolavar's Undone. I just love the way this commission turned out—a really moving collaborative work by artists Carmel Alabbasi, Inga Markstrom and Zoya Laktionova which brings a new layer to what we hear inspired by the Sumoud Guirab, a Palestinian pipe band in Bourj Al Shamali refugee camp (Lebanon); and the Ukrainian pagan tradition of Malanka
We celebrated our album launch with an exclusive premiere screening and it was so amazing on the big screen and surround sound! Huge thanks to everyone who joined us at Close-Up
I somehow managed some mixtapes amongst it all..
Also another great festival of provocation at Eavesdropping to close out a March overfloweth with admin, promo, writing, music video direction.. I found Juliet's podcast interview with Soosan so insightful—including here for all those interested in the backstory of her music and process
Thanks everyone for the many coffees this month both real and virtual: a necessary fuel!