Pretty much a year to the day since his last appearance in London, French-Algerian acoustic guitar master Pierre Bensusan is returning to town this Sunday for the start of a British and Irish tour. The tour will be taking in a delightfully broad sweep of venues both grand and humble, rowdy and formal, from pubs and multi-utility community rooms to concert halls. Most of them will have little in common at the start of the show. By the end, they’ll all be sharing the particular warmth which Pierre brings to his expansively intimate music and performances.
World music’s an often-abused term, especially when you can see crude joins within it. Yesterday’s exotic-record discovery shopped and slopped onto whichever beats selling; or the sound of one particular city’s overbearing acquisitiveness, engulfing and pickling the music of its immigrants rather than fostering it. Pierre’s music is an example of how you can revitalise and justify the term. I’ve spoken before about the French-Algerian-Sephardic background which gave him a head start as regards polycultural vision, but perhaps what he actually embodies is the mixed grain of musical acceptance: the travelling tunes and the more intangible freight of cultures soaking and blending into his playing without strain. Neither jazz nor folk nor Spanish classical, neither rai nor chaabi, nor flamenco (old or new), it nonetheless contains all of these – a translucent, fully-realised and seamless chamber-acoustic melange, played softly and without affectation.
Full tour dates below:
- The Half Moon, 93 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London, SW15 1EU England, Sunday 30th October 2016, 8.00pm – information
- The Half Moon, 93 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London, SW15 1EU England, Monday 31st October 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN, England, 1st November 2016, 7.30pm – information
- Courtyard Theatre @ Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Altwood Road, Maidenhead, SL6 4PF, England, Wednesday 2nd November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Bristol Folk House, 40a Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5JG, England, Saturday 5th November 2016, – information
- The King Arthur, 31/33 Benedict Street, Glastonbury, BA6 9NB, England, Sunday 6th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BP, England, Wednesday 9th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Broadoak Hotel, Broadoak Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 8QD, England, Thursday 10th November 2016, 7.30pm – information
- Crown & Mitre Hotel, English Street, Carlisle, CA3 8HB, England, Friday 11th November 2016, 7.00pm – information
- Milngavie Folk Club, Fraser Centre, Douglas Street, Milngavie, Glasgow, G62 6P, Scotland, Saturday 12th November 2016, 7.30pm – information
- Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED, Scotland, Monday 14th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Oh Yeah Music Centre, 15-21 Gordon Street, Belfast, BT1 2LG, Northern Ireland, Wednesday 16th November 2016, 7.30pm – information
- The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre, Market Street, Armagh City, County Armagh, BT61 7BW, Northern Ireland, Thursday 17th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Regional Cultural Centre, Port Road, Letterkenny, Donegal, Ireland, Friday 18th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- The Dublin Unitarian Church, 112 St. Stephen’s Green West, Dublin 2, Ireland, Saturday 19th November 2016, 8.00pm – information
- Monroe’s, 20 Dominick Street, Center, Galway City, Galway, Ireland, Sunday 20th November 2016, 6.30pm – information
Misfit City 
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