Tarab - Travels with my guitar
'TARAB
- Travels with my guitar' is Carl's first book of road stories.
A new CD of songs related to the stories in the book was released jointly
and features rare Brazilian recordings as well as songs written for The
Hottentots and new material.
From the Sudan to Northern New South Wales, Tarab is an epic, mesmerizing
tale of high adventure and the search for meaning. Carl Cleves escapes
national service in Belgium to live in South Africa at the height of the
Apartheid era. So begins the adventures and quests, wanderings and narrow
escapes, mishaps and illuminations of a guitar-toting troubadour in his
roles as young beat poet, law student, single father, ethnomusicologist,
relief worker in India and recording star in Brazil. Cleves's page turning
memoir is no simple music biography, but rather the story of an artist's
quest for Tarab: a place where music and poetry bestow true bliss upon
the lucky one.
Carl's book 'Tarab - Travels with my guitar' is available in all good bookshops in Australia and New Zealand from or on line through Transit Lounge Publishing or Boomerang Books
Carl Cleves
Carl Cleves, originally from Belgium, is a contemporary of Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, Paul Simon, John Martyn and other songwriters that emerged in the 1960s and 70s and with whom he shared the stages of the London folk clubs during the time of the folk boom.
Unlike the others who stayed in the scene, Carl’s wanderlust led him to a life of travelling, guitar in hand, to Africa, Asia, the Pacific, South America and Australia, where he has now settled. Along the way he has acquired a loyal following in Europe, Brazil and Australia while avoiding the radar of the international music industry.
‘A legend? Hardly, I’m a rumour, a whisper’.
Carl's nomadic past results in highly original songs which have won many awards in world & roots categories - most recently, MUSICOZ & Australian Songwriters Association - BEST FOLK SONG AWARDS.
Carl's unmistakable guitar style was learnt from Brazilian players, bluesmen, Bert Jansch & Caetano Veloso, from the American banjo and the arabic oud. Traces of Brazil, Africa, folk and blues are the spice in the stew of Carl's songs which range from polyrhythmic exuberance to intimate subtlety, the personal to the political. Poetry and emotion.
RECENT RELEASE:
'OUT OF AUSTRALIA' Carl Cleves and Parissa Bouas
'OUT OF AUSTRALIA' was recorded in super audio, surround sound by the German sound guru, Gunter Pauler, in his state of the art studio in Northeim, Germany. His Stockfisch Records label has a cult following with audiophile music lovers, in Germany and around the world.
Review
SMH Jan 7-8 Jan 2012
Carl Cleves is a rarity: a musician whose first language is Flemish (he
emigrated to Australia more than twenty years ago) who can write compelling
songs in English and who, after years of living in Africa, formed Australian
world music group The Hottentots.
In his latest manifestation, he describes himself and vocalist Parissa bouas as “Australia’s definitive coffee house couple”, which is much better than the usual genres of “folk duo” or singer-songwriters”. The problem is that Cleves and Bouas’s music is genuinely genre-busting. Sure, it is crafted out of folk-roots but somehow Bouas’s vocals, which are sweet, rich and soaring, actually reach beyond the usual folk styles.
This is one album worth owning simply because there are a number of amazing songs. The Bethlehem Bell Ringer is a powerful political cry for some kind of humanity and sanity to return to the violence between Israel and Palestine. Set against the killing of a Christian bellringer in Bethlehem (true story), this song has the resonant chorus, “Oh Jesus, please help Palestine? Turn all that blood back into wine”.
No less powerful is Cleves’s stark account of the Coniston Massacre, the last mayor aboriginal massacre in the Northern Territory, and his melancholy story about black goldminers in south Africa, Way Down in the Mines. This is an original variation on folk and world music.
Bruce Elder
contact: Carl Cleves, PO BOX 1492 Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
+ 61 2 5613 0031
carl@carlcleves.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/carlcleves
youtube: www.youtube.com/carlcleves
New
Release
THE
HOUSE IS EMPTY
release date 12 June 2012
‘The House is Empty’ features 11 new songs and one hauntingly
nostalgic reworking of a classic Jacques Brel song, the most famous singer-songwriter
to emerge in Belgium during the second half of the 20th century, with
whose music Cleves grew up.
Cleves’s guitar based songs of sorrow, redemption and loss are enhanced by some fine musicians: Australian guitar legends Jim Kelly and slide player Kirk Lorange; Dutch musicians, guitarist Michiel Hollander ,who mixed the album and bandoneon player/percussionist Marc Constandse from the group Big Low, vocalists Parissa Bouas and jazz singer Leigh Carriage, trumpet player John Hoffman among others.
The CD was recorded at various studios in Australia and Holland and mixed in Amsterdam. It is distributed in Australia on Vitamin records.
Click here for discography and an advance taste
Review
Carl's new offering is a real feast for the ears. The bottom line is that
this is a great album by a consistently strong artist. The eleven tracks
penned by Cleves and the beautiful interpretation of Brel's classic La
Chanson des vieux amants provide more than enough sonic and lyrical gems
to satisfy. I was captivated from the first notes and I’ve listened
to the album over and over ever since. Highly recommended.
Ben Kettlewell - Alternative Music Press
Download free MP3 of “Gone are the days”
For album track lists and discography
click here
PRESS
PHOTOS
Download Carl's images here