So as I’m sure many of you know, Lark will be touring South Africa at the end of this month… here is the official press release from Griet Artists regarding the tour:

This tour is LARK’s once off return to SA after precisely 1 year since their last show at the 2008 RAMFEST. The band was approached by RAMFEST towards the end of last year and asked if Paul would consider doing a LARK show at the festival if they flew him back from the UK, where he resides now. The band jumped at the chance to play with one another again and hence decided to do a tour around this performance.

They have titled the tour “BRAVE” after the bands new single. LARK are also using this opportunity to release a live DVD of their concert held at the Pavilion Theatre in JUNE 2007 titled “A Dagger and a Feather” where they invited guest artists Johnny de Ridder (Fokofpolisiekar) and Kyla Rose Smith (Freshlyground) to perform alongside the band and a classical string section with VJ Grrrl on visuals. The stage was decked out in playroom props to emulate a children’s playroom with an eery look and feel to it. The concert was recorded in 5.1 surround. This is to date the most extravagant performance of the bands career in terms of the time and effort that went into this show to ensure first class showmanship and visual representation of the bands creative performance ideals.

Read more after the jump!

Please follow this link for a preview from the DVD:
http://www.vimeo.com/3003481

This DVD will be a double disk release with a LIVE audio surround sound recording of the concert with music videos and additional interviews with all those involved in the “A Dagger and a Feather” concert.

The DVD will be available for R150 at the shows.

The Tour

Lark will be performing the following dates:

• 28th FEB – RAMFEST, Main stage
• 5th MAR – Tings en Times, Pretoria with Yesterday’s Pupil
• 6th MAR – Back2Basix, Johannesburg, with Yesterday’s Pupil
• 7th MAR – Burn, Durban, with Yesterday’s Pupil
• 11th MAR – Klein Libertas, Stellenbosch, with Sparky Boy
• 13th MAR – Assembly, Cape Town, with (still to be confirmed)

Yesterday’s Pupil has been selected at the official opening act for the Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal leg of the tour. He is a one man performer that coordinates live production and sampling with acoustic drumming, live guitar and vocal arrangements. His debut album ‘Errors of Enthusiasm’ is a profoundly fresh approach to electronic music-making and his combination of traditional rock with new wave electro and noticeable pop sensibilities results in music that is approachable and great stuff to groove to! His work is very new in the South African music scene and we have found him to be one of the most impressive and original acts on or local stages.

Where: The Assembly, 61 Harrington Street, Cape Town

The final show of Lark’s “Brave Tour”!

Keep an eye on the Facebook event for more details!

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Where: Klein Libertas OUTDOOR Theatre, Du Toit Street, Bergzight Plein, Stellenbosch
Cost: R40 (students), R50

The second last show of Lark’s “Brave Tour 2009″!

Keep checking the Facebook event for more details!

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Where: Burn Nightclub, 16 Wallls Ave, Stamfordhill, Durban
Cost: R50

The fourth leg of Lark’s “Brave Tour 2009″!

Line Up:
Lark (http://www.myspace.com/larksa)
Yesterday’s Pupil (http://www.yesterdayspupil.co.za)
Fruits and Veggies (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12244973682)

Check out the Facebook event for more!

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Where: back2basix, corner Kingsway & Lancaster rd, Westdene, Johannesburg
Cost: R80

The third show of Lark’s “Brave Tour 2009″!

Line Up:
Lark
Yesterday’s Pupil
Humanizer VS Mr Sakitumi

LIMITED SPACE COME EARLY

PRESOLD TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM BACK2BASIX FROM TUESDAY 3 FEB @ R80 PER PERSON

Check out the Facebook event for more details!

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Where: Tings an Times, Arcadia Street, Pretoria
Cost: R50

The second show of Larks “Brave Tour 2009″.

Line Up:
Lark
Yesterday’s Pupil
Humanizer VS Mr Sakitumi

LIMITED SPACE COME EARLY

PRESOLD TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM TINGS AN TIMES FROM TUESDAY 3 FEB @ R50 PER PERSON

Table Reservations: 012 430 3176

Check out the Facebook event here!

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Where: Nekkies Holiday Resort, Worcester, Western Cape
Cost: Weekend pass: R250+ booking fee (www.webtickets.co.za) or R300 @ Gate, Saturday & Sunday pass: R200 available @ Gate only; Sunday pass: R70 available @ Gate only!

Lark will be kicking off their “Brave Tour” at this years installment of RAMFEST! They are playing on the main stage at 23:00 on Saturday 28 February. The festival runs from 27 February to 1 March 2009!

Check out the Facebook event for more details on the festival!

I heard about a new project that Paul Ressel (Humanizer, Lark) is involved in, it’s called Tungsten Bytet and is the culmination of him and Kyla Rose Smith (Freshly Ground, Kolo Novo Movie Band). So I decided to catch up with Paul and find out what has been happening with him since Lark decided to call it a day…

Read all about it, after the jump!

1. (electrotrash.co.za) Since Lark broke up, you have moved to London… What is your main focus over there?
(Paul Ressel) I’m focusing on furthering my career as a producer and getting into the live music scene here.

2. (et) Are you still making music under the Humanizer alias?
(PR) Yes, some of the tracks off my latest album are available up on Myspace (www.myspace.com/paulrez). The working title for the album is “panda” but they may change once it’s in distribution.

3. (et) With regards to Tungsten Bytet:
3a) (et) How did you and Kyla meet?
(PR) We met a few years back through mutual friends and we both had great hairstyles at the time so we decided to get together in the studio and see if we could translate that into music. Seriously though, we then worked on some of the Balkanology stuff together and Tungsten Bytet has been our pet project ever since.

3b) (et) What made you decide to produce music together?
(PR) It’s not often you click so well musically with someone and when you do you should follow where it leads. We have a very good mental space when we work and that allows us to do things that surprise even us sometimes.

3c) (et) You come from pretty different musical backgrounds, how does that complement the music you make?
(PR) Kyla is like a melodic machine and when we’re working on a violin part for a track she’s churning out these incredible lines and I’m literally sitting there going “that one, that one!” I write a lot of the beats on the fly and then go back later and work on the details. It works really well for us.

3d) (et) Where do you see Tungsten Bytet going?
(PR) The demo we’ve put out now is a demo in every sense of the word. Tungsten Bytet is ultimately a large scale project and something i want to perform with a full string section. I think our music is quite cinematic as well so there is scope to introduce integrated visual in our shows as well.

That being said, we are some time off from doing our first performance but it’s interesting to plan out what we want beforehand as opposed to the traditional band setup were you gig first and then refine as you go.

4) (et) Lastly, is it easier to be making music in the UK than back in SA?
(PR) I’ve only been here 2 weeks but the opportunities presented to me have already confirmed that i’ve made the right decision. the music industry is difficult anywhere, but the sheer scope of it in the UK is very exciting.

So why not head on down to the Tungsten Bytet Facebook group and give this new project a listen.

Thanks for your time Paul.

Rick Disco and Jason D, ^5!

This past Friday I went through to The 88 Lounge in Norwood, JHB, for the last Lark for Larks final Gauteng performance ever. Arriving early to avoid the queues that I expected we got to witness the, to put it mildly, weird diversity of Larks fans. This really highlighted the impact that this Capetonian electro act has made on our music industry. The venue filled up slowly, but by the time the band was ready to play it was packed!

Review after the jump! Check out our Gallery for a few more photos!

The gig started off with a bang and a couple of my favourite songs off of their debut EP “Mouth Of Me”. All the Lark tracks that we know and love were played out with a great energy by the band. A new track was played with Inge mentioning that we will be hearing the song again, in a different way, soon. We will certainly keep our ears open for this.
Their final track – before the encore – was an acoustic version of Half Eaten which was pretty damn good and really different. The show ended with an emotional looking band playing a final encore and well, that was that.

Check out their Facebook fanpage for the official press release of the bands breakup.