Lights in a Fat City - Somewhere (1988)

Lights in a Fat City are Eddy Sayer, Stephen Kent, and Kenneth Newby. Stephen Kent began jamming with Eddy Sayer, a percussionist he met at a London rehearsal studio, and began playing with him in the Camden Lock Market and other outdoor venues. They made a tape of four-track recordings and some things recorded live in the street and called it Lights In A Fat City after a phrase in Hunter S. Thompson's Great Shark Hunt. When they were billed as LIAFC for their first WOMAD gig, the name stuck." "Stephen Kent, originally from the UK, is now a resident of the USA. A founding member of the group having met Sayer in 1984 at the Diorama Arts Centre in London. Kent spent his formative years growing up in Africa, sharing his parents interest in the ancient culture of the people of Uganda. He is now active with both Lights in a Fat City and Trance Mission." "Eddy Sayer, who continues to live in the UK, has travelled the globe, searching for new ways to paint with sound. His early musical training was in percussion and this opened the way to world rhythms with a drum teacher deeply involved in exploring these sounds. Sayer then became caretaker and owner of many traditional drums, their history giving them a unique voice. Sayer is now performing with the London Balinese Ceremony Group." "Kenneth Newby is a Vancouver/San Francisco based composer-performer. He holds degrees in electroacoustic composition and performance and has spent time in both Bali and Java living and studying the art of gamelon. An accomplished reed player (soprano sax, piri, bassoon), Newby was part of the original New Orchestra Workshop collective and the industrial improv ensemble Hextremities. He is co-founder of the intercultural multimedia performance company Cymbali, and co-founder of the Vancouver gamelon, Kyai Madu Sari. He currently works and records with two ensembles: Lights in a Fat City and Trance Mission." "They draw from the whole universe of sound for their music. The didjeridu with its connotations of ancient ritual - the heartbeat of the Earth we inhabit. Percussion Sounds from traditional, ethnic instruments of the world, western brass instruments such as the tuba, trombone and trumpet, strings, voices, natural and electronically generated atmospheres and recordings and samples of machines and every-day noises. All used in extraordinary and inventive ways. (dreamtime)