The Cesarians

"The Cesarians are not a pop band. They could never have been manufactured, manipulated or otherwise pre-masticated for public consumption. The Cesarians do not trade in the trite or the mundane. The Cesarians know and love music, what makes it as important as breathing, an understanding that runs deep within their bones. Their songs speak of love, loss, redemption, terror and absurdity: all of life’s riches and tragedies alchemised into the greatest live performance you could ever wish to see. The Cesarians think big, think shocking: like Ken Russell directing a Lee Bowery ballet in a Bauhaus- constructed set to a score composed by Mahler and performed by The Residents – no restraints, no compromise, no need to be like everybody else. They remind you of why you fell in love in the first place: all that drama, all that beauty, all dressed up and somewhere to go. The Cesarians are a magnificent triumph of the electric eclectic, a bunch of renegades who live on the river, tapping the source of London’s eternal energy. Following no musical map but that of their own instincts, transforming what can be done with the instruments they play, subverting all notions of genre, tradition and boundaries. Everything is to be relished within The Cesarians’ epic soundtracks, every abrupt change of chord, every tremor of brass, every violin skirmish and keyboard swell, every last tender obscenity that drops from their lips.Free yourself from the miasmas of thecommonplace. Listen to them play and your dreams will come back to you" Cathi Unsworth The Cesarians are: Justine Armatage: Piano, Violin, Writer Charlie Finke: Singer, Writer, Mercury in Vanian’s clothing Budge Magraw: Alpine Bass Beverley Crome aka The Yorkshire Maria Callas: French Horn, Trumpet, Voice Christine Lehmann: Virtuoso Violin Ed Grimshaw: Drumming from the Soul "This lot are in a class of their own" THE TIMES "Glitteringly gloomy ... thrillingly seedy ... deliciously creepy" TIME OUT