Friday, February 12, 2010

In French. The band Atréal was formed in 2004 by guitarist-composer Charles F Picot in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Denis Ferland. Stepping out of his solo career for a moment, singer-songwriter Fredric Gary Comeau contributes his deep vocal tones and writing talent to the adventure. Atréal marries sung poetry and spoken word with sensual atmospheric rock and the result is a magnetic universe that leaves audiences soaring. The “Northern Winter” showis arctic cold and the warmth that comes from the heart.

“Few performers have the raw charisma of d’bi.young, her ability to command attention every second she’s on stage… (benu is) a riveting journey through her psyche, equal parts blood and magic.” —Serafin Lariviere, Eye Weekly

Having recently given birth and now negotiating her own mortality, benu, a 30 year old woman, contemplates life and death. Her blood pressure mysteriously rises, like a phoenix, in a Toronto hospital, triggering a series of strange physical and mental ailments that lead her down a path of fear, discovery, and renewal. Reality meets myth, magic meets ritual, and a bio-myth-o-graphical narrative unfolds in firesome ways, paralleling the mythology of the Egyptian predecessor to the phoenix, the benu bird.

d’bi.young is an Afrikan-Jamaican-Canadian visionary who has performed, published, and lectured internationally. An award-winning dubpoet, writer, and theatre practitioner, she has produced five dubpoetry albums, authored two dubpoetry collections and is the playwright/performer of the published double Dora Award-winning, one-person show blood.claat. d’bi.young recently launched the radical arts centre anitAFRIKA! dub theatre and she is presently completing her first non-fiction on dubpoetry and dubtheatre.

A La Chapelle and Festival Voix d’Amériques coprésentation. An anitAFRIKA! dub theatre production.

In French, in English… and in lipsync. A dream guest list… hysterical mad insolent sexy improbable. Down with reason! Up with extravagance!