Best of Buskers: Cobblestone (Album)

Description

We have put together albums with some of the best street performers in the world. Here are the artists featured on Cobblestone:

Light in Babylon (Middle East)

Track 1: Istanbul
Track 2: Gypsy Love

We filmed Light In Babylon back in 2011, performing on the insanely busy Istiklal street. They are local and international legends, with some of the most popular street music videos online (like this one with over 21 million views). Their band is an eclectic mix of instruments and nationalities, including artists from Turkey, Israel, France and elsewhere.

Maximón (Poland/UK)

Track 3: Guards
Track 4: Goose

Wojtek (a.k.a. “Maximón“) defies pigeonholing. In his words, he’s a “gypsy groove entrepreneur, loopologist, beatboxer and resident of funky town”. We filmed him back in 2011, then came to see his show at the Edinburgh Fringe again in 2012, 2013 and 2016 – he’s just that good to watch. Mixing slap bass with beatboxing, and running it through a loop deck, Wojtek (pronounced “voy-tek”) creates an audio soundscape like nothing else I’ve heard.

The Lost Hat (Singapore)

Track 5: Michelle
Track 6: Tango de Soul

Funny story; while scouting a location to film The Lost Hat in Singapore, I fell off a skateboard and really badly damaged my arm. I ran to find a pharmacy that was still open, took a bunch of strong pain meds and returned to the river to do the shoot. By the end of it I could neither straighten or bend my arm – it was locked at about 90% for the next week, swollen and black at the elbow. It was totally worth it; The Lost Hat created some of the most memorable music we recorded in the entire 10 months of travelling.

Geordie Little (Australia)

Track 7: Waiting for a crowd
Track 8: Watercolours

Mixing new age finger style with his own innovative lap slap technique, Geordie Little creates unique layered compositions like nothing you’ve heard before on a guitar. Combining both rhythms and melody at the same time, he blew my mind the first time I saw him play at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. But even more importantly, he plays without shoes on. In the street. Thus his nickname, “the barefoot busker”. I like to call it “homeless chic”.

Charlotte Campbell (UK)

Track 9: Little Voice
Track 10: Streets of London

Charlotte Campbell is a lively, engaging British singer-songwriter, one of the South Bank’s most prized performers and we’ve hired her on multiple occasions. We even put her on a 100ft stage up in the sky at a music festival in London, which was pretty fun. Anyway, Charlotte’s been the poster child of busking in London, appearing in almost every publication that’s shown an interest. Her voice, repertoire and style just make busking look really good. Oh, and check out her blog – it’s really well written and insightful.

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