Mix the folk sounds of Jeff Buckley, Cinematic Orchestra and The Most Serene Republic and you get Arlyn Culwick.
Simply known as Arlyn by his fans, he gave a superb performance at Slip Stream Sportsbar at Grahamstown last Saturday.
Mix the folk sounds of Jeff Buckley, Cinematic Orchestra and The Most Serene Republic and you get Arlyn Culwick.
Simply known as Arlyn by his fans, he gave a superb performance at Slip Stream Sportsbar at Grahamstown last Saturday.
The event, hosted by Rhodes Live Music Society, included other acts in the open mic session: Mike Deall, Lunatic Lover Poet, as well as James McNaughton from Port Elizabeth.
A self-described folk-minimalist, Arlyn embarked on an Eastern Cape tour straight after a successful set at
this year’s Splashy Fen over the Easter weekend.
Rhodes Live Music Society describes his music as a style that contains mystical lyrical themes, complex guitar work, falsetto vocals, and a mythical agenda about the recollection of innocence combined to create an unique style. Arlyn was excited to perform for Grahamstown.
“I can’t wait. Grahamstown is a lekker place to play, there’s such chilled people” he said. Arlyn gets the audience to participate in the performance in which the people play ‘pass the glock’.
This is where audience members take turns to play on a glockenspiel. However, Arlyn further mentions in the style that he plays folk music, but not as a fixed genre.
“It’s a social-cultural fact or structure and every culture has it. Arlyn, a Philosophy student from Wits, describes his music as “ambient”.
What inspires him most is what he describes as “The Beautiful Something”, which fans could read about in the pamphlet he distributed during the performance.
“It’s weird, it’s not a philosophy, but my vision is that my music must evoke the spirit of a philosophy. This is the atmospheres of people and places,” said Arlyn.
“My music aims to rediscover small strange things that cannot be conceptualised through a modern fragment.” Playing the guitar started for Arlyn back in 2001.
He started writing three years later. “I had my first song in my head, with every single timbre. So it was inevitable,” he says. Arlyn plans to release an album sometime near the middle of May.
“It’s not a collection of songs; it’s a cohesive piece with recurring elements,” he describes. There is also a second album on the cards and a European tour planned for August.
