OCCii ON TOUR @ Willem de Zwijgerkerk – Olympiaweg 14, Amsterdam Zuid.

ESMERINE (Montreal, CA)
Co-founded in 2001 by Rebecca Foon (Thee Silver Mt. Zion) and Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Esmerine symbolizes all the creativity and incandescence of the Montreal scene. Over their seven albums – the latter five released via Constellation Records – the band has been relentlessly exploring points of confluence between contemporary music, post-rock, European folk and Middle Eastern traditions; twenty years punctuated by unforgettable collaborations with Lhasa de Sela, Sarah Neufeld or Colin Stetson.

Esmerine‘s latest record, ‘Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More’, was awarded Instrumental Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2023.

SIR RICHARD BISHOP (US, Sun City Girls)

Richard Bishop was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1960. He is best known for his 26 year involvement with the band Sun City Girls and as an experimental solo guitarist whose work often reflects the shadow worlds of India, the Middle East, North Africa, and other points along the Gypsy trail.

“Technically, I began playing the guitar when I was 11. My parents bought me this cheap Buck Owens styled red, white and blue guitar and talked me into taking lessons. That lasted about three weeks – it just didn’t work out.’ A few years later I thought I would give it another try and proceeded to teach myself how to play the damn thing.”

Richard, along with his brother Alan, left Michigan in 1979 and settled in Phoenix, AZ. In 1981 the brothers joined up with drummer Charles Gocher and formed the long-running experimental underground group Sun City Girls, who, from 1981-2007, produced an extensive discography of over 50 full length albums, 20 one-hour cassettes and a dozen 7” records. Also in the early 1980s Richard was a member of the group Paris 1942 which included Alan Bishop, J. Akkari (Jesse Srogoncik) and former Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker.

The Sir Richard Bishop show is back in town, alive as ever with exotic action, plus a bit of everything but the kitchen sink. ‘Oneiric Formulary’ is the sound of surprise — first Sir Rick being surprised, then us! Not simply by six-string acoustic rags ’n‘ ragas, but departures as well into electric guitar, keyboard tricks, avant atmosphere, and even a reedy eastern knees-up! The Bish like you’ve never heard him before.

LTD edition Silkscreen poster design & print by: Rogier Smal