Ayano Kaneko, Helsinki Lambda Club, Domico, and LITE will perform at The Great Escape festival in Brighton, England, from May 15 (Wed) to 18 (Sat), local time. In addition to the four groups from Japan, artists with roots in Japan, such as Chicago-based Sen Morimoto and London-based Miso Extra, will also perform.
Launched in 2006, the festival is held every May in Brighton Beach and features approximately 500 artists performing on more than 30 stages of various sizes over a four-day period. Many up-and-coming young artists have made their names at the festival, and in the past, THE KOOKS, Grimes, Perfume Genius, and Alabama Shakes have also performed. The event is known as a gateway to success for artists. Japanese artists such as CHAI, Champagne (before changing their name to Alexandros), Buffalo Daughter, and monobright have performed at the festival.
Ayano Kaneko, from Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, is a singer-songwriter whose lyrics capture the subtleties of emotions in the small details of life, and whose performances are sometimes as intense as a punk band. She has been releasing and performing live with a band and playing guitar, and in 2023, she will tour the UK for the first time. He performed a total of five shows in London in a band set, a guitar-playing set, and a special trio set. He has also performed with South African singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou and American-based folk singer Sachiko Kananobu.
Helsinki Lambda Club is a three-piece rock band that will perform following “SXSW 2024” in the United States. Since its formation in the summer of 2013, the band has been experimenting with sounds ranging from surf rock to psychedelic, and successfully held its first overseas concert in Hong Kong in May 2019, followed by shows in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taiwan in the same year. The song “Mitsubishi Macchiato” from their second full-length album “Eleven plus two / Twelve plus one,” released in November 2020, is a song about a man and woman who go to a Vampire Weekend concert, which Helsinki Lambda Club adores, with lyrics that pay homage to many of Vampire Weekend’s song titles. The song is a tribute to Vampire Weekend, a band the Helsinki Lambda Club adores, with lyrics that transcended language barriers and reached the ears of the band members, creating a buzz.
Domico is a duo whose live performance style is characterized by layering sounds and freely manipulating the original songs. Formed in 2011 by Hikaru Sakashita (Vo / Gt) and Keita Hasegawa (Dr / Cho), they have released three albums in different musical styles, “soo coo?”, “hey hey, my my?” and “Nice Body?” between 2016 and 2019. In 2024, they will also release a series of re-recorded EPs, “Ii (Top)” in January and “Ii (Bottom)” in April, and like Helsinki Lambda Club, they will perform at “The Great Escape” following “SXSW 2024”.
LITE is a four-piece band formed in 2003 by Nobuyuki Takeda (Gt / Vo), Structure Kusumoto (Gt / Syth), Jun Izawa (Ba), and Akinori Yamamoto (Dr). The band’s energetic activities as a leader in the Japanese instrumental rock/math rock scene have attracted attention overseas, and they have released works on the American indie label Topshelf Records. In January 2024, they released their seventh album “STRATA”, their first in four and a half years.
Born in Kyoto and raised in Massachusetts, Sen Morimoto moved to Chicago in 2014 and has since gravitated toward the instrumental genre in tandem with his work as a rapper. 2019 saw his first Japan tour. 2022 will see him join the ranks of The fin., Kan Sano, Maika Loubté, ako, etc., and released a remix album of his second album “Sen Morimoto” and held his second Japan tour.In November 2023, he released his third album “Diagnosis”.
Miso Extra is an artist with roots in the UK and Japan. In 2022, Miso Extra was named to the NME’s “NME 100” and was a BBC Music Introducing artist at the “Reading & Leeds Festival, headlined the BBC Music Introducing stage at the Reading & Leeds Festival, and performed at the Primavera Sound Weekender in Spain with Joy Anonymous and others. They will be making their first appearance on “The Great Escape” since 2022.
In addition to the live performances, “The Great Escape” will also include a conference event featuring Lauren Mayberry, singer of Chvrches, and others. Tickets are now on sale for one-day, two-day, and all-day tickets.
The Great Escape
Date: Wednesday, May 14 – Saturday, May 18, 2024 (local time)
Place: Brighton, England
Performers: WUNDERHORSE, Lauren Mayberry, KNEECAP, SOFT PLAY, Helsinki Lambda Club, Ayano Kaneko, LITE, Domiko, Sen Morimoto, Miso Extra and more
