TBA22 Lime Rickey International

Sir Richard Bishop, Lime Rickey International, and Descending Pharaohs
(Portland, OR / Oakland, CA)

Arab.AMP Live
PORTLAND PREMIERE

DESCRIPTION
Arab.AMP Live presents the legendary Sir Richard Bishop, guitarist and founding member of the band Sun City Girls. Internationally celebrated, Sir Richard Bishop “combines soulfulness and advanced technique with a panache that’s nearly unrivaled among today’s guitarists” (Dave Segal, OC Weekly). Arab.AMP Live also features Lime Rickey International, whose hybrid performances are built with voice, transactive surfaces, and movement. Portland’s own Descending Pharaohs join the night with music influenced by Arabic/Anatolian electric music, spiritual jazz, and British psych. Curated by Leyya Mona Tawil, Arab.AMP is a platform for experimental music and live art by artists of the SWANA diaspora and their allied communities. Arab.AMP Live is a nomadic live event series operating in partnership with venues and festivals inter/nationally.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Richard Bishop, guitarist and founding member of the band Sun City Girls (1981-2007), released his first solo record (Salvador Kali) in 1998 on John Fahey’s esteemed Revenant label under the moniker Sir Richard Bishop. Since then he has released albums on a variety of labels: Improvika, Elektronika Demonika, and While My Guitar Violently Bleeds (Locust Music); Fingering the Devil (Southern Records, UK); Hypostasis: A Work in Three Parts (VDSQ); Intermezzo (Editions Mego); The Unrock Tapes and Road to Siam (Unrock); and Polytheistic Fragments, The Freak of Araby, Tangier Sessions, and Oneiric Formulary (Drag City).

“Sir Richard Bishop forces one to alter that hoary cliche ‘jack of all trades’, to master of…damn near all. Renowned for his mercurial guitar-playing for 26 years with Seattle ethno-delic legends Sun City Girls, Bishop has wrought a distinguished solo canon as well. He combines soulfulness and advanced technique with a panache that’s nearly unrivaled among today’s guitarists. Bishop strums spiritual with incantatory ragas, free-folk excursions, crystalline flamenco flourishes, ruddy Appalachian folk, Middle Eastern-tinged fantasias and gypsy arabesques. This is eclecticism done with respect and third-eye-dilating filigree; his compositions attain a sepia-toned wistfulness and a psychedelic complexity.” - Dave Segal (OC Weekly)

Descending Pharaohs is an ethno-psych project soundtracking the alleyway fight scenes to near-eastern films of the ’70s. Half structure/half improvisation, drawing influence from Arabic/Anatolian electric music, spiritual jazz, British psych, and the heavier side of Krautrock, Descending Pharaohs is Ricardo Esway (Militant Children’s Hour, Gazillions, Gamelan Sekar) on guitar; Larold Will (Les Etrangers, Topiary Kings, Brainwarmer) on drums and electronics; and Theo Khoury (Tunneler, Gaza Tunnels) on bass, oud, and djoura.

Leyya Mona Tawil (Lime Rickey International) is an artist working with sound, performance, and hybrid transmissions. Tawil is a Syrian, Palestinian, American engaged in the world as such. Tawil uses voice, transactive choreography, interactive surfaces, and electronics to build hybrid performances and sound compositions. Her work has been presented in over 40 cities throughout the states, Europe, and the Arab region. She was nominated for a Bessie Award in Music for Lime Rickey International’s Future Faith, commissioned by Abrons Arts Center (NYC) and KONE Foundation (Helsinki). Recent residencies and exhibitions include Wysing Art Centre/British Council (UK), Arab American National Museum/JAM3A Festival 2021, FUSEBOX Festival 2022, and the Tarek Atoui Sound Residency at Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE). As a curator/producer, Tawil is on the team of Live In America Festival, Southern Exposure Gallery, TAC (Temescal Art Center), and was also the 2020 ISSUE Project Room Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow for her NOMADIC SIGNALS series, which continues into 2022. She is the founding director of Arab.AMP.

Arab.AMP is a platform for experimental live art, music, and ideas by artists of the Southwest Asian North African diaspora, region, and allied communities. Founded in 2016 by Leyya Mona Tawil, Arab.AMP is a primary program of ELIXIR 501c3, based in California. With a focus on presenting work from the Arab and SWANA diaspora, region, and allied communities, Arab.AMP supports national and international discourse and cultural empowerment. They present the work of other BIPOC communities in conversation with those of SWANA diasporic artists and prioritize LGBTQI+ narratives. The 2022 season features AMP FOLKTALES, an 8-episode series of broadcasts featuring our 2022 commissioned artists and a community spotlight segment hosted by artist/organizer Nadya Tannous. Arab.AMP Live is our nomadic live event series operating in partnership with venues inter/nationally including FUSEBOX Festival (Austin), Pieter Performance Space (LA), The Invisible Dog (Brooklyn), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), and the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn/Detroit).