ELAND GRAY AKA GARY THOMAS LIVE to Play Alexander Upstairs
Photo credit: Mailk Basso
After a year and a half of living and performing all over Europe, South Africa's ground-breaking indie-acoustic musician Gary Thomas has returned home as Eland Gray. In the past 18 months, he completed and released a new album and performed at festivals and concerts throughout Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark and England.
Now, Eland Gray is back with a new body of work ready to share with his cult following. Eland Gray, formerly Gary Thomas, was classically trained in school and later studied jazz at university. His unique style blends rich and moody songwriting with a vast array of alternative guitar techniques and precision multitasking. His diverse musical background shows in his combination of fingerstyle picking, rapid virtuoso strumming and percussive playing. Singing with two microphones with varying reverb effects, he uses his voice in an orthodox manner as well as by textually layering extra tones over the music. Add all of this to his wooden stomp box and violin bow playing, and you have something that sounds a lot like Eland Gray.
In conjunction with the countless South African shows and festivals, the last couple of years have included sell-out runs at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, touring with Ninja Tunes artist Fink in SA, full endorsements from Ernie Ball and Proel, and a European Tour in 2012.
After officially relocating to Spain in April 2015, Eland Gray released his fifth album, MINORTIDE AND THE BANISHED SEA on 24 July of that year. The 10-track album was recorded in Cape Town, South Africa and Granada, Spain between November 2014 and May 2015.
ELAND GRAY AKA GARY THOMAS LIVE plays the Alexander Bar on 27 November at 19:00. Tickets cost R90, or R80 if booked and prepaid online. Tickets can be booked online at the Alexander Bar website or purchased at the bar. For telephone bookings and enquiries, call 021 300 1652. Alexander Bar & Café is situated at 76 Strand Street in the Cape Town city centre and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.
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