In March 2009, innovative music lover Ate Dave founded Sofar Sounds (a.k.a. Songs From A Room), in order to showcase some of the best talent in new music by way of intimate and unique shows. The concept was quite simple; bringing together dedicated music lovers and industry professionals for an evening of quality live music, housed within unusual spaces and venues.
It’s humble beginnings saw large groups of people snugged tightly into someone’s living room to watch an unplugged performance. Five years on and it has grown into a far-reaching movement spanning over 75 cities with over 100 shows worldwide, embodying what it means to experience a truly unique live music event. For one thing, the line-up is often a complete secret, which ensures that everyone attending a Sofar Sounds show is a pure music lover excited by the idea of discovering something new. But it also has an atmosphere like no other, something that Sofar do so well to capture on film with their Sofar Sessions on Youtube.
So you can imagine how quickly we cleared our schedule after hearing about a new Sofar Sounds show last week in London. This particular show is part of a collaboration between Sofar Sounds & Gap, in lieu of Gap‘s new #summerloves campaign for this season. The collab has enabled Sofar to curate larger events in bigger spaces with much bigger audiences without losing that wonderful intimacy that typifies their shows.
When we arrived at The Finishing Hall over in Hackney Downs Studios we were instantly taken back by the size of the crowd outside. How were all these people going to fit inside someone’s living room?! It soon became clear that this Gap x Sofar Sounds show was going to be like no other.
The Finishing Hall is a rather large warehouse space, almost like an aircraft hangar’s little brother. Right away we could hear and feel the buzz inside the space that is present at all Sofar Sound shows before the acts begin. Hundreds of people sitting cross-legged on bunches of cool-looking rugs (courtesy of those lovely Gap x Sofar organisers) with eyes beaming in anticipation at the stage. In each corner of the room were art installations; from beds to an actual real-life Cadillac car that you could sit in to watch the show! Unfortunately we’d queued too late to nab that spot, so we made our way into the crowd and plotted on a spare rug in front of the stage just before the show began.
3-piece Ambient-Guitar band Crushed Beaks came on first, cracking jokes about England’s early departure from the World Cup before launching into sweeping anthems that filled every corner of the room. Guitars drenched in reverb, metrical drum rhythms and a bassist who really knew how to dance. The opening was strong and continued in that vane.
Next on were Teleman, a hyper-cool four-piece from London, signed to moshi moshi records (also a home to Disclosure, Psychologist, Hot Chip, MNEK and Becoming Real). Sitting somewhere between Alt-J and the Beach Boys, we were seriously amazing by their performance and just so excited to discover them! The melodies were addictive whilst their soundscape fused ‘Kraftwerk’ piano chords with warm guitars. Added to that, their stage presence was really engaging, and we were pretty much left in awe.
The final artist to grace the stage was another moshi moshi records’ affiliate; none other than Tom Vek! The alt-Indie all-star released his third album at the beginning of this month and it was great to hear some of his new material live. More specifically, it was really interesting to hear the hyper-electronic-experimental track Broke live, which we’ve become well aquatinted with here at Stamp via the remix by Warp Records‘ Kwes.
All-in-all, it was a brilliant evening of music and people coming together. It was great to see Sofar Sounds getting the opportunity to flourish in such a big space through this partnership with Gap. What’s more impressive is how they managed to keep hold of that intimate and unique atmosphere whilst putting on a show in what is essentially a giant warehouse! It has certainly opened our eyes in regards to how a live show is made special, and we really hope there’s more to come in the future from this Gap x Sofar Sounds collaboration.
Follow the #summerloves hashtag across all social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and checkout @SofarSounds and @UKGap for more information on these shows.
