Lonnie Holley

African–American artist Lonnie Holley only bounced back from the trauma of his uneasy, tumultuous childhood, as a 29–year–old, discovering the magic of art. The seventh of twenty–seven children, Holley was born in 1950, during the era of ruthlessly violent racism that reigned the southern states of the US (officially) until the mid–1960s, in the name of the so–called Jim Crow laws. He was taken away from his mother and traded for a bottle of whiskey at age four, subsequently suffered a serious car accident after which he was declared brain–dead, and spent part of his adolescence in the infamous Industrial School for Negro Children in Alabama that segregated black children. 

He turned to improvised free art in 1979 after a tragic incident in which his sister's two young daughters died when their house was set on fire, transforming his unbridled grief into the creation of memorials for the young victims. From there, Holley embarked on an adventurous lifelong journey of an imaginative abstract artist whose unique sculptures and paintings are exhibited at the world's leading galleries and are, amongst other things, a part of the collection of MoMA in New York.

Decades later, Holley discovers his musician self, using methods and techniques in vein with his other creative work. His expressive streams of free–flowing compositions occupy the boundless space between jazz, blues, soul, gospel and the desire to succumb to sheer abstraction.

Every Holley concert is a unique experience. During the one in May at MeetFactory, the artist will, apart from improvised compositions, also perform music from his new album Oh Me Oh My, produced by Jacknife Lee (Cars, U2, R.E.M., The Killers) and featuring a stellar line-up of guests (Michael Stipe, Moor Mother, Sharon Van Etten, Bon Iver and Jeff Parker). The album is Holley's musical memoir, garnering success with music critics and fans around the world.
 

Every Lonnie Holley song is a survival song because Holley survived extraordinary circumstances and unimaginable pain to get here. At 73, the outsider artist has made his most ambitious and approachable album: an extraordinary aural memoir that tells a cosmic story of survival.  (— Pitchfork)

Opening the night will be whyohwhy, the Brno based five-piece who meander between countless genres and influences, the more dominant of which are slowcore and dream-pop.

The decadent lyricism that deals with pitfalls of life in a patriarchal, late capitalist society, is underlined by natural and mythological motifs. Two female vocals harmonically arch over an instrumental composed of a captivatingly straight-forward rhythm section that supports post-rock inspired electric guitar arrangements and a complex acoustic guitar with elements of classical music.


Tickets:
490 CZK via MeetFactory & GoOut
590 CZK at the door

Before your visit to MeetFactory, we recommend checking out the page Information for visitors.

Every Lonnie Holley song is a survival song because Holley survived extraordinary circumstances and unimaginable pain to get here. At 73, the outsider artist has made his most ambitious and approachable album: an extraordinary aural memoir that tells a cosmic story of survival.  (— Pitchfork)

Vstupenky:

Every Lonnie Holley song is a survival song because Holley survived extraordinary circumstances and unimaginable pain to get here. At 73, the outsider artist has made his most ambitious and approachable album: an extraordinary aural memoir that tells a cosmic story of survival.  (— Pitchfork)

Vstupenky: