cleo reed & Matthew Jamal + Malva

cleo reed & Matthew Jamal

[A student of the black underground sound and its intentions, Cleo Reed (née Ella Josephine Julia Moore) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses participatory art, music composition, instrument building, band conducting, installation, and textile art. Raised in New York City and Washington, D.C., Reed's background ranges from classical training at the Harlem School of the Arts to studies in audio engineering and sound design at Berklee College of Music.

Reed is a young, visionary artist with a unique voice and an unwavering commitment to honoring her predecessors while subverting the status quo.

[A student of Black underground sound and intention, Cleo Reed (née Ella Josephine Julia Moore) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice uses participatory art, music composition, instrument-making, bandleading, installation, and fabric arts. Raised in NYC and DC, Reed's background ranges from classical training at Harlem School of the Arts, to studying sound engineering & design at Berklee College of Music.

Reed is a young, visionary artist with a singular voice and an unwavering commitment to honoring those that came before while subverting the status quo.

Malva

[Malva sits opposite me, wildly curly yet neatly coiffed. Delicate hands clasp a coffee cup. Large eyes scan space and people, because Malva likes to observe life - hers and that of others, in general and on her second album "A Soft Seduction Daily". She looks down from above, without any condescension, but from a kind of narrative bird's eye view. Sounds, melodies and cadences are her preferred means of transportation, and on her second album they seem to bubble out effortlessly from this young woman who sets out to explore existence. Malva, who recorded her first songs at 16 and was already singing melodies when she still had no words.

"Sometimes people say 'be loud'!" Malva's rings clack impatiently on her cup to the beat of her own incomprehension. It wasn't easy to let these overbearing "I only mean well" attitudes roll off her back. Those days are over now, as the audience is now calming down precisely because of Malva's calmness, freeing up the space for her immense presence. Because the band achieves what not many can: being loud in silence. At a time when everything has to be faster, more massive and always one more thing, when every stimulus has to trump the next, MALVA has the unique gift of filling every single ion in a hall, auditorium or club with their musical presence. "As soon as I'm on stage and get going, I can feel myself and I'm with myself. I usually only have this feeling when I'm writing".