Forthcoming Releases
Lunatraktors' nine track debut album This Is Broken Folk is due to be released in May 2019 on CD and vinyl. The album was recorded live at Arco Barco Studio in Ramsgate Harbour and co-produced by Raphael Mann.
The singles Turn of the Plough and Black Raven are available on all major streaming and download services.
Short Biographies
Carli Jefferson (*1978, UK) is a trans-disciplinary performance artist. After graduating in Dance and Visual Practice with Liz Aggiss (Brighton, 2000), she began her career touring with STOMP before developing Stepflow, a combination of tap, body percussion and dance techniques. Carli currently performs, teaches and choreographs worldwide in multi-genre projects from folk to street dance, film to textiles, gallery installation to international stage musicals. Recent personal projects include a residency at ]performance space[ Folkestone, and Footfall (2018), a performance for the Draw To Perform festival, Brighton.
Clair Le Couteur (1982, UK) is a non-binary trans research artist and singer, currently completing their practice-based PhD – ‘The Fictive Museum’ – at the Royal College of Art, London. Recent projects include: Transportation Blues (2016), a live-looped folk song cycle at the Horse Hospital, London; Roots Between the Tides (2016), an a network installation of 144 images on long-term loan to Warrington Museum; essays for *Gender Forum, Shades of Noir, and the Oxford Artistic Research platform. Clair teaches workshops on trans theory, research art and folk music at postgraduate level for institutions including Goldsmiths and Open School East.
Recent Performances
LUNATRAKTORS, Empty Shop HQ, Durham / Sick Nature, Constable’s Studio, Brighton / LUNATRAKTORS, Vinyl Head Café, Ramsgate / LUNATRAKTORS, The Pumphouse, Aldeburgh Festival / Afternoon Tea, Chiara Williams Contemporary Art, Margate / Muckle Mouth, Horse Hospital Gallery, London / SWAN Women Artists Day, Swan Theatre, Prague / Daybreak, Peckham Asylum, London / Oral Rinse, Dalston Hive, London / LUNATRAKTORS, Tibet Open House, Prague / Trutnov Dance Festival, Czech Republic / Curious Couples, Looping the Loop Festival, Margate / Art is something much more dangerous, Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable / Profound Sound Festival, Folkestone / Fine Art Lecture Series, Goldsmiths College, London / Circus Cabaret, Fun Fatale Festival, Prague / Natur Blick, Koppel Project Hive, London / Screaming Alley Cabaret, Royal British Legion, Ramsgate / LUNATRAKTORS, Queen Charlotte, Ramsgate / Why do you never speak? Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable / Variety II, Dreamland, Margate / Margate Pride 2018 / FREE RANGE, Canterbury / Easycome, Skehan's, London / Elsewhere, Margate / Bar Wotever, RVT, London / Queer Voices, Gallery Cafe, London / Connect Nothing With Nothing, Stretch Gallery, Margate / LUNATRAKTORS, Rosslyn Court, Margate / Sonic Boom: Friday Late, V&A Museum, London / LUNATRAKTORS, JW3, London / LUNATRAKTORS vs Oscar Wilde, The Hot Tin, Faversham / This Is Broken Folk / Chapel Playhouse, London
Quotes
“Fab riffs – predict a bright indie future.” – Will Tizard, Time Out
“Spellbinding.” – Horsebridge Centre, Whitstable
"Political, hearty, weird and wondrous." – Brigitte Aphrodite
“Lunatraktors are melting my brain right now.” – Hot Salvation Records, Folkestone
“Can’t get enough of the Lunatraktors… just when you think you’ve got a hook on what they’re about, they throw a curve ball, keeping you always guessing and starry eyed.” – Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
Lunatraktors Bio
Dark, trippy overtones and glitchy folk beats to raise your spirits. Launched in February 2017, Margate’s ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors (GB) fuse folk music with body percussion, harmonic singing, tap-dance and live looping. The project strips traditional folksong back to beats and vocals, weaving in influences from cabaret, early punk, hiphop and dance music. Inspired by minimalist composers, queer culture and vaudeville. clowning and live art, Lunatraktors trawl the archives of Irish, English and Australian popular song for offbeat tales. The stories they unearth of bravery in the face of forced migration, political unrest, abuse of authority, and institutional violence find particular resonance today. The duo met in Prague before relocating to become part of Margate’s exciting new creative scene.
Combining the percussive and choreographic talents of ex-Stomp member Carli Jefferson with the four octave range and haunting overtones of trans folk singer Clair Le Couteur, Lunatraktors use the basic ingredients of body and voice to conjure up expansive, unexpected spaces. Equally at home improvising with hands, feet and voices on a station platform, or electrifying a festival stage with custom drum kit, loops, analogue synth, shruti box and flute, they have played a dizzying variety of venues over the last 18 months. From circus cabarets to the Aldeburgh Festival, contemporary art installations to the main stage at Dreamland for Margate Pride, this genre-splicing, gender-blending pair have been spellbinding toddlers, teenagers, millennial hipsters and old folkies alike.
Contact hello[at]lunatraktors.space