Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds, texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. For someone with her varied background, New Orleans, with its mix of cultures and musics, seemed like a natural place to call home. She was born in Belgium, raised in Singapore from the ages of 2 to 11, and routinely shuttled between the homelands of her Belgian father and American mother. Over the years — working in New Orleans with musicians of all stripes, from avant-garde jazz and classical to pop and funk — Gillet has developed a singular polyglot style. The core of her work is solo performance with live looping, layering cello parts and vocal lines. Rhythmic figures emerge with bowed or plucked ostinatos or a variety of rubbing and slapping on the body of the cello, then enhanced with melodies played or sung in her haunting alto. Her mixed musical vocabulary is commensurate with her disparate travels — French chanson of the 1940s, Belgian folk tunes sung in Walloon, a mix of rock and punk from the likes of PJ Harvey and X-Ray Spex, and her own affecting originals, like audience favorite “Julien,” sung in a mix of French and English. Gillet’s solo performance is known for its enigmatic quality as she fabricates each song with innovative use of the cello and true mastery of live looping technology.
I’m a bit of a rule-breaker, but I would bet that deep down … you are too :)
Take this ‘artist’s bio’ for example … the accepted industry standard is to write in the third person. However, that just doesn’t make any sense … why should I pretend that someone else wrote this ? You know I wrote it, I know I wrote it … let’s just be honest with one another from the start … the world could use a little more honesty … don’t you agree ?
OK, had to get that off my chest … where were we ? biography of an artist, you ready ? let’s do it !
My name is Nicholas Krolak, bassist/composer, hailing from the city of brotherly love. I am a young veteran of Philadelphia’s blue-collar music scene, where we exist in the shadow of NYC, and don’t have access to mega-donor-art endowments and generally have to do everything ourselves.
The Philly DIY mentality plays a big part in my music and probably why I tend to lash out like a rebellious teenager at all the music industry status-quo/gate-keeper BS … at least that’s what my therapist says …
The music I make tends to not conform to any specific genre, while hovering around principles of improvisation, ambience, and experimentation.
My discography has been described as ‘eco-jazz’, ‘art-punk’, and ‘neoteric noise’ …
A critic once wrote: ‘Charles Mingus meets Sigur Rós’ …
Another wrote: ‘a different kind of songwriter—perhaps a different kind of musician altogether. He’s like the bass-playing, modern embodiment of Walt Whitman.’
That all sounds nice … my former record-label sure seemed to enjoy it … but I’m not sure what it means. To be honest, the whole ‘genre’ thing is confusing to me. I simply enjoy exploring music and my guess is that you do too.
Over the years I’ve studied at various illustrious institutions, played with some legendary musicians, and have even been featured by a few prestigious media outlets …
The problem is: none of these ‘boy-scout’ merit badges of status really matter and I would even go so far as to encourage you to stop reading this bio right now … Instead …
Google ‘Nicholas Krolak’, listen, and see if you like it … you don’t need me, some PR goon, or an overeducated music critic to convince you … you know what you like, and if my sounds resonate with you, come to my show and we will explore this crazy universe of sonic possibilities together.
-NK
Doors will open at 7pm and music will begin by 8. This show is all ages and seating is first come first served.