About
The Family Elan generally performs as a trio, featuring Krzysztof Hładowski (of A Hawk and A Hacksaw, The One Ensemble, Nalle, Scatter fame) on Greek bouzouki, elektrosaz & vocals, Harry Wheeler on fancy bass, and Shakeeb Abu Hamdan (of Please, Ygrec, Cleckhuddersfax, The Wub) on Western drum kit.
Collaborators past and present include the singer Stephanie Hladowski, percussionists Mark ‘The Inimitable’ Hearne & Patrick Farmer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Hanna Tuulikki, and double bass player Seth Bennett, not to mention the wonderful Jaipur Kawa Brass Band from Rajasthan, Jhelum’s roving maestro Sagir Ali Khan and family, and Bradford’s own Hameed Brothers Qawwal & Party, and Tazeem Khan.
The scope of the Family Elan’s output ranges from self penned meditations in the key of Z minor, and the odd party hit, to irreverent interpretations of everything from Hindi film songs to Turkish folk dances, delivered with the countenances of psychedelic rockers (see above photo).
Perhaps the unifying strand in all this is a deep interest in traditional music forms and their reinvention through group rock outs.
DISCOGRAPHY
“Stare of Dawn” lp/cd on Locust Music
“Bow Low Bright Glow” lp/cd on Alt.Vinyl
Hi again , saw your band tonite in Stoke Newington – good stuff ! I’ve a quick question , what bass guitar does Mark use ? Thanx Stew
MAGNUM OVATION MK.II
Hello from brazil! i really like your music, hope you play around here someday… Just wondering, what kind of pickup Chris uses in his bouzouki? im trying to electrify my lebanese buzuq… thanks, bruno
Hi Bruno. Obviously we would love to come play in Brazil, but it seems so far away. Maybe we can find some cheap Tropicalia records when we are there and then sell them online for hundreds of pounds to recoup our monies. I use an EMG-B pick up on my bouzouki. It works pretty well. It screws on to the sound hole near the bottom of the neck, but maybe it would depend on whether you buzuq has a sound hole the correct shape? Failing that maybe a contact mic under the bridge would do the trick… hope it works out for you, sounds like fun!
thanks for answering, im going to give it a try. maybe my band (http://www.asirmasdaprovidencia.com.br/) could go first to britain and find some cheap eletric-folk and incredible string band records when we arte there and sell them here for a lot of money, then we could see you guys playing.