To coincide with the release of his new album Mala, Devendra Banhart will tour Europe this summer, including three UK dates in Brighton (The Old Market, June 28), Manchester (The Ritz, July 17) and London (Barbican, July 18). The tour also includes dates in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Holland. Tickets go on sale on March 5.
Fri June 28 The Old Market, Brighton
Wed July 17 The Ritz, Manchester
Thu July 18 Barbican, London
Devendra Banhart releases his Nonesuch debut, Mala, on March 11. The singer/songwriter co-produced the record with his longtime bandmate, guitarist Noah Georgeson. The album also includes the singles ‘Für Hildegard von Bingen’ and ‘Never Seen Such Good Things’. Describing it as a ‘career-best’, Q wrote, ‘This is a beautiful album that counterpoints Banhart’s boundless and surreal imagination against a newly-discovered depth and sincerity.’
Mala, Banhart’s eighth studio album, was recorded in his then-home in Los Angeles. [He now resides in New York City.] Banhart’s previous release, 2009’s What Will We Be, received critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone calling it ‘The best he’s ever made’. The Los Angeles Times said the record ‘Found him making comfortable, laid-back folk that didn’t sound like a compromise – more like an artist growing into his own.’
Devendra Banhart was born in Houston, Texas, and moved with his mother to her native Caracas, Venezuela, when his parents separated. The family relocated to Los Angeles during his teenage years; it was there that he learned to speak English, skateboard, and play music. Banhart first began to perform in public while attending the San Francisco Art Institute. He has since lived in Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, and New York City.
Banhart first attracted international notice with his 2002 debut album, Oh Me Oh My… The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit – a collection of recordings he had made for himself. Pitchfork said in its review: ‘Banhart’s promising debut is the sign of someone destined for great, strange things.’ Subsequent albums include Rejoicing in the Hands, Niño Rojo, Cripple Crow, and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. He has collaborated with fellow musicians including Antony and the Johnsons, Beck, Vashti Bunyan, Os Mutantes, Swans, and Vetiver. He also has performed with both Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, and was part of a David Byrne-curated concert at Carnegie Hall.
An accomplished visual artist, Banhart’s distinctive, minutely inked, often enigmatic drawings have appeared in galleries all over the world, including the Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair in Miami; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; and Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. He has created the cover art for most of his records, and in 2010 his artwork and packaging for What Will We Be was nominated for a Grammy.
