Cristian Amigo and Kingdom of Jones are an ensemble whose current core of Amigo (guitars, electronics, voice), Izzi Ramkissoon (bass, laptop, processes) and Rami El Aasser (percussion and trance) play live sets of amplified LOUD music °© they rock the place down °© with experimental, often abstract music and beats, and electronic processes. In addition to the original compositions and improvisations, in live performance the band remixes and fragments all types of music (Messiaen, Golijov, Perez Prado, Nino Rota, Bob Marley, Feta, Led Zeppelin, Cypress Hill, rumba, etc.), and recasts them mixed with their own sound. In concert they will preview their upcoming 2008 CD release Kingdom of Jones on innova Recordings.
Composer, guitarist, and Guggenheimer Cristian Amigo leads Kingdom of Jones and refers to the ensemble as a new music jam band. Amigo is known as an acoustic and electric guitarist with an open ear and an improvising bent, and as an eclectic composer of theatre and performance works, orchestral and chamber music, fierce riffs, and art song.
Izzi Ramkissoon is the award-winning bassist, laptopist, composer, engineer, and remixer. His laptop and his bass are the control centers of his sound. As a composer, Izzi was the Look & Listen Festival prize winner in 2007, and he leads his own group Crackcodez in NYC.
Percussionist Rami El Aasser performs on the riq, deff, and darbukah or Arabic tabla in a wide array of styles including Arabic classical and folk music. Rami has studied and played with percussion masters including Raquy Danziger, Said el Artiste, Hamish Henkish, and Ashraf Essam El Din in Egypt. He is a founding member of the Café Antarsia ensemble.
Special guest Corey Dargel is a composer, lyricist, and singer of songs that "smartly and impishly blur the boundaries between contemporary classical idioms and pop" (New York Times). His gentle assault on the pop idiom creates a tension that pervades his music: Deadpan and detached vocals reveal heartbreaking intimacies, awkward and obtrusive drum patterns struggle against fragile harmonies, vocals and music uneasily opposing each other as songs stumble to their ends.
