When: 7pm on Thursday 3 March 2022
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

PLEASE NOTE: This show has been postponed until March 2022. Original tickets are valid and all other details remain the same.

We’re excited to be welcoming Dana Gavanski back to Manchester!

As fierce as the inclement weather itself, the ethereal tones of Serbian-Canadian musician Dana Gavanski can stir a breeze and destroy like a storm. With her new covers EP Wind Songs Dana serendipitously teases her debut album from her new home in London across both sides of enforced isolation, to show an artist making the best of unfortunate circumstance and seeking comfort in the familiar strangers of her musical heroes.

‘Yesterday Is Gone, my debut album, came into the world at a strange time,’ says Dana, ‘I never expected to be unable to tour it until at least a year after its release but I’ve silently accepted it. I’m happy to hear of the ways it is reaching people. To read beautiful and thoughtful comments from friends and strangers. Also, in many ways, not being able to do so many things I was used to have shown me how excited I was about getting on the road and in turn, has helped me realise I should work on not taking things for granted.’

With multiple festivals and shows across France, Germany, and North America on pause, Dana utilised solitude to form deeper connections with the artists who inspire her. With her Travis picking technique she has recorded her unique renditions of songs like a time capsule of her journey so far; from teenage years in Vancouver to kitchen table talk with her mother and grandma ‘baka’ about love, life, sex, art, relationships, and psychology, and selling her records for a move to Montreal: ‘I kind of forgot about King Crimson for some time,’ Dana says of her EP’s cover of their song, I talk to the wind, “and only got back into them early last year. Ian McDonald’s beautiful flute solos throughout the song, the mellow vocals and symphonic arrangements all come together to make it beautifully moody.’

With echoes of Vashti Bunyan and a hint of airy wistfulness akin to Cate Le Bon, writing is how Dana makes sense of life’s bumps in the road. Her forthcoming album Yesterday Is Gone, which will get a full release in September, took shape after she returned from a writing residency in Banff, Alberta where she’d begun to learn the art of being alone with her emotions. Rooted in the intimacy of folk songwriting, it explores a different sonic texture and as a full band, Dana co-produced her record with Toronto-based musician Sam Gleason, and Mike Lindsay of Tunng and LUMP – adding to the good company already kept on tour with Damien Jurado and Chris Cohen. Yesterday Is Gone is Dana’s attempt to ‘learn to say what I feel and feel what I say’ through her own beguiling sound, with each component meticulously placed and yielding a deeply sincere response to the chaos of human emotion.

For now, all Dana wishes is for Wind Songs to be enjoyed whilst she tentatively feels her way and steps towards giving her album the full attention it deserves. ‘Often we have to go a little far in one direction to learn something about ourselves,’ Dana says. With an optimistic, steely-eyed gaze towards the future, it looks like Dana has no choice but to keep going, wherever the wind may take her.

‘Yesterday is Gone sits alongside the works of contemporaries like Joan Shelley and Brigid Mae Power, her delicate voice rising and falling through these elegant psych-folk songs’ – Uncut

Tour support comes from Naima Bock. Naima Bock spent her early childhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil to a Greek/English mother and a Brazilian father. She was exposed to a diverse range of music from an early age. Naima and her family moved to South London when she was seven. As a teenager, Naima began attending shows, mostly at the Windmill in Brixton. At the tender age of 15, she and a group of friends decided to start making music which would eventually turn into her first band Goat Girl. After six years of touring the world and playing bass in the band, Naima felt like it was the right time to leave, mostly due to a desire for a change in musical direction. This change has led Naima to her debut offering 30 Degrees, via Sub Pop. The song was written by Naima, with production and arrangements with long-time collaborator Joel Burton.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from the bar (no booking fee), Vinyl Exchange, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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