The Mummers

Enchanted pop created seemingly from the pages of fairytales and dreams that give you a feeling of a journey back through childhood. A musical seaside of densely woven songs washing onto the shore as the sun goes down with helter skelters and bumper cars as a backdrop..

Fresh out of Brighton, this extraordinary collective of live musicians is like an orchestral urban fairground, the off-kilter strings, vintage keys, waltzing rhythms and skittery electronics all collide with a daringly swooping female vocal…

The Mummers began when South London born singer/songwriter Raissa Khan-Panni - an independent musical force with two solo albums under her belt - met film-music composer Mark Horwood in 2005. During this time Raissa had been mixing in the Underground beats scene and working with artists El-B and Horsepower and Hospital Records’ Zed Bias and High Contrast in what she calls her “challenging experiment”.

But it was Mark Horwood who ultimately inspired her, working out of a treehouse near Brighton, and who had a “really amazing unique natural style” – he’d by chance got hold of Raissa’s vocals and created a whole new song around them and sent it to her. Then he disappeared for a year.

After countless phone-calls and messages he re-appeared out of the blue and they promised to start The Mummers as soon as possible, pulling in a coterie of various local musicians, including Paul Sandrone from Raissa’s solo past, now settled in Brighton. They spent over a year crammed into the treehouse studio recording their debut album all with live instruments.

Raissa’s international roots – a mixture of English, Indian, Chinese and Mexican inform her musical imagery; she also travelled extensively from a young age, supporting herself busking, and has said she is never happier than when on a train “going somewhere”.

And it was the spirited and strange imagery of her solo album ‘Believer’ that led to collaborations with Brett Anderson from Suede and Cypress Hill.

Fast-forward to 2007 and The Mummers are preparing their new ‘Wonderland EP’ to come out early next year and fine-tuning their live sound with a 9-piece band in time for their first headline show at Komedia in Brighton & their appearance at THE LOCKOUT.

www.myspace.com/themummers

See us also at myspace.com/thelockoutevent