MEET ASTRA !
By Laurence Jackson, MA.,
London & Palma.
To quote from Astra’s song, Funky Tink Tank, which some say is about the legendary Jamaican guru on Jungo Mountain... "John Gomerry say 'whadya know'."
Astra was born in Brighton, on the south coast of England, into a pro music family. Always on the move with their gigs, she lived first in the South of England, then the East, and then Wales, in Tyn Llechwedd, which means "the little house on the hill." There, as a kid living within sight of Mount Snowden, land of kites, eagles and beautiful valleys, Astra got her first Gibson guitar and wrote her first songs.
Currently based in France near Le Mans (famed for the 24-hour car endurance race and inspiration for the play-on-words which is the CD Album’s title), Astra records the songs and instrumentals she has composed, with the song lyrics mostly written by another member of the family, the album’s co-producer Kenn d’Oudney.
Playing her music with a group at over 450 live concerts, it has been enthusiastically received by audiences and journalists in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Drawing on this experience of playing live, Astra has recorded the songs, creating and performing all the music, the parts, singing the songs, the harmonies and vocal group backing, and playing all the various instruments herself:
lead guitar, riff and rhythm electric and acoustic six and twelve-string guitars, bass, keyboards, organ, synth, and percussion. She gives you the whole group and orchestra – in this CD, Astra is the group ! Like me, you will find it’s utterly inspiring !
Astra’s tastes in music are wide but based deep in rock. This is reflected in the eclectic variety of styles of her songs and group-type arrangements of vocal and instrumental backing, which befit inclusion in many music categories, such as: new music, rock, pop-rock, theme and mood music instrumentals, ballads, blues-rock, ethnic and world music. A Hamburg gig promoter calls this "rock music for the thinking person." Perhaps the most appropriate categorisation is "Astra’s Music" ...
In listening to Astra’s music, you are taken through many moods, to different places in your imagination, and always with an accompanying emotion: tenderness, humour, alarm, anger, shock, laughter, love and tears – it’s all there. You are drawn in to share her world with her.
Astra is a virtuoso guitarist. Taking her experience as a concert performer with her, Astra is in her element creating, singing, playing and producing in the recording studio. With the composer’s gift expressed through instrumental expertise, she transforms abstract concepts into the entertainment we all love as the sound of songs and music.
Above all, you hear Astra’s great vocals which vary sensitively according to the differing moods of the songs, in combination with her lead guitar. This is wonderful entertainment; music you want to hear over and over. Astra is never happier than when creating and playing what she calls "real, hand-made music." You and I will get years of enjoyment out of it.
Laurence Jackson, MA. London & Palma.
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