GRANPA BOOKING

BIOGRAPHY

Lucas ‘Granpa’ Abela’s singular journey performing their signature instrument is the stuff of legend. Since its invention twenty-three years ago, the glass has evolved from a means of creating free-noise cacophonies into an unlikely yet versatile instrument that produces an outsider form of anomalous organic electronica. Performing inside a human amphitheatre, Granpa’s show is an intimate experience: the first row sits on the floor surrounding them, the second and third seated in the round, while the remaining audience stands.

PULL QUOTES

“Lucas is just captivating. It's incredible how he can flip the feeling of a room upside down and sonically there’s just no other sound like his.”Zach Hill — Death Grips

“The most exciting performer I have seen in the last three years – in fact, since I first saw Iggy Pop.”Bruce Russell — WIRE

“One moment you hear John Coltrane playing a volcano, the next you hear a string section being squeezed through a toothpaste tube.”David Rees — The New York Times

“Brilliantly immediate performance, galvanising and alien and funny, and free of safe gestures and easy comparisons.”Frances Morgan — The Quietus

“Inclusive and joyful, with its blend of unhinged humour and blistering sonic attack.”Rory Gibbon — The Quietus, Unsound Festival 2015

“An intense cacophonic human explosion of condensed cathartic vibrations... laced with a kind of transgressive, yet genuine euphoria.”Andy Black Forest — Supersonic Festival 2012

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Audio
2 × XLR cables (modular rig has built in stereo DI)

Power
2 × power sockets for Modular & Lighting

Glass
Unless agreed beforehand, I need glass provided. Window-pane glass is preferred; broken or discarded offcuts from a local glazier are ideal, 4mm to 6mm thick & no smaller than 200 × 500mm (the bigger the better—I have a glass cutter to produce the final triangular shape). Please avoid tempered or toughened glass.

Lighting
Built-in LED lighting in the modular case. Please dim or turn off house lights.

Seating
I prefer to play on the floor in front of the PA; with the audience forming a human amphitheatre, first rows on the floor beside me, then a row or two of circular seating with any remaining guests standing.

Photography
I'm happy for photographers to shoot my performances as long as it’s agreed that it’s a collaboration between photographer & subject, and any images produced are shared with me and can be used for my own purposes.