It seems there is no stopping the globally celebrated world music duo Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike. After winning the ‘Premio Internacional’ at the 2015 Cuban Music Awards (Cubadisco) for ‘Tales To Tell,’ ALEX & NILUSHA were officially invited back to perform at the 2016 XX Cubadisco Festival in Havana, Cuba. In December 2015 they were also awarded an Australia Council of the Arts ‘Project Grant’ in support of the tour.
ALEX & NILUSHA are set to launch their new album AFTERGLOW in Havana, Cuba at the XX Cubadisco Festival and in Mexico City via an invitation from IMER Radio Horizonte FM as part of their ‘Conciertos De Horizonte’ series. Accompanying them on the tour will be their outstanding colleagues Geoff Hughes on guitar and Frank Di Sario on bass. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
AFTERGLOW will be Alex and Nilusha’s third collaborative album. Recorded in Melbourne, Havana, New York and Buenos Aires it features eight new compositions by Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike. The fusing of contemporary jazz, world music and pop reunites them with legendary US guitarist Mike Stern, Cuban violinist William Roblejo and Argentinian guitarist Alan Plachta, while colleagues Paul Grabowsky, Geoff Hughes, Frank Di Sario, Colin Hopkins, Alister Spence, Evripides Evripidou, Phil Turcio and Miroslav Bukovsky contribute superb Australian performances. The release features new collaborations with two Cuban legends, the outstanding master of the tres Pancho Amat and folkloric master drummer Roman Pelladito on congas and the sacred bata drums. The album was mixed by Doug Brady at Furstock Studios and mastered by Leon Zervos at Studios 301. Produced by Alex Pertout.
Afterglow will be released officially on July 1, with an iTunes digital release on June 10.
http://www.alexandnilusha.com/
(And in another piece of Pertout news … we’ve heard that last week, Alex’s equally talented brother Andrian was declared the recipient of the third prize in the Hearing Orpheus Today Composition Competition in Gozo, Malta)
Alex & Nilusha perform The King’s Lament from their album Tales To Tell on the Music Show. ABC RN