Lunatraktors

Event information

Lunatraktors is a collaboration between artist, choreographer and percussionist Carli Jefferson (she/her), and artist, vocalist and researcher Clair Le Couteur (they/them). The project started in 2017 with the post-apocalyptic question: what's left when we've lost everything? Stripping folk song down to the bare bones, Lunatraktors’ 'broken folk' blends Le Couteur’s self-taught overtones and four-octave range with the hybrid of tap dance, flamenco and body percussion that Jefferson developed after touring with STOMP (2001–2004). The pair turned heads when their DIY debut This Is Broken Folk – percussion and vocals recorded live in a viaduct arch by Ramsgate harbour – made MOJO Magazine's Top Ten Folk Albums of 2019.

"The songs and voices of Carli Jefferson and Clair Le Couteur pass through the ears to reach the soul directly."
Ouest-France, France

Jefferson’s compulsion to dance while drumming prompted Lunatraktors to assemble a tonal percussion kit, providing both rhythm and melody. Added resonances come from Le Couteur’s free-reed instruments, whistles and analogue synth. Reimagining Anglo-Celtic folk through a shared teenage absorption in jungle, drum’n’bass, triphop, art rock and post-punk, Lunatraktors have built up a passionate fanbase at festivals, galleries, museums, theatres and queer cabarets. A double act in the old fashioned sense, Jefferson’s hyper-expressive performance style meets Le Couteur’s channelled voices of multiple tragicomic characters.

Second album The Missing Star was #2 in MOJO Magazine’s Top Ten Folk Albums of 2021. Recent commissions include: Ten Songs for a Lar; Invisible Worlds (UCL, National Trust); a British Music Collection LGBTQ+ Composer Award; and ‘Beyond the Binary’ – exploring gender expression in Music Hall, Pantomime and Variety (Kent Library Archives).

This performance is a fundraiser for Oxford Health Charity. The Oxford Health Charity (OHC) (charity number 1057285) sits alongside Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and aims to provide funds which enhance the experience of patients, carers, families and staff receiving support or working for the Trust. The charity funds activities, equipment, projects and patient-focussed support that is above and beyond the usual expenditure of the NHS budget. This could range from the provision of simple items to increase patient wellbeing; funding arts and creative sessions that improve the mental health of our patients and staff; the development of our green spaces and activities that improve the welfare and wellbeing of our staff. The Charity also contributes towards largescale projects to develop and enhance the environment around the Trust sites. Earlier in the day of this performance, Lunatraktors will also perform a private, relaxed performance for staff and patients at the Nuffield Hospital.