Lunatraktors

With eclectic acoustic beats, accordion, whistles and deep drones, they expand into weird, playful spaces. Primal and contemporary, mournful and joyously deranged. Real in-your-face and incredibly inventive contemporary folk music.” RTÉ Lyric FM

Ashburton Arts Centre

ASHBURTON: Arts Centre

Saturday 3rd May, 2025

7:00pm

Event information

Award-winning ‘broken folk’ experimentalists: Lunatraktors strip Anglo-Celtic traditionals to the bare bones of vocal harmony and percussive dance. With eclectic acoustic beats, accordion, whistles and deep drones, they expand into weird, playful spaces. Primal and contemporary, mournful and joyously deranged, Lunatraktors are ‘simply different’ (RTÉ Lyric FM). ‘A clap of thunder over the lukewarm waters of contemporary folk’ (Télérama).

Lunatraktors are choreographer and percussionist Carli Jefferson, and nonbinary vocalist and composer Clair Le Couteur. Influenced by flamenco, post-punk and trip hop, their' 'broken folk' sound strips trad folk back to rhythm and voice. The pair turned heads in 2019 when their DIY debut This Is Broken Folk – recorded live in a viaduct arch by Ramsgate harbour – made it onto MOJO Magazine's Top Ten Folk Albums. New releases blend analogue synth, whistles, accordion with tuned drums, vocal harmonies and a hybrid of tap dance and body percussion, which Jefferson developed after touring with Stomp.

Reimagining British folk through a shared teenage absorption in dance music and art rock, Lunatraktors have built up a passionate fanbase through performances at festivals, art galleries, museums, theatres and queer cabarets. Jefferson's compulsion to dance while drumming prompted Lunatraktors to put together a tonal percussion kit, providing both rhythmic and melodic elements to their sound. A double act in the old fashioned sense, Le Couteur's channeling voices of multiple tragi-comic characters matches Jefferson's hyper-expressive performance style.

PRESS QUOTES
“Spellbinding” Dexter Bentley, Resonance FM, UK

“Thrilling and addictive – music you never want to escape from.” Gavin McNamara, Tradfolk.com, UK

‘‘A clap of thunder over the lukewarm waters of contemporary folk. Awfully beautiful, terribly refreshing, absurdly sad.” François Gorin, Télérama, France

“Lunatraktors are simply different. Real in-your-face and incredibly inventive contemporary folk music.” Bernard Clarke, RTÉ Lyric FM, Ireland

AWARDS, SHOWCASES, RESIDENCIES
MOJO Magazine Top Ten Folk Albums of the Year 2019 & 2021
English Folk Expo Showcase Artist 2021
British Music Collection LGBTQ+ Composers Award 2021
British Music Collection George Butterworth Award 2022
English Folk Dance & Song Society Alan James Bursary 2022
RNIB Elizabeth Eagle-Bott Memorial Award 2022
A Little Room Theatre Residency, Waterford 2023
Seoul Music Week Showcase Artist 2023
Your Roots Are Showing Showcase Artist 2024

More about Lunatraktors at lunatraktors.space
Listen here on Bandcamp lunatraktors.bandcamp.com

Here are three videos:

16,000 Miles

Anemoia

Turn of the Plough

What's left when we've lost everything? stripped down to the basics of rhythm and voice, Jefferson’s hybrid of tap dance, flamenco and body percussion meets Le Couteur’s self-taught overtone singing and 3+ octave range. Unique and amazing.

This event is also part of Summer is Ready! Field System’s Mayday Celebration run in collaboration with our neighbours, Field System gallery.

See Access, Tickets & Finding Us for more about why there are three ticket prices, plus other useful info about coming to events at Ashburton Arts Centre.
Level access from street – please contact us on boxoffice@ashburtonarts.org.uk if a wheelchair space is needed, or if you have any other special requirements.