Forward Festival 2017



Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band.[1][2] Her self-titled debut, L'Rain, was included in best-of-year lists by publications including Pitchfork[3] and Bandcamp Daily;[4] her second album, Fatigue, was counted among Pitchfork's Best New Music.[5] She has collaborated with artists including Vagabon, Helado Negro,[1] and Naama Tsabar,[6] and performed with Kevin Beasley at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[7] L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres[8][3] in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls approaching songness.[1] Reviewers have variously identified her style and influences as including free jazz, ambient, noise music, and disco;[9] experimental pop and dance;[5] psychedelic orchestral pop and distorted shoegaze;[8] krautrock, outsider music, and hip hop;[10] R&B and avant-garde rock;[2] gospel, funk, and post-punk;[11] and soul, drone, avant-pop, and musique concrète.[12] Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.