On Friday 11 March I was invited to attend an intimate concert given by Simonne Jones, organized and hosted by the Berlin SUNST. Brothers (Sebastian and Tobias Amberger) in their own studio. The event was called "Séance", and was the 3rd on a series where the name of the artist is kept secret until the night of the show, giving only little description of who it/they might be on the invitation. The artist invited for that evening was the young and charismatic Simonne Jones, a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter who explores different musical genres.
At 20:00 the studio was already full. The FilmCake crew was all around documenting it all. Simonne was not there yet, but her eye (projected on a circle on the wall) was keeping a close watch on us. The excitement on the room rose up every minute while more people tried to get in.
After a short introduction Simonne came in, picked up a guitar and gave start to the show with 'I love it', an acoustic joyful pop tune that immediately put a smile upon many people's faces. Cornelius Rapp (Sweet Machine, Boxer, Peaches) added some rhythm on it with a shaker. Then came 'Aquamarine', a wonderful song that showed Simonne's technical proficiency and experimentation with the guitar, playing arpeggios with one hand and drumming with the other. The lyrics take us to a world underwater, where she transforms into Chuck Berry's Nadine.
'Beauty in the blues' and 'White horse' showed Simonne's ability to write and interpret graceful sad songs on piano or on guitar. Her voice becomes more intimate and communicates a fragile and melancholic air. Fortunately we live "in a beautiful world" and the "white horse" is only in her dreams.
Asking the audience to stomp the rhythm on the floor, 'Make love to you' (formerly 'All I want is you') brought some dance ambiance with some catchy guitar riffs and chorus. Simonne then transformed herself by taking off her jacket and putting on a hoodie for the more rock/electronic 'Let you go', where she danced and asked the extremely shy audience to sing along. She also changed her voice to a lower register, showing us a great mastering of her vocal range. This "other" Simonne was also present in the songs 'We are young' (which makes use of a lot of live created loops) and the rocky 'I wanna be your girl', the last song of the evening (with Mathias Brendel (Sweet Machine, Boxer, Peaches)). She also played two wonderful piano based songs in between, 'Machine' (where she simultaneously played some drums, making you wonder if she isn't actually a "machine") and the more jazzy 'Dance, dance, dance' (with some well suited drumming from Mathias).Despite some little problems with the projector and lights during the show and the very shy audience (maybe because the venue was too intimate for some dance tunes?), Simonne's professional and outstanding performance definitely put her in the future spotlight.
(Thanks to the SUNST. Brothers for such a wonderful evening, that even included a poster and a T-Shirt of the event. Photos were taken by Christoph, Julia, Luka, Lila and Nitzschke).
