Cate Le Bon performs lopsided rock and cool-toned avant-pop architectural music

Susie Says! is beyond excited to announce two special performances by Mercury-prize nominated avant-pop artist and producer Cate Le Bon. 

Cate last visited New Zealand in 2019 on a rather epic sold-out tour, playing on grand piano to enrapt audiences in Dunedin, Oamaru, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. For Cate's upcoming two shows she will be bringing a full five-piece band, a selection of awesome musicians from across the globe.

Cate's live performances are riveting, electric, spellbinding; Brooklyn Vegan agrees, describing her two sold-out New York City shows as "mesmerising". "Effortlessly blending a diverse range of styles and influences into a unified whole, Cate Le Bon’s latest live show is a masterclass," says The Scotsman, while The Telegraph experienced the climax of Cate's shows as "rapturous".

Cate 's performances will feature material from her sixth album Pompeii, as well as songs from 2019’s Mercury-Prize nominated Reward. Global music media is agog about Pompeii: Released in February this year, Pompeii has been called a "wondrous... dreamscape whose locked-in grooves approach the unknowable at slanted angles" by Pitchfork;  "high art spiked with an unpredictable liveliness" gushes Stereogum, and "an album of the year" says The Guardian, while Canada's music magazine Exclaim! raves “Pompeii lands somewhere between Hejira-era Joni Mitchell and the solo work of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier — rarified air where Le Bon undoubtedly belongs.” 

Written primarily on bass, Cate plays every instrument (except drums and saxophones) and recorded the album largely by herself with long-term collaborator and co-producer Samur Khouja in Cardiff, Wales.  The construction of Pompeii’ consists of synth sounds from the Yamaha DX7, amongst others; basslines inspired by 1980s Japanese city pop, designed to bring joyfulness and abandonment; almost tactile vocal arrangements supporting the melodic fabric of each song; long-term collaborator Stella Mozgawa’s (Warpaint) “jazz-thinking” percussion patched in from quarantined Australia; and Khouja’s encouraging presence.

Don't miss these two shows by one of the most interesting and influential musicians and producers of today.

“Cate is at a peak right now, creatively.” - Bradford Cox, Deerhunter

"Cate Le Bon is one of the best out there making music now.”
 - Jeff Tweedy, Wilco

"I think she really is a one-off, she's almost like the female John Cale. She's always doing something interesting, even if it throws you off the scent a little bit.”  - Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers