listen to Carl's interview with Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National Late Night Live, podcast:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2008/2379617.htm

Tarab: Travels with my guitar
By Carl Cleves
Transit Lounge, 267pp

We live in an age of faux travel writing. The great adventurers of the past – Wilfred Thesiger, Sir Richard Burton, Eric Newby – have been replaced by clowns who devise shallow rationales and write lame comedies that pass for travel stories. This thought occurred to me as I read this remarkable book by Carl Cleves.
Here is the story of a young Flemish man who turned his back on the security of an affluent middle-class European life and headed off with a young wife and nothing more complex than a desire to experience the richness of the world.
By any measure, Cleves deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Thesiger, Burton and Newby. He is an astute observer (his succinct explanation of the historic forces at play in Darfur and Sudan is exemplary), a passionate participant and a man prepared to undertake interesting, but never crazy, experiences.
His wanderings started almost as an accident. He had accepted a scholarship to study law at Witwatersrand University. On arrival in South Africa he realised he had made the wrong choice. Fortuitously, he changed to musicology, studied African music and headed north with his guitar to experience the music of the continent in all its diversity.
Along the way he deals with deep apartheid-era racism, the harshness of the virtually lawless military forces, smuggling bush babies across borders, almost signs on with a rabid racist who wants to sail across the Indian Ocean and all the time recounts his unique experiences in language so vivid you feel you are travelling with him.
Eventually, Cleves arrives in Australia, forms the world music outfit The Hottentots and, after some time in Sydney, heads for Byron Bay.
Cleves is a rarity. He is a true traveller in an age of holidaymakers and gawpers. He heads out to experience the world and reminds his readers that true travel is about sinking deeply into cultures and allowing unique experiences to change your life. The result is a journey that enriches Cleves and the reader.
Sydney Morning Herald -review by Bruce Elder

Carl Cleves and his partner in THE HOTTENTOTS, Parissa Bouas, have been signed by the German audio file label specializing in acoustic guitar music and singer- songwriters and will record their first album with the label in Northeim in October 2008. Producer will be Gunter Pauler, knowv for his work with Sting, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and others

To accompany the release of Carl’s book of road stories titled ’Tarab Travels with my guitar’ by Transit Lounge Publishing a new CD of the same title will be available from July 2008. The CD will consist of songs related to the stories in the book and will include some rarely heard tunes from Carl’s Brazilian recordings as well as new work.

HOT NEWS

Carl’s book of road stories ’TARAB - travels with my guitar, published ny Transit Lounge will be launched at the Byron Writers Festival in late July.
http://www.transitlounge.com.au/forthcoming.htm
for a taste go to: http://www.carlcleves.com/roadstories.html

From the Sudan to Northern New South Wales, Tarab is an epic, mesmerizing tale of high adventure and the search for meaning. Carl Cleves escapes national service in Belgium to live in South Africa at the height of the Apartheid era. So begins the adventures and quests, wanderings and narrow escapes, mishaps and illuminations of a guitar-toting troubadour in his roles as young beat poet, law student, single father, ethnomusicologist, relief worker in India and recording star in Brazil. Cleves’s page turning memoir is no simple music biography, but rather the story of an artist’s quest for Tarab: a place where music and poetry bestow true bliss upon the lucky one. It’s by turns philosophical, funny, adventurous and insightful.

CARL CLEVES -'ALL ALONE'

Half of the Australian based duo The Hottentots, Carl Cleves is a veritable world traveler. One part of him is here, the other everywhere.


After four CDs with the Hottentots his debut 2007 release All Alone bears this out in a myriad of subtle ways. One can talk about the multicultural influences, the pensive quality of the title track which owes a debt to Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, the homage to Sudanese oud player Abdel Gadir Salim "The Rose Of Kordofan" or the Caribbean, African and Brazilian rhythms that flow to the dictates of some of the songs, as these are natural things that come from Carl's travels.

I suppose you could call this release acoustic folk with touches of blues, country and jazz, but that doesn't really describe it either. Carl never ever tries to sound like anybody else. He has managed to absorb these other influences while retaining his own muse. As a result he is an uncompromising artist with a personal vision that is both whimsical and wise and yet he's not averse to injecting a bit of hokey fun into the proceedings. His melodies are memorable and moving. The supporting cast, including the remaining Hottentot Parissa Bouas on vocals, provides subtle and occasionally exuberant colourings on oud, viola, violin, electric guitar, saxes, trumpet, bass and percussion.

It would be remiss to omit mention of Carl's acoustic guitar playing that provides eloquent commentary in all 11 songs. It is utterly captivating and pregnant with unexpected nuance. In fact Carl is the only acoustic guitarist in Australia whose work I can detect after two notes…his sound is that singular. Yet he never grandstands. To me that speaks volumes.

The songs themselves seem to be observations from some unwritten autobiography and are sung with the complete lack of pretense that is the singer's trademark. "All Alone" was awarded Best Lyrics 2007 by the Australian songwriters Association, which I hope gives some impetus to this excellent album. I know that Carl doesn't really like to consider himself as a world music artist, but the real litmus test is to blot out the meaning of the lyrics in one's mind as if they were in a foreign language and listen to the textures, rhythms and melodies. Well…."All Alone" passes with flying colours. Richard Jasiutowicz -Diaspora Worldbeat

HOT NEWS FROM THE HOTTENTOTS

CARL CLEVES WINS BEST LYRICS 2007 AWARD from the Australian Songwriter's Association


Carl Cleves, songwriter, singer and guitarist with THE HOTTENTOTS was awarded the national prize for BEST LYRICS 2007 at the Australian Songwriter's Association Awards night in Sydney on Thursday 30 August. His song, "The Rose of Kordofan' was chosen from amongst thousands of entries to be this years winner. Carl was in fine company, sharing a table with Aunty Jack, who was also a finalist; Brian Cadd & Jane Rutter performed, whilst Glenne A Baker, Lindy Morrison & Little Patti presented awards.
Carl's forthcoming CD 'All Alone', on which this song features, is an album of story songs is populated by refugees, addicts, a child beggar, a drunk driver, the smell of money, the tears of broken hearts, the rage of obsession and the joys of solitude & travel. A fine cast of musicians support the songs. Amongst them: Cleis Pearce on viola, John Hoffman on flugelhorn, oud virtuoso Yuval Askar, Carl's partner in The Hottentots Parissa Bouas, Leigh Ivin on pedal steel, Leigh Carriage, Maurice Cernigoi, Crossfire pianist Steve Russell, drummer Rik Cole and bass player/ producer Kamal Engels…
The CD will be launched at the Drill Hall Theatre in Mullumbimby on September 22 and will be distributed by Planet/MGM and online via Indie-CDs.com. Listen to song samples at: www.carlcleves.com and at www.myspace.com/carlcleves
Carl's nomadic past results in highly original songs that have won him many awards in world & roots categories - most recently, MUSICOZ & ASA – BEST FOLK SONG AWARDS 2005 & 2006. Carl's unmistakable guitar style was learnt from Brazilian players, bluesmen, Bert Jansch & Caetano Veloso, from the American banjo and the arabic oud.
Traces of folk, blues and Brazil are the spice in the stew of Carl's songs, which range from polyrhythmic exuberance to intimate subtlety, the personal to the political. Poetry and emotion.
Songs from 'All Alone' will be featured during THE HOTTENTOTS concert tour that will take Carl and Parissa to Melbourne, Sydney and Katoomba in early October and on to Germany and Belgium during October and November.
6 SEPT- Epiphany, Stokers Siding Hall, Uki, NSW 8PM
15 SEPT - Byron Vista Social Club, Byron Bay Community Centre, 8PM
22 SEPT - Drill Hall Theatre, Mullumbimby, NSW, CD launch 'All Alone' 7.30PM
6 OCT - The Boite, 1 Mark st, Nth Fitzroy, Melbourne, 8PM
12 OCT - The Clarendon, Katoomba, NSW 8PM
14 OCT - Cornucopia Café, Gladesville, Sydney,

Carl first solo release since his Brazilian releases in the 1980s, titled: 'All Alone' will be launched at the Old Drill Hall in Mullumbimby on Sat 22 September. 'A CD of story songs', populated by refugees and and addicts, a child beggar and a drunken driver, the smell of money and the tears of broken hearts, the rage of obsession and the joys of travel. All with Carl's unmistakable guitar style learnt from afro-brazilian players & bluesmen, from Bert Jansch & Caetano Veloso, from the American banjo and the arabic oud. Fine musicians add in the colours: oud-player Yuval Ashkar, singer and percussionist Parissa Bouas, drummer Rik Cole, bass players Maurice Cernigoi and Kamal Engels , violinist Cleis Pearce, pedal steel guitarist Leigh Ivin, flugelhorn player John Hoffman and others.