Clap! Clap! shares new track + video “Hope” feat. OY, announces tour dates

Clap! Clap! shares new track + video “Hope” feat. OY, announces tour dates

-New album ‘A Thousand Skies’ out February 17 via Black Acre [pre-order]

VIDEO: “Hope” feat. OY

(click image for high-res version)

Acclaimed Italian producer, songwriter and live performer Clap! Clap! (aka Cristiano Crisci) has shared another single from his forthcoming album ‘A Thousand Skies’ and announced dates for his upcoming 2017 tour, with live shows in London, NYC, Lisbon and more.

“Hope“ follows on from the off-kilter club track ‘Araqis’ and the afro-folk-flecked ‘Nguwe’, which featured rising South African star Bongeziwe Mabandla. Like ‘Nguwe’, ‘Hope’ is also a collaboration, this time featuring Berlin-based band OY on vocals and co-production. The duo, consisting of Swiss-Ghanaian vocalist/musician Joy Frempong and drummer/producer Lleluja-Ha, are one of Clap! Clap!’s favorite bands. On the sparkling ‘Hope’ they fuse glitchy electronics with elements of jazz and avant-hip-pop. The track comes with an equally colorful video, drawn by illustrator Jonathan Calugi and animated by Simone Brillarelli.

‘A Thousand Skies’ is Clap! Clap!’s second album for Black Acre, following on from his breakthrough 2014 debut LP ‘Tayi Bebba’. Bringing together disparate inspirations and styles onto the dance-floor of his mind, ‘A Thousand Skies’ sees Clap! Clap! create a high energy and inventive kaleidoscopic fusion of sound – drawing on the traditional global rhythms of the old world, Hip Hop, Footwork, UK Bass and House.  As with his debut, the album is anchored by a story — this time of a young girl’s journey through the stars — which completes the work. The album will also feature collaborations with fellow Italian beatmaker HDADD, and South African band (and Planet Mu signees) John Wizards.

The now internationally acclaimed producer and performer started his career age 13 in the mid–1990s as a rapper, before picking up the saxophone and performing both jazz standards and jazz/punk fusion with his band Trio Cane. Now, as Clap! Clap!, he’s taking his energetic live shows across Europe and Japan. Following the release of his debut album in 2013, has found a fan in Paul Simon who told Rolling Stone the LP is “a masterpiece. He makes music sound new and old at the same time.”. This led to Crisci to collaborate on the production for this years Number 1 Paul Simon album ‘Stranger to Stranger’.

Tour Dates:
February 3 Bergamo, Italy – Druso
February 4 Lugano, Switzerland – Studio Foce
February 18 Marghera, Italy – Rivolta
February 24 Liege, Belgium – Reflektor
February 25 Bologna, Italy – Locomotiv
March 4 Naples, Italy – Lanificio 25
March 10 Rome, Italy – Monk Club
March 11 Lisbon, Portugal – Lux
March 17 New York, NY – Sunnyvale
March 18 Miami, FL – Bardot
March 20 Atlanta, GA – Club 529
March 23 Portland, OR – The Liquor Store
March 24 Boise, ID – Treefort Festival
March 25 Detroit, MI – MOCAD
April 21 London, UK – Moth Club
April 28 Paris, France – Le Petit Bain