Live Review

Marina Celeste – Jazz Cafe, Camden.

• 18th Sep 2009

Marina Celeste may be known for working with Nouvelle Vague, but here she brings herself for the first time to the UK as a solo artist. Having already released a few solo albums which offer up a variety of sounds and languages – she takes to the stage on her pixie toes at London’s Famous Jazz venue to offer the select group of fans a gentle evening of calm mixed with small moments of insanity.

Moving swiftly through jazz to pop to trip-hop, she seems a natural at delving in and out of different musical tastes. One moment she is letting the session musicians take over the act which they all do well, the next she is doing a gentle swaying cover of the Cure’s ‘A Forest,’ then she gets her attitude on with the Clash’s ‘The Guns of Brixton.’ She also spends time doing her own material which is quite often in French.

There isn’t much room up on the small stage to dance, but any free moment she gets to bounce about, or partake in a bit of floor crawling or free dancing then she takes it. Celeste seems like a very sweet and tender singer with an adherent sensual side to her. It marks a small debut, but she picked the right small venue for it.