Babylon Bar: Beverly Glenn-Copeland + Laryssa Kim

The life of 75 year old Canadian singer Beverly Glenn-Copeland reads like a fairytale. After a classical training and a folk jazz debut album, Copeland rose to fame mostly as an 80s singer-actor in children’s shows like Mr. Dressup and Sesame Street. In that period, Copeland bought a Yamaha DX7 synth and Roland drum computer, allowing him to experiment with ambient and new age pop in all obscurity. It led to the six-part masterpiece Keyboard Fantasies in 1986. The self-released album is an ode to life and nature, characterized by sparkling synth melodies and Copeland’s sweet contralto timbre. Sadly, it didn’t get the recognition it deserved in its own time. That changed with 2016’s reissue: Copeland was invited as lector at the Red Bull Music Academy, leading to a European tour with his 5-piece band Indigo Rising, and even a biographic documentary, released this November. In his own visionary words: “I was making music for a generation that had yet to be born.” At the age of 75, Copeland finally found an audience in the youngest generation of lo-fi and ambient lovers.

Support comes from Italian musician and vocalist Laryssa Kim. After a stop in Amsterdam she now lives in Belgium, where she was trained in acousmatic composition. A young experimentalist, Kim makes dreamy, trancy ‘popscapes’ by looping and reshaping her voice and other sounds. Her new EP is released in October 2019.

“Glenn Copeland: the trans musical visionary finding an audience at 74.” - interview of The Guardian with Beverly Glenn-Copeland

“I was making music for a generation that had yet to be born” - interview of Le Guess Who? with Beverly Glenn-Copeland