Dark Matter

Friends and Lovers

Join us for the third edition of Dark Matter - a concert series featuring all Black queer, trans, non-binary and women artists - at Friends

Join us for the third edition of Dark Matter - a concert series featuring all Black queer, trans, non-binary and women artists - at Friends and Lovers on Thursday, October 13th. This Lineup features an eclectic mix of genre-bending R&B/Soul + Hip Hop with Brooklyn and Oakland artists Cleo Reed, BEMATA, Fiveboi, ASTU and Sandu Ndu. Presented by Boyish and Noir at Nite, we aim to create an experimental and fluid experience rooted in the Black queer experience.ASTU - A blend of retro-soul, nineties R&B pastiche, and new wave-inspired synth-pop. With a knack for turning irresistible grooves into unhurried bangers, ASTU refuses to pledge allegiance to a single vibe. The Oakland-based artist left life as a minister and found herself in R&B, expressing her sexuality, identity and life experience in her music. The depth and complexity of her buttery alto on Patterns, her debut project, has garnered critical acclaim from Afropunk, Earmilk, KQED and more. ASTU’s debut album - ALTARS - builds upon Patterns and asks us to make altars of our bodies and honor our personal truths in order to find the freedom we all seek. From silky, slow jams and haunting ballads to carefree, soulful dance tracks, ASTU keeps us wanting more.Ella Moore performs under the alias “Cleo Reed” modelled after two ancestors. Born and raised in NYC and Uptown DC, Cleo creates under the musical influence of black underground sounds from traditions in hip-hop to experimental R&B/Soul. Her unique sound transcends traditional genres through the use of guitar, vocal harmonies and synth soundscapes informed by the origins of electronic music in the black underground. Through music, Cleo works to amplify the needed presence of black queer womxn in production and sound design spaces. Cleo has collaborated with a plethora of accomplished artists, including: Jon Batiste, duendita, Nick Hakim, Wiki, Caleb Giles, Adé Hakim, Earth Dad, and many more.Sandu Ndu is a singer-songwriter, producer and composer that has built her music base in Oakland while performing and touring with her band Bells Atlas.While her solo sound is experimental at its essence and often sits between genres, her current work embraces Cinematic RnB with hints of Afrobeat. Recently that work considers how exclusion from social storytelling contributes to the erasure of culture and the myth of monsters. Her debut solo EP will be out fall/winter of 2022.BEMATA which is Amharic for “by night,” is a songstress and producer based in New York. Motivated by her name, she’s driven by an exploration of truth and duality. Her songwriting explores these themes through the lens of relationship with herself and others over driving tribal bass lines and electronic beats. Growing up, her family shared an eclectic taste in music - ranging from soul, funk, reggae, jazz, and dance music from around the world. As a daughter of immigrants who fled a war-torn Ethiopia, music was where they freely transcended cultural boundaries. Bemata brings their cultural influences together to build an international sonic world that feels both familiar transportive. Fiveboi, is a nonbinary, Brooklyn-based electronic music producer and DJ whose beats and mixes may best be described as “melancholy dance music”. Atmospheric, nostalgic and punchy, Fiveboi creates sonic landscapes that move their listeners to dance while existentially contemplate matters of the heart at the same time.

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Dark Matter

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