The English musician, bassist, singer, and world beat legend has, since his time in John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols group Public Image Ltd (PiL), worked with artists from Björk to Primal Scream, in genres from ambient to traditional folk, releasing thirty solo and collaborative albums.

Over the years, he has clocked up a full passport of sound, creating incredible aural journeys through dub, world, ambient and avant-rock music with his dark, textural soundscapes. Jah’s previous project, the Chinese Dub Orchestra, won the ‘Cross-Cultural Collaboration’ category in the inaugural Songlines Music Awards, opening this East-West fusion to further critical and popular acclaim. He now turns his focus to Japan, featuring himself alongside Joji Hirota, Keiko Kitamura, Mark Sanders, Oki and Clive Bell as the Nippon Dub Ensemble. For the Festival the musicians will perform to an ikebana floral backdrop created in situ by Takashi Sawano.

World Music Central lauded the recently released Japanese Dub album as “a fascinating electro-acoustic adventure.” In it, Wobble seeks to reduce Japanese sound to its essence while fusing it with rhythmic groovy dance music. This exclusive Irish performance by one of world music’s most intelligently eclectic mavericks is guaranteed to blow the roof off.

Sunday | 21:00 – 22:30 | €26
Book Tickets here

Benin is the birthplace of vodoun (voodoo) – a religion practiced to music – and its complex rhythms are hailed as the sonic bridge with the Americas that ultimately influenced blues, jazz, Cuban and Brazilian music. Beating out Sato rhythms on a colossal vertical drum, and offering the Sakpata beat to the voodoo divinity for health; the collective meld traditional percussive tempos with out-of-this-world organ harmonies, big brass sound and psychedelic guitar riffs.

As the New York Times said: “The funk turns into hypnosis and the rest is unstoppable dance music.” Mix it up and get down, for a night of sizzling beats and spiritual soul.

Saturday | 22:00 – 23:30 | €26
Book Tickets here

All the sons of Sun Ra trumpeter Phil Cohran, this group of eight brothers began performing together from an early age. Destined for a lifetime of music playing, having practiced for several hours each morning before school, they soon became a central part of their father’s Youth Ensemble. With exposure to a generation of American musical heavyweights from NWA and Public Enemy to Ice Cube and Eazy-E, a parallel passion soon emerged. By the end of the nineties, with everyone out of school, they drew upon their extraordinary musicianship; their jazz roots and their thriving hip hop sensibility, to make a living busking on the streets of Chicago.

In 1999, they formed what is now known as the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and have performed and collaborated all over the world with some of today’s elite artists, from Mos Def to Maxwell and Wu Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah to UK superstar Damon Albarn. Get hypnotised, get charmed and get dancing to this extraordinarily talented family.

Tickets also available at: www.ticketmaster.ie; www.tickets.ie; www.choicecuts.com

Doors 8pm Tickets available on the door

8pm, €12

Pete Dobbyn is an acoustic singer/songwriter from Dun Laoghaire, Co.Dublin. He Began writing his first song in the summer of 2005, and has steadily continued to write songs since. His warm tone works well in contrast with his some what edgy folk guitar playing. Like songwriters before him, Pete pays great detail to lyrics, and sings them with a somewhat vulnerable soulful quality. He has played many of the top Dublin venues in the last 4 years including- Whelans, Crawdaddy, The Sugar Club, The Vaults, The Purty Kitchen, and some Venues in Sydney and Los Angeles. Having just got back from a year in Australia, Pete is looking forward to coming back and playing for his home crowd.

Nick Craig is a multi-talented musician from Dublin. He will be performing acoustically on the night with Gus O’Brolchain. Nick has played the Loft before, impressing the local crowd with covers that make the crowd rock. The first act of the night , sure to get the night off to a flying start.

8pm, €10

Crowley’s career is best defined by his album-work. His specific craft is the cohesive flow, the collection, the beginning, middle and end. More than just a writer of songs, he etches out journeys, where each character, story or incident within his songs feels like a stepping-stone to the next character, story or incident. Season of the Sparks is like the best type of short story book where each tale seems magically connected to the rest. Maybe it’s the striking sense of incandescence that unites all these particular stories/songs.

Moving away from the sea/water themed imagery of his previous record, the Choice Music Prize nominated Long Distance Runner, his latest album is flush with Arcadian detail; birds and bees, lush vines, honeycombs, kindling, and dreaming horses. It might bring to mind Bill Callahan at his brightest, or an excerpt from one of John McGahern’s consumed passages on the buzz of rural life.

It’s as if from this descriptive cosmos spills the music itself – a mysterious cacophony of odd phosphorescent instruments such as mellotron, harmonium, Rhodes and shruti box, and of course a plentitude of strings from Kevin Murphy’s cello, Marja Gaynor’s mesmerizing baroque viola and some absolutely astonishing arrangement from acclaimed London duo Geese. Crowley, an honorary affiliate of the Fence Collective in Fife, has made many great connections with other musicians throughout his travels. Several of those relationships blossom spectacularly on these recordings.

Ivor Cutler’s fruity ditty ‘Squeeze Bees’ is embedded in the middle of this record in a wheezing din of marxophone (no, I’ve no idea either). What’s interesting is how the late oddball humorist’s song fits so seamlessly into Crowley’s world. Despite all this decoration, Season of the Sparks never becomes too weighed down in the pastoral. The big surging chorus on ‘The Wishing Seat’ or the stratospheric swirl and flickering drums of ‘Liberty Stream’ are perfectly measured breaks in tempo. At the heart of all this is Crowley’s own, deeply natural Irish narration brooding through each song, captured expertly by close-collaborator Stephen Shannon, a quite brilliant yet-to-be-discovered producer in Dublin.

Adrian Crowley’s music is a celebration of so many things; friends, the world around him, and the world within him.

7pm, €TBC

Pulsing out an infectious blend of intricate dance rhythms and remarkable lead melodies, the NORTH STRAND KONTRA BAND’s East European folk sound is a modern take on traditional styles imparted lively and unrestrained. This seven piece from the north side of Dublin cosists of Clarinet, Saxophone, Trombone, Accordion, Guitar, Tuba and Drums. DISORIENTALIST is a DJ, VJ and producer from Lahore, Pakistan. Playing a huge mix of exotic sounds, he’s joined by Dublin DJ, LEX WOO with percussion from FADI HAKOUM.

8pm, €15

Paris DJ, MANU BOUBLI is a long time friend of Tony Allen and joins LEX WOO behind the decks with Afronova to finish off the night. Dublin band, THE BURNING EFFIGIES play early with a tribute to Fela Kuti featuring Olu Adeniran on tenor sax and vocals with support from Dublin MC, OPHELIA and jazz improvisers REDSQUARE.

8pm, €15