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Fall is now here, what a perfect time to welcome English poet and artist @keatonhenson and German pianist @niklaspaschburg. See you on Tuesday at 7pm Paris/Berling, 6pm London, 1pm New-York, 10am LA live on Instagram. #StayAwayShow

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Keaton Henson debut album Dear came out in 2010. It was a collection of ten beautiful songs that he initially made with no intention of releasing them to the public. This makes sense considering the deeply intimate feel to the songs, which are rich with emotion.

Keaton’s voice is the type that comes directly from the soul, moving its listener entirely. You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, the second track on his debut album, is an evocative tale of heartbreak addressed to a former girlfriend . Keaton shaking voice asks ‘Does he know not to talk// about your dad? Does he know when you are sad?… Does his love make your head spin?’. 

These words, sung with delicacy and feeling and underpinned by simple guitar, caught the attention of Zane Lowe. Lowe played the piece on BBC Radio 1 saying: ‘This piece of music right here… is one of the most special pieces of music I’ve heard for a very long time’.

This exposure helped Henson gain the recognition he deserves, and since then he has been shortlisted for an MVA award and his songs have thousands of plays on Spotify. Despite this success, the London born singer suffers from chronic anxiety and has never been comfortable with live performance.

He told the Irish Times in 2019 that he ‘doesn’t like performing or anything that veers into that territory’, going on to speak about how even going to the shops to buy a pint of milk can be difficult for him. His most recent album, Six Lethargies, released in 2019 was a six track collection of movements for a string orchestra.

These ‘aimed to express and explain the feelings of anxiety and depression that he feels’, and this is certainly achieved. One would be hard pushed to listen to The Falling or Unease Concerto without feeling the pain in the strings that are played. This has always been Keaton’s biggest strength as a musician: to move his listeners through his music in the way that great artist like Bon Iver do.

His most recent single, Husk came out in September this year and though it had a more upbeat rhythm section, it still explored feelings of heartbreak and loss. This track was released in advance of his upcoming album, that is due for release on October 23rd. His performance on La Blogothèque will surely be a touching one, made all the more intimate without the crowd watching.

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Such a pleasure to take part in this. Thanks for watching and we you x

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They began their set with a few endearing attempts to speak French, and declared that they themselves have always been fans of the French platform. La Blogothèque, operational since 2009, have been broadcasting a series of Stay Away shows since mid March and has seen performances by several British musicians such Mellah and Whitney.

HONNE opened with no song without you, a love song from their July 2020 album of the same name. The smooth vocals of Andy Clutterback shone through without any distractions, as the live version did not have the percussive drum beat and synth instrumental present on the album.

Honne is a Japanese concept referring to a person’s true feelings and desires. The duo chose the word because they fell in love with its meaning and felt it ‘described exactly what [they] were writing about at that time’.

It is true that HONNE’s sophomore album, Warm on a Cold Night, was deeply personal. A compilation of love songs with the cringe factor of Michael Bubble and Maroon 5, but with the added layer of digital production finesse to make it more interesting.

Earnest boy-band love songs have fallen out of fashion lately, but HONNE has manage to make them cool again. In the words of the Telegraph, their creations are ‘futuristic soul destined t0 re-invent baby-making music’.

The song Warm on a Cold Night is one of the band’s most popular, so it’s unsurprising that they played it as the penultimate number for their Stay Away show. The tight percussion and dreamy synths were missing, giving the song a purity absent on the album version.

Unfortunately we didn’t get the smooth radio presenter telling us at the start of the track ‘Okay, it’s 3:17 AM. You’re tuned in with your main man Tommy Inglethorpe// This next song’s gonna keep you warm on a cold, cold night’, a comical indication that the band are fully aware of the song’s cheesiness.

For the most part, the set consisted of tracks from the band’s latest album no song without you. All were performed with stripped-back production and only two instruments – three, if you count Clutterbuck’s smooth vocals! The result was a soulful and intimate set, in keeping with the band’s name once again.