inside the sentaku ⎪artefact
A short walk from London’s Old Street Underground station, hidden away in blocks of council houses, is what appears to be your average neighbourhood pub, the Lion and Lamb.
Located on the corner at the end of Fanshaw Street, not a single sound can be heard. However, as you open the two waist-high wooden doors and walk the few steps to the pub’s door, then add a few more to enter through a second door, you’ve left London.
The small room is filled with a pleasurable atmosphere, tainted with blue and red lights which are accompanied by a ceiling covered with headphone jacks.
All around, people are dancing and mingling to a continuous variety of beats. These beats are being performed by a line-up of DJs from the music label, Sentaku.
Founders Josh Rawl and Massaï aren’t putting on a party or an event. This is an experience. As you soak in the electric energy brought to you by the range of different music styles, you aren’t just experimenting music, but pure art.
Artefact was invited to an event which introduced us to this two year-old universe. Their events take place approximately every couple of months with a thought-out curation. Whether it’s in the music, the venue or the artistic experience, you will want to embrace it. The Lion and Lamb became a home for the label which organises events in London and Paris.
The line-up included French-American Pablo K. and his vibrant, rhythmic tunes, Dandeloo and his expedition in a mix between new wave and old progressive house filled with deep, acid and electro touches. Following that, a set from two of the music label’s resident DJs, the evening continued with performance from co-founder, Massaï who describes himself as a “a solar and warm person.” His love for the sun can be heard and felt in his rather colourful sound.
Co-founder Josh Rawl closed the evening show with an endless range of house, progressive and deep house from our beloved 90s. His set was filled with light, trance-like vibes and did include sliding Run DMC’s Ghostbusters in his mix. Throughout each of the performances, both the crowd and the DJs were taking part in a live video installation
It was designed and executed by JXQ, who describes herself as an “ABC who grew up in Hong Kong”. During the event, with a small camera taped near the turntables, the artist was projecting live a somewhat distorted video of the Sentaku experience.
The colourful video was still clear enough for you to be able to recognise yourself and the familiar faces around you. With a growing interest in experimenting with live installations and interactive visuals, JXQ told us: “It’s something that I’ve only really started to get into the last year and Sentaku really gave me a total blank slate.”
The visual artist describes how her main source of inspiration comes from music and the moods music can create. “Concepts to me are defined through a very abstract feeling of a certain ambiance that can only be explained through the use of colours and sounds,” explains JXQ.
With a background in fashion and e-commerce, the artist had already been working with Josh Rawl and Massaï, with whom she established a great working relationship way before the birth of Sentaku.
Josh Rawl and Massaï described how essential JXQ was in the creation of the label: “Jane was with us since the beginning, she literally shaped our brand image, she does all the graphics from artworks to flyers. When Sentaku was being created, we insisted that our visual aspect had to be as important as our sound and we couldn’t think of anybody else to work with but her.”
As they both laughed and stated how impossible it is for them to forget how they met, Massaï started narrating the story. “At the time we were all living [with] our parents and we were all neighbours, I met Josh at a party at our friend Halpern’s place.” While they were exchanging music, a six year-long (to date) friendship was forged.
The rest of the story continues on Artefact’s website
