BEHIND BISHI’S 1950s VINTAGE TEA DRESS, LEOPARD PRINT BALLET PUMPS AND VIVIENNE WESTWOOD JEWELLERY LIES A CLASSICALLY TRAINED INSTRUMENTALIST THAT FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS HAS DIVIDED HER TIME BETWEEN SITAR LESSONS FROM RAVI SHANKAR, DISCIPLE GAVRAV MAZUMBAR IN NEW DEHLHI AND SINGING WITH THE LONDON BULGARIAN WOMEN’S CHOIR. BORN INTO A MUSICAL BENGALI FAMILY FROM WEST LONDON, BISHI’S SYNTHESIS OF SONG IS INNATE.
Recognised by London’s colourful club land clientele as the face of Matthew Glammore’s kaleidoscopic Kash point, Bishi first visited the club at the age of 13 with best friend Patrick Wolf. She would later join forces with an other foppish front man, Jarvis Cocker, to found London s only classical music club The Siren Suite celebrating gypsy jazz, Ennio Moriconne soundtracks and Hitchcock alongside crowd favourites such as Stravinsky’s Right Of Caprice and Handel’s Zadoc The Priest .
Having once performed topless with her sitar, as an act of dispelling the beauty imperative with Josephine Baker style slicked back hair, she would later collaborate with Zongamin for her forthcoming album Nights At The Circus a psychedelic fusion of Indian classical, East European folk and progressive pop for which her fellow Hackney inhabitant provided the percussion. Founding the Gryphon Records label for her album release has lent her the freedom to collaborate and release a series of club remixes, due to drop in October from the likes Midnight Mike, Riton and The Lovely Jonjo. A series of spectacular special shows around the September album release at the Shoreditch Church will see her taking to the stage in Central Saint Martin’s undergraduate Holly Albright’s half woman, half bird avant garde showgirl costumes and outfits from Thierry Mugler protege and club legend Sybil Rouge.
Bishi’s vision can transform the journey on a grotty London night bus home into something exotic, and we can only wonder what this bird of paradise will concoct on the tour bus she is set to share with Wolf and Bat For Lashes across the US later this year.
By Xerxes Cook
Bishi’s vision can transform the journey on a grotty London night bus home into something exotic
Bishi wears headpiece, her own. Black sequin dress by Julia Clancey.
