Pêtr Aleksänder
Pêtr Aleksänder are Eliot James and Tom Hobden. The two first met in 2007, while working together on Noah and the Whale’s debut album Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. After many years spent touring and recording in their respective fields, they collaborated in 2016 on an ambitious orchestral album, recorded in Budapest with the Hungarian Film Orchestra, called ROAM, which was released on the London label Village Green. Pêtr Aleksänder was born from a desire to create a more considered sound, controlled in its execution by way of purposefully limiting the instruments at their disposal to piano and strings, but never at the expense of the raw, emotional impact that a simple yet incisive sound can deliver. Early recordings such as "Sans Souci" quickly caught the attention of streaming services, the wider public and in turn, renowned indie label Nettwerk, who offered the band a record deal, which was signed in December 2017. The band released a video for “Bells” in September 2017 which featured an aspiring dancer called Jacob Lang, a finalist in the contemporary dance category of BBC Young Dancer 2017. A support tour with the Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør in October 2017 saw the band perform across the UK and in Sweden. The live show involved just the two bandmates performing an array of instruments by way of looping and re-imagining arrangements, all in front of a backdrop of visuals created by the band themselves. Eliot and Tom are currently in the studio working on the debut Pêtr Aleksänder album, to be released in 2018.