KESH: AN EXPERIENCE
Bristol
There’s no doubt that going to a ‘Kesh event’, hosted by Bristol’s own Keshen Aaronson of An Experience, is chaotic. Expect anything from the nostalgic sounds of a shit school disco (though without tokens for a free fruit shoot), jukebox sounds from around the globe, a proper knees up, Balkan wedding bangers, a Cuban dance class, or even a workshop on the art of throwing parties. If you’re lucky, you might see a roadman doing the limbo, spiderman doing the worm, or someone in a full-English breakfast balaclava.
Kesh brings some of the freshest, fun, full-force parties to the forefront of Bristol. The wonderful world of Kesh exists not only Bristol; find the sounds of Kesh across club nights in London, Glastonbury festival, and his first ever sold out festival, A Fairly Feral Fable, located just outside of Bristol this summer.
Kesh’s craft as a selector has snowballed into its very own distinct community which continues to grow in love and numbers. As Kesh puts it himself when talking to Nobody, the chaos of his early days finding himself as a selector are ‘where [he] found [his] love for bringing different kinds of people together and playing really loud music.’
In his early years, Kesh was first introduced to global, ‘non-western’ music by his grandfather, Amal Brahmachari. As he reflects, it was on his fourth birthday that Kesh was given the choice to flay the fiddle or guitar by his grandfather, which is what really got him into music.
Reflecting back on these years, the sounds of Nitin Sawhney’s album Immigrants also stand out for Kesh, including memories of how the bass rattled from the family-car door and filled him with awe. This says something about how visceral music can be, even in the smallest of spaces.
“If the music’s louder than the chaos, then everything’s going to be alright.”
PHOTO CREDIT - Eddy Hubble
When creating a new space, and we have found this ourselves at Nobody is Watching, making people feel a part of the space you are offering, is a big responsibility, but a hugely rewarding endeavour. There are lots of ‘cool’ spaces out there that, whether intentionally or not, these sometimes fail to facilitate inclusivity; while ‘cool’ spaces are not necessarily a bad thing, they can lose their original essence of offering something new, appealing, and inviting for newcomers.
This one of the reasons why Kesh is one of the best people to create his own unique space. The awareness that Kesh has for those who comes to his parties, their experience, and how to improve and develop the community is commendable. It’s this sort of thinking that can help others find themselves, their crowd and community. In the words of Kesh himself, ‘because what I enjoy doing may not fit into ‘cool’, I thought we’d make our own space for the ‘uncool.’
In other words, at Kesh’s parties extroverts and introverts alike are made to feel welcome. People are encouraged to be themselves and express themselves in the form they feel most comfortable. It’s a place where personas break down, anxieties are danced off in a loud, sweaty cloud of community. As we have learnt from so many of our speakers who have talked to Nobody, the dancefloor should, and indeed is An Experience, a site for healing.
“If we can facilitate a place to help people forget how rubbish the world can be for six or seven hours, then job’s a ‘gooden!”
TALK TO NOBODY - Keshen Aaronson
In the present world where many are uncertain about the what the future holds, anxious, isolated, or simply sad, healthy escapism is all the more important. If we can escape reality to heal, champion mental health, connect and genuinely express ourselves, or, ‘facilitate a place to help people forget how rubbish the world can be for six or seven hours’ as Kesh puts it, we can channel healthy escapism to collectively heal, all while introducing new music, to new ears and new spaces.
Kesh shouts out his An Experience and Pangea collaborator, Anwar Sattar and everyone who has been around along the way. We look forward to more of An Experience this summer and thank Kesh for talking to NOBODY.
“That little look you shoot to a stranger next to you [is] like a wink and acknowledgement that you are both just f*cking there.”
CONNECT WITH KESH
