Raissa Khan Panni of The Mummers
To call The Mummers a band is almost insulting. For The Mummers are no ordinary band. The Mummers are a huge, glorious, quirky, cinematic childlike fantasy adventure composed of cellos, flutes, french horns, violins and the enchanting saccharine voice of one Raissa Khan Panni. The observant amongst you may recognise Raissa’s voice and name from the late 90’s, when she released 3 albums as a solo artist and toured with Suede’s Brett Anderson. Now she has grouped together with Mark Horwood and Paul Sandrone, together with a vast array of classical musicians, to form the delectable Mummers.
The sound of The Mummers is a somewhere over the rainbow soundtrack to life, formed out of sessions in a ram shackle studio by sea, surrounded by pine trees, on the south coast of England. From these beginnings songs such as Wonderland have formed, the kind of lush orchestral pop that Saint Etienne always aspired too. Then there is The Secret which is perfectly left of centre, and will be met with welcoming smiles from fans of Play Dead and It’s Oh So Quiet era Bjork. The Mummers deal with swooping, bewitching orchestral pop in a way that is so beautifully executed that it is almost impossible not to fall in love.
These songs and many other lushly orchestrated compositions are likely to be found on their forthcoming mini album entitled Tales To Tell (Part One) which is released at the end of August. Gigs so far have been sparse; it can’t be easy fitting an orchestra in the back of a small van. However, if and when the band tour, make sure you grab yourself a ticket. Your ears will never forgive you otherwise.
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