MC & The 7 Pedals - Gluten Free (2017)

MC, aka Maria-Christina, is an award winning, London based, experimental electric harp player. Originally hailing from Greece, she performs as MC & The 7 Pedals, a project with which she creates beautifully fresh and hypnotic compositions on her electro-acoustic harp using loop, wah and distortion pedal effects. MC also uses bows, pieces of paper and guitar sliders to make the instrument emulate bass, percussive and guitar-like tones. The resulting music is cinematic, dreamlike and highly atmospheric as it seamlessly blends traditional and avant-garde techniques to create mesmerising new forms. MC has previously performed on Later with Jools Holland on BBC2, at the BBC Radio 1 studios and at the Montreal Jazz Festival. She has also appeared at the Royal Festival Hall, the National Portrait Gallery and at many major venues all over Europe. Additionally, Maria-Christina has toured or collaborated with many artists including Katie Melua, Alani, Jeremy Reed, Pete Long, Richard Strange, and Psarantonis. She has also released a harp and rap duet with the artist Potent Whisper which recently received repeated BBC radio play. Maria-Christina is currently undertaking her PhD on contemporary / modern harp in London. In this project she explores the possibilities of the instrument and composes and commissions new pieces of music for the harp in an attempt to reinvent the instrument for the contemporary world. MC & The 7 Pedal's debut album, 'Gluten Free' is a sublime collection of cutting-edge modern harp compositions, recorded in the haunting acoustic space of an abandoned church in Oxford. The album's original working title was 'Dark Side Of The Harp', this heavily hints at the tone of the record, which MC says it is concerned with 'deconstructing the image of the harp that is linked with angels and fluffy dresses'.