New Friends: CLUSTER and MICappella

Recently, Fermata Town had the pleasure of meeting CLUSTER and  MICappella during each group's international tours. Not only did we get to experience live performances from these incredible a cappella singers, but we also shared with them our music, our homes, and some of our favorite spots in Boston.

CLUSTER is a five person vocal jazz band from Genoa, Italy. Fermata Town hosted the Boston leg of the group's US tour, opening for their performance at Emmanuel College.

We had such a great time hearing CLUSTER's music live and getting to share the stage with them, but the best part of that weekend was probably jamming with these musicians on whatever instruments we had lying around at "The Vern", home of some of Fermata Town and temporary home for our traveling aca-friends. With Nico on banjo, Eric on keys, Luca on drums and everyone on vocals, we were the best jam karaoke band to hit The Vern!

MICappella is a six person contemporary a cappella group from Singapore, recent finalists on the Sing Off China. We had already made the internet acquaintance of MICappella a little over a year ago when their vocal percussionist, Peter, was searching for Dirt Loops Circus covers and found ours on YouTube. As it turns out, we are the only two a cappella groups in the world that cover this cover of the iconic Britney Spears tune.

(If you haven't yet, do check out the Dirty Loops cover, MICappella's version, and Fermata Town's.)

About a week or so after CLUSTER left town and we were feeling severe CLUSTER withdrawal, Peter posted in the Boston a cappella faceboook network that his group was loooking for Boston hosts in early November, so of course, we signed up!!!

Needless to say, we listened to all three versions of Circus in the living room of The Vern within minutes of MICappella's arrival. There we were, in the same time zone, sharing music with each other. Very cool. (Come to think of it, we jammed with CLUSTER to Dirty Loops, too. Great minds listen alike.)

After having listened to our recorded versions, MICappella also visited a Fermata Town rehearsal and each group privately performed our cover to each other live, acousticly (some of us also sawMICappella on the big stage at Sojam in Raleigh and at the Somerville Armory with Ball in the House -- these guys and girls have serious performing chops and we were so grateful for the private performance after such a week of performance and travel!)

There is something so amazing about sharing your music with other musicians. What a gift it was to share Fermata Town's work with those whom we so admire. We are indeed part of a greater, international community of a cappella tradition across the world, and our friends truly seek the same artistic goals as we: to create beautiful music, share our art with others, and have some fun while doing it! CLUSTER and MICappella, you are welcome back anytime!