User:Shockingrain

The Mummers are a band based in the English seaside town of Brighton, centred around London-born singer/songwriter Raissa Khan-Panni. They take their name 'Mummers' from the medieval performing troupes who would go from door-to-door wearing masks and costumes, staging plays in rhyme and song and mime.

Khan-Panni was once better known as Raissa, a solo artist whose origins include English, Chinese, Indian, and Mexican. She was raised in the South London district of Tulse Hill, immersed first as a child in classical music, learned the oboe, spending her school-days busking in Leicester Square and later all over Europe, before returning to study music at Bristol.

In 2000 she enjoyed critical acclaim across the media spectrum, most notably with the album 'Believer' released by Polydor Records and the single How Long Do I Get which was played extensively on UK radio staions . Despite the acclaim Khan-Panni remembers it as a period of some uncertainty.

The Mummers formed in 2006, with a new collaborator - orchestral composer Mark Horwood ^[1], who was living on the South Coast in a treehouse just outside Brighton. With 20 musicians from around Brighton and producer Paul Sandrone, they recorded their first album 'Tale to Tell' in the 'Treehouse studio'.

The Mummers feature the sound of a marching band and a string quartet. With lyrics inspired by a bleak period working in a Brixton restaurant, Khan-Panni has described The Mummers as musical adaptations of real life events, and fairytale versions of the mundane. ^[2]

• Tale to Tell (part one) (2008) - Big Bass Drum

The Mummers on Myspace

• Raissa Fan Site

Raissa Raissa