Tuesday 24th July, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm GMT /// Live On-Air

Presenting some of Switzerlands best urban DJ’s, producers and composers. Tune in and listen to how Switzerland sounds… and today we present:

Papa C, aka Courtney Forbes

Jamaican-born Canadian visual artist, and lover of music, literature, gastronomy travel, style and culture.
Immigrated to Canada from Jamaica at age 8. Studied media arts at Ryerson Poly Technical Institute in the mid 80’s. After 14 years of Toronto life, the last 19 months of which were spent in Montreal, Moved to Europe, where he still now lives.

“Away from Canada, I first painted in Paris for a few months before continuing on to Barcelona, Spain, where I taught English as a foreign language for the first two years of a three year sojourn there. I then worked as an illustrator for a local fashion magazine for the last year. Simultaneously, I was putting in live stage work as a lead singer for the local live music act known as “On”, an eclectic, electronic project, of that  time, headeupd by Paco Angel Lopez.

After Spain I lived in Jamaica again for a year and 8 months. There I rediscovered it’s rich musical heritage. I bought up tons of 45 inch vinyls of the then and still unprecedented amount of the locally produced music! I took to craft making for a local gift shop but ended up spending much of my time and weekends on the sound lawns and in the dance halls, just absorbing the vibes.

From there I went on to spend eleven years in Zurich, Switzerland selling my paintings and engaged in three further electro style music projects: “Leme and a Bunch of People”,  “Guelle De Bois” and “Silent Work”. With them, I put in time as toaster, writer /wrapper, respectively. It was toward the end of that sojourn that I got into DJ-ing. My first fixed gig was 7 months as the Wednesday night resident at Pur Pur – a very stylish inner city restaurant/bar/lounge there. I’ve also been a repeat guest on Switzerland’s only 15 year old annual pop-up radio station and live DJ summer event, Rundfunk FM, for the the last 10 years now.

After that I moved to Cape Town, South Africa with a similar plan. I held down a Thursday night residency there for eight months in the stylish locale, “Café de Sud” and did a 2 month stint as the Friday night resident in “Tank” – the trendy sushi lounge.  All the while engaged in work on a solo exhibition of paintings and later two private commissions, some of which appeared as print in the local lifestyle magazine, “One Small Seed”. I spent a total time of one and a half years there.”

The Music

“In terms of my music selection or public playing, I’m principally lounge – bars, music cafes, private functions, and other such exclusive contexts.

I strive to sculpt the air with sounds that employ a blend of varied music genres. Among my favorites are bosanova, R&B, Trip Hop, Ambient beats, Down Beat, Chill House, Reggae, Jazz and more recently, Tango.

I tend to select tracks that are either a pure representation of these types or an eclectic combination thereof. The result is a smooth progression of vibes, energy and tempo aimed at harmonizing with and augmenting the general mood of the people and the social atmosphere they create within the space they’re gathered.

In other words, I supply the crowd with a tasteful cross section of fresh sound flavors they may not necessarily know but inevitably will find pleasing to the ear and stimulating to the soul!”