Hailing from that place where vocabulary ends and art takes over, Broken Lexicon is an Acoustic Duo with a dynamic edge, which embraces differing backgrounds, and weaves those experiences into their music. Comprised of New Zealand Singer/Songwriter Brook Davies, and Russian born guitar virtuoso Alexey Medvedev, Broken Lexicon places both performers front and centre; creating a collective sound that surpasses the sum of their individual creative parts. Their songs are as much about lyrics and stories as they are about stunning, percussive guitar compositions; as much about rhythm as they are about Melody, and as much about emotions as they are about intellectual reflections. Their style is difficult to pin to a genre, but Folk-Funk, Gypsy-Jazz and Indie-Pop are all phrases that come to mind.
Broken Lexicon’s live performances have been known to make people laugh, cry, dance and dream. Audience members have commented that it sounds as if there are three guitars on stage, and one retired man in a small South Island town said, after Broken Lexicon performed, that their songs had forced him to think differently about life, which he was both challenged by and grateful for.
Formed in 2014, Broken Lexicon have played a range of concerts around New Zealand, including a seven date South Island tour in May 2018. They released the single ‘Springboard’ in October 2017 with a beautiful video, which can be found on YouTube, portraying the joyous bonds and aching separations of parenthood. Shortly after this they released their self-recorded debut album Springboard, with a well attended gig at MEOW in Wellington. The album, though not widely distributed, has been gaining high praise amongst it’s listeners, proving itself a popular family choice, appealing to a wide range of listeners. Other recent events include Wellington Regional Folk Festival in October 2017, Launching La Fiesta festival in Whanganui and playing at the inaugural Just So Festival NZ in the beautiful Kaitoke Regional Park in Upper Hutt in Feb 2018. They will be taking a break from live gigs over the New Zealand winter of 2018, with further performances to be announced from October 2018.
Alexey came to New Zealand from Moscow, Russia, more than 15 years ago. He is a professional musician, with degrees in jazz piano and guitar from the Jazz Improvization Studio Moscow, and in orchestral conducting from the Moscow State University of Culture. Alexey worked as a session musician at recording studios in Moscow, toured the former soviet countries with Russian pop and rock stars, published a beginner’s book on guitar and played for Mikhail Gorbachev's 70th birthday. In the past, Alexey played in duos, trios and bigger bands. The most successful was the acoustic duo ‘Ay Joe’ with Kiwi-Samoan percussionist Joe Setefano. The duo toured New Zealand in 2006 and had a special spot on TV One's Good Morning show. Alexey recorded five albums under his name, the last one being ‘Naphanya’ which was his first Kiwi album, comprising a mixture of his original instrumentals, Russian folk songs and covers of jazz, rock and pop songs. His style of acoustic guitar playing could be described as fast, percussive finger picking. It allows him to play melody, bass lines, chord progressions and drumming patterns all at the same time. For Broken Lexicon, Alexey weaves his highly original guitar compositions around the lyrics and melodies of Brook’s songs.
Brook grew up in the Motueka Valley in the South Island of New Zealand. She now lives in Upper Hutt with her husband Ant, and 2 kids. In her primary years, she attended a tiny Democratic Education school, where singing songs from around the world, with complex rhythms and harmonies, was an everyday part of her childhood, and fuelled her passion for music. As a teenager, she played in a Marimba band alongside her dad, playing polyrhythmic Zimbabwean music, and later joined the world music choir Acapellago in Christchurch during her University Years. Though instrumentally trained, with a background in Classical Piano, Brook’s passion has always been for singing and the poetry of lyrics, driven by a love of rich melodies and varied rhythms. She formed her first trio ‘Brooklyn Sea and the Wayward Fleet’ in 2011, with Joe Rickit and Carlos Espinoza, then later met Alexey when he moved from Dunedin to Wellington in 2014 and the pair formed Broken Lexicon. A name that hints of the communication break-downs that spike their conversations across language divides, but is also simply a geeky expansion of their names combined; 'Brook & Alexey'.