Every now and then you’ll be at a performance and witness something extraordinary. Something you and that particular audience share as one of those unforgettable experiences that you never saw coming. As musicians go, Mr Percival (aka Darren Percival) travels light. A Mr Percival performance requires only Percival, his microphone and a few electronic pedals with which he records and loops his voice to create beats, basslines, harmonies and melodies. The result is a rather special take on a cappella. Using only his voice, Mr Percival can sound as cavernous and rich as a Brooklyn gospel choir or as thoroughly danceable as your favourite hip-hop DJ.
A jazz artist of talent, imagination and skill, Darren has over twenty years of professional musical experience working as an entertainer, a recording artist, a vocal coach and innovator. On his quest to find something unique, two random events led to the birth of the Mr Percival project. First, Percival saw a DVD of Bela Fleck bassist Victor Wooten looping layers of sounds using his bass guitar and a loop pedal. It inspired him to buy his own looping machine to layer and manipulate his vocals.After practising with the machine for 12 months, he invested in a few more pedals, giving him enough options to create a complete soundscape using only his voice. Next, he saw an advertisement for singers to participate in a New York workshop with one of the masters of a cappella singing: Bobby McFerrin of Don't Worry, Be Happy fame. Alongside 150 other singers from around the world, Percival was taught McFerrin's art of "spontaneous vocalisation". Darren credits McFerrin for teaching him "how to walk on stage by myself". As a solo act, Mr Percival can deliver whatever performance suits his environment. At just about every show he will ask the crowd to yell out a word that he can use to build an entire new song and arrangement in front of them. Russell Crowe was so impressed by it, he asked Mr Percival to support the Oscar-winning actor's band, the Ordinary Fear of God, on a five-month tour. Now taking the corporate scene by storm, the Mr Percival show is a unique and memorable act.

What Mr Percival does...

Conference and dinner entertainment

• Darren offers a unique and interactive show perfect for lunch or dinner.
• He formulates songs on the spot to suit the event and guests.
• Darren involves his audience to help make wonderful music and he never fails to wow them with his amazing vocal talents.

Workshops and Team Building

• He also offers unique workshop and team building activities which assist delegates to relax, improvise, be creative and work cohesively as a team.

Ensembleous Spontaneous Vocalous
It's simple and it feels great... to Hmmmmmm... that moment after a big breath in... and then... Hmmmmmmm. All of those deadlines, emails, meetings to attend and people to speak to seem to vanish just for a few seconds as we Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

During these wonderful workshops, Darren:

• encourages everyone to just stand together and become a choir, an ensemble... a group of voices
• the songs are created and performed on the spot - using the human voice
• to prepare for certain spontaneous pieces, Darren invites the participants to join him in a range of simple warm up exercises
• the group can be split up into smaller sections to focus on a certain style of singing and there is always a chance for soloing
• then before they know it, they are off on another melodic ride visiting vocal styles and made up songs to inevitably become an 'Ensembleous Spontaneous Vocalous'.

Every Ensembleous Spontaneous Vocalous is unique, like the day, location, voices - this is where the fun truly begins!

Imagine a yoga class for your voice box / aerobics for the larynx / singing for health and happiness - vocalisation that brings confidence and removes fear.

Darren's Youtube Link