Eclectic art-pop artist of the Renaissance, Ch’Lu, entices, inspires and transforms with her Zeitgeist fusion of ethereal harmonies and relatable, multi-lingual lyrics, blended with classical guitar arpeggiation, hypnotic beats and binaural field recordings. Both bewitching Ninja and entertaining Chanteuse, her signature Fairy Folktronica meets Cosmic Chanson sound is fuelled by her desire to expand consciousness.

 

Of Romanian/British parentage, Ch'Lu, (formerly Camilla Mathias), trained as a Classical Guitarist, Singer and Actress, in addition to a solid foundation as a Vedic Mantra Meditation teacher, various Martial Arts and a growing list of languages. She is a polyglot polymath: creating and performing with a Campfire-meets-Kirtan-meets-Club vibe.Ch'Lu last year was streamed in several hundred different cities worldwide, has to date performed in twenty-three countries and composed and performed in thirteen languages.  

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Ch’Lu self-produced a tribute single ‘Beyond Words' in response to the murder of her cousins in Israel last October, and raising funds for their surviving children. BBC6 Music DJ Tom Robinson’s Fresh on the Net have already picked four tracks from Ch’Lu’s latest album "The Goddess Within", for the Eclectic Picks and since invited her to be a guest curator. Funded by Arts Council of England and Help Musicians UK, the album is an organica soundscape fusing Sanskrit vocals, classical guitar, binaural field-recordings and an electronic underscore, released June 9th, 2023 in honour of Global Wellness Day. Under her Noroc label, Ch'Lu self-recorded and produced the sound medicine album in her home-studio, and celebrated it's launch with a unique night at London's Piano Smithfield.

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Ch’Lu’s latest music video releases are "Sister I'll Be There", about connection across time and space, and her painfully honest and relatable song about dating apps: "I'm Not The Type To Sit And Swipe" .The latter has just been nominated for the UK Musical Comedy Awards,awarded Second Place at the Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival for Best Mobile Film and was also Finalist for Funniest Music Video at the Portland Comedy Film Festival.

 

Ch’Lu has played gigs in many contrasting venues, from London’s notorious Notting Hill Arts Club and Coronet to the east-end’s Cat & Mutton hosted by BBC6 Music DJ Chris Hawkins supporting Virginia Labuat, and The Dollhouse supporting Revolver; to Stoke Newington’s Old Church and numerous west-end private members clubs (including opening the Hurlingham Club’s Time & Leisure Magazine Food & Culture Awards and debut album launch at The Hospital). She was also a guest twice on Chris Difford (Squeeze)’s Saturday Night Song Club (on Zoom) during the pandemic.

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Outside the UK some of her favourite gigs include: Dublin’s Grand Social supporting Madeleine Peyroux, Rockwood Music Hall (NYC), ONO (Bern), Abseits (Zurich) supporting Pablo Nouvelle, FNAC (Lausanne), Culture Rapide (Paris) and Mutuo Centro De Arte (Barcelona). Additionally, Ch’Lu takes virtual global audiences of hundreds on a weekly transformational journey via her “Ch’Lu Campfire' live-streams on the world's largest meditation app - Insight Timer. She has amassed a faithful following, bursting catalogue and delightful reviews in a small space of time.

 

Other music career highlights include being hosted by BBC6 Music’s Chris Hawkins (watch highlights here), recording with film composer Yann McCullough (Spectre:Bond, Grand Hotel Budapest), contributing guitar to Channel Four’s Award-winning Unreported World series, and composing and performing her OFFIE nominated music in the recent London stage adaptation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding directed by George Richmond-Scott (Associate Director on hit musical Everyone’s Talking About Jamie). Ch'Lu's self-produced provocative debut music video Don't won The Honourable Mention Award at the recent New York International Film Awards, aired as Switzerland‘s La Télé channel’s Music Video of the Month, won Funniest Music Video at the Portland Comedy Film Awards in addition to numerous other wins and nominations (read more here) and is the closing music in TV comedy series Batshit. Ch'Lu's most-downloaded track Time That is Mine (read more here) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize as Best Song at the recent New York International Film Awards and has been chosen as theme-tune for the film The Litter Mermaid. Finally, her Romanian-Language track Sunt Romanca was selected for charity album Mitra Music for Nepal, produced by Annie Hogan (Marc Almond).

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Make sure you are following on social media, Bandsintown, my Mailing List - or even better the Ch'Lu Club - and you won't miss a thing!

 

Ch'Lu’s work as an actress is currently keeping her in comedy, from the central role in new sitcom Baggage (which she co-created with her sister, Lorelei Mathias) to the forthcoming Funny Women Awards Finalist Creative Writing 2.1 from Melon Comedy. Other work has included US FOX TV crime series Jo, opposite Jean Reno, the darkly comic In The Mix ( directed by Denis Lawson), which premiered at the BFI and The Witches at the Wyndham's West End opposite Ruby Wax. She also had the central role written for her in Marco Ghelardi's award-winning Italian-language production of Di Come Savona Ebbe Il Suo Teatro and starred in the recent Spanish/US action/thriller Escape From Marwin. Ch'Lu's voice takes on many guises, from animation series Emmy & Goo Roo, to Sci-Fi audiobooks Manhattan In Reverse to the latest Puro Earth campaign (also see Voice-Over Demo).

 

Another passion of Ch'Lu's is painting, so look out for her artwork within her music releases, in addition to some weird and wonderful merch and commissions.  She also features in new German-language non-fiction Zwei Kartoffeln in Laos, by Tanja Weidner and she has a few sets of lyrics published in the London Society Club Poetry Anthology.

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So, Ch'Lu is the new Camilla Mathias. Pronounced ChooLOO,  the unique Sanskrit name was conceived by Ch'Lu's Jyotish (The Vedic Study of Timing) mentor, to power and support her creative and performance work moving forward. The transition is in it's early stages, hence you will still find earlier work under Camilla Mathias.