 | Kammer Klang: Sebastien Roux + Jennifer Walshe + Lucy Railton/Leo Chadburn
TUES 21 MAY '13 • 8PM • £6 adv, £6 on the door
Kammer Klang marks its 3nd night in the 4th series with a programme of new music composed and performed by Jennifer Walshe and Sebastien Roux and a selection John Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776 performed by Lucy Railton and Leo Chadburn.........MORE>
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Tony-Joe BuckLash / Tony Bevan, Joe Morris, Tony Buck, Dominic Lash
WED 22 MAY '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
Intercontinental improvising quartet pairing local stalwarts Tony Bevan and Dominic Lash with American guitarist Joe Morris and Australian drummer Tony Buck for a super-charged encounter that combines passages of abstraction with no-holds-barred swing and telepathic interplay.......MORE>
"required listening for anyone who thinks improvisation can’t shake its tail feathers." - Daniel Spicer
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Alexander Tucker/Ashtray Navigations + Bridget Hayden
THURS 23 MAY '13 • 8PM • £8.50 adv / £10 on the door
Alexander Tucker curates an evening at Cafe Oto and commemorates it with a special piece of artwork that will be available to buy as a limited screen print on the night... Alexander Tucker will perform a set with Ashtray Navigations, as well as a solo set........MORE>
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Uneven Eleven: Makoto Kawabata + Charles Hayward + Guy Segers
FRI 24 MAY '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
unEVEN ELeven is a startling new initiative, injecting the ‘ROCK POWER TRIO’
with a new dose of artistic expression, creativity and freedom. Acid Mothers Temple's Makoto Kawabata is joined by the propulsive, powerhouse drumming of Charles Hayward and bass player Guy Segers (of Univers Zero and more...).......MORE>
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 | Eli Keszler
SAT 25 MAY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Great to have Eli Keszler back at OTO for another solo performance after his standout set at last year's PAN festival. Keszler's playing combines advanced technique and seemingly impossible speed with a gift for sonic imagination, combining the drumset with crotales, suspended strings and motorized electronics.........MORE>
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Chris Abrahams & Kai Fagaschinski: The Dogmatics
SUN 26 MAY '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Two duo sets from The Necks' pianist Chris Abrahams and clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski of The International Nothing and The Magic ID performing together as The Dogmatics. The Dogmatics LP 'The Sacrifice for the Music Became Our Lifestyle' was released in summer 2012 on Monotype Records.........MORE>
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Edwards / Parker / Prévost - Three day Residency with special guests: Alexander von Schlippenbach & Christof Thewes
MON 27 MAY '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 door / £27 two day pass
TUES 28 MAY '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 door / £27 two day pass
with special guest: Alexander von Schlippenbach
WED 29 MAY '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 door / £27 two day pass
with special guest Christof Thewes
Evan Parker and Eddie Prévost have both been a consistently innovative presence in British free music since the 1960s. Their joined in this trio by John Edwards - a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role. For their third appearance at Cafe OTO, the trio will hold court for three days with two very esteemed guests from Germany - pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach on the tuesday and trombone player Christof Thewes on the wednesday.......MORE>
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Norberto Lobo + Neel Murgai Ensemble
THURS 30 MAY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Prodigious Portuguese acoustic guitarist Norberto Lobo playing solo plus an ensemble performance of 'raga chamber jazz' by NYC-based multi-instrumentalist Neel Murgai on sitar with Asha Emma Mccarthy on cello........MORE>
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OTO BAR • FRI 31 MAY '13 • 7PM • FREE ENTRY
Come in and hang out. Japanese snacks, Sake, Shochu, Plum Wine, and a newly expanded selection of Single Malt Whiskys from Scotland, Japan and Wales. Exceptional beers from the Kernel, Howling Hops, Hacker-Pschorr Munchen Helle Lager, Hopf Helle Weisse on tap and more bottles in the fridge from Pitfield, Asahi, and Moritz and an extensive Belgian range including Orval, Brugse Zot Blonde and Dubbel, Westmalle Dubbel and Trappist, Frulli, Mort Subite and the Trappistes Rochefort 10.
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BleeD presents: Bee Mask
SAT 1 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
Bee Mask (est. 2004) is a project of Chris Madak and a vehicle for an intricate and deeply warped idea of modern electronic music which draws equally on the ecstatic human/machine couplings of 1970s west coast synthesis, the fractured gloss of sampler concrète, the iridescent thumbprint of High Minimalism on the humid throb of trunk bass, and the barely- sublimated currents of vertigo and terror that course beneath the most unsettling moments in the canon of home-recorded psychedelia..........MORE>
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Anne James Chaton / Andy Moor / Thurston Moore
SUN 2 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
More poetry and noise with radical guitarists Andy Moor and Thurston Moore and Anne James Chaton's poetry fragments, distinctive, deadpan delivery and depth charge electronics..........MORE>
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Guillaume Viltard / Seymour Wright / Paul Abbott
MON 3 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £6 adv / £7 on the door
Free improvising trio closely aligned with Eddie Prevost's weekly improvisation workshops combining the fiercely unamplified double bass of Guillaume Viltard, Seymour Wright's exploratory saxophony and Paul Abbott on drums.......MORE>
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The 49 Americans
TUES 4 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Staubgold and Choo Choo Train Records present an exclusive one-off kind-of-reunion of late 70s/early 80s UK DIY super group The 49 Americans. The main instigator behind The 49 Americans was Andrew "Giblet" Brenner who assembled a loose, disparate group of musical/non-musical practitioners as an experiment in equality and democracy. At Cafe Oto, Giblet and original members Steve Beresford, David Toop, Max Eastley, Nag and Bendle will perform the songs of The 49 Americans for the first (and only) time after more than 30 years. Moreover, in keeping with the ethos of the 49 Americans, some very special guests, like Leafcutter John and Alice Grant, as well as friends, friends of friends, and even children of the original members, will play, interpret or deconstruct their music, or even make some music of their own.......MORE>
"Think of The 49 Americans as a band, in the conventional sense, and you're lost." (David Toop)
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vie]noise[eries // Klaus Filip, Noid, Seymour Wright / Wei-Ya Lin, Johannes Kretz, Alison Blunt, Hannah Marshall / Martin Siewert, Alan Wilkinson, Peter Marsh, Paul May
WED 5 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
A chance to hear some of the most vital and diverse talents from
the Viennese new music scene on a rare visit to the UK, teaming up some of the key players from the London improvising community in an evening that promises minimal improvised electronics, lush electro-acoustics and some old fashioned noise. This concert is the result of musical partnerships forged by the UK rhythm section of Peter Marsh and Paul May and Vienna based violist Wei-Ya Lin while working as part of Conor Curran's Sonnamble project........MORE>
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Luke Fowler & Richard Youngs (Duo)
FRI 7 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Duo performance from acclaimed artist/film-maker Luke Fowler - here on Serge Synthesizer - and UK underground music icon Richard Youngs on guitar, vocals and electronics. Together the pair head straight into a liminal zone of hypnotic repetition, minimal songform and mutant machine music.......MORE>
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Second Language presents Colleen + Directorsound + Áine O'Dwyer
SAT 8 JUNE '13 • 8PM • SOLD OUT
After almost five years away from the stage, Cécile Schott (aka Colleen), returns to live performance in support of her stunning new album, 'The Weighing of the Heart' - her first for Second Language. Singing for the first time on record, and to dazzling, numinous effect, the dexterous Frenchwoman deploys violas da gamba, guitar, woodwind and Moondog-inspired percussion across a litany of finely wrought tableaux vivant songs. The combined influences of Arthur Russell, Moondog, Brigitte Fontaine and the musics of the African continent loom large in her new work, and the live show will be a direct reflection of this new direction, offering an absorbing fusion of the delicately spun and the rhythmically persuasive, embracing a pastoralism that is both lyrical yet rooted to the earth; at once hazily baroque yet accessible and universal..........MORE>
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The London Improvisers Orchestra
SUN 9 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £6 / £4 concs
First of the The London Improvisers Orchestra's now quarterly concerts at Cafe OTO. The LIO draws on London's rich pool of improvising musicians and is part of a long and varied heritage that stretches back to the free-jazz big bands of Chris McGregor and Mike Westbrook, the intuitive ensembles of John Stevens and purely improvising groups such as the Continuous Music Ensemble....MORE>
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David Grubbs with Andrea Belfi & Stefano Pilia
MON 10 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
Great to welcome David Grubbs back to cafe OTO, this time performing as a trio with two of Italy's finest: Andrea Belfi and Stefano Pilia - both, like Grubbs, well-versed in tearing the wall down between avant-garde praxis and rock energy. David Grubbs is one of the most influential musicians of his generation: a legacy that includes such bands as Squirrel Bait, Bastro and Gastr del Sol, numerous collaborative works and a string of LPs that present his idiosyncratic, immediately recognizable songs and arrangements. .......MORE>
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Akio Suzuki & Aki Onda
TUES 11 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Extended duration performance in the round by legendary Japanese sound artist and instrument builder Akio Suzuki together with Aki Onda - an electronic musician/composer/visual artist best known for his Cassette Memories project........MORE>
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Oren Ambarchi presents 'Knots' with Strings
WED 12 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £12 adv / £14 on the door
Oren Ambarchi presents a special live version of KNOTS, the epic centrepiece of his 2012 release on Touch ''Audience Of One.'' Described by Mojo as the ''undoubted standout on the Australian guitarist's stunning new album - nothing can prepare you for its awesome power'', this version will feature Joe Talia (drums), Crys Cole (objects) and a string section led by James Rushford on viola and featuring Judith Hamann, Alison Blunt, Oliver Coates and Ilan Volkov. The evening will open with a solo performance by Astor.......MORE>
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 | Martin Küchen / Steve Beresford / Ståle Liavik Solberg
THURS 13 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £6 adv / £7 on the door
The trio of Scandanavians Martin Küchen (sax) and Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums) with renegade British multi-instrumentalist-master-improvisor Steve Beresford return to OTO almost a year to the day to launch their new disc 'Three Babies' recorded during their last visit.........MORE>
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Charlemagne Palestine // Two Day Residency
FRI 14 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 door / £18 two day pass
with Steve Noble / the Bohman Brothers (trio)
SAT 15 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 door / £18 two day pass
with Grumbling Fur + L'Ocelle Mare
Charlemagne Palestine is one of music's true iconoclasts - famed for his epic, extended duration works for organ, the distinctive piano playing of his 'strumming music' and his ritualistic 'stuffed animals and cognac' performance style. Palestine's appearance at the Daniel O'Sullivan curated Transmissions Festival provided the impetus for these two days here at OTO and this time Charlemagne will perform both solo and in a new collaboration with Grumbling Fur - the duo of Daniel O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker - on the second night. The Friday night will open with a trio performance by The Bohman Brothers and Steve Noble. The Saturday night will have L'Ocelle Mare coming over from France for a rare visit to the UK......MORE>
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AIPS presents: Postcards from Italy
SUN 16 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
The Italian Archive of Soundscapes (AIPS), is a collective of sound artists formed to document the changing face of the Italian soundscape and to promote the ecology of sound through a variety of workshops, soundwalks and soundmapping projects covering different Italian cities including Taranto, Bisceglie and Rome. For this project each of the participant artists have taken field recordings in their respective cities and areas, which were then redistributed amongst the group on an anonymous basis in order to be reworked and processed. For this especially conceived event, the musicians will use their field recordings as raw material for three live sets taking their own personal and very distinctive approaches to sound into uncharted territories by mapping out new immersive environments........MORE>
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John Tilbury / John Edwards / Mark Sanders
MON 17 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
John Tilbury is best known for his work with revolutionary improvising collective AMM and experimental composers such as Cornelius Cardew and John Cage. Over the last year or so, he’s been a frequent presence at Cafe Oto, including collaborations with musicians as diverse as Marcus Schmickler, Oren Ambarchi and Wadada Leo Smith, and memorable solo performances of Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett.
Here, he appears in a trio with the peerless bass and drums pairing of John Edwards and Mark Sanders. A first glance this might seems like a surprisingly conventional setting (a piano trio, no less!), but a second, longer look dispels such a superficial impression. Edwards and Sanders are hardly a typical rhythm section, both being leading creative musicians in their own right, whose musical imaginations go far beyond the traditional roles ascribed to their instruments. This will be an encounter of three instrumentalists of the first order, unfettered by hierarchy or idiomatic expectations........MORE>
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Unconscious Archives #8 - Pierre Bastien / Karel Doing / Louise Curham & Alison Blunt
WED 19 June '13 • 7.30PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Unconscious Archives transverses noise core and vision spectacle bringing together expanded cinema and sonic propositions from London and afar. Forging the path between mechanical meanderings and choreographed heavenly bodies, Pierre Bastien and Karel Doing unleash constructivist ideologies to recreate visionary landscapes, and Louise Curham brings her hand painted happenings from down under........MORE>
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Chuck Johnson + Daniel Bachman
THURS 20 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Double bill of exploratory six string playing and 'folk minimalism' from guitarists Chuck Johnson and Daniel Bachman.........MORE>
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Luc Ex / Veryan Weston / Hannah Marshall / Mark Sanders
SUN 23 June '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Powerful Dutch acoustic bass player - Luc Ex, is joined by three highly individual and dynamic UK instrumentalists - Veryan Weston on piano, Hannah Marshall on Cello and Mark Sanders on drums - for an evening of spontaneous musical invention.........MORE>
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Ikue Mori / Steve Noble (Duo)
MON 24 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £10 adv / £12 on the door
Ikue Mori and Steve Noble first played together in 2010, here at Cafe Oto. It was immediately evident to everyone in the room that something had clicked and a very special combination had emerged. A second encounter in 2011 more than confirmed this initial impression and extended the range of the duo, opening up plenty of ground to be explored in their third meeting. Apparently operating according to some sort of shared dream logic, Mori and Noble’s music is always unpredictable but never incoherent, switching suddenly between ominous abstract soundscapes and exuberant rhythmic interplay, peppered with strange recurrences, idiomatic fragments and vertiginous changes of perspective, and characterized by a strong sense of forward momentum.........MORE>
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TUES 25 JUNE '13 • CLOSED FOR A PRIVATE FUNCTION • 5PM-9PM
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The AMES Room
WED 26 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Minimal/maximal terror jazz trio The AMES room (Clayton Thomas, Bass; Will Guthrie, Drums; Jean-Luc Guionnet, alto sax) make a welcome return to Cafe OTO. Clayton Thomas was also seen here most recently as part of a duo tour with Chris Corsano (including a blazing quartet with Nathaniel Facey and Alex Ward) whilst Will Guthrie left a packed house stunned in January with his solo performance opening up for Mika Vainio. There are few groups operating with this level of combined intensity and invention and this promises to be an exhilirating white knuckle ride.........MORE>
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Zewditou Yohannes + Howard Williams (DJ)
FRI 28 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Now UK-based, Ethiopian singer Zewditou Yohannes’ live performances include some great popular Ethiopian ballads as well as her own compositions. She sings in Amharic with a distinctively husky voice that is not common amongst Ethiopian female singers (who are mostly singing in a high register). She is also famous for uplifting her audience thanks to her whistling and ‘eskista’ dance moves (shoulders and head) that are specific to Ethiopian dance. Zewditou performs accompanied by traditional instruments: masenqo (one-stringed spike-fiddle) and krar (six-stringed lyre) plus electric guitar, bass and saxophone.......MORE>
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Hladowski & Joynes + Dead Rat Orchestra + Tom James Scott/Henry Butcher
SAT 29 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
An evening of reassembled folk music with the shamanic power of Dead Rat Orchestra, C Joynes and Stephanie Hladowski's stripped back presentation of songs from the Cecil Sharp House archive and Tom James Scott's collaboration with film maker Henry Butcher........MORE>
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An Evening with Frank Fairfield
SUN 30 JUNE '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Frank Fairfield is a young man and old time folk musician who plays fiddle, guitar and banjo while singing and hollering. His spellbinding live shows channel the spirit of another era. This special event will see Frank perform two transportational sets of his own songs and those drawn from his vast and diverse archive of tunes collected from around the world.......MORE>
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I DON'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE: Film, stories & images from the Mississippi Records and Alan Lomax archive
MON 1 JULY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
A film, music and aural presentation by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records, Portland, USA. Featuring archival film, images & stories spanning 1890 to the present day, illustrating Eric's own special history of underground music movements and bonafide individuals. The live footage performances are culled from rarely seen film shot during Alan Lomax's North American travels between 1978 to 1985 and Mississippi Record's own enormous library of folk blues, gospel, esoteric, international & punk music. ........MORE>
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SAT 6 JULY '13 • CLOSED FOR A PRIVATE FUNCTION • FROM 5PM
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 | Veryan Weston / Trevor Watts / John Edwards / Mark Sanders
SUN 7 JULY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Return performance at OTO for this quartet pairing the long running duo of pianist Veryan Weston and saxophonist Trevor Watts with the dynamic rhythm section of John Edwards on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums and percussion for a new group where all possibilities are open.........MORE>
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The Founder Effect: Alan WIlkinson + Pat Thomas + Steve Noble + John Coxon
WED 10 JULY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Launch concert reprising the line-ups for the three discs in Treader's series "The Founder Effect". Recorded over a day at London's Abbey Road, they include a duo - 'The Both' - between Pat Thomas and Steve Noble and two quartets: one with Pat Thomas on Piano and John Coxon on Synth and the second with Pat on Synth and John Coxon on Guitar. .......MORE>
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Paul Dunmall / Tony Bianco Duo - Tribute to John Coltrane
TUES 16 JULY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Paul Dunmall's massive sound on saxophone and melodic sensibility has always demonstrated the influence of John Coltrane on his playing and he makes this debt even more explicit in this duo with drummer Tony Bianco whose own rolling, polyrhythmic excursions and free-time explorations are descended from both Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali. The pair's recent recording of thanks to John Coltrane mines the melodic and hypnotic possibilities of the interstellar space format to fantastic effect and having them present it here is certainly something to look forward to........MORE>
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HON∆LEE Presents: KLAVIKON + GUM TAKES TOOTH + JAXSON PAYNE
THURS 18 JULY '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
KLAVIKON reimagines ‘electronic’ music without the use of conventional processes - no loops, no laptops, no sequencers. Instead, pianist Leon Michener employs a unique system of amplified prepared piano. Augmenting the 88 keys with his own inventions and found objects - a custom made pick up, a robot dog- he delivers cascading batteries of percussion, sub-basses and abstract soundscapes. This amalgam of virtuosic technique and real-time analogue processing is at once connected with the dancefloor idiom of Detroit Techno pioneers and the Classical traditions of Stockhausen and Cage. The result is a fertile sonic territory, sincere in it’s eccentricity, restlessly inventive, that resists easy categorisation. ........MORE>
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Samara Lubelski
FRI 19 JULY '13 • 8PM • £7 adv / £8 on the door
Samara Lubelski has long been a core figure in the so-called New Weird America, featuring in the seminal works of The Tower Recordings, Hall Of Fame, MV&EE and more, as well as releasing 5 albums of her own and playing in Thurston Moore's band.........MORE>
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Michael Chapman + Richard Dawson
SAT 10 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £8 adv / £10 on the door
Fantastic intergenerational pairing of two of the north of England's foremost outsider song stylists. Michael Chapman is one of the most under-rated heroes of our time. His uniquely English melancholic perspective and emotive guitar style has won him the admiration of everyone from John Peel to Jack Rose, No Neck Blues Band and Thurston Moore (who toured the UK together with Chapman in February 2013). Richard Dawson has been a much-loved musical spectacle in his native Newcastle for many years now, a skewed troubadour who sings and plays guitar with a rare intensity and a very singular style.......MORE>
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SUN RA ARKESTRA - under the direction of Marshall Allen // Five Day Residency
FRI 23 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £20 adv / £25 door / £80 five day pass
SAT 24 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £20 adv / £25 door / £80 five day pass
SUN 25 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £20 adv / £25 door / £80 five day pass
MON 26 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £20 adv / £25 door / £80 five day pass
TUE 27 AUGUST '13 • 8PM • £20 adv / £25 door / £80 five day pass
A pleasure to welcome back one of the greatest big bands of all time - The Sun Ra Arkestra. Operating under the direction of saxophonist Marshall Allen, the Arkestra have made Cafe OTO their home in London. This will be their fifth residency here - this time for an unprecedented five straight days. With such a massive, joyous songbook and the kind of well organised chaos that sees their legendary 3 hour sets move deftly between rolling grooves, sing-along chants and atonal blasts of mischievous brass this promises to be one of the highlights of the summer......MORE>
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The Necks // Three Day Residency
MON 4 NOVEMBER '13 • 8PM • £14 adv / £16 door / £35 three day pass
TUES 5 NOVEMBER '13 • 8PM • £14 adv / £16 door / £35 three day pass
WED 6 NOVEMBER '13 • 8PM • £14 adv / £16 door / £35 three day pass
The Necks are one of the most distinctive and compelling groups in music. This November they take up residency at Cafe OTO performing six sets over three nights. Together for 25 years The Necks have enthralled audiences worldwide with their compelling style of improvisation. Defying orthodox description, not entirely avant-garde, nor minimalist, nor ambient, nor jazz, their music is regularly described internationally as, simply, unique. Featuring lengthy pieces of slow-form development which build in mesmerizing, epic fashion frequently underpinned by an insistent pulse, their performances are never less than phenomenal........MORE>
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