Monday 31 August 2015, 8pm
Italian drummer, electro-acoustic musician and composer, Andrea Belfi, appears at OTO following on from last year's acclaimed Natura Morta LP on Miasmah. Belfi's projects and collaborations extend to diverse musical fields, from rock to electroacoustic experimentation, from avant-folk to radical improvisation, from audio/visual performance to sound installation.
“Belfi is a permeable performer. He doesn’t react to his surroundings but embodies them, incorporating them into his drumming, becoming a translucent presence through which the soundscape is refracted delicately. I can imagine his sticks fluttering deftly through the synthesiser mist, slipping in and out of visibility as soft organs and searing lens flare pass between him and I.” – ATTN:Magazine review of Natura Morta.
The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged composition.” – Headphone Commute, review of Natura Morta.
Italian-born Andrea Belfi is a drummer, composer, and experimental musician based in Berlin. Over the years Belfi has built a sound world blending the complex timbres of the acoustic with the endless possibilities of the electronic. Belfi has a strong live reputation internationally and his performances are known to be energetic and hypnotic, featuring long-arching immersive soundscapes. He was invited by Thom Yorke to open for his solo show on an international tour in 2019. His last releases Ore and Strata gained Belfi many new fans including tastemakers Mary Anne Hobbs, Gilles Peterson, and Sasha Frere-Jones among others. Over the last few years, he’s been collaborating and touring with artists such as Nils Frahm, Mouse on Mars, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mike Watt, Circuit des Yeux, David Grubbs. He has been on stage at Philharmonie de Paris, Montreux Jazz Festival, The Greek Theater (Los Angeles), Unsound Festival (Krakow), Barbican Center (London), Issue Project Room (New York), and CTM Festival (Berlin). Belfi will be returning to Cafe Oto since his last performance there in 2016 to celebrate 10 years of Marionette.
Northern Irish artist Stephen McLaughlin has been operating in London’s experimental music scene as An Trinse for 5 years but the visual component to the project which has evolved this year is something new. Though working as an animator in the creative industry for nearly a decade this is the first time he has used these skills within in his own artistic practice
This work is based on research undertaken looking into connections between ancient civilisations and speculative history of a global prehistoric society with advanced manufacturing technology that was destroyed by some kind of apocalyptic event leaving few clues to their origin. This is something especially troubling here deep in the Anthropocene where signs of societal and ecological collapse seem to loom.
This was originally presented at CTM affiliated Vorspiel festival in Berlin January 2020 but has now been reworked into a more dynamic live visual performance developed with Monika Subrtova.
An Trinse piece ‘Ethics of Display’ is currently showing at Most Dismal Swamp’s online exhibition: https://newart.city/show/dismal-sessions
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Thessaloniki, Greece) is a musician and linguist based in London. She is active in experimental and improvised music since 2006. She plays the zither, a string instrument, and uses ebows and objects on its resonance box to produce sustained or granulated sounds. Her approach focuses on the interplay between spontaneity and elaborate techniques.
Recently, Mikroton released ‘Borough’ that documents the singular meeting of ‘The Holy Quintet’ with Johnny Chang, Jamie Drouin, Dominic Lash and David Ryan.
In the last few years she has been performing mainly in and around London, while most recent shows have been in Berlin. At the moment, she is exploring multiple ways to reroute her music.
http://www.strokebystroke.net/
