Sunday 3 September 2023, 2pm
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang began playing music together as the rhythm section, co-songwriters, and sometime singers in Galaxie 500. The band’s three influential albums were genre-defying landmarks of atmospheric post-punk, inspiring many who followed in their wake. Since the demise of Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi have worked as a duo, exploring folk music, psychedelia, and collaborations with like-minded musicians. After a series of recordings for Sub Pop, they established their own label 20/20/20. Their latest, A Sky Record, was released in August 2021.
Praise for Damon & Naomi’s A Sky Record:
“A beautiful album, one of the duo’s most beguiling… a calming and tender reflection on appreciating what you have in uncertain times." Pitchfork
“Damon & Naomi are back to make all your folk-pop dreams melt into the sunset." Rolling Stone
"This is one of Damon & Naomi’s most purely gorgeous sounding records — and considering the glories of what’s come before, that’s a real accomplishment." Aquarium Drunkard
"It’s untethered and free." Stereogum
"The album is beautiful — an ambient dreamscape set to poetry." WBUR
Born in Cambridge and raised in the Fens, Richard Youngs began making music at the start of the seventies. His early work centred on the family piano. When this was sold in the late seventies, however, the classical guitar and cassette recorder became his instruments of choice, along with anything at hand that made a sound. From then on he has played any number of roles with bands such as Astral Social Club, Concrete Hedge, No Deserts, Jandek and Future Pilot A.K.A. Recent collaborative work with Andrew Paine, Heatsick, Kawabata Makoto and John Clyde-Evans also show him as a highly social musician.
His catalogue of releases wanders into all kinds of zones over a vast array of albums on various labels including his No Fans imprint: they include accapella, guitars, pipes or electronics and come out of solitude and in partnership with atmospheres that range from fragmental folk to all-out fuzz.
“THE iconic figure of the modern UK underground … Richard Youngs evolves in the shadows where most won’t look, but those who do will forever be dazzled and amazed” – The Quietus
