13–15 June 2016
Thrilled to host the first Ecstatic Peace Library conference with three days curated by Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz.
Thurston Moore started Sonic Youth in 1980 and has been at the forefront of the alternative rock scene since that particular sobriquet was first used to signify any music that challenged and defied the mainstream standard. With Sonic Youth, Moore turned on an entire generation to the value of experimentation in rock n roll – from its inspiration on a nascent Nirvana, to Sonic Youth’s own Daydream Nation album being chosen by the US Library of Congress for historical preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2006. Thurston records and performs in a cavalcade of disciplines ranging from free improvisation to acoustic composition to black/white metal/noise disruption. He has worked with Yoko Ono, John Zorn, David Toop, Cecil Taylor, Faust, Glenn Branca and many others. His residency at the Louvre in Paris included collaborations with Irmin Schmidt of CAN. Alongside his various activities in the musical world, he is involved with publishing and poetry, and teaches writing at Naropa University, Boulder CO, a school founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974. Thurston also teaches music at The Rhythmic Music Conservatory (Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium) in Copenhagen. Presently he performs and records solo, with various ensembles and in his own band, The Thurston Moore Group.
In discussion with Thurston Moore
on her new book The Rise, The Fall and The Rise
The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is Brix Smith-Start's extraordinary memoir of her childhood in weird 1960s Hollywood to joining, in 1983, The Fall, Manchester's most polarizing and influential bands of the '77 punk rock revolution. It would arguably be that band's most galvanizing period. She went on to marry the singer Mark E. Smith which led to upheaval and divorce. Brix, post-Fall, went through a myriad of life changes and today is married and living in north London, playing music, appearing on television and WRITING!
Deb Googe, the beyond awesome bass player from Bikini Mutants, My Bloody Valentine, Snow Pony, and The Thurston Moore Group will play in an improvised duo with Thurston this evening.
Maggie Nicols joined London's legendary Spontaneous Music Ensemble in 1968 as a free improvisation vocalist. She then became active running voice workshops with an involvement in local experimental theatre. She later joined the group Centipede, led by Keith Tippets and in 1977, with musician/composer Lindsay Cooper, formed the remarkable Feminist Improvising Group. She continues performing and recording challenging and beautiful work, in music and theatre, either in collaborations with a range of artists (Irene Schweitzer, Joelle Leandre, Ken Hyder, Caroline Kraabel) as well as solo.
TRASH KIT, formed in 2009, are Rachel Aggs, Rachel Horwood and Gill Partington. They've become one of London's most exciting bands with a hypnotic, melodic take on post punk moves with a distinctive sound informed by each members own style. Rachel Aggs plays guitar in a fantastic African high-life fingerstyle action while Rachel Horwood and Gill present their own singular dynamic on bass and drums.Their latest LP "Confidence" on Upset The Rhythm is an in-the-moment no frills document of a completely inspired and inspirational trio.
Tania Caroline Chen has become one of the most interesting musicians working in improvised music and sound art today. She studied with John Tilbury, of AMM, at Goldsmiths College and, as pianist, has performed the music of Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman, John Cage a.o. In the world of free improvisation she has collaborated with Steve Beresford, David Toop, John Butcher and the late Lol Coxhill utilizing found objects, vintage electronics, and small keyboards.
Ashley Paul is an American performer and composer based in London. She uses an array of instruments including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion, mixing disparate elements to create a colorful palate of sound that works its way into her intuitive songs; free forming, introverted melodies. This blend manifests beautiful and simple musical forms against acoustic experimentation.
Ashley has performed or recorded with Phill Niblock, Rashad Becker, Nik Colk Void, Loren Connors, Heatsick, Aki Onda, C. Spencer Yeh, Anthony Coleman, Bass Clef, Joe Maneri, Joe Morris, Seijiro Murayama, Greg Kelley, Bill Nace and Eli Keszler appearing on such labels as Important, PAN, ESP-DISK’ and Tzadik. She received a Masters of Music from New England Conservatory in 2007.
