Friday 30 September 2016, 8pm
ICR, the studio, mail order and distribution started by Colin Potter in the early 1980s is an important contributor to the history of British independent experimental music.
ICR is 35 years old, and has released over 80 albums to date. Yet it remains a relatively obscure presence to all but the true fans and followers of marginal music. All the more surprising when the roll call of artists involved with the label covers a broad spectrum of eccentric and innovative musical imagination.
This event allows 4 key players in the ICR story to celebrate an overlooked landmark of British exploratory music. There will also be 2 special guests – Clodagh Simond of Fovea Hex will be making a rare UK appearance and Paul Bradley.
The celebration, ICR:35, features 5 solo sets from Michael Begg (Human Greed, Fovea Hex), Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound, Current 93), Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Monos) and Paul Bradley (Monos, Twenty Hertz).
Michael Begg’s work teases acoustic instruments, field recordings and electronic erosion into a shared liminal space comprising longing and discomfort. His longstanding Human Greed collaboration with Deryk Thomas has resulted in 5 full albums, with a further 4 credited to Michael Begg/Human Greed. His Fragile Pitches work with Colin Potter was commissioned by the city of Edinburgh to be performed in St Giles Cathedral before subsequently being released as a 2CD on ICR/Omnempathy. He is also a longtime contributor to Clodagh Simonds’s Fovea Hex.
www.michaelbegg.omnempathy.com
Jonathan Coleclough transforms the delicate sounds of everyday objects into mysterious and sensuous music. Starting from raw sounds as diverse as water boiling on a stove, sheep bells ringing on a remote hillside or pins dropping onto the floor, he creates music of richly textured drones and fragile details. He last played at Café Oto in 2015 in a duo with Colin Potter which saw Coleclough controlling a feedback chain spread throughout the performance space. This time he will be doing something entirely different, and will be accompanied by Geoff Sawers who will be lettering a text in parallel with the music.
Andrew Liles is a prolific solo artist, producer, remixer and studio engineer. He has worked with many leading lights in experimental and outsider music and is renowned for his decade long contributions to the recordings and live performances of Nurse With Wound and Current 93. Recording since the mid 1980’s his work has been used in Theatre, Film, Radio and T.V. He has appeared on well over 200 releases creating a unique, eclectic and diverse back catalogue that crosses many genres and styles.
Colin Potter started making unusual music in the early 1980s. He was part of the ‘DIY or tape underground’ which flourished at the time as an alternative to mainstream music. In 1981 he set up the ICR label and IC Studio which are both still thriving after over thirty-five years. He developed a reputation for innovative mixing, sound processing and production and has worked with artists such as Current 93, Fovea Hex, Ora, Organum, Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, Sol Invictus, Monos and many more, most notably with Steven Stapleton on numerous albums by Nurse With Wound.
In 1999 he started to perform live and since then he has been playing solo shows all overEurope and the US. He was also instrumental in persuading Nurse With Wound to return to playing live shows in 2005 and since then he has played with them at many venues and festivals all over the world. His performances feature live remixing of a multitrack recording along with sampling, electronic and acoustic devices with intense sound processing and propagation. A recent series of reissues of his early work (on Deep Distance and Sacred Summits) has led to an upsurge of interest in his music by a largely new audience. New material and several more early works are being released on vinyl and CD over the coming months.
Clodagh Simonds has been in an on/off relationship with The Music Business since 1968 when she released her first single “Feelin’ High” at the age of 15, with the band she formed at school, Mellow Candle. While still in her teens, she did sessions for Thin Lizzy, Mike Oldfield, and Jade Warrior. Over the years she has lived in Dublin, Rome, London, and New York and right now she lives in West Cork. Since 2005 she has been busy persuading a fairly extraordinary cast of characters (including Brian Eno, Colin Potter, Roger Doyle, Julia Kent, Kate Ellis, Carter Burwell, Robert Fripp, Michael Begg, Laura Sheeran, Cora Venus Lunny – and the list goes on....) to aid and abet her recordings under the collective name of Fovea Hex.
Paul Bradley has been exploring unusual music for over 12 years. He runs the label Twenty Hertz, which has released many of his own albums, collaborations and other artists. Living in Preston brought him into contact with Colin Potter, resulting in a long and fruitful partnership, both as a duo and also as a member of Monos.
