Wednesday 30 October 2019, 7.30pm
Enigmatic NYC composer and performer Ka Baird brings her unique take on the avant garde to London for a special one-off. Releasing her second solo LP Respires on RVNG Intl, sees her current aesthetic and musical cues taken from indigenous, sacred flute music of New Guinea and vocal music of Burundi, Can, Maryanne Amacher, Don Cherry’s Organic Music Society, and Chaitanya Hari’s Kundalini Meditation Music, all driven by a fearless quest for musical discovery.
From the unusual folk music of her Drag City debut Spires That In The Sunset Rise, to her many collaborative and solo efforts, Baird’s careful artistry and years of experimental exploration, placed in connection with the raw power unleashed by the body, lungs, and reeds, represents an intersection of possible futures, culminating on her forthcoming album Respires. We can’t wait to witness to what she and her extremely special guest collaborators, curated by Phantom Limb, conjure on this magical night.
Support comes from exciting London experimental collective Rutgar Hause. Luke Cartledge for The Quietus: “Somewhere between the two chronological and stylistic extremes of the South London experimental canon, partially bridging the gap between the uncompromising future-building of This Heat and the caterwauling noise-funk of Black Midi, lie improv-rock sextet, Rutger Hauser”
Born in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Chennai in India. He began playing tabla aged 10, but was also drawn to the American music that he heard on the radio and leaking through the doorway of his local jazz music shop (Ahmad Jamal and John Coltrane were early discoveries). At 17, Korwar moved to Pune to study Environmental Science, but instead dedicated his time to music, practising tabla under the tutelage of Rajeev Devasthali, translating his skills to the western drum kit and playing as a session musician.
On completing these studies a decade ago, he moved to London where he trained as a classical tabla player under the guidance of Sanju Sahai at SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies), focusing on the adaptation of Indian classical rhythmic material to non-Indian percussion instruments.
Korwar has since established himself as one of the most original and compelling voices in the UK jazz scene, leading the UPAJ Collective - a loose band of South Asian jazz and Indian classical musicians brought together through a love of collaboration and improvisation who set up a residency at the Jazz Café in London. Korwar has collaborated with the likes of Shabaka Hutchings (The Comet Is Coming), clarinettist Arun Ghosh and producer Hieroglyphic Being, as well as groups Penya and Ill Considered. He has toured with Kamasi Washington, Yussef Kamaal and Moses Boyd.
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (b. 1975) is an artist and multi instrumentalist that works with voice in the realm of spontaneous music often under the moniker of Lichens. Most recently, creating patch pieces with modular synthesizer and singing to them has been a focus of live performance and recordings.
Quality of sound through the marriage of synthesis coupled with voice has allowed for a heightened physicality in the way of ecstatic music, both in a live setting and recorded. The sensitivity of analogue modular systems echoes the organic nature of vocal expression which in this case is meant to put forth a trancelike state. To usher in Deep Listening through sound and feeling. Losing one's self in sound while being acutely self aware.
By way of a recent meeting and collaboration with artist Patrick Smith, Robert has begun to utilize projections with live performances. The current video piece is called "Clouds" which is a vector driven animation made by Patrick Smith.
Through collaboration Robert has worked with Ben Russell, Ben Rivers, Rose Lazar, Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Tarek Atoui, Ben Vida, Mark Borthwick, Lucky Dragons, Alan Licht, Michael Zerang, Doug Aitken, Patrick Smith, Monica Baptista, Lee Ranaldo, White/Light, Kevin Martin, Chris Johanson, Tyondai Braxton, David Scott Stone, Genesis P-Orridge and Rose Kallal, as well as many others.
Rutger Hauser's spontaneously generated riffs and beats are peppered with found sounds from cassettes and records, and not-quite-sci-fi interjections of cheap synths and self-made electronics. Unofficial house band of The Lumen Lake experimental music nights at Lewisham Arthouse, Rutger Hauser are dedicated to an inclusive and accessible mode of group improvisation and to having fun in performance.
The band started in 2013 as the duo of John Harries (Sleeps in Oysters) on drums and Jamie Coe on bass/pedals, then rapidly and willfully expanded to include Jon Klaemint Hofgaard on guitar, Lisa Busby (Fingers in the Gloss, Sleeps in Oysters) and Ian Stonehouse on playback media and electronics and Rose Dagul (Rhosyn) on cello. Rutger Hauser's debut album was recorded live in two days in the summer of 2014, at the Electronic Music Studios at Goldsmiths College. Half the material had pre-determined structures, the rest was entirely improvised in the studio, and the record remains as it was performed, with no overdubs.
http://www.adaadat.co.uk/rutgerhauser/
