Friday 11 December 2015, 8pm
Three-day residency curated by Sheffield-based multidisciplinary artist, Mark Fell, spanning distinctive approaches to sound, philosophy, plus a special installation from Fell in the OTO Project Space.
Tonight sees a special duo performance from revered electronic producer Rashad Becker and percussionist/composer Eli Keszler, as well as a set from electronic artist and producer Rian Treanor, a talk on time from philiosopher Simon Prosser (‘Is the passage of time an illusion?’) and a DJ set from Jean Shirt (Fear of a Crap Planet).
Mark Fell's work – ranging from minimal electronic music, to sound installations and audio-visual works – has placed him at the forefront of a rapidly expanding area of extreme and independent computer music and his explorations are never less than fascinating.
PAN artists Rashad Becker [Berlin] and Eli Keszler [NYC] will embark their first European tour in December. These two avant garde composers and fluent improvisers have performed as a duo only twice before, at the Empty Gallery in Hong Kong and in New York, so expect new ground will be broken with each show.
Eli Keszler is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He has released two acclaimed albums for PAN, and was last heard on record in collaboration with another estimable jammer, Oren Ambarchi, and in collaboration with Tony Conrad, Christian Wolff and Joe Mcphee amongst many others.
Rashad Becker's live sets evolve around the angle of ‘traditional music of notional species’, a semi-abstract synthetic narrative that proves appealing to a remarkably wide audience.
Collaboration between the visionary soundscaper and virtuoso percussionist is a mouth-watering prospect, we're sure you'll agree.
Rian Treanor (b.1988) is an artist and producer based in the North of the UK. His sound practice re-imagines the intersection of club culture, experimental art and computer music, presenting an insightful and compelling musical world of interlocking and fractured components. Drawing upon his study with Lupo at Berlin’s Dubplates & Mastering, plus years spent curating the Enjoy artspace in Leeds, Treanor’s sound uses off centred rhythmic arrangements, referencing the dynamics of garage and techno as much as Fluxus and Dada cut-ups.
In 2015 Treanor has focused on his solo sound works, developing musical environments for improvisations within his live performances. He has recently signed to Annex artist agency who are managing bookings for his live shows in conjunction with his debut release on The Death of Rave later in 2015.
“I shall argue that, strange though it may sound, there is no such phenomenon as the passage of time. Philosophers distinguish two main theories about time: the 'A-theory' according to which there is a real 'now' and a real passage of time, and the 'B-theory', according to which there are times, and these are ordered (that is, any time is either earlier or later than any other time), but there is no real 'now', and time does not pass. I shall explain and defend the B-theory, and thus the view that time does not pass. I shall briefly discuss the main existing arguments against passage before describing an argument of my own. According to this argument, the main reason to believe that time passes is that our experience of the world seems to tell us that time passes, and that there is something special about the 'now'. I shall argue, however, that this must be an illusion, for there are very good reasons for believing that the alleged passage of time is not the kind of phenomenon that we could possibly be aware of through experience.”
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophy/dept/staffprofiles/?staffid=110
