Thursday 10 September 2015, 8pm
ADAM BOHMAN
Prepared violin, balalika and objects
RON BRIEFEL
Vocals and electronics
CLIVE GRAHAM
Tapes and electronics
CLIVE HALL
Piano and electronics
plus guests...
JOHN WALL
computer
MARK DURGAN
modular synths/effects
Morphogenesis started recording in January 1985, and the first public performance was at the West Square Festival in London in July '85. The group was formed by a group of people interested in exploring the possibilities of live electronic music and collective improvisation. The members of the group come from a wide range of musical backgrounds and have worked in a variety of musical activities outside of the group. Ron taught music technology at Morley College for 20 years, Adam is a regular on the music scene, notably with his brother Jonathan as one half of the Bohman Brothers and more recently in the trio Secluded Bronte. Clive G's first forays into music making began with recording sessions with Nurse With Wound in the 80s, but joined Morphogenesis in 1990 and later released their music on his Paradigm Discs label along with many other releases of electronic music including Daphne Oram and Pauline Oliveros. Michael Prime is another founder member of the group, but he has been impossible to contact, his last known whereabouts being an island of the coast of Ireland. In his stead they have 2 guests John Wall and Mark Durgan. On this occasion Ron will play from his car outside the venue and send a signal to the PA
Their last performance was in 2010 at the LAFMS Lowest Form Of Music festival in London.
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.
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.
