Wednesday 11 November 2015, 8pm

Photo by Scott McMillan

NEXT FESTIVAL / LONDON: Rashad Becker + Shelley Hirsch & Joke Lanz + Jonas Gruska + Urbanfailure

No Longer Available

Founded 2000 in Bratislava, the NEXT Festival of advance music is an annual celebration of exploratory music and sound art – from electronic experiments through free-form improvisation to audiovisual projects, it brings together artists that are pushing the boundaries of music. As a preparation for the 16th edition, the NEXT Festival is bringing to Cafe OTO artists who have performed at the previous editions.

This year the NEXT festival in Bratislava is taking place from 25th to 29th November, featuring Nurse With Wound, Lorenzo Senni, Thomas Lehn & Marcus Schmickler, S.L.Á.T.U.R Collective, Kathy Alberici, Wilhelm Bras, James Welburn, Andrej Gal & Ute Kanngiesser and many more artists.

http://nextfestival.sk

Rashad Becker

On Discogs there are just two releases under Rashad Becker's name but there is another 978 where he is in the credits. As engineer at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering, he has mastered and cut at least 1200 dance, electronic, and experimental albums. Working from his own studio called Clunk he has made one of the most discussed albums in 2013. Traditional Music Of Notional Species Vol. 1, Rashad Becker’s full-length debut on PAN label, is a rewarding challenge. A seasick suite of buzzes, rumbles, growls and blasts unconstrained by any easily identifiable melodic or rhythmic structures.

SHELLEY HIRSCH (voice) & JOKE LANZ (turntables)

"The woman of thousand voices," performer, experimental vocalist and composer Shelley Hirsch is essential figure of New York's avant-garde downtown scene. Her name is mentioned together with names such as John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Marc Ribot, and Elliott Sharp. Her "instant storytelling", installations, radio broadcasts, theatre performances and improvisations have been heard by audiences on five continents. She has released on labels such as Tzadik, No Man's Land, Apollo, Innocence Records, FMP, ...
Swiss virtuoso turntablist Joke Lanz, also known from noise project Sudden Infant, combines in his work elements of ritual, anarchic playfulness, atmospheres and cut-up noise.
Together the duo has released an album ("mastered by Rashad Becker") of scratching, walls of sound, grooves, loops, noises and vocal modulations which is a promise of journey through unpredictable sound wormholes and abstract rhythms.

http://shelleyhirsch.com
http://suddeninfant.com

Jonas Gruska

Jonas studied at Institute of Sonology in The Hague, Netherlands and at Music Academy in Cracow, Poland. In 2009 he has started the LOM label focused on Central and Eastern European experimental art and music. Since 2013 he is organizing ZVUK, outdoor festival dedicated to experimental music. As Binmatu he has released an album on the Ukrainian label Kvitnu. He has authored interactive poems and visual performances, and is also a developer of musical instruments, artistic software and hardware. He gave workshops on city sonification, field recording, printed circuit board design, and programming for artists.

http://jonasgru.sk/
https://zvukolom.org/

URBANFAILURE

Michal Lichy aka Urbanfailure is one of the founding members of Urbsounds Collective - a platform for experimental electronic music in Slovakia that started in 2001. They are from the post-communist DIY and punk generation that took initiative in their own hands and started organising experimental and noise gigs in their hometown – Bratislava. Urbanfailure's rhythmical construction could provoke arrhythmia in the strongest heart. Sometimes a lo-fi techno trasher, sometimes an experienced rhythm deconstructor, his musical performance is a journey of self-organization.

“The style of Urbanfailure is ultra-abstract sound-art consisting of microsounds and discreet rhythm textures. Despite the fact that this isn't meant to be catchy, there are something quite cool about the rhythmic structures of Urbanfailure.” (Niels Mark / Vital Weekly 727)

http://urbsounds.sk/urbanfailure