OTO XXX: Cafe Oto hosts the first ever residency by purge.xxx, a label celebrated by The Wire magazine for its ‘disregard for the music industry, self-promotion and prevailing cultural norms,’ and an ‘ability to elevate distinct works and the obscure artists behind them.’

Launched in Portugal in late-2018 with a concept album about the back of David Bowie’s head (by filmmaker Chris Petit with Mordant Music), purge.xxx has spent the past five years challenging the conventions of major and independent record labels: issuing the Black Industrial ‘signals’ of ‘unheralded pioneer’ Trevor Mathison; commissioning Nkisi’s score for Europe’s oldest and largest stone circle; releasing unique collaborations between Jocelyn Pook and John Smith (on the demolition of artist housing at the city perimeter), and Jason Williamson and Alan Moore (the Sleaford Mods frontman channeling Moore's Pagan’s voice in the fire), along with soundtracks by Takashi Inagaki (for Takashi Ito), Dirk Schaefer (for Peter Tscherkassky, and for Matthias Müller), and Frans Zwartjes; Jarett Kobek’s intensive study of filmmaker and magician, Kenneth Anger, and the Communist Manifesto read, in full, by an eight-year-old boy from Croydon (and the Book of Revelation read, in full, by an nine-year-old girl from Shropshire [drawn from Stanley Schtinter’s year-long Whitechapel Gallery initiative: Important Books, or, Manifestos Read by Children]).

Three-night-stand passes also entitle the holder to a limited edition purge.xxx mix CD, produced especially for the event.

Supported by the Institute for End Times Healing.

PROGRAMME - November 24:

TREVOR MATHISON
Trevor Mathison is a founder member of Black Audio Film Collective, whose work in composition, sound design and visual art has been hailed by Kodwo Eshun, Mark Fisher, and many others. His first and second solo LPs were released by purge.xxx in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

CHARLES HAYWARD & JOHN SMITH
Charles Hayward and John Smith first collaborated in the mid 1970s when Smith showed his films to accompany performances by Charles’s band This Heat. After being out of touch for nearly 40 years they reunited for collaborations with This Is Not This Heat at the Barbican Hall, London (2017) and the CPH:DOX Festival in Copenhagen (2019). This week’s performances in Paris and London are the artists’ first collaboration as a double act.

DUBMORPHOLOGY
Formed by Trevor Mathison and Gary Stewart and 2005, Dubmorphology is an interdisciplinary group making experimental sound and visual installations that examine the relationship between culture, history and creativity, reworking historical, political and scientific archives.