Friday 13 May 2016, 8pm
“There is something magical about the music of part wild horses mane on both sides. Initial exposure conjures up a Zen garden in sound, where flute and spare percussion brush against elemental textures of trickling water, shifting sands or rocks. But such simple symbolism belies the profound, complex inner journeys that more focused listening inspires, revealing a considered array of electronic, acoustic and found sounds. These often longform sonic spells are cast through combining free improvisation with aspects of electro-acoustic composition and musique concrète, to arrive at a creative practice that the Manchester-based duo of Kelly Jayne Jones and Pascal Nichols describe as 'musique précaire' (precarious music). The term reflects the fragility evoked by their craft, where spontaneity and the gifts of chance ensure a delightful degree of unpredictability.” – Russel Cuzner, The Quietus
Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides is the free improvisation musical duo of Kelly Jones and Pascal Nichols comprising flute, electronics and percussion. The band often touch on aspects of musique concrete and field recordings among the intensity of Nichols’ drumming and the frequent use of silence to great effect. Both members have played and continue to play with a whole range of musicians in Manchester and further afield and have a number of highly praised releases under their belts.
In February 2016 they released Oh Sylvia, a single piece presented over two sides of a cassette. Oh Sylvia is not broken down into tracks and titles but is instead represented by a single flowing piece of text.
Katz Mulk is a performance collective featuring Andrea Kearney, Ben Knight, Ben Morris, and Siân Williams. Their work pulls together crude electronics, field recordings, narrative fragments, dance, and sculptural interventions to create a sticky radiophonic syrup. Katz Mulk’s seek to inhabit the marginal spaces in-between structure and improvisation; producing scores in which movement, sounds and voices mingle and cohere into an awkward present.
For this performance Katz Mulk will be joined by Fay Nicolson. Fay is an artist working across painting, printmaking and performance who uses abstraction, pattern and motif to explore qualities of perception, modes of transformation and the potential for change. Human gestures, in the form of movement, mark and voice, are used as materials. They are 'trained', manipulated and choreographed throughout her work. Embodied knowledge and the ideologies expressed through educational structures inform the backbone of her research.
photo by Cristina Pedreira Pérez
