Sunday 15 April 2018, 7.30pm
Delighted to welcome beloved Glaswegian group, The Pastels to OTO for a very special two-day residency! A Pastelist Otopia! Following in the footsteps of the so-called ' Sound Of Young Scotland’ in the early 1980s, The Pastels have proven to be an enduring act, stubborn and purposeful, carving out their own niche and still commanding a legion of devoted fans and seeing off too many fads, fashions and scenes to mention. This is an opportunity to not only see them perform in a smaller space than usual but also over the weekend to gain a unique insight into their world.
"We’re extremely honoured to have been invited by Cafe Oto to curate a weekend event in their great space. Although we’ve never played there before we feel very connected with their work and appreciate that they perform an important, supportive role to a fringe music scene that is similar in some ways to what we’ve tried to do in Glasgow with Monorail Music and Mono Cafe Bar. Dots joining up and all that.
On both evening shows we’ll be joined by our friend, Glasgow-based Polish composer and pop outsider, Ela Orleans. We’ve collaborated with Ela in the past and very much hope to do so in the future too. On the Saturday matinee we have Snails, from Bristol who make magical folk-pop music somewhere between Basil Kirchin and The Kinks. And on the Sunday matinee we’ll be joined by a group we consider one of the greatest English groups of our time, DIY dreamers, Comet Gain.
The matinees will also feature a rare screening of various music promos we’ve made through the years, including some rarely seen, and a conversation between myself and the effortlessly excellent BBC6 broadcaster, Gideon Coe.” – Stephen McRobbie, The Pastels
Born in 1971 in Oswiecim, Poland, Ela Orleans moved to Glasgow, Scotland in 1997 and joined collage-pop group Hassle Hound. Orleans moved to Warsaw in 2000 and began working on solo material, as well as collaborating with Marcus Schmickler and continuing to work with Hassle Hound. The band signed with Staubgold, which released Limelight Cordial in 2006, but the group dissolved in 2008, after which Staubgold posthumously released their second album, Born in a Night, in 2010.
In 2004, Orleans moved to New York, where she collaborated with various noise artists. She began releasing her solo material in 2008. Her sample-driven songs, often featuring Casio keyboards and reverb-caked vocals, recalled ghostly memories of ’50s and ’60s pop, drawing from influences ranging from Broadcast to Ethiopiques compilations to Bernard Herrmann film scores. Orleans’ first vinyl release, 2009’s Lost LP on French label La Station Radar, received acclaim from several indie music publications and independent record stores around the world. Since then Orleans has been consistently praised for her consecutive releases. In October 2013, her double album Tumult In Clouds received The Dead Albatross Music Prize voted for by the finest record shops, radio presenters, listeners, writers and record collectors from across UK and Ireland. Her tracks has been played frequently on major and independent radio stations in UK, Europe, America and Japan.
Orleans moved back to Glasgow by the end of 2011. She since toured UK and Europe, worked on several albums, soundtracks for independent films, and completed a remix of new age pioneer Laraaji for Warp.
