Thursday 20 August 2015, 8pm
French composer and multi-instrumentalist Pierre Bastien brings his unique, self-built musical setup to OTO with support from darkly psychedelic duo, Tomaga.
“A typical gig features Bastien performing behind a table on which his machines are arranged. Once they are up and running, he will play along on his pocket trumpet, sometimes shoving a kazoo in its bell, or blowing it with a saxophone mouthpiece to twist the tone. It's a deceptive act: the music and mechanics are simple, but have an unexpected emotional ring, a forlorn beauty that perhaps comes from the way that, just as the automatons make Bastien play more mechanically, so he seems to give the machines humanity.” – The Guardian, ‘Pierre Bastien: the man who makes Meccano sing’
French composer and musician Pierre Bastien played first in some collective bands, and with the Dominique Bagouet Dance Company. In 1976 he built a sound sculpture that was going to be the first element of a large orchestra called Mecanium : an ensemble of musical automatons made of meccano parts and electro-motors, playing on acoustic instruments from all over the world. In the nineties the mechanical orchestra developed up to 80 pieces. It took part in music festivals and art exhibitions in Norway (World Music Days 1990), Australia (Tisea 1992), Japan (Artec 1995), Canada (Fimav 1995, Sound Symposium 1998), Poland (Warsaw Autumn 1995), United States (Flea Festival 1996). In the recent years, Pierre Bastien and his machines collaborated with video artist Pierrick Sorin, fashion designer Issey Miyake, British singer and composer Robert Wyatt, Trottola circus company, musicians Alexei Aigi, Dr Truna, Steve Arguelles, Pascal Comelade and Jaki Liebezeit, among others. His music is released on Western Vinyl, Signature, Rephlex, Morphine, Discrepant and Marionette Records.
https://www.pierrebastien.com/
After their first, self-produced cassette, ‘Sleepy Jazz For Tired Cats’, which was released in 2013, TOMAGA released the acclaimed ‘Futura Grotesk’ LP on the Hands in the Dark label, followed quickly by ‘Familiar Obstacles’ – a cassette release for the boutique London label Blank Editions, that was subsequently released as a limited vinyl in October 2015.
Meanwhile they have played countless concerts and festivals across the world including being invited to open for Deerhoof, Silver Apples and Wire, the latter for their UK tour in May 2015 (for full tourdates see below).
In autumn 2015 Tomaga were invited by Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate to stage a performance using the artworks of Pedro Reyes: re-conditioned weapons confiscated by Mexican police from drug cartels and turned into instruments. The resulting performance will be released on a forthcoming live album. In spring 2016 Tomaga were invited to contribute a sound object to the Yoko Ono exhibition ‘Lumiere De L’aube’ at the Musee D’art Contemporain De Lyon.
In 2016 they will have both an LP and EP release in autumn/winter 2016 as well as live collaborations with Pierre Bastien and Italian radical improv octect Blutwurst.
