Sunday 24 August 2014, 8pm
A great line-up of genre-defying modular constructions and enveloping sonic scree. US experimental/noise musician Robert Turman brings a disorientating morass of electronic textures that deftly weave between ambience and abstraction whilst losing none of the bite and menace that has seen him collaborate with the likes of Aaron Dilloway. Cam Deas returns to OTO with new LP, String Studies, that focuses on turning the 12 string acoustic guitar on its head by using it as the sole sound source for a densely constructed kind of real-time musique concrete. Also on the bill are double drum and synth modulator duo To/To (aka Tobias Kirstein and Toke Tietze) who go for the jugular with a constantly mutating rhythmic burst of bludgeoning energy. Plus DJ sets from Cejero records, who recently put out LPs from both Turman and To/To.
Robert Turman is an experimental/noise musician originally based in San Diego, now in Oberlin, Ohio. He first rose to prominence as part of NON, collaborating with Boyd Rice on the classic 1977 single ‘Mode of Infection’/'Knife Ladder’, before leaving to pursue his own more expansive solo vision. He has put out a number of disparate releases across several labels, as well as a split with Aaron Dilloway.
Cam Deas is a musician and sound artist based in London. His work is not subject to straightforward categorisation, with output ranging from solo acoustic guitar exploration through live electro-acoustic performance, to pure synthesis and computer generative music.
In 2018 he released Time Exercises on The Death of Rave, consisting of five works for synthesiser and computer, his first full length purely electronic work. The pieces explore polytempos and relative ratios between pitch and rhythm in a dense electronic space, described as “disembodied music playing out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution”.
To/To are Tobias Kirstein and Toke Tietze. "The main floor of the rustic, atmospheric, funky Klubi was full as were the outer layers of seats, with most fans standing, the two drummers in a kind of face-off, Tobias Kirstein and Toke Tietze evoking images of a Max Roach/Buddy Rich showdown. And with the occasional, sneaky insertion of electronics, this packed house responded to the occasional techno flourishes with smiles and not a little ass-wiggling." - John Ephland, All About Jazz
