Saturday 20 January 2018, 7.30pm, OTO Project Space
Adam Bohman / amplified table, text
Arma Agharta / DIY electronics, vocals
Alan Wilkinson / saxophones, bass clarinet
Tasos Stamou / DIY electronics, loops, objects
Tasos Stamou: is a Greek electroacoustic music composer and performing artist, a music technologist and a tutor, a studio and radio producer.
After migrating in U.K over a decade ago, his sound artstarted being inspired by the idea of nostalgia. His latest albums are combining electronic music with his South East Mediterranean heritage. He has performed in over 300 shows in Europe and in U.S.A in venues and festivals of innovative music (Bent Festival, Incumbate Festival, Supernormal Festival, Café OTO, Seanaps Festival, The Barbican, etc.). He has over 20 releases in independent music labels (Discrepant, Ikuisuus, Moving furniture, Coherent States, KukurukuRecordings, etc.). He has collaborated with several veterans of exploratory music, such as Steve Beresford, Anna Homler, Mike Cooper, Savina Yannatou, Adam Bohman, Tomomi Adachi.
Stamou is also leading workshops of improvised music, hardware hacking electronics for music production and workshops for younger audiences introducing contemporary music. In the last couple of years Stamou is also using radio as a medium,
as a podcast radio producer (Stegi Radio), guest producer or creator of radio art pieces.
Adam Bohman has been operating on the outer fringes of underground music for decades. Working with home-built instruments, found objects, tape cut-ups, collages, ink drawings and graphic scores. Favouring acoustic sounds over electronics, he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments and objects. He is a member of British experimental groups, Morphogenesis, The Bohman Brothers, Secluded Bronte, and The London Improvisers Orchestra. Adam's music is unique and experimental, incorporating Fluxus japery, musique concrete, sound poetry and free improvisation.
After leaving Art College in Leeds in the late 1970s Wilkinson became involved in the music scene in the City playing in a variety of bands, whilst pursuing his passion for improvisation, promoting and playing alongside some of the great and upcoming names at his club night 'The Termite Club'. It was during this period that he joined forces with the drummer Paul Hession and the tragically deceased bassist Simon Fell to form the trio Hession/Wilkinson/Fell, described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette, as "a band that outdoes the old Brötzmann groups for sheer firepower". In the late 80s he was invited to tour with Company by Derek Bailey and subsequently featured in 2 London Companys one of which he co-curated. When he relocated to London in 1990 he was already a figure on the scene and has continued to play and promote the music through various club nights, especially flimflam at Ryans Bar N16, running since January 2001. Playing in innumerable ad hoc settings in the UK and beyond notable collaborators have included Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata, Thurston Moore, Chris Corsano, Eddie Prevost, Charles Hayward, Talibam! and Jason Spaceman. Long standing groups include a trio with John Edwards and Steve Noble, Norwegian group Akode, and a trio with Alex Ward and Jem Doulton.
"At its highest points, this session unleashes some of the most preposterously powerful energy jazz heard since Peter Brötzmann's Yatagarasu trio with Takeo Moriyama and Masahiko Satoh" - Daniel Spicer, The WIRE
Arma Agharta is the sound performance artist and promoter from Lithuania devoted to improvised and performative music.
Since 2006 he has organized more than a 100 events in Lithuania and did nearly 400 performances all around the world: from Brazil to Philippines, from Siberia to California, from Greenland to Singapore.
His intense and high energy shows span a broad territory between the eruptions of chaotic noise and hypnotic psychedelic ritual to dadaist humour, odd bodily movements, spontaneous improvised games and the voice, detached from meaning and turning into unintelligible glossolalia.
In past few years he participated in these festivals and special events: Arctic Sounds (Greenland), Volta (Mexico), Destroy Vancouver (Canada), Gogbot (Netherlands), Sonic (Denmark), Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), Construction (Ukraine), Le mini Who (Netherlands), Mlode Wilki (Poland), Camp (Germany), Aposition (Russia), Hamselyt (Ukraine), Other Worlds (UK), MEM (Spain), Noise & Fury (Russia), Sonic Circuits (USA), FIME (Mexico), Experi-Mental (USA), SOTU (Netherlands), Sound Around (Russia), Garso Architektūra (Lithuania).
His music is exclusively released on cassette format in various European labels.
Arma has collaborated with these artists: Blu Simon Wasem (Brazil), Tasos Stamou (Greece), Kamal Sabran (Malaysia), Stefano Ferrian and Simone Quatrana (Italy), Andris Indans and Marcik Butler (Latvia), Lithuanian artists: Arnas Mikalkėnas, Arturas Bumšteinas, Ramunas Jaras, Marijus Butkevičius; the bands Oak Birches, Cutthroats, Laisva Struktūra, Disforija and P.K.I.K.T.
