Friday 27 May 2022, 8pm
Thomas Ankersmit is a musician based in Berlin and Amsterdam. He plays the Serge Modular analogue synthesizer, both live and in the studio, and collaborates with artists like Phill Niblock and Valerio Tricoli.
His music is released on the Shelter Press, PAN, and Touch labels, and combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.
For this concert he will perform new, loosely structured solo material that’s perhaps more cinematic and musique concrète than his earlier work - a project commissioned by Cafe OTO.
A music of scenes, spaces, sonic perspectives - all of it performed on the Serge Modular analogue synthesizer: no samples, no field recordings, no digital effects. The music exists in the tension between abstraction and representation - with Ankersmit trying to 'breathe life' into the electricity, as it were.
At the same time, he’s approaching the synthesizer as an ensemble, sometimes referencing traditional instruments as well (horns, strings, percussion).
“Quicksilver mastery of the Serge Modular Synthesizer … The piece is gorgeous and visceral, balancing tonal bite with supernovas of sound, and deploying a grasp of dynamics and scale to fill the space with something worthy of its sheer grandeur.” – The WIRE
Beachers is the project of London-based Daryl Worthington. He works in the crossovers between accidental and composed sounds, hi and lo-fi audio, with a particular interest in the beauty of the mundane. This takes an array of approaches, from explorations of the materiality and tactility of radio signals through to analogue synthesis, field recording, cassette collages, abstract guitar and sample-based computer music. Beachers releases have appeared on czaszka (rec.), Fractal Meat, Wabi-Sabi Tapes and his own ineffectual suns label.
“Most of these sounds would normally be considered interruptions, unlooked-for incursions into a peaceful state. But by transforming them into music, [Beachers] transforms his perception of the world, too. Rather than regretting what the noise adds to your environment, better to find what you can add to the noise.” Matthew Blackwell, Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp, November 2024, on 'There are no cicadas in this town'
"I love the purity of it. If you’ve ever fallen asleep with an off-the-hook landline lying on the bed next to your ear, you’ll be familiar with the hypnagogic dreamworld they conjure here.” Philip Sherburne, Futurism Restated, on 'Off the hook'
https://ineffectualsuns.bandcamp.com/album/there-are-no-cicadas-in-this-town
https://ineffectualsuns.bandcamp.com/album/off-the-hook
https://czaszka.bandcamp.com/album/the-interview
