Monday 10 December 2018, 7.30pm
“Victor’s playing emphasizes the ethereal beauty of the strings’ natural vibrations, but he can also create insane rafts of sound with Northern African rhythms crossing swords with chunks of string sound as mysterious fried as anything ever done by Loren Connors.” – Byron Coley
Victor Herrero was introduced to music in his childhood while living in the famous monastery Franco erected in a mountain valley west of Madrid (El Valle de los Caídos). There he learned to sing Gregorian and Mozarabic chant under the guidance of Benedictine monks. As a teenager back in his hometown Toledo he formed a psych-rock outfit called ‘Cicely’, which grew into a popular Madrid-based band. The group lasted 8 years, after which Victor recorded and released an album of his solo piano compositions "Connotaciones para Piano" (Sello Autor - SGAE, 2006) under his old stage name “Victor Cicely”.
Shortly after this period, Victor met his wife the US artist Josephine Foster, and they began to collaborate and perform together in concert as well as in the recording studio. During the last couple years Victor has been involved in many different projects and journeys. Travelling, recording or playing with artists like Michael Gira, Keiji Haino, Luzmila Carpio, Baby Dee, Master Musicians of Joujouka, Vinicio Capossela, Sonny Simmons, Ed Askew, Arlt, Marisa Terzi, Alasdair Roberts, Eric Chenaux, Tomi Simatupang, Alex Neilson, Paz Lenchantin, Gyda Valtysdottir, Abdellah el Gourd, Michael Zerang, Nat Baldwin, Lorena Álvarez, Shahzad Ismaily, etc.
Currently, in this year 2020 he begins to collaborate with El Volcán Música in the release of his next album, which will be titled “Hermana”. This is an album produced by Tobias Levin at Electric Avenue Studio, Hamburg, with the art and cover by Nick Devereux.
William Rees is a composer and multi-instrumentalist currently based in London. Having spent six years studying Hindustani classical music in India, as well as being classically trained on the viola, Rees has a keen understanding of both South Asian and Western classical traditions. Rees’ music is an esoteric blend of his disparate influences, ranging from Indian and Persian classical music, to modern composition and free improvisation. He released a cassette of solo viola compositions on Night Ritual Recordings in 2013, entitled A Burial Shroud. His most recent release was a split cassette under the Curling Hands moniker for Skell Records.
“Chilled, resonating strings ebb and flow in a swarm of distant beauty. Imagine Bad Seed/Dirty Three Warren Ellis playing a noise showcase in a familiar basement and you’re mostly there. It’s a moving piece of gritted transcendence.” – Secret Decoder
http://nightritual.bandcamp.com/album/a-burial-shroud
http://nightritual.bandcamp.com/album/live-uag
