A caustic, creeping session from two avante-heavyweights, dug up from our archive and splattered into our uncertain present.
While Alan and Aaron might be best known for their group projects (Reynols, Volcano the Bear etc), the two have formed a symbiosis over the course of a decade now, allowing time for their own brand of surrealist interplay to meld and ferment. Clustered piano chords, ghostly utterances, heavy guitar riffs, thudding drum work, trumpets and more are piled together and thrown into a swirling psychedelic mass. There's moments disquiet, before things break out into a free-wheeling cacophony.
Drama, theatre, absurdity, beauty; masks on, masks off. A ritual summoned somewhere between earth and... well, who the hell knows?
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Aaron Courtis & Aaron Moore - all music
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Recorded by James Dunn at Cafe OTO on the 28th of February 2020.
Tracklisting:
1 - 28.2.16 [36:31]
Alan Courtis was born in 1972 in Buenos Aires , Argentina. He was a founder member of Reynols who spawned over 100 releases. He also has more than 100 solo releases and collaborations on labels like: P.S.F., Blossoming Noise, No-Fi, Porter, RRR, Riot Season, Kning Disk, Beta-Lactam, Sedimental,Alt.Vinyl, Feeding Tube, etc. He has toured extensively in Japan, Europe, USA, Australia, NZ & Latin America and has collaborated with musicians like: Pauline Oliveros, Lee Ranaldo, Jim O’Rourke, Phill Niblock, Otomo Yoshihide, Francisco López, Daniel Menche, Yoshimi, Eddie Prevost, Makoto Kawabata, KK Null, Mats Gustafsson, Rick Bishop, Toshimaru Nakamura, L.A.F.M.S., Thomas Dimuzio, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lasse Marhaug, Ashtray Navigations, Nihilist Spasm Band, Rapoon, Birchville Cat Motel, The New Blockaders, Kaffe Mathews, Jaap Blonk, Jazkamer, C.Spencer Yeh, Okyung Lee, Avarus, & Kemialliset Ystavat.
His music always has strong experimental sense and usually based on high-skilled techniques of prepared sound, tape manipulations, processing of field recordings, live electronics, objects, cymbals, synthesizers, computer tools, playing traditional (both acoustic and electric) instruments as well as self-built, strange and unusual instruments (eg. unstringed guitar). Courtis has composed music for films by directors like Claudio Caldini, Sergio Subero, Guillermo Ueno & Pablo Mazzolo. He currently coordinates a Field Recordings Workshop at Centro de Investigaciones Artisticas and Cobra Libros in Buenos Aires, and he has also ran workshops in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, Mexico, Peru, Chile, United States, Australia, New Zealand & Japan.
Aaron Moore is an Englishman residing in Brooklyn, New York who plays music with instruments & devices. His primary instruments are drums, voice & trumpet but he generally considers any instrument (or object) playable in one way or another. Moore is a founding member of the English experimental music group Volcano The Bear. Formed in 1995 VTB have been critically acclaimed as one the leading lights on the UK experimental music scene. A music consisting of both composition & improvisation, a music difficult to describe but one that is always seeking change & taking new directions both accidentally & on purpose. In a 2006 article on the group the Wire magazine described them as “producing some of the finest, wildest British music of the last 10 years on record & on stage”.
Since moving to Brooklyn in late 2006, Moore has been developing his solo work under the name Invisible Sports in a number of ways using drums, voice, melodic percussion, trumpet, tapes & loops. From songs based around melodic percussion & multi-tracked voice to sprawling epics of progressive looping & ritualistic improvisation. In 2008 he performed his first solo concert in Oslo, Norway followed by shows in France & New York. He continues to play sporadically as a solo artist and with Volcano The Bear performs on a regular basis in Europe and the UK.
Moore has appeared on over 40 albums with various groups & toured extensively in North America & Europe; performing at such prestigious venues as the Pompidou Centre in Paris. He has collaborated/performed with Boredoms, A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Michael Snow, Bill Drummond, Mats Gustaffson, Alan Courtis, C Spencer Yeh, Thierry Muller, Tom Recchion, The Nightingales, Andrew Liles and Steve Mackay (The Stooges).
Moore’s other musical projects past & present include Gospel Of Mars, Wizards Of Oi, Muller-Moore-Music, Dragon Or Emperor, Amolvacy, Songs Of Norway and Textile Trio/ Textile Orchestra.
