Monday 31 August 2015, 8pm
Italian drummer, electro-acoustic musician and composer, Andrea Belfi, appears at OTO following on from last year's acclaimed Natura Morta LP on Miasmah. Belfi's projects and collaborations extend to diverse musical fields, from rock to electroacoustic experimentation, from avant-folk to radical improvisation, from audio/visual performance to sound installation.
“Belfi is a permeable performer. He doesn’t react to his surroundings but embodies them, incorporating them into his drumming, becoming a translucent presence through which the soundscape is refracted delicately. I can imagine his sticks fluttering deftly through the synthesiser mist, slipping in and out of visibility as soft organs and searing lens flare pass between him and I.” – ATTN:Magazine review of Natura Morta.
The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged composition.” – Headphone Commute, review of Natura Morta.
Andrea is a drummer and composer. He studied art in Milan before becoming involved in experimental music. He currently lives in Berlin and its projects include collaborations with Erik Skodvin, Stefano Pilia, Mike Watt, David Grubbs, BJNilsen, Simon James Phillips, Aidan Baker, Hobocombo.
”Natura Morta, "dead nature" or "still life". This album can be understood as a powerful study of the minute details of the art of electro-acoustic composition, as much as the Renaissance "nature morte" were a masterful display of the artist’s skill in portraying the glow of a ripe fruit, or capturing the light beaming on a vacant chair.
Six tracks, to be listened to as two long explorations in the art of variation and repetition. Layers of drums and percussions intertwine with synth waves making the portrait come to life, detail after detail, until a complex figure emerges from the white canvas. The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged compositions.
Recorded at EMS studio, Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin, this album mixes influences from both Italian minimalism and the electro-acoustic contemporary scene. Somewhere in between the electronics of Keith Fullerton Whitman, the percussive repetitions of Jon Mueller, and the atmospheric sensibility of Pan-American.”
Northern Irish artist Stephen McLaughlin has been operating in London’s experimental music scene as An Trinse for 5 years but the visual component to the project which has evolved this year is something new. Though working as an animator in the creative industry for nearly a decade this is the first time he has used these skills within in his own artistic practice
This work is based on research undertaken looking into connections between ancient civilisations and speculative history of a global prehistoric society with advanced manufacturing technology that was destroyed by some kind of apocalyptic event leaving few clues to their origin. This is something especially troubling here deep in the Anthropocene where signs of societal and ecological collapse seem to loom.
This was originally presented at CTM affiliated Vorspiel festival in Berlin January 2020 but has now been reworked into a more dynamic live visual performance developed with Monika Subrtova.
An Trinse piece ‘Ethics of Display’ is currently showing at Most Dismal Swamp’s online exhibition: https://newart.city/show/dismal-sessions
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Thessaloniki, Greece) is a musician and linguist based in London. She is active in experimental and improvised music since 2006. She plays the zither, a string instrument, and uses ebows and objects on its resonance box to produce sustained or granulated sounds. Her approach focuses on the interplay between spontaneity and elaborate techniques.
Recently, Mikroton released ‘Borough’ that documents the singular meeting of ‘The Holy Quintet’ with Johnny Chang, Jamie Drouin, Dominic Lash and David Ryan.
In the last few years she has been performing mainly in and around London, while most recent shows have been in Berlin. At the moment, she is exploring multiple ways to reroute her music.
http://www.strokebystroke.net/
