Sunday 1 February 2015, 8pm
We're hugely excited to present a three-day residency from the mighty Konono No. 1! Playing on scrap metal percussion and spiky metal thumb pianos, pounding out exuberant and rhythmic beats that are distorted through amplifiers made from old car parts, they create a sound as immediate as it is unclassifiable. Futuristic and primeval, body-shaking and immersive, these should be a very special few days indeed.
“They don't call this trance music for nothing. Played loud, like it's meant to be, it will take you to another sphere. Heavily amplified bass, tenor and treble likembes throb and weave in and out of each other; traditional and found drums and percussion deliver irresistible visceral grooves; and the amplification's sonic distortions frequently give the music the character of cutting edge Western electronica. This is dance/trance music you can with equal pleasure move to, or sit down to. Truly fantastic stuff” – All About Jazz
Expect extraordinary, radical grooves from this cult Congolese dance outfit. Playing on scrap metal percussion and spiky metal thumb pianos, they pound out exuberant and rhythmic beats that are distorted through amplifiers made from old car parts. Their repertoire draws largely on Congolese trance music, but they've had to incorporate the originally unwanted distortions of their sound system. This has driven them towards a unique sound that resonates with the aesthetics of the most experimental forms of rock and electronic music. The result is both futuristic and primeval. Electronica and avant-rock aficionados have all been equally amazed by this otherworldly dance music, which has driven the international press to come up with some surprising comparisons (from Can and Krautrock to Jimi Hendrix, Lee Perry and proto-techno!).
“Every so often there comes a record of such unlikeliness, of such overpowering rhythmic intensity and such majestic indifference to global musical trends that you're knocked sideways. This is one of them.” – The Daily Telegraph
“As you try to sift through the dense crosstalk of beats, your ears are beguiled ever deeper into Konono’s rhythmic threshing machine.” – THE WIRE
Born in London England 1962 Andy began his musical life in Edinburgh, Scotland playing guitar with the band Dog Faced Hermans, In 1990 he moved to the Netherlands after an invitation to join Dutch band The Ex whuch he is still a full time member of.
In more recent years Andy has collaborated with amongst others Yannis Kyriakides (Cypriot composer)), Anne James Chaton (french sound poet), Christine Abdelnour (Lebanese Paris based saxaphonist). He has also worked composing soundtracks for films with Iranian filmaker Bani Khoshnoudi. His latest projects include a quartet with Ken Vandermark , Terrie Ex and Paal Nilssen Love called Lean Left. The Heretics project with Anne James Chaton more recently with the departure of Thurston Moore has become a duo project which they began touring n 2017. In November 2019 Andy began a new project with Marion Coutts from Dog Faced Hermans . In 2020 he began a duo with Scottish composer and performance artist Genevieve Murphy called “The One I feed “ with guitar text and reel to reel tape machine.. End of 2021 also saw Andy begin work as a live DJ and radio producer as DJ ANDY EX) and has been working with Amsterdam based Echobox Radio and does a live show every four weeks on a Friday. The shows are all archived on Mixcloud and is called Blueprints For A Blackout.
Butcher is well known as a saxophonist who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of time and place. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and unusual acoustics. Since the early 80s he has collaborated with hundreds of musicians – including Derek Bailey, Rhodri Davies, Andy Moor (EX), Phil Minton, Christian Marclay, Eddie Prevost, John Stevens’ SME, Gino Robair, Polwechsel, Mark Sanders, John Tilbury, and Okkyung Lee.
Alongside long term projects he values occasional encounters; from large groups such as the EX Orkestra & Butch Morris’ “London Skyscraper”, to duo concerts with Fred Frith, Akio Suzuki, Paal Nilssen-Love, Keiji Haino, David Toop, Otomo Yoshihide, Sophie Agnel and Matthew Shipp.
Recent compositions include “Penny Wands” for Futurist Intonarumori, two HCMF commissions for his own groups, “Good Liquor Caused my Heart for to Sing” for the London Sinfonietta and “Tarab Cuts”, a response to recordings of early Arabic classical music which was shortlisted for a 2014 British Composer’s Award.
“English saxophonist John Butcher may be among the world’s most influential musicians, operating at the cutting-edge of improvisatory practice since the ‘80s. Whenever an acoustic musician starts to sound like a bank of oscillators, a tropical forest, a brook or an insect factory, Butcher’s influence is likely nearby.” – New York City Jazz Record.
• TERRIE HESSELS - guitar
• ARNOLD DE BOER - vocals, guitar
• ANDY MOOR - guitar
• KATHERINA BORNEFELD - drums, vocals
The adventurous, innovative Dutch band The Ex exists 40 years this year and is still going strong. New projects, new songs and new adventures.
The Ex have defied categorisation ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as their starting point, The Ex have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day.
Already the early 1980s saw collaborations with jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band. In the 90s the group found a myriad of partners from varied musical and non-musical backgrounds like Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder and Shellac. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia, organised many projects over there and invited several Ethiopian musicians to Europe. Most striking was the collboration with the legendary saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, which eventually led to two CD recordings and more than a hundred concerts.
The band also started organising the ‘Ex Festivals’, where they invited their favourite musicians. A mix of jazz improvisers, musicians from all over the world and local treasures they came across on tour. The last few years saw collaborations with Brass Unbound (Wolter Wierbos, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark and Roy Paci), Circus Debre Berhan and Fendika, both from Ethiopia, and many, many more.
After all these years, more than 28 albums and around 2000 concerts the band continues to work as they did in when they began, completely independent of record companies, managers or roadies. Because of this ‘do it yourself’ work ethic The Ex is still a great example for other forward-thinking bands and musicians.
“Staying a bird, staying independent, free if you will, for three decades, that takes skill and something else, something more like heart.” – Music journalist John Corbett on The Ex.
