Sunday 1 March 2026, 2pm
Please join us to celebrate the publication of Adam Bohman - ‘Drawings, Collages, Paintings’ - the first collection of Adam Bohman’s artworks in print, published by Cafe OTO’s in-house imprint, OTOHON.
The afternoon will start with a screening of Gianmarco Del Re’s portrait of Adam commissioned by OTO in 2014. Artist and writer Sophie Sleigh-Johnson will then host a conversation with Adam about his artwork, followed by a very special performance of a new Adam Bohman text piece, performed by The Bohman Brothers, Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, Richard Thomas, and you, if you like.
We’ll be offering a special discount on the book that day, and there should be time for signing and a pale ale after the performance.
Adam Bohman has been operating on the outer fringes of underground music for decades. Working with home-built instruments, found objects, tape cut-ups, collages, ink drawings and graphic scores. Favouring acoustic sounds over electronics, he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments and objects. He is a member of British experimental groups, Morphogenesis, The Bohman Brothers, Secluded Bronte, and The London Improvisers Orchestra. Adam's music is unique and experimental, incorporating Fluxus japery, musique concrete, sound poetry and free improvisation.
Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, born 1988, is a Southend-on-Sea-based writer, local journalist, and artist. She holds a PhD from Goldsmiths College, London, where she teaches as an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies. Her latest book. Code: Damp - An Esoteric Guide to British Sitcoms (2024) is published by Repeater. Her ongoing work invokes an occult connection between magic and place that is distributed across writing, printmaking, spoken word and cassette releases.
https://www.sophiesleigh-johnson.co.uk/
https://thequietus.com/culture/books/marshland-surrealism-rising-damp-code-damp-sophie-sleigh-johnson-review/
https://repeaterbooks.com/authors/sophie-sleigh-johnson/
https://purgexxx.bandcamp.com/album/collapse
“Sound art veterans The Bohman Brothers invest random words with unearned meanings via the eloquent juxtapositions of their elegantly neutral voices. After three decades of experimentation, these alchemists of banality, these banalchemists, turn everyday leaden language into poetic gold.” – Stewart Lee (reviewing the ‘Back On The Streets’ album)
Adam Bohman and Jonathan Bohman have been recording together since their early teens and playing live since 1984. Their repertoire includes a combination of sounds created in the moment and distinct compositions including songs. They use unconventional instruments, household objects, dislocated text from found, literary and commercial sources and collaged layers of recordings.
https://thebohmanbrothers.bandcamp.com/
Richard Thomas has been writing and performing since the 1980s.
His first recordings were released in 1996 on The Leaf Label followed by albums on Lo Recordings and many other imprints.
Over the years Thomas has produced a wide range of music and sound works for a variety of record labels, ensembles, concerts, theatres, festivals, galleries, museums and miscellaneous media outlets. Thomas’ music has been featured on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, WFMU, Rai Radio Due, Rai Radio Tre, Radio France, Conzertzender, Channel 4 and many other international media channels. His latest recordings - The House Rabbit of Jesus Green, The Painted Orchid - are published by the Ffordd Allan label. Thomas is a founder member of the group Secluded Bronte.
Thomas has appeared as a guest on programmes such as BBC Radio 4’s “Jon Ronson on…”, “You and Yours”, and “Pick of the Week”, and the John Peel presented Channel 4 production “The Sound of The Suburbs”.
Between 2003 and 2013 Thomas was a Producer, Content Manager / News Editor / Commissioning Editor at Resonance 104.4FM.
Thomas is a regular contributor to The Wire Magazine and other publications. He has been a visiting artist, visiting lecturer and associate lecturer at SOAS, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Leeds Metropolitan University, London Metropolitan University.
In 2023 and 2024 Thomas will write, produce and direct a sequence of plays at Shift, Cardiff and elsewhere. Several films currently in post-production will be distributed theatrically in 2024.
