For the Café OTO Projects Promoters and Artists Fund, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Miles of Smiles is extremely proud to present a very special pair of interlinked shows exploring the mercurial nature of the British outsider/ experimental impulse as it filters through the pastoral, idyllic & individual (Elodie and Matthew Shaw on Saturday 18 January), and the urban, industrial and collective (Vibracathedral Orchestra and Blood Stereo on Saturday 8 February).

Elodie is the pairing of Hull-based artist and musician, Andrew Chalk, and Finnish sound artist/composing improviser Timo Van Luijk. For this performance they'll be joined by special guests Tom James Scott and Jean-Noel Rebilly. Support comes in the form of Matthew Shaw, who has refined an approach that is distinctive and powerful, sifting found sounds and field recordings with finely traced details and mounting swells of treated strings, guitar, synth and a broader uncatalogued sonic apparatus.

ELODIE

Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk made their first firm steps as a duo with 2011's 'Echos Pastoraux' (La Scie Doree). A collection of short fragments, the album had the sentiments of a homely sketchbook memory, and though still very much present as producer Chalk displayed a growing affinity with the use of largely untreated acoustic instrumentation; no doubt allowed to flourish under the encouragement of van Luijk who is known for his skills as an instrumentalist, drawing from a vast array of traditionally musical and non-musical instruments / objects in his frequent solo and group appearances. In the same year the duo issued 'La Lumiere Parfumee' (Faraway Press) which displayed an even more elaborate repertoire of delicate acoustic and electronic sounds, weaving a rich tapestry of impressionistic pastel shades and shimmering opalescent rays.

In concert Chalk and van Luijk focus their attention on one or two chosen instruments and naturally employ a more reductionist approach, allowing slow phrases to intertwine and repeat through the duration. Performing almost yearly as a duo, last year Elodie were joined by Jean-Noel Rebilly (clarinet) and Tom James Scott (piano) in Leuven (Belgium) for their first concert together as a quartet, and it is in this setting that they return to Cafe Oto following a duo performance in February 2012.



ANDREW CHALK

Andrew Chalk is an artist and musician based in Hull. Restlessly active since the mid 1980s, he has built a breathtaking and highly acclaimed body of work under an elusive series of guises. These include releases under his own name; as Ferial Confine; and through a wide range of collaborations, spanning from Mirror (alongside Christoph Heeman) and with David Jackman’s Organum, to work with The New Blockaders and a cassette release for legendary UK noise label Broken Flag.

In recent years Chalk has become increasingly synonymous with the output of his own Faraway Press imprint, which has painstakingly governed the release of an ever-more-mesmerising accumulation of super-limited edition CDs and LPs. Sumptuously, almost ritualistically designed and packaged, these gorgeously esoteric artifacts bear visuals which stand alone as artworks in the true sense, but which also offer flickering insight into the enveloping subtlety of the minutely crafted sound-worlds within.



With regard to this music, ‘hermetic’ is a word often applied to Chalk’s work, and there are few artists for whom this epithet is more apt; the sparse-seeming but infinitely intricate layers indicate both a muse and a creative process that is secluded, hidden, but also deeply imbued with a pure and unaffected naturalism/mysticism.

Andrew’s London appearances are rare and beautiful things, and this event will see the first ever UK performance of his quartet with Timo Van Luijk, Jean-Noel Rebilly and Tom James Scott.



farawaypress.info/
soundcloud.com/andrew-chalk-1

TIMO VAN LUIJK

Originally from Finland but now resident in Belgium, Timo van Luijk is an autodidact sound artist/composing improviser working with acoustic instruments (strings, wind, percussion) and various (sound) objects.

He started his musical excursions with some obscure local projects in the mid 80's and following sound studies/research he formed the experimental music/multimedia collective Noise-Maker's Fifes together with Geert Feytons in 1989. Simultaneously he slowly developed his personal musical activities as Af Ursin with regular releases since 1996.

Apart from his solo work he has done frequent collaborations with Christoph Heemann (In Camera) and Limpe Fuchs, Kris Vanderstraeten, Raymond Dijkstra (Asra), Andrew Chalk (Elodie), Frederik Croene and is member of the group Onde together with Greg Jacobs and Marc Wroblewski (both from Noise Maker's Fifes).



TOM JAMES SCOTT

Tom James Scott ( London via Barrow-in-Furness) is a composer and performer whose work explores melodic form and song structure.

Scott’s first two releases - drawing influence from contemporary composition, traditional music and improvisation – both featured acoustic guitar as the primary voice. While maintaining similar melodic sensibilities and a feeling of hushed expanse, his latest LP sees a shift towards solo piano, with the title, ‘Drape’ (defined in literature documenting past and present dialect native to what is now Cumbria, as, ‘to speak slowly’) setting the pace across the four pieces presented.

Previously employing solely acoustic instrumentation, Scott’s recorded work has developed to include a wider range of sound sources and processing techniques, including field recording, electric guitar, and keyboard, with this years ‘Crystal’ LP seeing the more repetitive, long-form compositional ideas prevalent throughout his work pushed to the forefront.

Scott is currently also an active member of Liberez, and has released music both solo and collaboratively with the labels Alter, Carnivals, Bo’Weavil Recordings, and Night-People.

boweavilrecordings.com/Scott.html

JEAN-NOEL REBILLY

Jean-Noel Rebilly is a musician and visual artist currently living in Paris. He has issued a number of limited edition books / portfolios which are mostly handed out to friends. Occasionally accompanying the prints and hand painted designs with a CDr of his own music, he has also performed and recorded as a duo with Cedric Lerouley (An'archives) and has collaborated with Vikki Jackman and Andrew Chalk on the recent CDr (and subsequent LP) release 'A Paper Doll's Whisper of Spring' (Faraway Press).

MATTHEW SHAW

For an evening where patient fingers will craft hymnals at the meeting-point of cracking seed-husks and sap-beneath-bark; the ocean’s roar and the electromagnetic thrum of cloudless, star-filled skies, we are hugely honoured to host Matthew Shaw, a second reclusive seer of British pastoral drone.



Through his work as Tex La Homa and in collaborations with Scottish sound artists Brian Lavelle (as Fougou) and Andrew Paine (as The Blue Tree), Shaw has refined an approach that is distinctive and powerful, sifting found sounds and field recordings with finely traced details and mounting swells of treated strings, guitar, synth and a broader uncatalogued sonic apparatus.

This has resulted in the perfection of an idiom which, though wholly Shaw’s own, unites the organic resonances found in Richard Skelton’s fellwalker’s symphonies with the fiery, silver-hued crop-circle afterburners of Flying Saucer Attack.



www.texlahoma.com/
soundcloud.com/matthew-m-shaw


This performance was funded through the OTO Projects Promoters and Artists Fund set up to support the creation and delivery of new live events with UK-based musicians. This fund was made possible with support from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.



www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org