Solo concert for shape-shifting guitarist Stian Westerhus presented as part of the 'Ny Musikk and OTO projects presents' series at Cafe OTO. He'll be joined on the night by Ben Vida - an artist using digital and analog electronics to create expanded sonic events that explore the social, historical and phenomenological functions of sound and music.

STIAN WESTERHUS / guitar, electronics

A constantly inventive, shape-shifting guitarist, Westerhus to deftly conjures waves of nightmarish, punishing distortion and howling feedback from pools of gorgeous melody. Whilst focussed primarily on solo performance, Westerhus has collaborated with Nils Petter Molvær, Lasse Marhaug, Eldbjørg Raknes, Sidsel Endresen, Jaga Jazzist and many others and is a founding member of Puma and Monolithic (a duo with Kenneth Kapstad).

"Westerhus seems to locate himself somewhere between the abstraction of free improv, the feral expressionism of electric free jazz and the cerebral ambience of Viennese electronica. If Keith Rowe, Sonny Sharrock and Fennesz had a jam session on one of Neptune's frozen moons, it might sound a bit like this." Peter Marsh, BBC Music

"Here´s a player that can snuggle as comfortably with the improv crowd as he can with the likes of Haino and Kurihara. He has the same dedication to coaxing alien tone from his guitar that Henry Kaiser had: he can sound more machine than man - as on "Music For Leaving", in which he webs sandblasted misshapes into a rhythmic weave as intricately baffling as anything by Autechre. On "The Antagonist" he sounds as though he´s triple-tonguing. His guitar. How? But the pursuit of new sound is more about finding expressive possibilities than an end in itself: when he rips it in the upper register, his instrument sings, piercing through the murk like moonlight on the fens." - The WIRE

Stian Westerhus website
Pitch Black Star Spangled review on AllAboutJazz.com
Interview on AllAboutJazz.com

Stian Westerhus photo by Karoline O.A. Pettersen



BEN VIDA

Ben Vida is a composer, improviser and sound artist who lives in Brooklyn, NY. His practice utilizes a wide range of sound processes and expanded sonic events. Ben uses this range of modalities to explore the social, historical and phenomenological functions of sound and music. Ben led the group Town and Country, produced three records of world musique concrete under the name Bird Show and in collaboration with Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis, created cross control voltage integrated improvisations and real time automatic group composition.



Ben has worked with artists Siebren Versteeg, Meredyth Sparks, Marina Rosenfeld, Hisham Bharoocha, Nadia Hironaka and Mathew Suib and has played in ensembles led by Tony Conrad, Rhys Chattam, and Werner Dafeldecker. As an improviser he has performed with Milo Fine, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Chad Taylor, Kevin Drumm, Yamatsuka Eye and C. Spencer Yeh among many others. He has released over twenty records on such labels as Thrill Jockey, Drag City, PAN, Amish, Bottrop-Boy, Hapna and Kranky.









The collaboration between Ny Musikk and OTO Projects has been made possible through support from MIC, Music Information Centre Norway, an organisation promoting Norwegian music nationally and internationally.