A rare performance from Oceans of Silver and Blood - the pairing of Mark Wastell and Joachim Nordwall - their first at OTO since 2008. Instigated in early 2007, the duo weave dense layers of potent, visceral drone from Wastell's tam-tam and Nordwall's electronics that brood and build towards complete immersion. Support comes from artist and composer Byron Westbrook - who works with the dynamic quality of physical space through site-specific installations and unique listening formats - and a trio of Steve Gibson, Adrian Newton and Stuart Riddle, who will be performing a classic of early minimalism.

"The ear was drawn to the overlay of acoustic and electronic, as Wastell set the rich overtones of the tam-tam against Nordwall's electronics. At times, the tam-tam took on ghostly shimmer alongside the Swede's monolithic tones and the pair really probed the acoustics of the performance space." - The WIRE

MARK WASTELL / amplified tam tam

Mark Wastell manages to build enormous atmospheres on the Tam Tam with very little actual activity. His music is dark, deep and beautiful. Slow movements build up sonic pulses that are able to take over rooms and buildings. Over a twenty year period Mark has collaborated with many people including Angharad Davies, Bernard Gunter, Evan Parker, Mattin, Tony Conrad, Keith Rowe, Otomo Yoshihide, Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Toshimaru Nakamura, Lasse Maurhaug, Peter Kowald, Taku Sugimoto, John Zorn and Max Eastley. His regular groups are The Sealed Knot (with Rhodri Davies and Burkhard Beins) and Oceans of Silver & Blood (with Joachim Nordwall). Mark also runs Confront Recordings.




JOACHIM NORDWALL / electronics

Joachim Nordwall investigates the power of sound through anologue synths and effects , and how to reach certain states of mind though music. He is founding member of ritual rock group The Skull Defekts and runs his iDEAL label and organisation for experimental and electronic music.




BYRON WESTBROOK

Byron Westbrook is an artist and musician based in Brooklyn NY. He works with listening, space, perception and awareness, often pursuing routes with social engagement. His electronic sound interventions play with dynamics of perception of space, sometimes as multi-channel sound performances or as small or large-scale installation work using video or lighting. He has presented work at ICA London, Clocktower Gallery, ISSUE Project Room, Abrons Arts Center, Roulette, Diapason Gallery, Eyebeam (NYC), Human Resources (Los Angeles), The LAB (San Francisco), International House (Philadelphia), VIVO MediaArtCenter (Vancouver), Les Voutes (Paris), Colla+eral Festival (Bologna), O’ (Milan), Cyberfest (St. Petersburg) among many others. He has an MFA from Bard College, where he studied with David Berhman, Marcus Schmickler, Laetitia Sonami and Marina Rosenfeld, and has also toured and collaborated with Rhys Chatham. He has also worked closely with Phill Niblock at Experimental Intermedia Foundation in NYC since 2005. He has been an artist in residence at Clocktower Gallery, Wassaic Project, Diapason Gallery, HotelPupik and is a 2014 Civitella Ranieri Fellow. He has releases with Sedimental, Los Discos Enfantasmes, Three:Four Records and a forthcoming LP release in late 2014 with Root Strata.

For this performance, he will perform compositions based on layered improvisations using modular synthesis, which explore the dynamic between perception of sound as an impulse to activate a listening space vs sound representing an external landscape. Loosely using overtone-based harmonic relationships fore-grounded against textural backgrounds, the works take most influence from Terry Riley, early Popol Vuh, Costin Miereanu, and Indian classical drones.

“I’ve seen Byron perform this material to a packed house at Brooklyn’s ISSUE Project Room as part of an Eliane Radigue “tribute” night. Heard here on record, the effect is just as breathtaking ; slow swells of tonal information creep in and out of the matrix in varying degrees of density, with slight, almost imperceivable variances in tuning and fidelity from section to section. … easily one of the best contemporary examples of the “long-form electro-acoustic” spec I’ve heard in a while ; highly recommended !!!” - Keith Fullerton Whitman

www.byronwestbrook.com/




STEVE GIBSON / ADRIAN NEWTON / STUART RIDDLE

Steve Gibson, Adrian Newton, and Stuart Riddle have been involved in playing and promoting improvised and experimental music in Dorset and Hampshire over the past 12 years. For this concert they will be performing a classic of early minimalism.