Oren Ambarchi presents a special live version of KNOTS, the epic centrepiece of his 2012 release on Touch ''Audience Of One.'' Described by Mojo as the ''undoubted standout on the Australian guitarist's stunning new album - nothing can prepare you for its awesome power'', this version will feature Joe Talia (drums), Crys Cole (objects) and a string section led by James Rushford on viola and featuring Judith Hamann, Alison Blunt, Oliver Coates and Ilan Volkov. The evening will open with a premiere live performance from Astor.

Photo by David Gallagher

OREN AMBARCHI (Australia)

Oren Ambarchi is a guitarist and drummer from Australia who has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Charlemagne Palestine, Thomas Brinkmann, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, John Tilbury, Evan Parker, Fire! and many more. Since 2004 Ambarchi has worked with American avant metal outfit Sunn 0))) contributing to many of their releases including their Black One album from 2005 and their acclaimed Monoliths & Dimensions release. Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for labels such as Touch, Southern Lord, Editions Mego, Kranky and Tzadik. His latest solo releases are Audience Of One and Sagittarian Domain, which was voted #1 in Spin magazine's Best Avant albums of 2012.

www.orenambarchi.com



CRYS COLE (Canada)

crys cole is a Canadian sound artist working in performance and installation. Active listening is the fundamental core of her practice.She has performed extensively throughout Canada, Japan and Europe as well as in Seattle and NYC. She has collaborated with Jeffrey Allport, Oren Ambarchi, Keith Rowe, Christof Kurzmann, Jamie Drouin, Lance Austin Olsen, Mathieu Ruhlmann, Kai Fagashiski, Julie Rousse, Tetuzi Akiyama, Seiji Morimoto, echo ho, Tim Olive, Christine Abdelnour and Clare Cooper amongst others.

www.cryscole.com

JOE TALIA (Australia)

Joe Talia is a drummer, percussionist and electro-acoustic performer based in Melbourne, Australia. He first established his reputation as a drummer in contemporary jazz and improvised music, fields in which he is now active as a member of the ARIA award winning Andrea Keller Quartet and in numerous collaborative projects, including a long-term duo with Oren Ambarchi. In the last few years a great deal of his work as a drummer has taken place alongside outsider singer-songwriters (such as Ned Collette, Yuko Kono and Francis Plagne), in groups which synthesize his adventurous, exploratory drumming with the demands of song form. His longstanding musical partnership with Ned Collette has resulted in three records, on which Talia acts as both drummer and producer/engineer, most recently the well-received 2 (Fire Records 2012).

JAMES RUSHFORD (Australia)

James Rushford is a young Melbourne-based composer, pianist, violist and improviser. Studying with artists such as Anthony Pateras, Fred Frith, Brett Dean, Liza Lim, Markus Schmickler, Iancu Dumitrescu, Pierluigi Billone and Michael Pisaro, James has developed a keen interest in electro-acoustic media and more experimental forms of music making. He has been commissioned by ensembles such as Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Speak Percussion, The Song Company, Ensemble Neon (Norway) and Decibel, and has featured in the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2006 and 2008), Oslo Ultima Festival (2011), Now Now Festival (2011/2012) and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival (2011). Other performance highlights include Café Oto (London), Instants Chavirés (Montreuil), Logos Foundation (Ghent), Café 12 (Geneva), Ausland (Berlin) and Steim (Amsterdam). As a performer, he is a founding member of the chamber music ensemble Golden Fur, premiering works by Jaap Blonk (Netherlands), Anthony Pateras, Cat Hope and Marco Fusinato. He has also given Australian premieres of works by Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Robert Ashley, Klaus Lang and Jani Christou. James collaborates regularly with Jon Rose, Oren Ambarchi, Ned Collette, Francis Plagne and Joe Talia. His music and performances have been published by Cajid Media, Pogus (US), Sabbatical (AUS), Touch (UK), Prisma (Norway), Mego (Austria), Bocian (Poland) and Kye (UK).

www.jamesrushford.com

OLIVER COATES

Oliver Coates is the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2011 and is internationally in demand as a solo cellist. This season he performs abroad in Shanghai, Salvador, Eindhoven and Amsterdam. He will be appearing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov, and playing chamber music with Angela Hewitt and Barbara Hannigan in Trasimeno. He is also an Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre, where his run of cross-arts events - Harmonic Series - has entered its third season. For the first time he will be programming music in the Hayward Gallery for its Light Show in 2013. The work he performs is closely aligned with a love for space, and different types of music-listening ritual. Playing solo Bach and Britten on the cello is as important to him as working with artists such as Seb Rochford, Micachu, MF Doom, Steve Reich and Jonny Greenwood. His new electronic album with Leo Abrahams, "Crystals are always forming", was called "one of the best albums relased this year" by Dummy Mag and was released on 8th October on the Slip Discs label.

www.olivercoates.com

ALISON BLUNT

Since a classical violin training at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Blunt’s interests have led her into national and international projects exploring the relationships and boundaries between art forms and genres and creating and performing new work utilising improvisation.

She has toured nationally and internationally and recorded with a diverse array of artists and ensembles (including Barcode Quartet, Barrel, Hanam Quintet, Apartment House, Burning Wood, London and Berlin Improvisers Orchestras, Apocryphal Theatre, Pierette Ensemble) and her activities range from commissions for film, theatre and contemporary dance to performing within interdisciplinary ensembles, from devising and touring music & story family-friendly performances to playing world folk music. Alison resists being pigeonholed.

”Alison Blunt’s playing is unique. Eerie, gut-ripping rattles and chokes from hell are interrupted by ringing notes of heavenly hope. I have never heard anything like it…” Jeffery Taylor, Sunday Express 29.1.12

www.alisonblunt.com



JUDITH HAMANN

Judith Hamann is a Melbourne-based musician whose main instrument is violoncello. Her performance practice stretches across various genres encompassing elements of improvised, art, experimental and popular music with a particular focus on the presentation of new or rarely performed works. Judith has undertaken lessons with cellists at the forefront of new music including Christian Wojtowicz, Charles Curtis, Severine Ballon and Kevin McFarland.

Judith has performed Australian premieres of works by Sofia Gudbaidulina, Liza Lim, Thomas Meadowcroft, Jaap Blonk, Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, Jani Christou, Olga Neuwirth and Klaus Lang, as well as the world premieres of commissioned works by Anthony Pateras, David Chisholm, Natasha Anderson, Rohan Drape, Marco Fusinato, James Rushford, Kate Neal, Sean Baxter, Robert Dahm and Cat Hope. Judith has worked on projects with artists including Jon Rose, Oren Ambarchi, Anthea Caddy, Carolyn Connors, BOLT ensemble, Arcko Symphonic Project and ELISION. She is also a member of Golden Fur, Atticus, Grand Salvo and Francis Plagne band.

ILAN VOLKOV

Ilan Volkov, began his career as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, and was Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2009. Since then he has been the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor.

He is a frequent guest conductor with orchestras around the world, including BBC Scottish, and his recordings have won critical acclaim as well as prestigious awards. Volkov is very active in the new music scene and has premiered many contemporary orchestral works, including compositions by Jonathan Harvey, Hans Abrahamsen, Unsuk Chin, Mark-Anthony Turnage and others. Ilan Volkov also works regularly with leading ensembles in modern music such as Ensemble Modern and Musik Fabrik. Volkov has curated various new music events in Israel over the last six years including Hafarot Seder and Hapzura. He has also collaborated with Iancu Dumitrescu, AMM, John Butcher, John Oswald, Zeena Parkins and John Zorn to mention a few. Volkov is a member of the improvisation trio Mines, an ensemble consisting of two violins and drums.

------

ASTOR

Premiere live performance from Mark Harwood's Astor project. His Alcor LP for Graham Lambkin's KYE label gathers together the prime of past CDr micro-editions and presents the material as a seductive and puzzling new whole. Field recordings of humble organic activity bend against a foundation of discreetly processed electronics/piano, creating sonorities that are as undefinable as they are unforgettable. Alcor is the ideal LP for fans of fringe position electro-acoustic study, Delphic audio confusion, or anyone who pines for the days when Small Cruel Party still roamed the earth.