11–13 July 2016
Rangda! They planted a False Flag in the blood-soaked turf of the contemporary rock-politik. They were Formerly Extinct before you ever even THOUGHT about giving it up for good! Now, five years since ascending to collective Rangdadom, the flower-plower trio are back in your phase! This time around, Rangda strikes The Heretic’s Bargain for you — but have a care, foolish listener; not only is it an offer you can’t refuse, this here’s a deal you can’t repeal!
We're delighted to present the almighty trio of Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) and Chris Corsano (well, pretty much everybody, basically) across three nights at Cafe OTO, following the release of latest album The Heretics' Bargain on Drag City. Each member of the group will be opening one night of the residency, either solo or in collaboration, making for an unmissable three shows!
Ben Chasny's primary projects are Six Organs of Admittance (his solo psych folk project) and Comets on Fire (a psychedelic rock band). He made his recording debut in 1996 with his heavy, free rock project Plague Lounge on "The Wicker Image", an LP released conjointly between the New World of Sound and Holy Mountain labels. Holy Mountain went on to become the "home" of many of his releases under the Six Organs Of Admittance moniker. He has also released an album with Hiroyuki Usui under the name August Born. Chasny has lent his talents to other projects such as Badgerlore, Double Leopards, Current 93 and Magik Markers both in live performance and studio albums. More recent musical projects of his include the avant-folk trio Rangda (along with guitarist Richard Bishop and drummer Chris Corsano) and the more melodic and conventional 200 Years with Magik Markers' Elisa Ambrogio.
Chris Corsano (b. 1975, USA) is a New York-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990's. He's been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of "jazz" (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and "rock" (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O'Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk for her Volta album and world tour, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee).
Corsano began a long-standing, high-energy musical partnership with saxophonist Paul Flaherty in 1998. Their style, which they occasionally refer to with (semi-)tongue-in-cheek humor as "The Hated Music", combines modern free-jazz's ecstatic collectivism with the urgency and intensity of hardcore punk. A move from western Massachusetts to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop his solo music -- a dynamic, spontaneously-composed orchestra-of-one utilizing extended techniques for drum set, non-percussive instruments of his own creation (e.g. bowed violin strings stretched across drum heads), circular breathing on modified reed instruments, and stockpiles of resonant metals. He spent 2007-08 as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Michael Flower, and Jandek. He moved back to the U.S. in 2009 and continued touring in an ultrawide array of ever-evolving collaborations. In 2017 he won the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. A renowned solo performer in his own right, Corsano has a new solo record, The Key (Became The Important Thing [and Then Just Faded Away] out on the Drag City label.
His dedication to collective improvisation has led to Corsano to join forces with many kindred spirits and his appearance on over 180 records and thousands of live performances. He's worked with, among others: Paul Dunmall (released by the label: ESP-Disk), Joe McPhee (Roaratorio), Okkyung Lee (Open Mouth), Bill Orcutt (Palilalia), Mette Rasmussen (Hot Cars Warp Records & Clean Feed), John Edwards (OTOroku & Dancing Wayang), Sylvie Courvoisier (Relative Pitch), Nate Wooley (No Business & Astral Spirits), Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata (Drag City & Polystar), Merzbow (Family Vineyard), Jessica Rylan (Load Records), Rodrigo Amado (Trost), Nels Cline (Strange Attractors), Heather Leigh (Volcanic Tongue), Ghédalia Tazartès (Ultra Eczema), Ken Vandermark (Audiographic), and Sunburned Hand Of Man (Manhand).
https://chriscorsano.bandcamp.com/music
Richard Bishop is an experimental guitarist whose improvisations and compositions often reflect the shadow worlds of India, the Middle East, North Africa, and other points along the Gypsy trail.
Richard is perhaps best known as a founding member (along with brother Alan Bishop) of experimental ethnic-improv pioneers and underground tricksters Sun City Girls, who for nearly 30 years have produced an extensive discography of over 50 full length albums, 20 one-hour cassettes and a dozen 7” records. Sun City Girls formed in 1981 after the Bishop brothers' stint in the group Paris 1942 which also featured J. Akkari and former Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker.
Richard was also a co-founder of the Sublime Frequencies label (with Alan Bishop and Hisham Mayet). The label, whose mission is dedicated to acquiring and releasing obscure sights and sounds from Africa, India, S.E. Asia and beyond, began in 2003 and currently has over 65 releases to its credit.
