Friday 29 August 2014, 8pm
Robin Saville has been plying his electronic wares as one half of electronic luminaries Isan for over fifteen years. Earning a reputation for bringing an emotional dimension to music with a reputation for the cerebral, Isan have claimed to be in the business of making easy listening out of difficult sounds.
Retaining an attractive blend of organic instrumentation, unsettling electronic soundscapes and tender, intimate harmonies that have become his trademark over the years, Oliver Cherer has produced an album of beautiful, pastoral reminisces and uneasy nostalgia on the subject of loss that perhaps sits somewhere between Robert Wyatt, North Sea Radio Orchestra and Alexander Tucker. Glen Johnson is the founder and only surviving original member of the London-based 'ghost rock' group, Piano Magic whose eclectic canon, since its formation in 1996, has included collaborations with Vashti Bunyan, John Grant, Low, Tarwater, full-blown post-rock, isolationist electronica and pastoral psych-folk. This is Johnson's first ever solo show.
Robin Saville has been plying his electronic wares as one half of electronic luminaries Isan for over fifteen years. Earning a reputation for bringing an emotional dimension to music with a reputation for the cerebral, Isan have claimed to be in the business of making easy listening out of difficult sounds.
In addition to keeping his end of the Isan bargain, Robin occasionally records music under his own name, exploring more acoustic and bucolic textures (see also 2008's 'Peasgood Nonsuch' on the excellent Static Caravan label).
Robin's new solo album, 'Public Flowers', is about creating a series of soundscapes both familiar and stimulating. The music here is a canny blend of repetition and constant change, echoing the organic experimentation of the likes of American minimalist composer Steve Reich, the evocative soundtracks of Piero Milesi and the experimental/ambient work of Cluster. A keen gardener, Saville's love for the British landscape is also made apparent in the mix by the subtle use of field recordings, the music seamlessly blending into the sonic environment as if recorded in situ.
For his most recent album, Hastings-based polymath Oliver Cherer (aka Dollboy) has, by his own admission, attempted to create "a kind of pagan folk music from a modern dark age."
Retaining an attractive blend of organic instrumentation, unsettling electronic soundscapes and tender, intimate harmonies that have become his trademark over the years, Cherer has produced an album of beautiful, pastoral reminisces and uneasy nostalgia on the subject of loss that perhaps sits somewhere between Robert Wyatt, North Sea Radio Orchestra and Alexander Tucker.
Glen Johnson is the founder and only surviving original member of the London-based 'ghost rock' group, Piano Magic whose eclectic canon, since its formation in 1996, has included collaborations with Vashti Bunyan, John Grant, Low, Tarwater, full-blown post-rock, isolationist electronica and pastoral psych-folk. This is Johnson's first ever solo show.
