Monday 22 February 2016, 8pm
“it feels like Johansson can turn any sound into relentless rhythm.” – Marc Masters, Pitchfork
Arranging sounds from manipulated samples, electronics and objects, Tsembla’s music is rich in detail, riding on waves of warped melodies, fluttering rhythms, abstract voices and mutating textures.
“The excess of sonic components—car horn samples, garbled chanting, synth sounds that rattle like change in a cup—suggest Johansson is fascinated by melody, but not super concerned with it” – The Fader
Tsembla is the musical work of Marja Johansson, a Swedish-Finnish artist living and working in Turku, Finland. Utilizing a wide range of instruments, electronics, objects and samples, the music of Tsemblarides on waves of warped melodies, fluttering rhythms, abstract voices and mutating textures, crossbreeding the known and the imaginary. Terror & Healing (New Images, 2015) is her fourth releasease, after Nouskaa Henget (New Images, 2013), the EP Tuplafiesta (Vauva, 2009) and the LP Fauna (Ikuisuus, 2011). Loosely assembled, rough edged compositions, rich in details, come together into odd instrumental miniatures in an almost-pop format, venturing into fourth world territory from a lattering, wheezing and boiling DIY kitchen.
ANAKANAK makes electronic music by exploring her voice as an object, using technology to expand its sound, shape and matter. With an instrumental and physical approach, she explores the limits of the acoustic to processed voice, and what a singer can, and cannot be. Recent works, such as The As If Body Loop (BBC Tectonics Festival) and I Will Leave You Now And This Loudspeaker Will Take My Place (Lancaster Women in Sound Symposium) have seen her practice expand to include moving image works, installation and text. Previous performances include Labyrinthine, a chamber Opera exploring performativity, voice and subjecthood with Jane Dickson and Lucy Duncombe premiered at The Self The Other Festival in collaboration with QO2 and La Monnaie De Munt and an improvised duo with Sebastian Lexer.
She has also performed extensively in the UK and abroad with the experimental pop band Conquering Animal sound - who have released 2 albums and an EP on Chemikal Underground Records, including the Scottish Album of the Year nominated Kammerspiel.
