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1 | 17.8.24 | 40:16 |
A live document of Elvin Brandhi, Kenichi Iwasa, Microcorps and Ziúr’s improvised set, recorded at OTO during Brandhi’s 2024 residency.
Between 15-17 August 2024, improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist Elvin Brandhi brought three nights of unfolding, spontaneous and mind-bending world building to her Café OTO residency, bringing together collaborators from across the globe to take part in multifarious live actions and exploding group improvisations.
On day three, Brandhi combined the quartet of Kenichi Iwasa, Ziúr, Microcorps and herself, for an expansive set, knitting processed voices, electronics, horns and percussion.
This live recording from the night captures the group moving through choral bursts of atomised group vocalisations that melt into strands of interwoven electronics and live percussion, where automatic compositions spring fourth to be regurgitated into new mangled forms.
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Elvin Brandhi / voice and electronics
Kenichi Iwasa / bass clarinet, trumpet, electronics and voice
Microcorps / modular system, electronics and voice
Ziúr / voice, percussion and electronics
Recorded at Cafe OTO 17/07/24
Mixed by Ziúr
Cover assembled by Elvin Brandhi from artworks by the whole group.
Elvin brandhi is an improvising lyricist, producer and sound artist from Bridgend, Wales making auto-tune blast beats from field recordings, tapes, instruments and voice. Live shows are unyielding bursts of erupting animation where her caustic stream of consciousness cavorts with restless, glitched out heaviness.
Her first E.P ‘Shelf life’ was released on ‘C.A.N.V.A.S’ in 2018. She one half of father / daughter noise-improv berserkers Yeah You who released on Alter, Slip, Opal, Psychik Dancehall and Good Food. She also performs in collaborations such as ‘Bad@Maths’ who also released on Slip, ‘INSIN’ who released their first E.P ‘Sadsun’ on Hizz, and unreleased projects such as ‘Gailvn Keiln’, ‘OCDC’ and ‘0n est Malade’.
Kenichi Iwasa is a London based improviser and multidisciplinary artist from Japan, also known for his legendary Krautrock Karaoke night, and collaborations with visual artists and musicians such as Beatrice Dillon, Maxwell Sterling and Linder Sterling.
He currently performs with Naima Karlsson under the name Exotic Sin and released LP on Blank Forms.
MICROCORPS is artist and musician Alexander Tucker (Grumbling Fur, Brood X Cycles, Nonexistent, Imbogodom) exploring electronics, cello and voice.
Tucker’s ever-evolving soundworld continues to develop work around complex modular systems, cello, bass guitar and voice, creating tracks of heavy electronics, that meld machine rhythms with acoustic sound sources. Combining techno, contemporary composition, drone and vocal manipulations to create a dense and often psychedelic world. MICROCORPS has released on Alter, The Tapeworm and most recently on Downwards Records with Clear Vortex Chamber, featuring collaborations with Justin K Broadrick, Phew, Regis and Elvin Brandhi. Tucker uses MICROCORPS as both a vehicle for warped techno compositions and as a platform for fluid improvisation.
Driven by a relentless appetite for boundless experimentation, Ziúr has been subverting expectations since she was a teenager, corkscrewing through hardcore, metal and punk before veering towards electronic music's turbulent fringes. She produces just like she DJs, gathering a wide variety of ingredients and figuring out the most intriguing, unexpected ways to simmer them into a coherent narrative that helps listeners synchronize the conflicting messages that surround them. Genre isn't a fixed point for Ziúr, but a color in a vast palette that stretches across history and borders, helping illustrate music that's powerfully subversive - a vivid crack of light in a dim, lifeless cultural landscape. It's easy to see why Pitchfork labelled her "a master storyteller" in 2019.
Currently, Ziúr is working with Lebanese contemporary artist and composer Tarek Atoui on a series of projects that have included contributions from legendary percussionist Susie Ibarra and versatile multi-instrumentalist Nancy Mounir. And she's sharpening her engineering and production skills, having worked with Vietnamese collective Rắn Cạp Đuôi on their debut album 'Ngủ Ngày Ngay Ngày Tận Thế', and with Mexican-American producer Debit on her forthcoming album. Constantly evolving and eagerly surveying the world's shifting cultural topology, Ziúr's forward motion is her greatest strength.
