Something stark and wonderful for our first live release of 2023. [something’s happening] is the sound and text duo of poet and performer Iris Colomb and composer Daryl Worthington (Beachers), exploring textual and sonic permutation through improvisation.

Iris Colomb conjures the evocative atmosphere of a dream half-recalled, voicing fragments of found text that subtly build and layer, repeating and circling back around before branching off into new images and meanings. Alongside her, Daryl Worthington utilises all manner of sound-making devices from guitar and bells to tapes, toothbrushes and other objects. But there is never any sense of overload, more of having the right palette for Colomb's hypnagogic word patterns; letting the sonic focus gradually shift with a light touch combined with audible attentiveness. This is a music that takes its time, letting each moment unfurl with care and space.

In the wrong hands, such an approach could prove overly deliberate, keeping the listener at arm's length. Instead there's an unselfconscious intimacy that feels like eavesdropping onto a hidden little corner of the world that you previously had no idea existed. The current, ongoing process hinted at in the group's name is no accident; you get the sense that this soundworld was unfolding long before you got there and will continue long after you left. What a privilege to have captured this fleeting glimpse in the meantime.

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Iris Colomb / voice, effects
Daryl Worthington / guitar, electronics, bells, electric toothbrush, tape walkman and other objects

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Recorded by kyle acab
Mixed and mastered by Oli Barrett

Cover photo by Peter Döpper

Thanks to Anthony Chalmers and Em Lodge from Baba Yaga's Hut