Concrete and Glass 2010 opened on Thursday 13th May with the private view for the festival’s art exhibitions, as well as performances by Felix Thorn & Weirdcore, Volcano the Bear, and Owl Project.
At 20 Hoxton Square Projects, more than 400 people attended the private view for Heart of Glass, an open-submission group show of emerging artists. The evening concluded with an audio/visual performance of Techno Harmonium, a kinetic musical sculpture, by Felix Thorn in collaboration with digital visuals artists Weirdcore.
At Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, Volcano the Bear performed a live soundtrack to Fischli and Weiss’s acclaimed chain reaction film, The Way Things Go. This was a specially commissioned one-off performance for Concrete and Glass. Owl Project also performed with their peculiar sculptural musical instruments.
On TUESDAY 18TH MAY the second of three music performance events commissioned for Concrete and Glass by Tom Baker of Eat Your Own Ears (with support from Sound and Music) takes place at The Macbeth, 70 Hoxton Street, NI (doors 8pm, tickets £5):
SLEIGHBELLS
CUTUP COLLECTIVE – SOLINA HIFI
ROCKETNUMBERNINE
MUSCLEHEADS DJs
DAVE I.D
Tickets from:
See Tickets
0870 264 3333
Ticket Web
08444 771 000
Discordant Brooklyn duo SLEIGHBELLS came together when songwriter and producer Derek Miller, a veteran of Florida hardcore warriors Poison the Well, hooked up with singer Alexis Krauss. Their electronic beats thud with gut-rattling low end; guitars are distorted siren squalls, or heavily gated and thoroughly crunched power chords, or playful, beta-band-esque strums. Krauss flips easily from hip-hop hook, to pop power, to sunshined, coquettish coos. The band were recently signed to signed to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Recordings label and their first single “Tell’Em” was released in April.
The SOLINA HIFI project developed through involvement with the London based arts collective CUTUP. Solina Hi-Fi seeks to glimpse truth through sound. Playing with pure tones and drones created by hand built analogue synths and live instruments, Solina Hi-Fi explores the spectrum of raw and it’s permutations, revealing the essence of sound. Analogue processes are further explored through the visual element to the performance. Randomly edited clips of found VHS tape are collaged and reassembled, producing corrupted snippets of film & haunting flashbacks of TV past.
ROCKETNUMBERNINE are brothers Benjamin and Thomas Page. Their music is an intense, emotional sonic assault. For 3 years, RN9 sets were purely improvised. Now, keeping the spirit and musicianship built from those “edge of the seat” shows, the brothers move into 2010 creating a firmer ground beneath their feet. With Ben calling on the deepest Detroit and Chicago influences and Tom conjuring the spirits of the great Jazz drummers, Rocketnumbernine arrive at an all consuming sound that is at once very much their own. Fresh from an acclaimed UK tour supporting Fourtet in March 2010, RocketNumberNine will release a new album due for release on Gravid Hands label in June.
The stellar tracks of shadowy duo MUSCLEHEADS are experiments in droning discofied Krautrock.
A brooding vocal adds weight to the already glowering atmosphere and unabating, exposed beats of DAVE I.D’s music. Superbly weighty music for one so young, Dave is as anonymous as he is indefinable.
On THURSDAY 20TH MAY at 20 Hoxton Square Projects (7pm, free entry) LUMIN presents:
PIANO MIGRATION II: Video responsive instrument
A performance by Kathy Hinde in collaboration with Matthew Olden, Simon McCorry and Nahum Mantra
The inside of an old upright piano, rescued from destruction, is transformed into a light activated instrument. Video projections move across the surface of the piano strings, triggering small machines to twitch and flutter causing the strings to resonate. For one night, this installation becomes a site for performance. Video projections activate the piano strings, and simultaneously provide a graphic score for improvisation. Audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde is joined by laptop musician Matthew Olden, cellist Simon McCorry and multi-instrumentalist Nahum Mantra to present a performance where image through a series of transformations realised through acoustic sound, live sampling, automata and projections.
The work will then remain in the gallery as an installation for the period 21st-27th May.
Kathy Hinde’s interdisciplinary approach combines different art forms frequently through collaborations with other artists, partnerships with scientists, and input from the audience. She has shown work internationally in over 20 countries, and has created video projections for theatre and live art performances working with interactive visual environments that are responsive to live situations. Her video work frequently moves away from the ‘screen’ and she has made projections designed for various structures, surfaces, and sites. 2008 saw the launch of her self-directed and on-going project ‘Piano Migrations’; an interdisciplinary and collaborative body of artworks concerned with re-mapping migration routes, translating image into sound, the relationship between humans and mechanisms and how environmental change is affecting migrating animals.
Matthew Olden is a computer artist who develops computer programs that make music, do visuals and manipulate data. Matthew’s most known piece of software – i am the mighty jungulator – has been described by Future Music magazine as ‘the Sonic Philosopher’s Stone’.