From next Tuesday, I’ll be starting up the only night of experimental and exploratory music in Kentish Town – in fact, I’m pretty sure it’ll be the only regular bash of its kind for miles around.
What do I mean by the phrase? Well, it actually comes from an event I attended a couple of years back in Portugal called Out Fest which billed itself as a “festival of exploratory music”. For them, it started with the free jazz of Fred van Hove, moved on to the improv of Rhodri Davies, the ambient techno of Lee Gamble and Wolfgang Voigt, and ended with Skullflower and The Fall. For me, this was pretty much a perfect festival.
The Zero Wave Club at the Fiddler’s Elbow on Malden Road will be both a monthly residency for my band Far Rainbow and a chance to bring some of the eccentricity and eclecticism of that festival to the area. I’m a Gospel Oak resident myself, although I actually grew up in Brighton, where I was a founder member of the Totally Bored collective (if you’re a fan of groups like British Sea Power and the Electric Soft Parade, they sprung from there). I also started the chart-breaking girl pop band, The Pipettes.
So hopefully I can do eclectic; and over the coming months our night will feature free improvisation, modular electronics, contemporary classical music, noise, drones, post-rock, ambient, sound art, and more.
On April 21st there are three acts: we’ll be kicking off with my band, an improvising duo using a combination of live drums with cheap electronics, field recordings, crackle, loops, and feedback. Next up will be the duo of sax player Colin Webster and experimental turntablist Graham Dunning, whose Estigate album last year drew praise from Stuart Maconie on 6Music and the Avant Music News. Finally, expect the mighty Blurt, John Peel faves and former Factory Record signings who have been around for over three decades and still sound as wild and untamed as ever.
It’s a few weeks off, but the following month (May 19th) will see us joined by violin virtuoso and part of the team behind the London Contemporary Music Festival, Aisha Orazbayeva and electronic experimentalists, the Langham Research Centre.
And if you still haven’t been to the Fiddler’s Elbow, well, it’s another excuse to check it out, isn’t it?
