A very strange OTO show - recorded half on the 141 bus from London Bridge and half outside OTO, as Resonance were unpredictably stuck and shut. So, joining Abby Thomas and Fielding Hope on the backseat (a bad choice noise-wise) are Seymour Wright, Ute Kangeisser and Evie Ward - 3/5ths of the Creaking Breeze Ensemble to talk about their upcoming performances with writer Nathaniel Mackey. Inspired by Mackey's fictional music, these performances will explore the mysterious balance between sound and word.

Mackey cites poets William Carlos Williams and Amiri Baraka, in addition to jazz musicians John Coltrane and Don Cherry, as early influences in his exploration of how language can be infused and informed by music. The group will focus on Mackey's 'From A Broken Bottle...' series - a group of novels comprised exclusively of letters from N addressed to mysterious, correspondent/friend 'Angel Of Dust', about the creative adventures of an imaginary band of multi-instrumentalists in 1970s Los Angeles. The letters describe the band’s doings – the music they make in public and private, the music they listen to, the instruments they play, their shared ideas and time, aspects of their relationships (though their life-worlds mostly remain obscure), and crucially the dreams they have together and alone. 

It is impossible to try and summerise Mackey's work, but here are some useful leads:

Mackey's 'Breath and Precarity' lecture - UC Berkeley; November 9, 2016.

Nathaniel Mackey and Fred Moten performing an antiphonal duo, with Mackey reading "Song of the Andoumboulou: 166 1/2" from his manuscript-in-progress So's Notice, while Moten reads "there, at a lovely barbecue."

The Creaking Breeze Trio Whitstable biennale podcast

Nathaniel Mackey's radio show 'Tanganyika Strut'

Selections from the discography for the novel Bass Cathedral. Compiled by Nathaniel Mackey; mixed by Michael Barron.