Tomaga

After their first, self-produced cassette, ‘Sleepy Jazz For Tired Cats’, which was released in 2013, TOMAGA released the acclaimed ‘Futura Grotesk’ LP on the Hands in the Dark label, followed quickly by ‘Familiar Obstacles’ – a cassette release for the boutique London label Blank Editions, that was subsequently released as a limited vinyl in October 2015.

Meanwhile they have played countless concerts and festivals across the world including being invited to open for Deerhoof, Silver Apples and Wire, the latter for their UK tour in May 2015 (for full tourdates see below).

In autumn 2015 Tomaga were invited by Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate to stage a performance using the artworks of Pedro Reyes: re-conditioned weapons confiscated by Mexican police from drug cartels and turned into instruments. The resulting performance will be released on a forthcoming live album. In spring 2016 Tomaga were invited to contribute a sound object to the Yoko Ono exhibition ‘Lumiere De L’aube’ at the Musee D’art Contemporain De Lyon.

In 2016 they will have both an LP and EP release in autumn/winter 2016 as well as live collaborations with Pierre Bastien and Italian radical improv octect Blutwurst.

Featured releases

Tomaga's seventh and final album, "Intimate Immensity" was completed just before the untimely death of Tom Relleen, who had been recording with percussionist Valentina Magaletti since 2013. This set was mostly put together at Relleen's self-styled "Bunker" studio during off days from incessant touring, and explores the concept of intimacy and space while dragging in influence from artists as disparate as Muslimgauze and Pauline Anna Strom. The result is a fluid selection of jams that speak to Magaletti and Relleen's confidence performing together as well as their insatiable hunger for exploration and creative betterment. If there's an overwhelming mood it's the groove-led psychedelia that often accompanies Italian arthouse/trash axis movies or the kind of private press goodness that Light in the Attic might repackage for wider consumption. There's an expertise and jazz root that hints at library music chops, but each track belies an interest in more experimental modes, from the Religious Knives / Dead-esque jammer 'The Snake' to the furious club-in-dub funque explosion of 'More Flowers'. Genre agnostic, potent stuff for anyone who's exhausted the soundtrack reissue industrial complex and fancies something more challenging and way more exploratory --- Intimate Immensity: featuring Agathe Max’s violin, it is the heartfelt never-ending crescendo of a recursive spleen that is flourishing into peace – an end and the beginning of a new form of life --- Thank you Tom x

TOMAGA – INTIMATE IMMENSITY

out of stock

Past events