Tuesday 21 January 2025, 7.30pm
A unique immersive and sonic experience brings together four experimental musicians to engage with Café OTO’s surround sound system. A concert of free improvisation and live composition; presented in three sets, each with its own distinct and original spatial approach.
1st set - Billy Steiger: Violin solo
2nd set - Moshi Honen: Hex guitar is a six channel guitar. Each string is amplified separately and positioned in a surround configuration creating a unique hexaphonic listening experience. This performance will present a solo piece composed specifically for this instrument.
3rd set - In their duo, Sharon Gal & Christian Duka summon a soundscape woven with the essence of ritual. Sharon’s voice guides the improvisation, complemented by the live manipulation of sound objects, adding tactile, earthly textures. Christian responds by capturing and morphing these elements in space through real-time electronic processing. The resulting performance, spatialised across a multi-channel system, creates a deeply immersive journey that feels both haunting and transformative, inviting listeners into ritualistic resonance.
This performance will celebrate the launch of their new release on the Amoenus Recordings, a label that focuses and promotes creative uses of spatial sound in immersive arts through events, residencies, and workshops. Amoenus Recording releases feature live recordings from curatorial events, highlighting artists experimenting with spatial audio technology in immersive settings.
Billy Steiger was born in Howth on the 16th December, 1986. Now he plays the violin.
“Then he sat down by a pond and began to play a tune. As he played, the most extraordinary thing happened. One by one the fish in the pond began to jump out and fly about in the air. And what is more, they were all different colours and they were singing to the music.”
Patrick, Quentin Blake.
https://billysteiger.bandcamp.com/
Moshi Honen is a London based guitarist, improviser, composer and instrument builder playing an amplified acoustic guitar, self-made electronic devices and objects. He has collaborated with Steve Beresford, Phil Minton, Alan Wilkinson, Sharon Gal and many others. His music was released by Leonardo Music Journal and Paradigm Discs. https://moshihonen.bandcamp.com/music
Christian Duka is a multifaceted music and sound artist working primarily with spatial audio. He collaborated with a spectrum of artists across various disciplines from free improvisation to contemporary digital dance to experimental and dance electronic music. Notable collaborative projects include the interdisciplinary work "UR: Human Presence" with Jose Macabra, Pell Ensemble and Elyssavet Sfyri, the spatial drone-bath performance "The Listening Body" with Hems, Merkaba Macabre and Pascal Savy and the electronic music projects MARMO & Vādin with Marco Maldarella and Avsluta respectively, with releases on various international record labels (Utter, Offen, Area127, Secuencias Temporales). Beyond his own artistic pursuits, he founded Amoenus, a non-profit promoting and supporting spatial sound in immersive arts via residency programmes, workshops and public events.
Sharon Gal is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, vocalist and composer, specialising in free improvisation, experimental music and collaborative, participatory large group compositions. She works with voice, electronics, extended techniques, field recordings, found audio, video and collage; exploring presence, listening, embodiment, and the relationship between people, sound and space. Sharon performs solo and in collaborations with: David Toop, John Butcher, John Edwards, Sue Lynch, Andie Brown, Yoni Silver, Steve Beresford, Phil Minton, Charles Hayward, Anat Ben David and Lina Lapelyte.
Since 2007 she has directed a series of site specific, large group compositions, inviting musicians and non-musicians to take part. She curated music concerts, including the series Sound Matter, at Café OTO, and concerts at Iklectik arts lab. Her music was released by many labels, including five solo albums and various collaborations.
Past performances include The V&A, ICA, The Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Modern & Tate Britain, MACBA, and Colour Out Of Space, Borealis, Supernormal, Supersonic, TUSK and Tectonics festivals.
Etudes by Sharon Gal, a collection of text & colour scores, presented as a deck of 78 cards, was supported by Sound and Music and published in 2021. Her project, Healing Choir, ran @ the Kilburn Tin Tabernacle between August-October 2024.
https://www.sharon-gal.com/
https://sharongal.bandcamp.com
