Friday 16 December 2016, 8pm
Tomaga channel various forms of multi-instrumentalism into music that moves by turns through industrial, jazz, psychedelia and minimalism, on it’s way to somewhere wholly other. Devoted to musical exploration, this London based duo obsessively deconstruct familiar tropes, looking for the tension that lies between improvisation and form.
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.
The ensemble Blutwurst was founded in Florence in 2011 by musicians involved in radical improvisation and experimental music. The founding members are Marco Baldini (trumpet), Edoardo Ricci (bass clarinet, saxophone) and Daniela Fantechi (piano, accordion). The ensemble grew up since 2012 with Michele Lanzini (cello), Cristina Abati (viola), Luca Giorgi (electronics, percussions), Maurizio Costantini (double-bass) and Luisa Santacesaria (piano, harmonium).
At the first stage Blutwurst focused on improvisation and on the study and implementation of open and graphic scores by composers such as John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, Alvin Lucier and La Monte Young, and realized sonorizations of silent and art movies.
In 2013 the ensemble began to work on its own compositions with the project Yoğurt, entirely dedicated to the electro-acoustic exploration of unisons and drones. Since 2013, Blutwurst performed, among others, at Frau Frisör, Fosca (Florence, 2013 and 2014), SpazioK (Prato, 2014), Tempo Reale Festival (Florence, 2015), Estate Fiesolana (Fiesole, 2016). In 2015 Blutwurst realized the soundscape for the essay movie Negotiating Amnesia by the London-based artist Alessandra Ferrini, in partnership with Festival dei Popoli and Murate-Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Florence.
From September 2015 to January 2016 Blutwurst was part of the Residence Program IN_Tempo Reale. In May 2016 the ensemble released its first album Tenebrae for the Tempo Reale Collection and, in December 2016, it will be released the LP Yoğurt for the English label Negative Days.
“Father Murphy is the sound of the Catholic sense of Guilt. A downward spiral aiming at the bottom of the hollow, and then digging even deeper. Over the years the band became one of the most interesting and enigmatic musical entities coming out of Italy, part of that community that Simon Reynolds defined as “Italian Occult Psychedelia” and well known for their really intense live shows, something in between a rite and an artistic performance. Father Murphy furiously performed all over Europe and toured North America with Deerhoof, Dirty Beaches, Iceage and Xiu Xiu, and has been praised by the Archdruid Julian Cope, Michael Gira, Geoff Barrow, among lots of others. After five albums and a plethora of EPs and limited releases, The Italian outfit just finished their last effort, a trilogy on the Cross, consisting of Calvary (EP released in January 2015 by the British label Blue Tapes), Croce (album out March 2015 on the American The Flenser) and Lamentations (EP out November 2015 on the Italian Backwards).”
