Friday 10 April 2015, 8pm
Return to OTO for the one and only Vibracathedral Orchestra, following two incendiary shows here in 2014. Vibracathedral Orchestra are the totemic ensemble of contemporary British outsider music. Their chimerical DNA spans from beatific Labour-club raga to full-on face-flaying West Riding Kraut-out, whilst the core membership and elastic supporting cast that has realised this wayward vision is an unrivalled who’s who of the UK audio underground.
Support comes from Death Shanties, the mixed-media balls-to-the-wall Free Jazz group featuring Alex Neilson (drums), Sybren Renema (sax) and Lucy Stein (painting/ projections).
Vibracathedral Orchestra are one of the cornerstones of contemporary British outsider music, their sonic palette drawing equally from rock, folk and experimental music. They have forged a reputation over the past 20 years playing long intense sets of free-riffing kaleidoscopic instant composition, heavy on transcendental string drones and wild percussive clatter. Their membership and elastic supporting cast over the years has been an unrivalled whoís-who of the UK audio underground, currently solidified as the stable quintet of Adam Davenport, John Godbert, Julian Bradley, Michael Flower and Neil Campbell.
"Slowly, the scattered surfaces of insistent, intricate noises in implacably revolving plateaus give way to strange, imaginary vistas ... the abandoned roof of a crumbling tower block overrun with climbing creepers affords a view over a forgotten city, submerged in jungly tendrils ... in a becalmed haze, turn to descend the tower beneath the surface of the green ... at first down worn corroded concrete stairs that become ever more thickly choked with vegetation ... until the easiest path is to step out through the twentieth-floor windows, long since absent of glass, supported by branches, stalks, thick leaves, a slow tumble through ever denser foliage until a headfirst, steady scramble downwards, suspended by forgiving green layers." - Owen Coggins
Death Shanties is a new mixed media balls-to-the-wall Free Jazz group featuring Alex Neilson (drums), Sybren Renema (alto/baritone sax) and Lucy Stein (painting/projections). The group combine references to Medieval music, Sea Shanties and Field Hollars with the ecstatic cry of classic 1960’s fire music. Stein uses primitive devotional images, food stuffs and even her own hair in visceral, highly textured painted projections making Death Shanties a unique and immersive live experience. Death Shanties debut album "Crabs" is out on August 11th 2014 on Bomb Shop.
