Suzanne Ciani + Li YileiKings Place, London, UK Taking refuge in Kings Place from the sweltering summer heat, I’m met by Li Yilei’s solitary song. The London based artist begins with an avian melody performed on a whistle. The phrase fills the hall, looping and… Read More
Museum Of Portable SoundPortsmouth, UK/Online “Are you familiar with the story of the first MP3?” asks John Kannenberg, director and chief curator of the Museum of Portable Sound (MOPS). He plays me the 1987 a cappella version of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”. Karlheinz Brandenburg, the… Read More
If you tune your digital dial to Radio Amnion each month during the full moon, you’ll hear a new composition specifically commissioned for the occasion. In June, Blanc Sceol, the London based duo of Stephen Shiell and Hannah White, presented Orbit, a half-hour piece recorded… Read More
O YAMA O The quartet formed from the eclectic cultural milieu around London’s Cafe Oto take folk, sound art and call and response to create a liberated vision of modern song. By Ilia Rogatchevski Photography by Wendy Huynh. Sitting outside East London’s Cafe Oto, O… Read More
The underground music veteran Mihály Víg looks back on Hungary’s Soviet-era scene.Image: Balaton’s Károly Hunyadi (left) and Mihály Víg in Budapest, 1980s. Photograph by János Vetö Outside of his native Hungary, Mihály Víg is best known as a soundtrack composer. His work is closely associated… Read More
Mihály Víg — The Hungarian composer, actor and musician recalls his 40 year relationship with director Béla Tarr in advance of an epic screening. Photography by Balázs Fromm. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó (1994) is glacial cinema. The seven-hour epic is shot in the Hungarian director’s signature… Read More
Cafe Oto, London, UK The venue is plunged into darkness. A sonic assault ensues. The processed drums strike the ear with an industrial regularity. The sound is heavy and repetitive like endless rows of pumpjacks nodding in an oil field. Coloured spotlights frame Vymethoxy Redspiders… Read More
Kings Place, London, UK Themes of metamorphosis abound in NikNak’s immersive performance. The concert begins with a meditation that resets the mood of the room. Many in the audience feel inclined to sit or lie on the floor. Piano loops and birdsong are embellished by… Read More
The Storeroom, Letchworth Garden City, UKPhoto: Karma Please by Dugald Muir. Founded in 1903 by the English urban planner Ebenezer Howard, Letchworth Garden City was the world’s first purpose-built alternative to the overcrowded and polluted conditions of industrialised cities. The utopian project aimed to reconnect… Read More
Cafe Oto, London, UKPhoto by Sisi Burn Zubin Kanga’s Steel on Bone begins with the composer attacking the venue’s piano strings with a pair of metallic rods. The percussive sounds are sampled in real time and manipulated by the composer’s movements. With the help of… Read More
Ilia Rogatchevski 