Upset The Rhythm Presents | Mésange, Historically Fucked, John Hannon
Upset The Rhythm Presents |
MÉSANGE is a collaboration between composer/violinist Agathe Max and composer/ musician Luke Mawdsley. Their new album, Gypsy Moth, anticipates the forces of nature, creation and rebirth. Mordant musical tapestries (minimalism, drone and ambient) are washed in dense electric skies, exposing signs that flutter and flare in dark elegance. Ubiquitous modal loops, inspire tension and mystery, a golden harvest where forbidden fruits are gathered by furtive hands mindful of a coming storm. Mésange implore you to explore the threshold between dawn and dusk, self and other, where unfettered territories are sensually intimated in fecund sounds that teeter between lightning and thunderclap. The duo have travelled and toured extensively across the U.K and Europe and have been invited to perform with the acclaimed minimalist composer Terry Riley. Their performances are often improvised and unrestricted by the usual constraints of musical reception, celebrating a queering of gender, the body and identity both visually and sonically.
As a graduate in electro-acoustic composition, Agathe Max has worked within a range of indistinct disciplines including, sound design for experimental film, theatre, contemporary dance and other visual art forms. Agathe uses improvisation to explore a dark(er) materiality rooted in ritual, myth and the supernatural. Agathe Max’s latest recording A Gypsy in a Church (2016) is a daring 22 minute acoustic improvisation, weaving post-classical motifs into a beguiling and hypnotic tapestry that utters speculations on sacred identity and heritage. Other creative actions have included the OFIELD project, processing and forging environmental soundscapes for an imagined utopia/dystopia. Luke Mawdsley is a musician and composer, solo artist, collaborator and guitarist in Cavalier Song. His work meditates on the human condition, stirring memory and desire within musical definitions of a terrific sublime. The results are a series of lush, yet darkly affective, symphonic abstractions weaving in and around melancholic myths and narratives. Luke is currently the lead guitarist in Mugstar and a former member of Liverpool avant-garde group a.P.A.t.T. He has received commissions from The Blue Coat, FACT , Static Gallery and Edge Hill Arts Centre, providing an ongoing portfolio of improvised and soundtrack works.
https://mesange.bandcamp.com/
Historically Fucked are an entangled quartet fronted by Greta Buitike, who create short, eruptive songs which they then set about obliterating from the inside. The four-piece is completed by Otto Willberg (bass), David Birchall (guitar) and Alecs Pierce (drums). Their raft of albums on Heavy Petting at varying times brings to mind the very disparate approaches of both The Fall and the John Zorn-composed trio of Patton-Baron-Dunn, without really sounding like either of them. Historically Fucked can be funny, gleefully eruptive and very gratifyingly raucous and auto-destructive, heading off in numerous directions within a matter of seconds. Listen to their records and expect to have no idea what to expect.
John Hannon is known for his work as a member of Liberez presents here a solo manifestation of violin flotsam.