Archive
Lakker announce ‘ÉPOCA’ LP on R&S March 15
Lakker return to R&S with their stunning new album Época, March 15 on R&S. Following 2016’s conceptual 8 track maxi-EP “Struggle and Emerge” (using field recordings of TV and radio broadcasts from the Dutch National AV archive) Época is a bracing return to form, combining caustic electronics with fresh inspiration from the prepared piano of John Cage, plaintive folk melodies, the explorative label Sublime Frequencies and the raw rhythms of Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes.
The rich and deep work of Época finds the duo reinvigorated from their hiatus (with solo LPs as Eomac and Arad in 2018), using their own voices extensively for the first time, alongside regular vocal collaborator Eileen Carpio. This leads to an at times more melodic and poppier feeling, balanced out by the off kilter rhythms and blasts of feedback and weathered reverbs that intertwine throughout the record.
The natural evolution of the tracks and their rougher, looser production sound parallels the Irish duo’s interest in two separate ideas: ambient and natural sound, especially the background noise – a sense of time and place – that is inherent in old recordings of folk and classical music; and an interest in herd dynamics and flock patterns / murmurations, both in the natural world and in human society. Alongside the use of physical modelling synths the album contains recordings and samples of violin, guitar and bodhrán, the stringboard of a piano at EMS Stockholm, phone recordings of family gatherings in Dublin and 1970’s dance music from Jaipur.Época is a challenging album of diverse and intense soundscapes that expands on the scope of Lakker’s already multifaceted music, finding them at the peak of their artistic powers.
Resident Advisor album announcement + ‘A Whisper in Your Ear’ track stream
NOW BOOKING:brand new live AV show ft. 3D captures of bodies and golden landscapes+ live and DJ sets
brandon [at] lb-agency.netHolly Herndon + Jlin “Godmother” (ft. Spawn) – AI single + video
Today Holly Herndon dropped her track “Godmother”, a collaboration with footwerk producer Jlin and Herndon’s own AI baby Spawn. Emulating Herndon’s voice to the rhythmic patterns evocative of Jlin’s music, Spawn produced the track as well as the video morphing of their two faces below.
Read the full statement from Herndon on the making of “Godmother”, evolution of Spawn, and future of music in the wake of AI here.
NOW BOOKING: Holly Herndon Ensemble AI AV shows for Spring + Summer festivals and select special events. Contact brandon [at]lb-agency.net
Actress ‘Young Paint’ EP + live AI AV debut
Actress released an EP from his AI alter ego Young Paint on his new Werk_LTD imprint of Vinyl Factory this Autumn which was included in RA’s Best of October and can be streamed in full via FACT. In Actress’s own words:
The EP is about gradients of learning, from a humanist perspective investigating the vacant soul of computer language, determination and logic at its most basic natural level … Exploring complex simplicity and reimagining it as a sort of sonic paint with splats, sprays, splashes, dots in an Impressionistic fashion.
He will be presenting it’s live AV debut at CTM / transmediale in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt on Feb.1 + 2, 2019. The show will feature Young Paint projected lifesize on stage performing beside Actress in his own virtual space with virtual gear. Visuals will be produced by Werkflow however Young Paint will be in control of his own movements and musical choices. No two shows will be the same!
Young Paint has been progressively learning and emulating the shadowy, unpredictable, UK bass- and rave-inspired music of Darren J. Cunningham, aka Actress. Over the course of 2018, the AI-based character has spent time programming and arranging Cunningham’s sonic palette, learning not only how to react to his work, but also to take the lead with the occasional solo.
The show has also been announced for Sonar Barcelona next July with more dates including London TBA very soon!
NOW BOOKING: Actress Young Paint AI AV show, Actress live AV and techno DJ sets.
Contact ned [at] lb-agency.net and brandon [at] lb-agency.netDopplereffekt ‘Athanatos’ EP out now on Leisure System + “Hayflick Limit” video
Dopplereffekt have followed up last year’s ‘Cellular Automata’ LP on Leisure System with an EP ‘Athanatos’, exploring the “genetic conditions and chromosomal influences defining mortality.”
Ray Philp, in his 4/5 RA review, highlighted the track “Mitosis”: for its driving beat—they’ve not made anything this urgent in a while—but the harmonies summon a special awe. Shifting in and out of richly dissonant phases, they suggest someone wrestling with a discovery they can barely comprehend. It could be the secret to immortality, or something even more disturbing.
Check out the video for “Hayflick Limit” dir. by Michael Tan. The track is a collaboration with Raster-Noton cofounders Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender.
NOW BOOKING: live AV shows. Contact brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Aïsha Devi “Light Luxury” and “DNA ☤ ∞ / Inner State Of Alchemy” videos via Boiler Room & PAPER Mag
Boiler Room 4:3 have premiered the phantasmagorical video for Aïsha Devi’s “Light Luxury” dir. by Tianzhuo Chen. It’s an epic aquatic work drawing on the excess of the nouveau riche in China with fantastic demons.
And Emile Barret’s spiralling 3D VR video world for Devi’s tracks “DNA ☤ ∞ / Inner State Of Alchemy” is premiered as part of a feature on her and their longterm audio-visual collaboration for PAPER Mag. Prepare to be totally tripped out!
NOW BOOKING: Aïsha Devi live AV shows ft. immersive projections by Emile Barret + select AV shows with Tianzhuo Chen. brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Littlebig welcomes Giant Swan // EP on Whities out now
We are thrilled to welcome Bristol’s blistering noise techno punks, Giant Swan, by arrangement with Qu Junktions! Over the past few years of extensively touring the UK and Europe’s DIY circuit, with festival appearances including Berlin Atonal and Unsound, they have developed a reputation for uncompromising, in your face, propulsive live technoid sets reminiscent of Fuck Buttons, Lightning Bolt, and Suicide.
In their path, Robin Stewart and Harry Wright, have dropped a number of singles via Howling Owl (2015), FuckPunk (2016), Timedance (2017), Mannequin (2018) and most recently Whities (2018) as Giant Swan. These fresh features from Resident Advisor and Mixmag attest to their “awesome power”. Take a peek at the Boiler Room below for a glimpse of the intensity they bring!
They’re not the first to approach techno from a hardcore punk sensibility, but their energy on stage is pushing them into a league of their own. Imagine Container and Alan Vega attempting a peak-time techno record, and you’re halfway to grasping the Giant Swan sound. RESIDENT ADVISOR
A Giant Swan show is heavy and direct; there’s a physicality you won’t find at most live techno shows. The duo throw themselves behind every synth squeal, crashing snare and vocal wail with an energy often echoed by its audience. MIXMAG
Their tracks induce odd perceptual tricks through prolonged repetition. What was hitherto still becomes slippery: drones go kaleidoscopic; electricity itself dances. WIRE
Their live performances are exceptionally potent, recalling the ecstatic dance-not-dance music of early Holy Fuck and the pure WTF?! gristle and energy of the first Rezzett records. THE QUIETUS
NOW BOOKING: Contact Ned (ned [at] lb-agency.net) & Brandon (brandon [at] lb-agency.net)
Powell Tillmans EP on XL Nov.16 // Watch “Feel The Night”
On the 16 of November, XL Recordings will release Spoken By The Other, the first EP by Powell Tillmans. It’s a collection of recordings from two of the most interesting artists in Europe, and one whose short length belies its radical tenderness, sonic language and political ambition.
Oscar Powell and Wolfgang Tillmans first met at the Tate Modern, where Tillmans was programming a series of performances to coincide with his 2017 exhibition. Quickly the conversation turned to talk of a full collaboration, and following Tillmans’s video for Powell’s track Freezer, over the Summer they got into the studio to begin making music. Recording took place in Berlin, London and Turin, with Tillmans’s vocals working in tandem with Powell’s synthetic processes. Rather than a simple producer-vocalist arrangement, explains Powell, “Wolfgang’s voice and my sounds drive toward some sort of shape or feeling together.” These tracked were workshopped live at Berlin Atonal and Club To Club in the second half of 2017, and with no small number of emails and voice files exchanged, these ideas evolved into the final EP this year.
For Powell, working with Tillmans was liberating: “I think a lot of Wolfgang’s work is to do with vulnerability. He’s never been afraid to express that, or highlight it, or lift it up as something worth showing,” he says. “Recording the EP was almost the process of losing the expectations that might be placed upon myself. People have described it as a vulnerable record, and that transparency and honesty is how I felt making it. It made me feel very out of my comfort zone, but I think working with Wolfgang has pushed me to trust myself more. To feel more.”
For Tillmans, whose support for the EU and migrants rights against the rising tide of nationalism has formed an increasingly urgent backbone of his work, the statement is political. “If everybody hardens up in this polarised world, we cannot come out of it in one piece. The solution is not to hit back all the time but make a new better alternative and which is not authoritarian and hard but is so kind, it’s combined into a love song. We can’t let the haters overtake our lives. We must keep on partying; we must keep on loving, and living.”
Spoken By The Other will be available across digital platforms, as well a Single Pressing Limited Edition 12” vinyl on XL Nov.16. Single + video for “Feel The Night” out now. x-l-r.co/spokenbytheother
RA review 3.8/5
NOW BOOKING: Powell live/DJ hybrid set brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Powell Boiler Room Santiago DJ set + live/DJ hybrid show for NTS
Powell has been busy this year showcasing his chops as the punkest MF behind the decks with a rave-tastic DJ set for Boiler Room in Santiago, Chile last month and via his latest Melon Magic show for NTS, playing with a new live modular synth + DJ hybrid set up which he will be taking on the road with true to form twists and turns special to each performance of the show.
NOW BOOKING DJ and live/DJ hybrid sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Miss Red debut LP ‘K.O.’ (prod. by The Bug) out July 13 – stream lead single “Dagga”
Miss Red’s warcry of a debut LP ‘K.O.’ will be dropping with full force on July 13 via The Bug’s new label PRESSURE, following his Flame 1 collab with Burial. The Israeli MC’s one of a kind flow has been all over The Bug’s live sets and tracks for the past few years and first made a splash with her 2015 Murder mixtape ft. production by Evian Christ, Andy Stott, Mumdance, Mark Pritchard++ w/ videos for “Murder” & “Fever” and has since release singles via her Red Label imprint of Sounds of The Universe and guested on tracks with Warp’s GAIKA.
‘K.O.’ is dedicated to her grandfather, a renowned prizefighter who passed away during the making of the album and is featured on it’s cover. Of the album, Red says: “For me, reggae is the foundation of this record but the album’s movement is freer. It mirrors my need to move and keep challenging myself. As a white Israeli girl working as an MC in the music industry, and in particular as a singer, it’s a BIG battle to be taken seriously, and as a woman in the music industry, I am in an obvious minority, the situation is clear, the MAN is still in control—that has got to be addressed, and changed.”
Album announcement via XLR8R, FACT + lead single ‘Dagga’ coverage The Quietus, CLASH, Mixmag, FACT Singles Club
Plenty of MCs have accompanied Martin over the years, but the Israeli has a seductive yet savage chemistry that suits the limber brutality of the music perfectly. Bathed in red light and smoke, the pair completely brought the house down. – RA review of Simple Things ’17
For all the ruckus that Martin inevitably brings to the show Miss Red is still 100% the star – it’s a testament to her presence and flow as MC that she’s able to ride all over the avalanche Bug riddims that thunder about the place, as ever her vocal range sharp glass amidst the dense racket. – The Quietus review of Unsound ’16
Now booking The Bug ft. Miss Red live sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net
The Bug announces PRESSURE label, Burial collab single + Miss Red LP
The Bug has announced his new label PRESSURE, building from his Berlin party series, with a big splash! The first release will be a 12″ he produced together with Burial under the moniker Flame 1, and the record pre-orders have already sold out of most shops ahead of its release on March 30.
Listen to track “Fog” via The Quietus and “Shrine” via CRACK plus read Pitchfork‘s write-up which highlights that The Bug makes the most unlikely-seeming collaborations feel intuitive.
Next up in PRESSURE’s schedule is MISS RED’s debut LP (prod. by The Bug) this Summer which promises to be raw, raga banger! Tom Ravenscroft already dropped the first single “DAGGA” on his BBC Radio show.
NOW BOOKING: The Bug live w/ MCs, solo ‘In Dub’ DJ sets, and Miss Red live & DJ sets
brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Aïsha Devi ‘DNA Feelings’ LP out May 11 on Houndstooth
Aïsha Devi’s sophomore album, DNA Feelings, has just been announced for release by Houndstooth on May 11, along with lead single “Inner State of Alchemy”, as covered in XLR8R, Tiny Mixtapes, RA, and Uproxx. What is clear from Devi’s cryptic artist statement (see below) is that this album aims to activate those silent chains of our DNA and amplify the listener’s connection with the cosmos, which is a very likely inevitability if you’ve ever had the opportunity to experience her live. Expect numerous further transmissions from her website prior to the album’s release.
The DNA Feelings AV show ft. Emile Barret will debut at MIRA Berlin on May 5 and tour worldwide. Devi will begin to offer DJ sets in Autumn. For live AV and DJ bookings contact: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Upcoming live AV shows:
9 Mar – Istanbul, IndieCity @ Salon IKSV
17 Mar – Lisbon @ Musicbox
24 Mar – Azores Tremor @ Arquipelago
5 May – Berlin MIRA @ Funkhaus
12 May – Lyon Nuits Sonores @ Le Sucre
16 May – Los Angeles @ The Echoplex
17 May – New York @ Elsewhere – Zone One
24 May – Vienna @ Hyperreality
14 Jun – London @ Oslo
Eomac ‘Reconnect’ LP out April 27 + ‘Resist All Dogma’ EP March 9
“Drawing influence from traditional Irish music, Haitian voodoo drumming, the raw old-school jungle of Source Direct and the abstract, rhythms of Autechre”, Eomac returns with his third studio album, and first for his own label, Eotrax, with ‘Reconnect’ on April 27 as announced by RA.
‘Reconnect’ is a visceral statement, utterly contemporary and technological while simultaneously elemental and primal, incorporating Eomac a.k.a. Ian McDonnell’s own screams, as well as his bare body convulsing in trance as focus of the new AV show developed with Sal Stapleton who had directed his “Temple of the Jaguar” video.
The LP will be preceded by the “Resist All Dogma” EP on Eotrax March 9 and followed this year by his ‘Bedouin Trax II’ LP for Bedouin.
Listen to lead single “Resist All Dogma” below. Full album stream and audio + video previews of the ‘Reconnect’ AV show available upon request.
NOW BOOKING: live club sets, ‘Reconnect’ live AV, and ‘Bedouin Trax’ live/DJ hybrid sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Mouse on Mars ‘Dimensional People’ LP out on Thrill Jockey ft. The National, Bon Iver
The peculiar genius of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma is that they make all these things sound like they could come from no one else. The fact that they are still doing it 18 years after their first album, and still capable of making some of the best music of their career, is inspiring. — Pitchfork
Dimensional People is Mouse on Mars’ first album in 6 years and most inventive to date, out April 13th on Thrill Jockey. The album is was conceived as a “spatial composition using object-based mixing technology playing with the possibilities of sonic design and collective musicianship.”Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) features on lead single “Dimensional People Part 3” as announced + Best New Track via Pitchfork, Uncut, NME, and Intro and playlisted in the NY Times and The Guardian. Album collaborators also include Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Zach Condon (Beirut), Spank Rock, Swamp Dogg, Eric D. Clark, Lisa Hannigan, Amanda Blank, Sam Amidon, and Ensemble Musikfabrik.
Dimensional People will exist in many forms: as a multi-channel, spatialized sound installation, collaborative performance events, and touring show with a rotating cast of musicians joining Mouse on Mars on stage.
Their dancefloor smashing live AV show is also available with all new visuals and guest MC Spank Rock joining on occasion. Check this live clip of them in action together at Eaux Claires 2017. Several Dimensional People album tracks will be adapted to the clubby AV show.
Now booking live AV duo and Dimensional People ensemble + installation presentations:
brandon [at] lb-agency.net
The Bug’s ‘Bad’ / ‘Get Out The Way’ single out Dec.8 on Ninjatune
Continuing his style of big hittin’ double headers – begun last year with the D Double E / Riko Dan face-off, ‘Box’ / ‘Iceman’ – The Bug has invited Flowdan, and Killa P & Irah to get grimey on their respective Riddims. ‘Get Out The Way’ is the first collab The Bug has conducted with Killa P since the mighty ‘Skeng’, with Killa additionally inviting Irah, from his Killaz Army crew, along for the ride.
‘Bad ft. Flowdan’ premiered via Complex and was picked up by Clash, The Quietus, Pop Matters, and XLR8R amongst other notable sites. Both tracks are already receiving some heavy dubplate slayin’, with the likes of Mala, Kahn, Spooky, Pinch and Mumdance all smashing them in their sets. ‘Bad’ has already been chosen by Elijah (of Elijah & Skilliam / Butterz) as one of his Grime tunes of the year, is in Mixmag’s Essential Low-End Spotify playlist, BBC1 Xtra shows from Logan Sama and MistaJam, and was even Tweeted about by Nina Kraviz!
The digital release dropped on Nov.17, coinciding with The Bug’s first PRESSURE night at Village Underground, transplanting his infamous Berlin soundsystem club night, and it was absolutely mad as evinced by these pics/vids on his FB and this spot on Gigwise review:
It’s fantastic to see an artist who has always striven to be different and refuse to pander to the mainstream, and one who was for so long considered to be an eccentric on the fringes of the industry, finally take his place at the centre of what’s going on. The Bug is a serious prospect now, and shows like this put him at the very forefront of live performance. Take our word for it – you won’t hear a more blistering, immaculately constructed and wonderfully vicious racket than this for a long time to come.‘Bad’ / ‘Get Out The Way’ is in shops on Dec.8, 2018 via Ninja Tune.Now book live + DJ sets w/ MCs: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
LB welcomes Tzusing – new EP on Bedouin
Following a string of hard hitting singles for L.I.E.S. in 2014 and 2015, Shanghai-based producer Tzusing’s 2017 debut LP 東方不敗 has already sold out its first two pressings and is proving to be a defining album in clubland this year, garnering 4/5 in RA with an RA Breakthrough feature that nicely sums up what this genre-colliding Shanghai-based producer is all about – check out this album sampler and hear for yourself!
His signature blend of techno, industrial/EBM and world music has reached peak form and the album hints at the new horizons Tzusing explores on his freshly released EP 瞬千擊 (In a Moment a Thousand Hits) for Bedouin (11k plays in its first day!) which is already making massive waves and challenging techno’s dancefloor hegemony, hailed as one of 2017’s techno success stories in RA’s 4.3/5 review of the EP.
Tzusing DJed Reaktor and Zeezout at ADE, turning heads with his irreverent selections and edits, which has landed him a spot in RA’s ADE 5 Key Performances. He has also slammed dancefloors for CTM, Unsound, and MIRA festivals as well as various clubs in Europe this year and will be back next Summer for festivals and select club bookings.
NOW BOOKING DJ sets at festivals + select club shows brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Mouse on Mars “Synaptics” EP ft. Modeselektor, Jessy Lanza, Sepalcure out now on Monkeytown
The first EP from Mouse on Mars since their anniversary recording 21 Again 3 years ago embraces their love of juke, footwork and chopped up house music like never before. On its three tracks, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner reinforce the collaborative idea of 21 Again with eight different artists including Modeselektor, Jessy Lanza, Junior Boys, and Sepalcure having been involved in the making of these tracks.
The EP was released on Monkeytown on Oct.13, 2017. Listen to EP previews here and watch the zany video for “Jack Is Out” dir. by Jonah King & Winslow Funaki below.
Now booking live AV duo shows: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Samuel Kerridge’s ‘The Silence Between Us’ EP on Downwards out now
Samuel Kerridge’s The Silence Between Us EP was just released on Downwards on Oct.6 – view the teaser below and material that has slipped in to his unparalleled Fatal Light Attraction A/V show (trailer) which has been making the festivals rounds. XLR8R and Rolling Stone.IT have both premiered killer cuts from the 12″.
Kerridge absolutely floored Berghain in May with a completely new live set and has presented select performances of his live soundtracked film performance, The Mysterious Other (trailer), inspired by Jean Cocteau, with more on that project soon to come.
Now booking live A/V, live, and DJ sets: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Emptyset’s Skin EP out Oct.20 on Thrill Jockey
Emptyset stands at the vanguard of electronic music. With each release, they stretch boundaries and explore new methods of creating sounds with scientific precision. On their EP Skin, Emptyset (the duo of James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas) bring together techniques they developed through their 2017 LP Borders, exploring structural aspects of ritual music and non-Western composition and combine them with recent performance work examining microtonal vocalization and acoustic qualities of materials. This is the first time Emptyset has presented a body of work using entirely acoustic production methods.
The compositions of Skin are all focused on structure, texture, and rhythm captured through recordings of a custom string instrument, drums, and physical granular materials modulated in real-time, alongside tonal vocal elements.
The EP will be out on Thrill Jockey on the 20th of October. Stream the single “Eye II” here.
Now booking live and live AV: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Lakker’s Eris Harmonia EP out Sept.29
Eris Harmonia is the new EP from acclaimed Dublin-via-Berlin duo Lakker out on Eomac’s Eotrax on September 29. It is an investigation of disparate styles and sounds reflecting different reactions and emotional responses to the current world climate of chaos and uncertainty. The name comes from two Greek Goddesses – Eris, Goddess of disorder and strife, and Harmonia, Goddess of harmony and concord. It is an attempt to find inner peace while navigating the chaos that surrounds us in the world at present: Trump, Brexit, white supremacy, capitalism, corruption, biased media, fake news, the refugee crisis, extremism, violence, rape culture, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and that’s just the beginning of the list… The past acutely affects the present. What will our future be? Eris Harmonia is seeking the answer.
Now booking live AV, live, DJ: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Powell new release on Diagonal: New Beta Vol.1
On the 8th of June, Powell released a mini-album called New Beta Vol.1, via his label, Diagonal Records that sold out in just a few days.
The new LP sees the UK producer experimenting with fresh ideas while keeping close to the influences of D&B, wave and Belgian new beat that have characterized his previous records, incorporating elements of noise, techno and post-punk. As mentioned from the label, the album “experiments with new, polyphonic hardware” as well as “goofy, unhinged sounds” and “tart electro arpeggios” throughout.
Boomkat: The seven tracks of New Beta Vol.1 find smarter, looser points of connection and juxtaposition between their mutual and exclusive binds, better consolidating his dancefloor impetus with an emotive thrust that he’s previously preferred to dance around or assuage in favor of outright madness.
Diagonal is also holding its first label party in London in two years on June 15 at Electrowerkz, with live sets from Raime’s Yally project and Russell Haswell alongside DJ sets from Powell himself and Blackest Ever Black’s Kiran Sande.
If you didn’t have the chance to get your own copy, you can still listen to Freezer, the first single released, here:
Emptyset DRAF commission + RA feature, FACT interview, and Wire mix
Last month Emptyset premiered a commissioned installation and performance at David Roberts Arts Foundation in London. The site-specific performance was entirely acoustic, using compositional aspects of micro-tonality, percussion and voice.
In their RA feature, the duo explained the importance of acoustic music and how challenging it can be: the idea of using voice as an instrument. We want to play with how that most direct human experience of music-making or sound-making can relate to what we’re doing. It’s both the continuation and a departure, and it’s exciting to us that there’s still actually a lot to explore, a lot to be fascinated by.
Besides finding new paths for the project to explore, the duo, in this latest feature, analyze the concept behind Emptyset stating that they’ve developed a composite of various strategies of architecture, design, history, music, materialist theory. It’s a form of collage we’ve formulated internally, within ten years of internal conversations. That’s created a kind of foundation by which we know the rule set. The process is employed within that, as a means, but to us, it never feels like it’s the actual output. It’s a tool that’s required to give voice to space, material, form, structure.”
The concept of space is further analyzed from the duo in this FACT interview, saying that: “The idea of space, for us, is more exciting in thinking about context and the physical structure and its sonic potential, as well as the kind of connotations and narratives invested in certain spaces, and playing with those kinds of boundaries.”
The duo has also created a mix for The Wire with the aim of connecting all the previous mentioned points, stating that “The mix brings together work from artists and musicians whose work have been an inspiration and have informed ideas around the recent album Borders, reflecting upon the interwoven histories of electronic and acoustic music, as well as the inherent ritual qualities of sound and performance.”
For further inquiries on booking Emptyset, contact: brandon@lb-agency.net
World premieres from Powell, Fis, Roly Porter & Paul Jebanasam at Berlin Atonal
Berlin Atonal 2017 returns this summer for the fifth edition inviting over 100 musicians, sound and visual artists, performers, and DJs for a five-day stretch between the 16–20 of August. The festival has just announced World Premiere collaborations from Powell x Wolfgang Tillmans, ALTAR (Roly Porter x Paul Jebanasam), and Fis x Renick Bell.
ALTAR is the surprising result of the new collaboration between Roly Porter and Paul Jebanasam. The performance based on ritual system music will provide the first look at this new project uniting the creative and technical capacities of two of contemporary music’s most powerful composers.
The electronic music enfant terrible Powell will perform with Turner prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans. The two artists have been collaborating on music which will reach ears for the first time in this live A/V show.
And the last collaboration sees live-coding mastermind Renick Bell and expert sound designer Fis link up in search of next-level sonic happenings. Starting with an injection of Fis’ gastric, sinuous sound into the cutting-edge expressive and compositional power of Bell’s live-coded algorithms, their performance plays on apparent distinctions between their live modalities.
Fis & Rob Thorne: Clear Stones LP out now
On the 12th of May Subtext Recordings released Fis & Rob Thorne‘s album: Clear Stones. In this incredibly special collaboration, the Māori sound artist Rob Thorne and the New Zealand born, Berlin-based electronic composer Fis dismantle boundaries in space, time, and genre, juxtaposing Thorne’s living, breathing practice with the weight of modern sound systems.Made of wood, stone, bone and shell, the instruments of taonga pūoro (translating to ‘singing treasures’) include various oblique-style flutes, horns, percussion, and objects spun. Amongst the instrumentation deployed by Thorne on Clear Stones are the Pūtātara (conch horn), Pūrerehua (bullroarer), and Tumutumu Kōhatu (stone percussion), gifting this album with new sound shapes that are unconventional and completely addictive to the ear. In contrast to Thorne magical sounds, Fis sculpts bold new settings for the music, mired in deep bass and vast synthetic tones, at times pushing Thorne’s wood, stone, and bone into total transformative saturation. The conversation that emerges between these two artists encompasses technology and nature, computers and physical instruments, historical narrative, and the present, perceived secularity and sacredness, framing them all as aspects of one single, conscious whole.As Boomkat describe the fine interplay between these two deft artists: It’s a dizzying and immersive experience to thread yourself thru, one that neatly dances around and plays into preconceptions that come with FIS’ music whilst rendering it at its most porous, naturalistic and open to elemental influence. You can hear it for yourself via this full stream thanks to The Wire and experience this transformative mix for Bleep full of original material.Fis and Rob Thorne have just toured Europe in the lead up to the release including dates at Borderline Festival in Athens, Cafe Oto and Mondo Muzak festival in Milan.Now booking Fis live + A/V and Fis & Rob Thorne: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Powell & Wolfgang Tillmans: Freezer video
Music can help you to discover reality in a new way. It can help you to picture your life differently, almost like a movie that sometimes you dream you are living, and then other times you actually do live. That dream may be a fight between beauty and oppression. If you are wondering how that could be visualized then just have to watch the latest Powell video directed by artist Wolfgang Tillmans.
Tillmans’ exquisitely-placed shots flit from nature close-ups to photographs of police and security forces fueled beneath by Powell’s jagged acid-techno soundtrack. “Freezer” retains Powell’s signature style, while also mining new territory – in Pitchfork‘s words: “Freezer” proves that there’s still room in his formula for some shiny new influences.
Powell performed at Tate Tanks on the 28th of April for NTS with Tillmans, whose solo exhibition at the Tate is currently on until June 11, providing the visuals for his new live set on this special occasion. A new reality is ready to begin.
Now booking Powell live A/V, live, DJ: brandon [at] lb-agency.net
LittleBig welcomes Roly Porter
LittleBig proudly welcomes Roly Porter. The Bristol, UK-based electronic musician/composer started his career as one half of pioneering dubstep duo Vex-d. When Vex’d decided to go their separate ways in the mid 00s Porter pursued a solo career in an attempt to escape the genre constraints he felt had become too restrictive. His subsequent solo work under his own name ventured away from club-based electronic music, constructing dense, harrowing walls of sound utilizing classical instruments as well as heavy, distorted bass tones.
Roly’s music isn’t about ‘day to day’ life. Instead it’s an opportunity for him to think about ‘larger’ things outside his personal experience. Third Law, his latest release, is about combining everything Roly has loved and missed about producing sound-system music, coming to terms with his goal of leaving dance music as it is, free to explore ideas of rhythm, bass, sound design within his own world without having to shape any of these elements to fit any preconceived ideas or rules.
The totally immersive Third Law A/V show with MFO, launching the audience into the outer reaches of perception and space, debuted at Berlin Atonal in 2016 and has since gone on to be presented at high profile festivals internationally, setting the standard for what an A/V show can and should be.
NOW BOOKING live A/V, live, DJ: brandon [at] lb-agency.net