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Frost – all that you love
Ben Frost – Threshold
Ben Frost presents Widening Gyre, 360 show
Ben Frost live – VERSION01 from Rosforth on Vimeo.
With Frost’s critically acclaimed 2017 LP The Centre Cannot Hold as a departure point, Widening Gyre combines the unique studio approach of the album into a new live performance concept; a powerful and highly volatile multi-point sound environment performed in the round.
Created as part of a residency at ZKM Karlsruhe, Widening Gyre sees Frost dive deep into the physicality of spatialisation. Synthesis, analogue tape and live guitars are all fed in real-time through an array of digital objects which relentlessly push and pull against one another in a new kaleidoscope of sonic ecology.
Notes on performance space:
The show is infinitely flexible and readily adapts to new space. Churches, warehouses, craters, strip clubs the stranger and more unique the space the better. Architecture with huge natural reverberance are especially effective. It can be seated or standing, it can be focussed listening or a nocturnal acid-fuelled sweatbox. It requires no stage at all, only that Frost performs from the centre of the space with all channels of audio radiating out from that central point, louder and more physical than a jet engine.
Ben Frost announces new EP, All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated
BEN FROST has announced details of All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated, a brand new EP featuring new tracks and previously unreleased remixes from Alva Noto and Steve Albini, out on 23 March 2018.
Described by The Quietus as “aural equivalent of a world turned to ash”, watch the video for the title track, a collaboration with conceptual documentary photographer Richard Mosse and cinematographer Trevor Tweeten.Ben Frost will return to London for a special date with a unique audio-visual performance featuring Marcel Weber (MFO) at Heaven on 16 March, part of a series of dates that includes Elevate Festival in Graz, Sonar in Reykjavik, ISM Hexadome in Berlin, at Schauspielhaus in Zurich and Nuit Sonores in Lyon.
“An exercise in restraint, endurance and chromatic saturation” – MOJO
“…a molten core shines through providing just enough fire to keep the shadows from overwhelming the light” – CRACK MAGAZINE
“…filled with frustration and anger, yet not without a dark humour” – The QuietusBEN FROST LIVE
2 March – AT, Graz, Elevate Festival
16 March – UK, Convergence at Heaven, London
17 March – IS, Sonar Festival, Reykjavik
18 April – DE, ISM Hexadome at Martin-Gropius- Bau, Berlin
21 April – CH, Norient & Rewire present Sonic Fiction at Schauspielhaus, Zürich
11 May – FR, Nuits Sonores, Lyonhttp://www.ethermachines.com/
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www.mute.comBen Frost releases album, The Centre Cannot Hold
Ben Frost releases his 5th studio album recorded with Steve Albini and starts touring a stunning new Audio Visual live show in collaboration with MFO.
An exercise in limitation and chromatic saturation, The Centre Cannot Hold is an attempt at transcribing a spectrum of glowing ultramarine into sound. Recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago, the music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator.
Pitchfork gives the album a 7.8 rating; “These pieces, including the centerpiece “Eurydice’s Heel,” are downright awe-inspiring, like witnessing firsthand an apocalyptic barrage fall from the heavens”.
Ben Frost also released seven-track EP, Threshold of Faith, last month. Pitchforkdescribed the title track as “groaning harmonies all stack up into a geologic crescendo that extends into infinity” while The 405 describes it as “scorching and beautiful”.
“… sonic shades cloak and flicker with resonant depth, ingesting recent orchestral pursuits for something colossal”
– NPR review of Threshold Of FaithBEN FROST RELEASES NEW TRACK, IONIA
BEN FROST has shared a new track ahead of the release of his fifth studio album, The Centre Cannot Hold, out on Mute on 29 September 2017.
Listen to ‘Ionia’ here: http://po.st/BFIoniaYT. The track follows the release of ‘Threshold Of Faith’, and will be available on streaming services from 13 September. Ionia and a remix from JLIN will be available on 12” on 22 September, and the remix will be available digitally on 15 September 2017.
The Centre Cannot Hold was recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago. The music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator.
In collaborating with Albini, Frost chooses a new immediacy and raw directness. As an artist whose command of sound design lies at the heart of his practice, by placing himself primarily in the role of live performer and handing the studio recording process over to Albini, Frost continues pursuit of Theseus’ paradox; the question of whether a ship restored by replacing every single part remains the same ship.
Watch the video for Threshold Of Faith, the opening cut from the new album, a new collaboration shot in the winter of 2016 in Reykjavík, Iceland with conceptual documentary photographer Richard Mosse and Cinematographer Trevor Tweeten: http://po.st/BFThresholdVideo
“… colossal” NPR / “…compelling” Echoes & Dust / “…gargantuan” Pitchfork
“…engrossing… from first hammer blow to last squeak” – The 405
“…shows off a more compositionally direct Frost, focusing on heaviosity and purer sound by getting in Steve Albini to capture live sessions direct to tape” – The WireBen Frost announces new album
The Centre Cannot Hold, Ben’s fifth studio album is out on September 29th on Mute Records.
Watch the arresting visuals for ‘Threshold Of Faith,’ the opening cut from the new album below.
Ben Frost announces Threshold of Faith EP with Steve Albini
In the summer of 2016 Ben Frost landed in Chicago to work with Steve Albini. Over two weeks – vast systems; unstable, overloaded, and on the verge of collapse – were fed into an array of amplifiers inside a cavernous studio. Shapes were formed, speakers were torn. Behind the glass Albini committed live performances to tape; slashing at them intermittently with a razorblade. More than 2 hours of music was recorded. The threshold of faith EP is the first release of music from those sessions.
Ben Frost announces live shows for 2017
Ben Frost has announced a series of festival appearances throughout the summer ahead of a headline autumn tour.
The autumn tour, featuring brand new music, starts on 25 September in Essen, Germany and includes a London date at the Electric Brixton on 5 October.
01/07/17 Brest Astropolis FR
14/07/17 Ferropolis Melt Festival DE
25/09/17 Essen Maschinenhaus / Zeche Carl DE
29/09/17 Brussels Bozar BE
04/10/17 Paris Le Trianon Biennale Nemo Paris FR
05/10/17 London Electric Brixton UK
06/10/17 Berlin Funkhaus DE
08/10/17 Madrid La Riviera ES
18/10/17 Amsterdam Muziekgebouw NL
21/10/17 Prague Lunchmeat Festival CZ
28/10/17 Manchester Transformer 2 UK
03/11/17 Turin Club2Club IT
11/11/17 Utrecht Le Guess Who Festival NLMore dates to be added, follow Ben Frost at the links below for the latest details.
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