psychic tv

Psychic TV emerged in 1981 from the ashes of the legendary Throbbing Gristle, the group that next to Cabaret Voltaire established the basis of a new sonic genre: vanguard, electronic and punk assembled and redefined to generate industrial music. Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter created in 1975 Throbbing Gristle and changed the experimental and electronic music of the future, assimilating the techniques of classic groups such as Faust to invent from there a new sonorous code, toxic and polluting as it had never existed before. Synthesizers, rhythm boxes, sequencers, tapes, effects…; and bass, guitars, violins…; everything arranged to perpetrate ultra violent hearing attacks, sonorous mud close to visionaries such as William S. Burroughs and ultrapsychedelic diabolic passages connected to Charles Manson… recorded sonorous evidence of all this barbarism exists in their first two LPs, "The Second Annual Report" (Industrial Records, 1977) and "D.O.A The Third And Final Report" (Industrial Records, 1978). And also of the surprising oasis of deceitful softness exposed in the form of electromuzak in a necessary and influential album, the unforgettable "20 Jazz Funk Greats" (Industrial Records, 1979).
However before reaching Psychic TV one has to be detained at the peculiar figure of this unique artist who is Genesis P-Orridge (Manchester, 1950). Musician, writer, painter, performer…; but over everything, ideologist and creator. Permanently covered with an aura of occultism and sex, Genesis P-Orridge has designed projects, behaviours, actions leading to the sabotage of conventionalism and the mechanisms of power. Besides Psychic TV, in 1999 he created Thee Majesty as the transmitting platform of spoken word and sonorous sequences of ambient. His "Expanded Poetry", oral improvisation armed by Thee Majesty (with Bryin Dall, Lady J. and Larry Thrasher), took him on tour to festivals all over Europe and the United States. Today, in these first years of the 21st century, Genesis P-Orridge lives in New York from where he directs this new sonorous and visual incarnation of Psychic TV while he continues to exercise as a lucid and very personal author, artist and "cultural engineer".
Returning to the origin of Psychic TV, we need to go back to May 1981 when Genesis P-Orridge, convinced that Throbbing Gristle couldn't go any further as regards creativeness, decides to put a stop to that adventure. The quartet dismembers forming a duet Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti (Chris & Cosey), while Christopherson and Genesis P-Orridge continued on their own embarked on new projects. It will be then when Orridge will meet Alex Fergusson (ex-guitarist of Alternative TV) later a determinant factor for the birth of Psychic TV: Genesis P-Orridge (vocals, keyboards, bass, tapes, percussion), Peter Christopherson (keyboards, percussion) and Alex Fergusson (guitars, bass, percussion, keyboards), and the company of a bunch more of acolytes such as Jordi Valls collaborating in an sporadic way. In 1982 comes their recording debut with a first album that even nowadays continues being legendary: "Force The Hand Of Chance" (Some Bizarre / WEA), a fascinating work full of surprises, for example on its first 5000 copies it came out with a free CD, "Themes". With "Just Drifting" as a presentation card, a ballad covered with violins and acoustic guitars, extracted also as a single, "Force The Hand Of Chance" that presented besides themes as pop as "Stolen Kisses", exciting funk hymns like "Ov Power" and two bad journeys turned into music as "Terminus" (that seems inspired in Ennio Morricone) and "Guiltless", overwhelming song interpreted by Marc Almond.
From that first CD until now, Psychic TV has produced an impressive amount of albums, many of them recorded during live performances, besides several resurrections, formation changes and artistic interventions always characterised by their radical independence. The whip of conventionalism is maintained intact in Genesis P-Orridge and in all those projects he has participated in during all these years: Psychic TV, Thee Majesty and many others. And with him, the experimentation appears without preconceived clichés, there is risk, sex, religion, occultism, all the weapons needed to challenge the conventionalism.
During the 80s, Psychic TV followed the trail of their first album with "Dreams Less Sweet" (Some Bizarre / CBS, 1983), another CD that today continues being essential, increasing the original trio to a quintet thanks to the incorporation of Paula P-Orridge (drums, percussion) and Geff Rushton (bass and percussions; aka John Balance, creator of Coil next to Peter Christopherson, when they both abandoned Psychic TV in 1984).
Musically Psychic TV continued with the experimental and transgressive mentality of Throbbing Gristle but softening it with a new cover and a different style fed with pop formats, more or less structured songs, melodies, and even ballads…; combining these elements with noisy episodes, sound collages with an industrial tone, spoken word and passages of world music with an oriental aroma guided by ethnic instruments (tabla, Tibetan trumpets, etc).
The intense activity of those years takes them during only the 80s to publish an impressive number of albums. Amongst all this production we have to highlight the collection "Live 23 Series", an attempt to edit 23 official live CDs through Temple Records during 23 months releasing them the 23rd of each month... "N.Y. Scum" (Temple Records, 1984) recorded in a live concert towards the end of the year 83 in New York with the formation of their second album, was the first of this series.
In 1985 Genesis P-Orridge gives a new twist to the spirit of flowers and blood surrounding Psychic TV, editing the 12" "Godstar" (Temple Records): fizzy experimental/psychedelic electropop... One year later their psychedelic reinvention of the 60s is traduced into their 12" "The Magickal Mystery D Tour E.P." (Temple Records, 1986), containing their particular interpretation of "Good Vibrations".
Already in 1988 and without Alex Fergusson (he left Psychic TV in 1986), Orridge becomes as well a reference in the British club scene. In fact he was also a key character in the birth of the acid house scene (Chicago-London connection), personifying that explosion of psychedelia (omnipresent landscape in the kaleidoscopic cosmos of Psychic TV), technologic expansion and dancing rhythms. A field specially explored in CDs such as "Tekno Acid Beat" (Temple Records, 1988), "Jack The Tab: Acid Tablets, Vol. 1" (Castalia, 1988) and "Towards Thee Infinite Beat" (Temple Records, 1990).
His change of residence to the USA at the beginning of the 90s would allow them to contact directly with Timothy Leary and to introduce themselves in the American underground dance scene. During the 90s decade they published several compilations, new reeditions of old material, remixes and soundtracks. From these compilations, especially interesting are the two composed of singles "Hex Sex: The Singles Part One" (Cleopatra, 1994) and "Godstar: The Singles Part Two" (Cleopatra, 1995). Also the album "Best Ov Psychic TV: Time's Up" (Cleopatra, 1999). Aside from this, Genesis P-Orridge started in the United States in 1994 a series of CDs next to Larry Thrasher, especially centred in their spoken word works. And there was also time for new representations of Psychic TV ("PTV USA 96") with new material such as the one shown in "Trip Reset" (Cleopatra, 1996), a hypnotic album of psychedelic pop including a version of "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" from Pink Floyd and a jewel dedicated to Syd Barrett: "A Star Too Far (Lullaby for Syd Barrett)".
Now finally in 2005, Psychic TV return to Madrid after that famous apparition in the TV programme "La Edad de Oro" in 1984, and after having performed in this same year 2005 at the Primavera Sound festival (Barcelona). The current formation of Psychic TV (PTV3) presents Genesis P-Orridge, David Max, Alice Genese, Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Eddie O'Dowd and Markus Persson. Their last editions are for the moment a double CD revisiting once again Brian Jones' figure, "Godstar: Thee Director's Cut" (Temple Records, 2004), remastering the themes from halfway through the 80s and adding new mixes and themes, plus a limited edition DVD sold during their European tour in 2004 ("Live At Thee Coral Room"), containing the record of a PTV3 concert in New York on December 2003.
Links: www.genesisp-orridge.com - www.fopi.net
Friday 7th October - 22 h Exp'05 Program

richard h. kirk

Richard H. Kirk was one of the creators of Cabaret Voltaire, essential group whose influence in all the posterior development of the electronic and experimental music is incalculable. Their CDs from the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s were key works when establishing a new aspect of sound and also a new attitude capable of combining vanguard and exploration with the rupture, the urgency and the heterodoxy of the punk attitude. Next to Throbbing Gristle or The Pop Group, Cabaret Voltaire took advantage of the break which followed the first punk tsunami of 76-77 to obtain an immediate importance, filtering the electronic and vanguard manoeuvres of Stockhausen, Can, Faust, Neu!, Kraftwerk and the first Brian Eno through the rhythmic sources inherited from James Brown and using all these ingredients with the subversive urgency of punk: industrial sounds, noise, a combination of technology and conventional instruments (rhythm boxes and synthesizers together with basses and guitars), mutant rhythms, etc...
But returning in particular to the figure of Richard H. Kirk, we can't forget that his role in the creation of this unmistakable sound of the first Cabaret Voltaire was definite. His guitar propped up the compositions with the wounding precision of a pneumatic hammer. But aside from Cabaret Voltaire, the figure of Kirk has never fallen in any kind of ostracism. On the contrary, he has always been alert showing a fertile multiactivity reflected in an ample discography in which he conserves intact his compromise with the risk, the experimental need and also an interest to guide himself through different sonorous forms. Something which has taken him to investigate other territories of electronic music using a practically infinite list of pseudonyms (Sandoz, Electronic Eye, Citrus, Trafficante, Blacworld, Biochemical Dread, Al Jabr, Nitrogen...) and embarking himself in other projects such as his duo with Peter Hope or Sweet Exorcist. Without forgetting, of course, the works signed with his real name.
Richard H. Kirk (guitar, electronics, winds), Stephen Mallinder (bass, vocals) and Chris Watson (tapes, electronics, effects) started to play and to make sonorous experiments at Sheffield (United Kingdom) in 1973. Already in 1975 they adopted the name Cabaret Voltaire, inspired by the cabaret founded in 1916 by Hugo Ball in Zurich (Suisse) which served as a meeting point for the Dadaists.
Cabaret Voltaire wielded during their first years a kamikaze instinct regarding sonorous transgression. Noise layers, distortions, mechanical pulsations, melodies dispersing over electro-rhythm sequences, pampered voices (voice loops, effects, megaphones...). Dissonance and manipulation hand-to-hand with rhythm and the organic elements of their music in a mental and physical duet. The technique used in the construction of this sonorous bunker was marked particularly by the cut-up experiments inherited from William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, incorporating in that way all kinds of sounds and voices to the instrumentation.
Marked by the novelty of punk and influenced as well by artistic movements such as Dadaism and Situationism, Cabaret Voltaire made its recording debut in 1978 with the 7" EP "Extended Play" (Rough Trade). In 1979 they release their first LP, "Mix-Up", a classic inside the industrial and electronic experimentation. After "Nag Nag Nag" and "Silent Command", singles published in 1979 as well, appears in 1980 the cassette "1974-1976" (Industrial Records), a compilation of the recorded material from their first years of existence, and the LP "Live At The Y.M.C.A. 27.10.79" (Rough Trade), sonorous evidence of their live performances, in which the projection of films and videos always had an special importance. The single "Seconds Too Late" and the 12" "Three Mantras" preceded their second studio LP, "The Voice Of America" (Rough Trade, 1980), a transition towards the outstanding "Red Mecca" (Rough Trade, 1981): a work full of discoveries, articulated through new codes and languages which raise the industrial electronic to a new dimension.
After Chris Watson left the group in October 1981 (later he would become part of The Hafler Trio), Kirk and Mallinder evolved the sound of Cabaret Voltaire to much more rhythmic dance forms. In 1982 appeared the double maxi "2x45" and another one more for Les Disques Du Crépuscule. Also Doublevision published their video "Cabaret Voltaire" and Rough Trade a new LP "Hai!" (a live record at Japan). Already in 1983 a new recording period starts with Some Bizarre, editing "The Crackdown", LP bridge between the past and the future: from the industrial coldness to the landing of the new electronic languages of the dance floors. Themes such as "Animation" or "Just Fascination", this one released as a single as well, reflect this new dimension of Cabaret Voltaire. In fact "Just Fascination" and other posterior singles ("James Brown" and "Sensoria", 1984, both from their album "Micro-Phonies") were hits in the British independent lists. However their CD from 1985, "The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord", recovers and updates some of the sound and the style of the first phase of the group.
In 1987 the duet signs with Parlophone (EMI) and edits a new LP compressing solid electro-funk shocks: "Code" (co-produced by Adrian Sherwood). Just a step behind their later connection with house and acid which is shown in the 12" "Hypnotised" and in the album "Groovy, Laidback And Nasty" (1990): Chicago, house and Marshall Jefferson in the universe of Cabaret Voltaire.
Finalised their period in EMI, in 1991 appears "Body And Soul", album released by Les Disques Du Crépuscule. Later works such as "Plasticity" (Plastex, 1992), "International Laguage" (Plastex, 1993) and the definitive double CD "The Conversation" (Apollo, 1994), reflect the change from techno to ambient, which clearly dominates this last work, coinciding with the dissolution of the duet in 1994, going Stephen Mallinder to Australia and Richard H. Kirk continuing with his solo career, which had started a long time ago.
Already in 1980 he had released "Disposable Half-Truths" (cassette, Industrial Records) with material recorded in 1977-78: analogical experiments, radio interferences, synthesizers, rhythm boxes and processed guitars. In 1983 Kirk publishes his double 12" "Time High Fiction" (Doublevision) and already in the year 86 he returns alone with two albums for Rough Trade: "Black Jesus Voice" and "Ugly Spirit", energetic works where he liberates his electro-rhythmic-noisy side. Also at that time he starts other projects such as his duo with Peter Hope, resulting in the edition in 1987 of "Hoodoo Talk" (CD, Native Records), and Sweet Exorcist (Kirk and DJ Parrot), with several other CDs published in 1990 with the, at that time, new label Warp: the 12" "Testone" and "Clonk" and the album "Clonk's Coming", techno-acid extended one year later in "Popcone" (12", Plastex) and already in 1994 in "Spirit Guide To Low Tech" (CD, Touch).
In 1992 he creates Sandoz, adventure centred especially in the fusion of dub, African sounds and electronic. After several maxis, in 1993 he edits the album "Digital Lifeforms" (Touch). Simultaneously to Sandoz, he also records again as Richard H. Kirk the hypnotic "Virtual State" (CD, Warp, 93). His tireless activity takes him to organise between 1994 and 1996 once again Sandoz (three albums more in Touch) with his project as Electronic Eye. All of this without forgetting a new creation for Warp signed with his own name ("The Number Of Magic", 95) and a series of 12" presented under different pseudonyms in his label Alphaphone. A new double CD, "Intoxica", as Nitrogen, plus the fifth album of Sandoz, "God Bless The Conspiracy", were edited in 1997 by Alphaphone.
"Knowledge Through Science" (CD, Blast First), one of his best works as Richard H. Kirk, composed of one unique theme which fuses samples, digital distortion, noise ruptures and ambient sections, places him in 1998, year in which he also uses other alias such as Al Jabr and Trafficante, besides recording again as Sandoz. The next year, "Darkness At Noon" (Touch) serves as the transition between his earlier work as Richard H. Kirk and "LoopStatic" (Touch, 2000): a suggestive revision of the electronic of the middle of the 80s.
During these last few years Kirk has continued to work at different fronts and publishing plenty of material: Electronic Eye ("Neurometrik", Alphaphone, 2000), Orchestra Terrestrial ("Here And Elsewhere", Die Stadt, 2001), Sandoz ("Afrocentris", Intone, 2002), Biochemical Dread ("Bush Doctrine", Cocosolidciti, 2003) and as Richard H. Kirk ("T.W.A.T. The War Against Terror", Intone, 2003). He has also edited "Unreleased Projects Vol. 1 1996-2000" (Intone, 2003), followed a year later by "Unreleased Projects Vol. 2" (Intone) and by the excellent compilation of Mute "Earlier/Later: Unreleased Project Anthology 74/89", containing unheard-of material and oddities from this period, when he still belonged to Cabaret Voltaire besides having his own solo career.
Finally in 2004 he has continued his rescue labour with "Unreleased Projects Vol. 3 1995-1997" (Intone) and he has published a new album with his own name: "Meets The Truck Bombers Of Suburbia Uptown Vol. 1" (Intone).
Links: www.richardhkirk.com - www.thegreedyeye.com
Links Cabaret Voltaire: www.brainwashed.com/cv
Saturday 8th October - 22 h Exp'05 Program

to rococo rot

The Berliner trio formed by Robert and Ronald Lippok (Tarwater) and Stefan Schneider (ex-Kreidler, Mapstation) has been during ten years proving that their imagination not only remains intact but that it has been capable of evolving their luxurious and exuberant instrumental electronic pop. To Rococo Rot have matured their brilliant combinations of melody and lineal rhythm: that metronomic tempo, hypnotic, inheritance of the Germany of Neu! and Can (Jaki Liebezeit's drums and his mathematic beat) and also the Kraftwerk's sequenced Germany. And they have developed a sonorous personal method, absolutely recognizable, directed by Stefan Schneider's bass lines, by little synthesizer touches and minimal melodies, by that binomial bass/drums synchronized with sequences and electronic sounds. Music which escapes easy labels: elegant synth-pop, imaginative, dreaming, full of inciting registers that send us back to the contemplation of images with movement.
To Rococo Rot was born at Berlin in 1995, recording in that same year their first CD: "To Rococo Rot" (edited by Kitty-Yo in January 1996). With Robert Lippok playing the synthesizer and managing sequences and effects, Ronald Lippok taking care of the drums, keyboard and tapes and Stefan Schneider of the bass, organ and turntables, this first CD already shows in themes such as "Kritische Masse 1" the combination of electronic and acoustic elements, its lineal and repetitive rhythmic punch, that character which fuses in harmony the experimentation and the pop so characteristic of the German electronic scene.
In between 1997 and 2001 the trio advances in this creation of their own style, totally independent, aside from their other projects. The design of the exposure of sonorous images with a highly descriptive music and at the same time considering its rhythmic and physical sense (abstract electronic and dance sounds) progressively polishes each of their works. In this way appear in succession "Veiculo" (1997), "The Amateur View" (1999) and "Music Is A Hungry Ghost" (2001), plus a great number of singles and EPs such as the 12" "Lips" (1996) and "Paris 25" (1997), all of them published by City Slang. Also the mini-LP in collaboration with Darryl Moore "TRRD" (Soul Static Sound, 1998) and another album more in 2001, "Kölner Brett", for the label Staubgold.
After "Veiculo", CD where we need to mention the theme "Mit Dir In Der Gegend", To Rococo Rot reach one of the more brilliant moments of their recording career with "The Amateur View". Here, driven by their taste for melody, they also develop a synthetic sound which shows an organic and warm aspect, an example of which is the theme "Telema".
"Music Is A Hungry Ghost", created with the Dj and New Yorker musician Craig Willingham (aka I-Sound), places To Rococo Rot in 2001 with a work that discovers new features in their sound. Warm and rational in equal parts, full of different sides, small details, there is space for the melodic complexity, the minimal rhythms and also the sophistication when opening spaces for subtle string touches, contribution made by the violinist Alexander Balanescu in his two themes: "Along The Route" and "From Dream To Daylight".
"Kölner Brett" (Staubgold, 2001) is a very different CD to the rest of their discography. It is an album with twelve untitled compositions especially conceived to be the musical representation of an architectural project (the Kölner Brett building) designed in the year 2000 by the architecture study of Colonia "b&k+". The result is a music which reflects perfectly the architectural structure of the project, with a mathematical and geometrical conception of the rhythms (more electronic than ever) and the pieces that form it: twelve themes, all of equal length (3 exact minutes) that appear to fit in perfectly with each other, like bricks on a wall.
In this way we reach the year 2004 with their last album, the acclaimed "Hotel Morgen" (Domino). Change of label and a new jump forward in their own elaboration of sonorous films. "Dahlem", the theme which opens the CD, contributes to their permanent search of the perfect rhythmic line, repetitive and metronomic. Everything designed with a pallet of colours/tones that remembers in its brilliancy and variety to the Can of "Soon Over Babaluma" or to the soloist works of Holger Czukay. There is also space for dense atmospheres such as the ones of "Feld" and for their more pop themes, closer to the format of songs, such as "Sol", that reminds us of the more sophisticated and less retro moments of Jo Zimmermann (Schlammpeitziger).
Aside from To Rococo Rot, the three members of the trio have been and still are participating in a great number of projects. Robert Lippok has developed a soloist career in which he has followed his more minimalist and experimental side. He made his debut in 2001 through the label Raster-Noton and the CD "Open Close Open". Later on he has published "Falling Into Komëit" (CD, Monika Enterprise, 2004) and already in this 2005 "Tesri" (CD, Monika Enterprise), album made next to Barbara Morgenstern.
On the other hand Ronald Lippok has continued next to Bernd Jestram his trajectory as Tarwater (who performed in Experimentaclub'03). Their last chapter of electro-pop came in 2005 thanks to Morr Music: "The Needle Was Travelling".
Lastly Stefan Schneider was in 1994 one of the founders of Kreidler (present in Experimentaclub'04), abandoning the group towards the end of the 90s in order to focus himself in To Rococo Rot and besides to create in the year 2000 his own project under the name Mapstation: minimal techno + reggae, electro, funk... After a mini-CD published by Soul Static Sound, he released his first album titled "Sleep, Engine Sleep" (Staubgold, 2000). A second CD would arrive in 2002: "A Way To Find The Day" (Staubgold). Besides several CDs next to the reggae musician Ras Donovan, Mapstation also published in 2003 "Kuchen Meets Mapstation" (Karaoke Kalk), with Meriel Barham (Kuchen). Stefan Schneider has also participated in a CD by Bill Wells, together with Annie Whitehead and Barbara Morgenstern, titled "Pick Up Sticks" (Leaf, 2004), and forms part of the September Collective (next to Barbara Morgenstern and Paul Wirkus), improvisation project, editing the album of this same title (Geographic, 2004).
Links: www.torococorot.com - www.dominorecordco.com/artist.php?artist=180
Thursday 6th October - 22 h Exp'05 Program

borbetomagus

photo: Paul Kelly	photo: Seth Tisue

When talking about Borbetomagus the terms free improvisation or free jazz appear as secondary, although they fit in perfectly when defining the musical style of this group formed by Jim Sauter (sax), Don Dietrich (sax) and Donald Miller (guitar). However, the main characteristic of this project is its absolute bet in favour of extreme sound, considering the physical conception of volume and noise as elements to explore.
Formed in New York in the year 1979, Borbetomagus has developed through improvisation, a sonorous battlefield in which instruments twist around, fighting among them, manipulating their own sound: both sax intermix their high howls and low bellows while the guitar sweeps the entire sound spectrum with a feedback cascade… Their first two CDs, "Borbetomagus" (Agaric, 1980; still as a quartet with Brian Doherty collaborating with electronic elements) and "Work On What Has Been Spoiled" (Agaric, 1981), are a rough first sketch indicating how far the sonorous intensity would reach after. Combined in the first CD can be found noise, electronic and concrete music and free jazz. The second CD, with the collaboration of Hugh Davies and already without Doherty, serves as a continuation with Donald Miller's guitar as the evident protagonist.
In 1982 their third album (edited like most of their CDs by Agaric, their own label), titled as their first one, simply with the name of the group, contains live recordings of performances from 1979-81 where the extreme sound and the manipulation of noise through volume are basic elements. Explorations of sonorous textures and tones exposed in four long themes. But it will be then that Borbetomagus' compositions will acquire definitively that component of extreme danger. Tension and fury transformed into sound: Sauter, Dietrich and Miller working the instruments to their limit, squeezing them to the last decibel that can be obtained with lungs, hands and machines. Producing brutal spasms of free jazz noise similar to a mutation which would turn John Coltrane into Jimi Hendrix after having absorbed the four sides of Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music". It's in that way how "Barbed Wire Maggots" (Agaric, 1983), their fourth recording work, catches the listener: 40 extreme minutes travelling through a sonorous spectrum which goes from passages with jazz-like touches to the cacophony, from the legacy of Albert Ayler to the conversion of noise into a living and mouldable element.
It's in 1983 when "Industrial Strength" (Leo Records) appears, signed by Borbetomagus & Friends, where the group is enlarged to seven components by including Milo Fine (clarinet, piano), Tristan Honsinger (cello, vocals), the great Peter Kowald (bass) and Toshinori Kondo (trumpet, vocals), besides the usual components. Improvisation with noise and electroacoustic anarchy; a formula repeated in their next album "Borbeto Jam" (Cadence, 1985), this time signed only as Borbetomagus.
"Zurich" (Agaric, 1985) and "New York Performances" (Agaric, 1986), their following albums, are two relentless tsunamis that represent the sonic terrorism executed by Borbetomagus. Extreme sharpened sound, especially close to European noisy improvisation (Voice Crack) and Japanese noise (with Merzbow at the head). Besides, in between, Sauter and Dietrich formed a duo in their CD "Bells Together" (Agaric, 1985).
From 1987 to 1990 they combine the edition of their first album with Voice Crack ("Fish That Sparkling Bubble", Agaric, 87) and two new albums: "Seven Reasons For Tears" (Purge; with the collaboration of Adam Nodelmann at the bass) and "Snuff Jazz" (Agaric). In their first work next to Voice Crack, combining the wild sound of Borbetomagus with the electronic/noisy improvisation of the group formed by Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang (plus Adam Nodelmann), the physical energy and the volume overlap with every kind of object: turntables, magnetophones, digital and analogical delays, etc. Already in 1990 Sauter and Dietrich publish "Barefoot In The Head" (Forced Exposure), work done next to Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and signed by the three of them, where he merges his guitar, used in a percussive manner, with the sonorous howl of both sax.
During the last decade of the 90s they continued combining works entirely theirs with collaborations and jointed projects. This gave occasion once more for a new association in 1989 with Voice Crack ("Asbestos Shake", Agaric) and in "Coelacanth" (Agaric, 91), with The Shaking Ray Levis (Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner: synthesizers, samplers, percussions...). As Borbetomagus, "Buncha Hair That Long" (Agaric, 92) is one of their more complete CDs. It's a live album which compiles five themes from concerts which took place during 1991. However, it differs from their earlier live CDs because in this one, the extreme concept of the group's performances is captured perfectly.
"Experience The Magic" (Agaric, 93; recorded during a performance in the CBGB at New York), "Live At In-Roads" (PSF, 92; Japanese edition of an old concert from 1982 with the presence of Brian Doherty), "Live In Tokyo" (Alchemy Records, 1997) and "Songs Our Mother Taught Us" (Agaric; recorded in Glasgow and London) are all live albums published during the nineties. And another one: "Concerto For Cracked Everyday - Electronics and Chamber Orchestra" (Agaric, 1994) - born from the collaboration between Borbetomagus and Voice Crack (Norbert Möslang, Andy Guhl and Knut Remond).
During these last few years Borbetomagus have continued to perform but in a more occasional manner. However, in 2005 they have returned with renewed energy going on a European tour after several years of silence. And so, it is this tour that brings them as well to Madrid for their performance in Experimentaclub'05.
Regarding their own individual works, Donald Miller has worked frequently since 1984 with the drummer William Hooker and the saxophonist Blaise Siwula. He has also formed part of projects such as Lhasa Cement Plant (quartet formed by two guitars, bass and drums), besides his own Donald Miller Trio. Jim Sauter, the tenor sax of Borbetomagus, has played and recorded with The Blue Humans, a project directed by the guitarist Rudolph Grey. Besides that, Sauter as well as Don Dietrich took part during 2002 in the recording of "Murray Street" from Sonic Youth.
Links: www.j51.com/~borbeto - www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=borbetomagus
Wednesday 5th October - 19'30 h Exp'05 Program

pluramon

	photo: Marc Comes

Pluramon has always been one of the most unpredictable and interesting projects of the electronic factory of Colonia. A project conceived by the always original Marcus Schmickler, a very versatile artist whose works have always oscillated between different registers and sonorous contexts without losing his own identity signs. Schmickler moves with an absolute freedom to experiment through different means: from improvisation to electroacoustic, from minimal techno to the electronic improvisation…; and from all that to the avant-garde pop-noise. In this stylistic eclecticism, Pluramon has shown in some way a role close to pop and rock (it is really becoming more predominant, as its last album demonstrates). The same way as by his own name or that of Wabi Sabi, Sator Rotas, etc, Schmickler has gone constructing an outstanding trajectory that extends to the different poles of the most advanced contemporary electronic music. His interest for other musical genres has served him to work as a musician and producer with a heterogeneous list of artists including Thomas Lehn, Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars), Keith Rowe, Thomas Brinkmann and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
All this multiactivity had its origins towards the end of the 80s. Marcus Schmickler and Frank Dommert (Sonig) had already started creating dense pieces of industrial electronic music in 1988 when they published the cassette "Nach Schweiz" (Entenpfuhl). At the beginning of the 90s, in Colonia, the group of electroacoustic improvisation Kontakta is formed by C-Schulz (Carsten Schulz), Frank Dommert, Georg Odijk, Hajsch, Monika Westphal and Schmickler, whose recorded legacy is reduced to a unique but nearly mythical live recording in CD format in 1992 with the label Odd Size. A year later he edits his first CD under his own name ("Onea Gako", Odd Size), a starting piece of abstract electronic, for whose production he uses C-Schulz's help, artist with whom he worked as well in another project of psychedelic electronic, named POL (with two edited CDs, "Transomuba" in 1994 and "Baby, I Will Make You Sweat" next year, both edited by Odd Size).
1996 was a key year in Marcus Schmickler's trajectory, editing, aside from his first work as Pluramon ("Pick Up Canyon", Mille Plateaux), his CD signed as Wabi Sabi with the label A-Musik. Returning to "Pick Up Canyon", Schmickler already incorporates a certain orientation towards instrumental rock patterns to the electronic textures, counting with the rhythmic help of Jaki Liebezeit (Can's legendary drummer) and leaving space with the laptop for the own guitars of Schmickler. In 1998 appears Pluramon's second CD: "Render Bandits" (Mille Plateaux). A step closer to a muscular instrumentation and a sonorous treatment labelled with difficulty: once again halfway between the digital and the acoustic, but with a ruthless rhythmic solidness in themes such as "Gloop".
Simultaneously to his participation inside the MIMEO collective (Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra; Schmickler plus Rowe, Durrant, Fennesz, Fuhler, Lehn, Matthews, Noetinger, Prins, Rehberg, Toral, Wettstein...; intense electroacoustic music), in 1999 he published under the name Sator Rotas a new CD in A-Musik. Already in 2000 he collaborates next to Thomas Lehn in "Bart" (CD, Erstwhile Records), a synthetic analogical (Lehn) / digital (Schmickler) fusion continued during 2003 in "Rabbit Run" (CD, Erstwhile Records), where they expand from duet to trio thanks to the additional perturbing presence of the great Keith Rowe. In between, his tireless activity leaves us in 2001 with another album ("Param", A-Musik), this one signed with his own name.
Returning to Pluramon, in the year 2000 he releases the CD "Bit Sand Riders" (Mille Plateaux, 2000), with remixes by Matmos, Merzbow, Lee Ranaldo, Mogwai or FX Randomiz among others, besides the 12" also composed of remixes "Reservoir" (Mille Plateaux, 2000) with the collaboration of Cristian Vogel, Thomas Brinkmann, etc.
Finally on autumn 2003, he edits "Dreams Top Rock" (CD, Karaoke Kalk), third album by Pluramon (beside the CDs of remixes) in which Schmickler makes the project reinvent itself to open new unexpected paths. With the vocal participation of the great Julee Cruise (and of musicians such as Keith Rowe, Felix Kubin, Kevin Drumm, Jochen Rueckert and Hayden Chisholm), "Dreams Top Rock" is the discovery of Pluramon as an avant-pop project making a songs album... Pop reconstructed from powerful sound walls, floating voices, samples of instruments captured in real time, riffs and guitar distortions, brilliant contrasts: from the perverse warmness of "Time For A Lie" to the melodic distortions of "Noise Academy" and "Log".
In 2004 and in this 2005 Pluramon has turned into an authentic concert group, frequently performing with or without Julee Cruise. In this last case, which is how they will perform at Experimentaclub'05, Pluramon work as a quartet formed by Marcus Schmickler (guitar, computer), Hayden Chisholm (keyboards, guitar), Hannes Vesper (keyboards, bass) and Daniel Schröteler (drums).
Links: www.piethopraxis.org - www.pluramon.com
Wednesday 5th October - 22 h Exp'05 Program

j.g. thirlwell

photo: Taylor Crothers	photo: Sebastian Mlynarski

J.G. (Jim) Thirlwell, an Australian whose actual residence is in Brooklyn (having lived before in London), known mainly as Foetus, a visionary guilty of creating some of the most extreme and tormenting passages of the last few decades: chaos, noise, deconstructive rock, provocation, manipulation, sonic terrorism, transgression, electronic symphonism, orchestral deliriums, imaginary soundtracks, sonorous corruption… Designed and musically shot by Jim Thirlwell..., or more accurately, by his infinite list of pseudonyms, alter-egos and jointed projects: Foetus, Clint Ruin, Steroid Maximus, Wiseblood (with Roli Mosimann), Dj Otefsu, Manorexia, Baby Zizanie (next to Jim Coleman)... and also, J.G. Thirlwell, who will perform for the very first time in Madrid for the close of Experimentaclub'05 with a very special Dj session that will be as unexpected and distressing as the catalogue mentioned above, complete with excesses and distortions.
But without a doubt, Foetus is his main pseudonym, the character that during these last 25 years has created his own style based on the fall, in music and words, to hell…a unique form of expression both toxic and seductive. A concept that feeds from extremism to sabotage the rancid rock and contemporary music structures. Foetus, from each of his mutations (Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath, Foetus Corruptus, The Foetus All-Nude Revue, Foetus Inc., etc), has constructed during all these years a wide discography characterised for the constant clash of one musical genre with another.
Living in London already in 1978, his activity as Foetus started in 1981 at the same time as he created his own record company: Self Immolation (later on included in the Some Bizarre catalogue). From then on his career is a constant source of his own activity and of collaboration with other artists such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Marc Almond, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, Coil, Swans, Matt Johnson, Don King, etc.
His discography as Foetus, started in that year 1981 with the name of Foetus Under Glass and the single "OKFM", with his first album called "Deaf" (Self Immolation, 81) signed with the name You've Got Foetus On Your Breath, includes CDs as visionaries as "Hole" (Self Immolation-Some Bizarre, 1984) or "Nail" (Self Immolation-Some Bizarre, 1985), both signed as Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel. Two amazing albums collecting the transition from the electro-swing-trash of the first one to the orchestral and apocalyptical tremendism of the second one.
Using the name of Clint Ruin, in 1986 he creates Wiseblood next to Roli Mosimann (ex-Swans), editing two maxis and the LP "Dirtdish" (K-422, 1987). Also as Clint Ruin he signed with Lydia Lunch "Stinkfist" (12", Widowspeak, 1987).
"Thaw", as Foetus Interruptus (Self Immolation-Some Bizarre, 1988), is probably his dirtiest and more twisted work: an acrid cocktail combining touches of hard-rock, trash-blues spasms and his usual epic orchestrations. Preceded by several live CDs, making special mention of "Rife" (Foetus Corruptus, 1988), "Gash" (Big Cat, 1995), covered by a magnificent production, is a crazy carrousel of jazz, blues, heavy metal, Hindu rhythms and destruction. If we continue to advance through his main works as Foetus, the next stop would be "Flow" (Thirsty Ear, 2001): an overwhelming production to dress up those sonorous sequences that are, for example in the impressive "Suspect" pure virtual-suspense cinema. Finally in this year 2005, "Love" (Birdman Records) was edited.
Apart from Foetus, Steroid Maximus is one of his most ambitious projects. Instrumental music where the main elements are its cinematographic compositions, imaginary soundtracks that play with the genres and the classics: John Barry, Morricone... Plus false ethnical music from nonexistent civilisations. Sound and ideas represented in electronic with a retro taste, great instrumentations and orchestral touches, with CDs such as "Quilombo" (Big Cat, 1991), "Gondwanaland" (Big Cat, 1992) and "Ectopia" (Ipecac, 2002).
Manorexia is another vehicle used by Thirlwell to present his instrumental and obscurest works. With this project he has edited two albums: "Volvox Turbo" (Ectopic, 2001) and "The Radiolarian Ooze"(Ectopic, 2002). Baby Zizanie, project in collaboration with Jim Coleman, is centred in the field of improvisation via laptop and visuals. They have one edited mini-LP: "Thalassaphobia" (Nail Records, 2003). Aside from this, Jim Thirlwell has worked continuously as the producer and remixer with: White Zombie, Boss Hog, Coil, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop, Silverfish, Nine Inch Nails, etc...
Links: www.foetus.org
Sunday 9th October - Dj - 21 h Exp'05 Program

people like us

The British Vicki Bennett is a definite reference name in the field of the free appropiation and no-copyright. Her music is a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces come from that immense "rubbish dump" that is the pop culture, trash can full of one-use-only hits or even bits from the television world, including soundtracks and any type of sound from the second half of the 20th century, anything open to being cut and pasted, so she can recycle it with her particular conception. With a sharpened sense of humour, Vicki Bennett creates with these elements breathtaking recomposition and recontext exercises.
But her looting action isn't dedicated exclusively to music. It also extends to images, which are gaining an obvious importance in her concerts: audiovisual shows where music and video work as one unique element, colourful postcards travelling through all the pop universe icons just to turn it upside down, lonely stamps of the middle class and the consumer society, and specially, as a constant throughout all her work, the technologic progress of the last few decades exposed from an ordinary point of view of how it changes our lives day by day. Everything is presented in the shape of animated collages where images are juxtaposed simultaneously with the sonorous collages of her musical compositions. A delicious and always surprising audiovisual satire of the past and the present of the occidental culture.
Created as a fighter vehicle of artistic recycling, as a project meant to end with the intellectual property and the system, People Like Us (or in other words, Vicki Bennett) is, next to other appropiationists like John Oswald or Negativland, one of the more imaginative figures in this art of free sampling perceived as a creative tool.
Since 1992 Vicki Bennett has constructed through People Like Us an extensive collection reflected in CDs, multimedia projects, radio programmes, etc. Her records present works as interesting as those published by the Staalplaat label, of which we need to highlight "Lowest Common Dominator" (1994), "Beware The Whim Reaper" (1996) and "Hate People Like You" (1997). In 1999 also with Staalplaat she released the double CD "Hate People Like Us", with remixes by Coil, Negativland, Bruce Gilbert (Wire), Mika Vainio, Felix Kubin y Stock, Hausen & Walkman amongst others.
Already in the year 2000 she published "Thermos Explorer" (CD, Hot Air), another of her most remarkable works. Also "Recyclopaedia Britannica" (CD, Mess Media, 2002) and her CDs of 2003 next to Matmos and Wobbly May ("Wide Open Spaces", Tigerbeat6) and together with Kenny G ("Nothing Special", Mess Media), appear amongst the best of her recording trajectory, whose last component up until now has been the CD "Windpipe Moods" (Mukow, 2004). From her visual works we need to mention "We Edit Life" (2002) and "The Remote Controller" (2003).
In 2004 Vicki Bennett has dedicated herself to a new audiovisual work called "Magic In The Air". Also during last year she released an online album of People Like Us, "Abridged Too Far", in mp3 format and only available via internet (in Ubuweb), highlighting once more that maybe internet is a more efficient form of distribution than the common way.
Links: www.peoplelikeus.org
Saturday 8th October - 19'30 h Exp'05 Program

parker & lily

photos: Kate Zimmerman

They are unique, unclassified, a style on their own. Parker & Lily are the musical version of the most bittersweet David Lynch, that who swims in between fantasy and the darkest reality. Exactly like them and their songs. A small personal universe; home to perverse dreams, everyday stories, intimacies about to become public and a voice that lazily sings a cluster of paranoiac songs. That is Parker & Lily, without a doubt one of the most gratifying musical surprises of the last few years.
Like a flashback which connects 2005 with the latest of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s, with light echoes of the great melodies of Roy Orbison, the ballads of the Platters, the soundtracks of Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini or John Barry, Parker & Lily construct huge songs with minimal elements at the edge of the cliff and of nothingness: they are practically static chants flooded with reverb that seemed to be listened from the end of a road pub at a late hour. Velvet Underground (first period) and Galaxie 500 are two other names that come to mind in that past-present-future connection of which Parker & Lily seem so maliciously fond, changing the perception of time and music thanks to old instruments and a sonic treatment that contributes to feed the dreamy sensation of his songs. Parker Noon's voice appears to come from a faraway land, floating in reverberation. Contrasting with Lily Wolfe's warm voice that carries reminiscences of, for example, Julee Cruise. The melodies always have a cinematographic and narrative atmosphere. Everything, absolutely everything, appears suspended in a particular time and in the air, supported by different tones of organs (Farfisa, Hammond, AceTone) and the unmistakable sound of the Rhodes electric piano. Electric guitars that remind us of the end of the 50s, a vibraphone, analogical synthesizers and prehistoric rhythm boxes that finish giving that final retro touch to his cocktail of lo-fi, electronic micropop, exquisiteness and sophistication.
Created in New York in 2001 from his earlier group Valentine Six, Parker Noon (vocals, guitars, drum machines, synthesizer) and Lily Wolfe (organ, electric piano, vibraphone, synthesizer, vocals), at that time a couple as well in real life, their recording debut as Parker & Lily occurred with "Hello Halo" (Orange Recordings, 2001). A first album where they had counted with the collaboration of Matt Verta-Ray (steel guitar) and Tony Corsano (drums), containing small jewels of introspective and minimal pop. Already in 2002 they edited "Here Comes Winter" (Manifesto / Houston Party Records), again with the presence of Matt Verta-Ray and Tony Corsano in some themes besides Brian Wolfe (trumpet). From the delicious pop that Lily brings to "My Apartment Complex" to the enigmatic, beautiful and strange melody of "Snow Day"... all the CD transmits a sickening feeling of surreal calm.
After the publishing of "Here Comes Winter" the duet expands with the recruitment of Christina Campanella (keyboards) as its third component. In 2004, they release "The Low Lows" (Warm / Houston Party Records), their third and last album up until now. It is an outstanding CD where the sonorous wounds of Parker & Lily have matured into scars, more deep and dark than ever. Maybe because during the recording of the CD the couple formed by Parker Noon and Lily Wolfe broke up after ten years of romance or maybe simply because their compositions have ended up focusing on a very concrete direction, the truth is that "The Low Lows" is, as the theme which opens and gives title to the album, an example of rupture and emptiness made music. There is also a higher sophistication in the production, reaching the point where in "June Gloom" they construct the perfect primal essence of the emotional ballad exalting it to an exquisite monumentality carved with the touches of trumpet and strings.
After finishing "The Low Lows" Christina Campanella left the group, being replaced by Daniel Rickard. Parker & Lily work at present as a quartet (Parker Noon, Lily Wolfe, Daniel Rickard and Jeremy Wheatley at the drums), dedicating most of this year 2005 to live performances, whilst they are finishing what will be their fourth album.
Links: www.parkerandlily.com
Thursday 6th October - 19'30 h Exp'05 Program

tujiko noriko

Born in Osaka and now living in Paris, Tujiko Noriko has been since 1999 changing the basics of the electronic pop with an irresistible potion full of mystery, beauty, vanguard and expressivity. Her digital avant-pop is a personal package of electronic layers via laptop, in between the melodic fragility and the obscure minimalism, voice (the majority of the lyrics are in Japanese) and an elegant way of singing full of tones and registers.
After starting in the music world as a singer, in 1999 she bought her first synthesizer and sampler. Her debut album was "Keshou To Heitai" ("Make-Up and Soldier"), recorded in January 2000, in which there are some hints of what would later on be fully developed in her later works: the enveloping melodic-orchestral sketch of "Anti Newton" or the repetitive mechanical hypnosis of "A's Traveling". Months later she started to prepare the material which she would mould later into her second CD, "Shojo Toshi". In between, in December 2000 she contacts with Peter Rehberg (Pita) at the same time as she joins the SlideLab project (Yoshihito, Marumaru, Noriko) and the launching of the OK FRED magazine.
In 2001 she finally publishes "Shojo Toshi", the first of her works for Mego, presenting already that duality which makes her music both strange and accessible. From the exquisiteness of "White Film" to the obsessive rhythmic sequence of "Bebe", the CD oscillates in between the minimum electronic instrumentations and the melodic warmness of her voice.
Already in 2002 she edited firstly "I Forgot The Title" (12" containing five themes, out of which four come from her debut CD "Keshou To Heitai") and later on her third album "Hard Ni Sasete" ("Make Me Hard"), both edited by Mego. This third work progresses in the composition of digital collages, little distortions that enter and leave under whispers and voice spirals, organic artificialness, cut and repasted melodies. In that way works the sonic microcosmos of Tujiko Noriko: just one step away from the toy pop and two steps away from the deconstruction pop... With moments as special as the crepuscular enchantment and the static beauty of "Call My Name".
In 2003 Tujiko Noriko starts a new postMego phase publishing in Tomlab the CD "From Tokyo To Naiagara". Produced by Aki Onda, the CD presents a larger presence of natural and acoustic sounds besides a clear rhythmic content (that heavy metallic percussion "Tokyo Tower").
Aside from her solo works, Tujiko Noriko has collaborated with other musicians such as Aoki Takamasa, Riow Arai or Lionel Fernandez. With Peter Rehberg (Pita) she has worked in the DACM project, editing in 2004 the CD "Stéréotypie" (Asphodel): music conceived for a choreographic and theatre spectacle.
Links: http://tujikonoriko.com/
Thursday 6th October - 21'15 h Exp'05 Program

vert

Vert, pseudonym of Adam Butler, is a unique project inside the experimental panorama of the last few years. This British at present living in Colonia (Germany) has always broken with every preconceived idea regarding vanguard and electronic. His music picks up a bit from each place, mixing piano (omnipresent element in Vert's sonorous realm), accordion, keyboard and electronic with a chamaleonic talent.
From the minimalism to the jazz-like deconstruction, from the electronic jungle of Colonia (headed by Mouse on Mars and the Sonig label) to the contemporary music...; everything is possible with Vert, the humour, the noisy tension and the depth, mixing them without apparent effort in an irresistible cocktail. Adam Butler begins to work as Vert in 1996, year in which he edits the 12" "Broken Breakbeat Bebop" (Bovinyl). Already in 1999 he contacts with Sonig and the circle of Mouse on Mars. On that same year he releases a new 12" "Mewantemooseic" previous to his first and surprising album: the incredible "The Köln Konzert" (Sonig, 2000), piano/electronic deconstruction of that famous piece of jazz which is "The Köln Concert" by Keith Jarret. Qualified by the magazine The Wire as one of the best electronic CDs of the year 2000, "The Köln Konzert" slowly goes by its five parts fusing an ample range of registers. Vert modifies the jazz patterns to convert them into complex rhythmic sequences sprinkled with noises, abstract textures and emergent melodies.
Already in 2001 appears "Moremooseicforme" (12", Sonig) preceding his second album "Nine Types Of Ambiguity" (Sonig). The colourful mosaic of Vert includes here as well minimal touches of dub ("Blindsight"), microrhythms, notes of toy funk/jazz ("The Tide Comes In And Then The Tide Goes Out") and the definite organic collage of "Scope / Lifetime" proving his exceptional talent.
After having shared a tour across the USA and Japan with Mouse on Mars, Adam Butler moves definitively to Colonia. In 2003 he edits "Small Pieces Loosely Joined" (Sonig), his third work, definite and exquisite. Already since "Pattern Matching", with his piano, electronic and accordion cocktail, one has the sensation of finding himself before a new vision of pop (in the absolute sense) which includes poetry and technology, spontaneity and mechanic, classicism and futurism. From here onwards, the carrousel has no ending: it is pure nerve in "I Always Lie", playful ragtime in "Octatone Rag", experimental austerity in "Against The Diagram Makers"... And it concludes with an extensive final theme (more than 34 minutes) titled "Turn Right And Straight On Til Morning" where it explores the borders of contemporary music to after stop in an infinite hypnotic loop.
Also in 2003 he opens a new musical episode with his own name of Adam Butler focused especially in the experimentation with the piano, both played and processed, publishing "Schmoozing With The Après Garde" (CD, Whatness).
Finally in 2005 Vert comes to Madrid due to his performance in Experimentaclub'05 with a really special formation trio: Adam Butler (piano, laptop, vocals), Fedor (double bass) and DJ Elephant Power (turntables, laptop) .
Links: http://mooseic.org/
Friday 7th October - 19'30 h Exp'05 Program

orfeón gagarin

Miguel Angel Ruiz, from Madrid, is one of the main reference names of the Spanish experimental electronic music. Together with artists such as Esplendor Geométrico, Macromassa, Francisco López, Avant Dernières Pensées, Comando Bruno, Diseño Corbusier, etc, he was during the beginning of the 80s one of the pioneers of the riskiest underground electronic creation in our country. Times, by the way, that should be recovered for all the good stuff that was recorded during those years by the artists mentioned before and by many others. And times when, without any minimal recording infrastructure as regards labels, record companies and distribution, only saved by the arousal of small companies such as Discos Esplendor Geométrico or Línea Alternativa, many of the artists resorted to the autoedition using cassettes and creating labels such as I.E.P., Necronomicón, Proceso Uvegraf, Auxilio De Cientos, Clonaciones Petunio, etc, etc.
This was precisely the case of Miguel A. Ruiz, who created in 1986 his own label of cassettes called Toracic Tapes. Since then, in this and other national, European and American labels, he has published an extensive catalogue of recordings using different pseudonyms depending on each project: Orfeón Gagarin (the most famous), Ventral Metaphor, Funeral Souvenir, besides the many works edited under his own name or as Exhaustor from the advanced 90s.
M.A. Ruiz started in 1982 to record in his house musical pieces, centred in the abstract and pseudocosmic electronic music with his new Korg MS-20. In 1986 he inaugurates the catalogue of Toracic Tapes with the legendary first cassette of Orfeón Gagarin, an eclectic combination that presents from environmental sounds to industrial noise, including cut-up exercises and some ethnic contrast. From there, Miguel A. Ruiz's production is non-stop, editing between 1986 and 1992 more than a dozen cassette recordings either signing as Orfeón Gagarin or with his real name or with the alias Funeral Souvenir or Ventral Metaphor. Works such as "KEDR" (Orfeón Gagarin; Toracic Tapes, 1987), "Batan Bruits" (Orfeón Gagarin, shared with Francisco López; I.E.P., 1987), "La Noche del Anhídrido" (Funeral Souvenir; Toracic Tapes, 1987), "El Niño Carburador" (Miguel A. Ruiz; Línea Alternativa, 1989), "Biscuit Circuit" (Ventral Metaphor; Bestattungsinstitut, 1991) or "Vasarely" (Miguel A. Ruiz; Hyades Arts, 1991) are today considered worthy of worship by the Spanish electronic experimentation panorama.
In 1991 a tape sent to Asmus Tietchens will finally give place to what will be his first and magnificent LP "Encuentros en la Tercera Edad" (Miguel A. Ruiz; published by Hamburger Musikgesellschaft, Tietchens' label), recorded in Hamburg with Tietchens and Okko Bekker. Already in 1994 appears "Contestación Capilar", Orfeón Gagarin's compilation CD published by Línea Alternativa / Hyades Arts and two years later, in 1996, with the name Exhaustor, he presents a new sonorous facet orientated towards the most rhythmic and ruthless techno, whose presentation was "Coaxial" (CD, Línea Alternativa, 1996).
Miguel A. Ruiz has collaborated actively with other artists such as Luis Mesa (creator of the cassettes label I.E.P.), with whom he will edit three tapes in between 1986 and 1989 under the name Técnica Material. Also with the German Siegmar Fricke (Efficient Refineries, with several CD-Rs published from 1995 to 2003), Francisco López, Dieter Mauson, etc.
Next to Héctor Hernández he published in 1989 the cassette "Han llegado los robots" (I.E.P.), born as a hypothetic soundtrack and whose source of reference was the book by Rolf Strehl "Die Roboter sind unter uns", from the end of the 50s. "Han llegado los robots" is nowadays back again due to its recent and really cared-after remastered reedition (CD, Bratan Bruits, 2005).
Links: www.batanbruits.com - www.ccapitalia.net/radar/informacion/index.htm - experimentaclub data
Friday 7th October - 21'15 h Exp'05 Program

gert-jan prins

The Dutch Gert-Jan Prins is one of the most relevant artists of the European panorama of the improvised electronic music. Prins has focused his work in the investigation of noise possibilities and its use in his particular polyrhythmic universe, by applying the analogical manipulation of radio waves, done thanks to his own-designed equipment. Transmitters, receivers, wave generators, TVs and other objects generate a mechanical sound process where interferences and extreme frequencies physically construct rhythmic tissues of noise. A field clearly inspired by the electronic designs of David Tudor (John Cage's collaborator) and that connects him as well to the works of the Suisse duet Voice Crack. Prins works regularly in the STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) at Amsterdam and besides his individual work he has also been involved in other projects: his trio with Misha Mengelberg and Mats Gustafson, trio with Peter van Bergen and Christian Fennesz, United Noise Toys (with Anne La Berge), E-RAX (with Peter van Bergen, Thomas Lehn and Petra Dolleman), The Flirts (duet next to Cor Fuhler), MIMEO (Rowe, Durrant, Fennesz, Fuhler, Lehn, Matthews, Noetinger, Prins, Rehberg, Schmickler, Toral, Wettstein...), The Vacuum Boys, etc, all reflected in an extensive discography. He has also collaborated with Lee Ranaldo, Pita, Fennesz, Domenico Sciajno, etc.
Prins, who started his musical career as a drummer, soon discovered the ample possibilities of sonorous manipulation offered by radio sets. During the 80s and the beginning of the 90s he played the drums in several improvisation groups, introducing himself at the same time in the electronic field. Finally in 1998 he definitively abandoned the drums in order to develop his facet as electronic creator, whilst he also designed his own sonorous "instruments": machines which are essentially homemade radio devices feeding themselves whilst he makes them "work" with a rhythmic pulse, connecting his actual music with his earlier percussionist style.
The discography published under his own name contains works as remarkable as "Prins Live" (CD, Grob, 2000), "rg 58 gj" (12", Creamgarden, 2002) or the fundamental "Risk" (mini-CD, Mego, 2004): thirteen burning sequences mastered in Colonia by Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon) in which the machines appear to work following their own chaotic instinct.
Gert-Jan Prins is included in that group of electronic musicians that have equipped the field of improvisation with a new formal energy. A good example of it is MIMEO (Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra), the collective (one could nearly classify it as a "supergroup") created around the legendary guitarist AMM Keith Rowe, from which Prins forms a part along with other electronic artists such as Fennesz, Marcus Schmickler, Rafael Toral, Peter Rehberg, Thomas Lehn, Phil Durrant, etc.
Links: www.gjp.info - www.mego.at/gjp.html
Wednesday 5th October - 21'15 h Exp'05 Program

gameboyzz orchestra project

photos: Tomasz Gacek

Gameboyzz Orchestra Project (Poland) is an audiovisual project with an experimental intention based in the use of a GameBoy as a musical instrument. The aim is to create in live a new sonorous space constructed with the sounds generated by the machine. Opposing the actual technologic display, in this attitude of minimal reductionism of the Gameboyzz Orchestra Project there is a strong load of irony and retro fetishism following the motto "low tech music for high tech people" that characterises the work of the artists which form the Micromusic project (www.micromusic.net): artists fans of the old consoles of videogames and of prehistoric computers, such as Atari, Spectrum, Commodore...
Inside this micropop-microelectronic panorama, Gameboyzz Orchestra Project represent the more experimental side, open to noisy improvisation instead of orbiting towards the pop aspect, more evident in firms like the 8bitpeoples collective (www.8bitpeoples.com).
Created in 2001, the group is at present formed by Jaroslaw Kujda (leader, composer, soloist), Pawel Janicki (producer, Vj, composer, soloist), Mariusz Jura (soloist, composer), Malgorzata Kujda (soloist, composer, photographer), Agnieszka Kujda (soloist, composer) and Tomasz Prockow (soloist, composer). Their live performances are accompanied by videoprojections, atmospheric lights, smoke, etc.
Besides their great number of downloadable themes (which can be found in format MP3 in their web and in others), Gameboyzz Orchestra Project published in 2002 the CD "Lajv_ad_hom" (Mik Musik !). Also, the group has taken part in a good number of European festivals, such as Read_Me 1.2 - Artistic Software Festival (Moscow, 2002), Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria, 2002), Moeblierte Kindheit (Düsseldorf, Germany, 2003), Exit Festival (Paris/Creteil, 2003), Club Transmediale.03 - Go East (Berlin, 2003) and Transmediale.03 - Play Global! (Berlin, 2003).
Links: www.gameboyzz.com
Saturday 8th October - 21'15 h Exp'05 Program

truna

photos: Begoña Tena

Before starting his solo path as Truna, the Valencian Andrés Blasco participated from a young age in diverse musical projects. From the most important ones we need to mention Carmina Burana, group that during ten years worked actively publishing with different record companies and performing numerous concerts in Spain and Europe (Bienal de Arte, 1990 - Tesalónica, Greece). His later collaboration will be with Fitzcarraldo, where he starts to generate a more personal musical language using a collage close to experimentation, editing the CD "Granero Responde Ovejas" (CD, Por Caridad, 1994) and going on several tours through Spain and France. He after moves to Belgium, living there for 4 years, where he dedicates himself entirely to the sonorous experimentation and the creation of new instruments with the King Kong duet.
From 1999 onwards he lives again in Valencia centring his work especially in two areas: the creation of new instruments as electronic luthier and the composition of a particular sonorous and musical language, the result of total experimentation using classical instruments (cello, bass, guitar, organ…), sampler and invented instruments. These new instruments work as sonorous sculptures which Truna also uses as interactive installations, inviting the spectator to play and interpret with them.
His musical facet is extended to other artistic areas such as the dance, collaborating in different shows, and the creation of pieces requested by different artists and exhibitions. He has also shown his works in different art expositions (Ciclos de la Sala Naranja 2000-04, Valencia; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante 2003; Encuentro de Arte Público de Ribarroja 2004; art galleries in Brussels and Liège in 1997...).
Recently he has presented his last work Zoonírico in the Escena Contemporánea festival in the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid) and in the Festival Nits d´Aielo i Art, both directed by Llorenç Barber.
Experimentaclub'05 is a necessary date to discover Truna and his talent, his overflowing inventive (poetical, humoristic, dada) and the personal musical-toy universe of this very special electronic luthier.
Links: www.truna.es.tt - experimentaclub data
Saturday 8th October - 20'30 h Exp'05 Program

alain wergifosse

Belgian, although living in Barcelona, Alain Wergifosse has developed a long career in the field of electronic creation in real time, specialising in the improvisation during performances using different sources of sound such as machines, objects, natural environments, instruments and musicians; where everything is done by opposing the common idea of conventional sampling with the radical use of transformation and manipulation as working tools.
His curriculum shows a long list of appearances and collaborations in concerts and CDs with names such as Cluster, Macromassa, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Martin Hug, Sergi Jordá, Nad Spiro, Albert Giménez, Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga, Joan Saura, Enric Cervera, Música Veneno, Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Dj Zero amongst others.
Amongst his many projects shines the wild improvisation combo Obmuz, "power trio" along with Eli Gras (bass) and Quicu Samsó (drums) in which Wergifosse is in charge of the electronic components. Besides, he has composed the music for the multimedia play "Afasia" and for the interactive installation "Epifanía", both by Marcel.lí Antúnez (ex-Fura dels Baus).
But "Deep Gray Organics" (CD, Geometrik-Microgama, 1999), one of the best CDs of experimental electronic edited in our country, is without a doubt the most significant work by Alain Wergifosse: eleven improvisations, the majority of them recorded in live between Obmuz's rehearsal sessions, where Wergifosse spontaneously combines, playing with chance, harmony, distortions and peculiar rhythmic sequences. Complex electronic atmospheres, dense, with a great tonality and expressive force, sometimes dark and claustrophobic, whilst delicate and introspective at other times.
Links: experimentaclub data
Thursday 6th October - 20'30 h Exp'05 Program

victor nubla

Victor Nubla, who already performed in Experimentaclub'00 next to Antón Ignorant and who now repeats in 2005 with a very personal Dj session, is one of the more relevant figures of the experimental music scene in our country. Restless as few artists, Nubla is a musician, essayist, activist of the experimentation, writer, ideologist, programmer, occasional Dj, editor, to summarise: an agitator, whose trajectory has been fundamental in the vanguard scene of Barcelona during the last thirty years.
Nubla was next to Juan Crek one of the original members of Macromassa, group founded in 1976, experimenting with electronic variations of the wind instruments and of the voice through a very particular interpretation of rock, jazz, industrial music, the noise and minimalism. The long trajectory of Macromassa reaches until 1997 with the apparition of their last album "Puerta Heliogábal". More than forty records and a hundred concerts were the result of those twenty-one years of free and radically personal creation.
His soloist work starts in 1980 founding the Laboratorio de Música Desconocida (Laboratory of Unknown Music) and working in the improvisation field, the electronic improvisation, sonorous atmospheres, installations and music for cinema, video, theatre and contemporary dance. After publishing in 1986 "Delirio de Dioses" next to Antón Ignorant (LP of only one side, Frenetic Records) and already in 1993 associating with Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga to record together "Galvana", Victor Nubla starts in that same year 93 a new phase of reflection on his creative work, focusing his investigation on the electronic processing of wind instruments, designing systems aimed to allow the playing of clarinets (his original instrument) without the need to blow or manipulate them, obtaining at the same time complex sounds, controlled in all their parameters. These techniques were developed in his solo performances up until 1995, producing with the clarinets a wide sample of unusual sounds in real time.
In this year 95 appears the first CD of the project MCO ("Método de Composición Objetiva"-Method of Objective Composition), whose origin dates from 1987: a sound construction project using chance and sonorous sampling as a system. Encouraged by the release of this first recording work of the series, Nubla decides to continue with the project, and at present he still works with it. "Piedra Nombre" (95, edited by G3G, recorded in between 1989 and 1992), "La vía iluminada" (99, Zanfonia), "Elogio de la misantropía" (99, Zanfonia, the same as the previous one, but including works done until 1997), "El blando recibo de las especies" (99, Zanfonia, with material recorded from 1998 to 1999) and "Sleca" (2000, album only available in mp3 format published by Experimentaclub and Vitaminic inside the "Discos Virtuales" collection), were the first five volumes of this series.
Already in this new decade, Nubla has succeeded in both the continuation of his soloist career and in the development of other joint projects such as Dedo (next to Io Casino). "Seven Harbour Scenes", "Neige" and "Empuries", all edited by his recording company Hronir Label. He also completed a CD with Tibetan Red ("Tao Point", Hronir Label) and another with Robin Storey: "About Breathing" (Caciocavallo / Soleilmoon).
Victor Nubla is also founder of Gràcia Territori Sonor (trans-European project created to impulse the circulation of non-habitual artists, ideas and music through European cities). Amongst their activities the Festival LEM de Barcelona has a special importance.
Links: www.hronir.org - experimentaclub data
Sunday 9th October - Dj - 19 h Exp'05 Program

a cunt on fmol

A Cunt On Fmol is a project from Barcelona centred in exploring the combination of electronic and acoustic improvisation. Their formation for Experimentaclub'05 will be: Cristina Casanova (FMOL synt), Oscar Celma (guitar and bass), Marc Viaplana (guitar), Quico Samsó (drums, replacing Eugenio Tisselli) and Josep M. Jordana (video projections).
Cristina Casanova (who was also part of the FMOL Trio, together with Sergi Jordà and Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga) leads this clash of sounds between electronic music (formed via FMOL, Faust Music On Line, synthesizer software developed by Sergi Jordà and Toni Aguilar) and acoustic music, represented by the guitars of the Oscar Celma / Marc Viaplana tandem and Tisselli's percussion games. Without forgetting Josep M. Jordana's visual contribution.
Using their own words, the group was created with the intention of "cutting, mixing and pasting electronic and acoustic improvisation". Intentions that are perfectly fulfilled in their two CDs, both recorded during live performances where electronic improvisation is fused with guitars and drums: "A Cunt On Fmol, Two Pricks On Guitar And Some Biriba Sounds" (Hazard Records, 2004; as a quartet with Cristina Casanova, Oscar Celma, Marc Viaplana and the Chilean multiinstrumentist Cristian Sotomayor in charge of the drums and the berimbao) and "A Cunt On Fmol: Lem11s" (Hazard Records, 2005, recorded by the current formation).
Links: www.arrakis.es/~ccs/hazardrecords/artists/acuntonfmol.htm - experimentaclub data
Wednesday 5th October - 20'30 h Exp'05 Program

dargelos

photo: Albert Mollón	photo: Yolanda Canut

Dargelos (Adrià Lloris) is one of the most promising artists of the new experimental scene of Barcelona. Sampler-man par excellence, Dargelos uses this machine with the freedom and the capacity to surprise as his best weapons, avoiding the use of a sequencer in order to allow the looped samples to flow with the irregularity as a disturbing element, making the chaos and the uncertainty the basic ingredients of his sonorous menu.
This space for the unexpected, for the construction of structures from an error, for the imperfect loop or for the juxtaposition of random elements, define his music as an organic carrousel of intermixed sensations that fall against each other: creaking, scattering, bumping, scraping, breaking…Dargelos' great discovery is his equilibrium between these elements and some melodic and rhythmic microstructures which minimally secure them together. It's a speech full of little paragraphs ranking musically from the merely contemplative to the most anxious repetitive tension.
Until the end of 2003, Adrià Lloris was a component of Mint 400, group of experimental rock formed as well by two of his most usual co-workers: Ramón García (Beef) and Toni Campoy (Camping). The direct antecedent of Dargelos was a demo recorded under the name C'mon where he only used the samplers to accompany Toni Campoy's voice. Already as Dargelos, he presents in live at the LEM 2003 Festival at Barcelona. Finally in 2004 appears "Dal sottofondo", auto edited CD full of sinuous bends, unpredictable turns and cinematographic suspense atmospheres…; summarised in themes such as "Cadaqués" and "Kentucky", alternating from the lazy languor of the first to the psycho-rhythmic tension of the second. An excellent work that confirms him as one of the most promising and solid proposals of the new Spanish experimental panorama.
Links: experimentaclub data
Friday 7th October - 20'30 h Exp'05 Program

emil (deli.kolder madrid / berlin)

photo: David Lee	photo: Claudia Ortiz

Emil (Holger Emil Bange), art historian, journalist and Dj, is as well founder and director of the records distributor Deli.Kolder, created in 2003 at Madrid.
In 1990 Emil started as a Dj in his natal city Frankfurt/Main. His first steps were dominated by black music: jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop or dub, and later on he also started including trip-hop and house. Halfway through the 90s he took a break towards the easy listening, beat and sixties pop. Coinciding with his change of residence to Berlin in the year 1997, he discovered Colonia's minimal-techno and he started to extend his knowledge on post-rock, krautrock, IDM and electronic music.
It was then when he developed his technique, maintaining his style since then until now, combining different styles from different times and movements, in order to offer the audience a varied and fluid session, interesting and unexpected until the end. During these last few years, he has renewed his interest in the music of his youth -specially the German new wave- to include it as well in his sessions.
Aside from that, Emil frequently offers thematic sessions, such as "Punk and German new wave" (1995, Frankfurt), "Party for Deafs" (1998, Berlin, in collaboration with Die Tödliche Doris), "Punk and new wave, 1976-1981" (1999, Berlin), "Krautrock and minimal-techno" (2000, Berlin), "Spanish Music 1978-2005" (2005, Berlin). Besides, he has worked with diverse artists and musicians, such as Rechenzentrum, Dag, Max Mohr, Jim Avignon and Die Tödliche Doris, to mention some of them.
In Madrid, Emil performs regularly in Oui, in Nasti and in the project room El Ojo Atómico. In 2005 his set forms part of the Primavera Sound and FIB festivals.
Links: www.delikolder.net
Wednesday 5th October - Dj - 19 to 22 h Exp'05 Program

from 20 to 20000hz av/set

The spirit of the audio sets From 20 to 20000Hz is to recontext all kind of sonorous objects in order to recreate a journey in constant change, linked to the randomness of each moment, from diverse sound sources and processes in real time, re-sampling, generating audio with a laptop, manipulating vinyl records, etc. The result oscillates in between layers of minimum atmospheres, microsounds, extreme frequencies, noise, repetition… The one in charge of this set is Pablo Sanz, prolific creator whose work includes audio, video and the manipulation of images.
In From 20 to 20000Hz AV/SET, Pablo Sanz's audio will be accompanied by the visuals generated in real time by Miguel Cazo + Bruno Galarza + Sergio Millán (components of the ~warez_lab collective).
Links: www.20020.org
Saturday 8th October - Audio + Visuals - 19 to 22 h Exp'05 Program

iván gómez-españa

Iván Gómez-España (Madrid, 1979) has deepened his work in the area of audiovisual languages through different means that go from photography to video up to sound. Under this multidisciplinary education he has developed several projects where video and interactivity merge with the space and time they illustrate. This interest in real time processes guided him to the creation of videos during his live performances to which he applies different multimedia tools developed by himself, and which he can use to elaborate new techniques when showing an image with movement.
His work has been shown internationally in Munich, Kiel, Colonia, Helsinki and New York and at a national level, in Madrid and Barcelona.
Links: www.miradores.org
Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th October - Visuals - 19 to 22 h Exp'05 Program

f metamars

photos: Nuara_JP

Tightrope walker of the Jukebox. F Metamars knocks down and constructs (¿or is it the other way round?) changing musical codes, making them collide until the more familiar sounds turn unfamiliar and vice versa. From Ligeti to Merzbow in 60 minutes...; stopping at the Beach Boys, Joy Division, the silence and metal machine music, mixing his own bases with sampled loops, CDs and sonorous effects.
F Metamars (Javier Piñango, 50% of the experimental electronic duo Druhb) has been twenty years working in the experimental music scene at Madrid. Besides being a musical journalist, he has been one of the creators of record companies with a clearly transgressor attitude, like Triquinoise (1989) or Por Caridad Producciones (1992). He is also one of the persons in charge of the Experimentaclub project.
As a musician he formed part of Cerdos (electronic industrial blues) from the end of the 80s to the beginning of the 90s. Later on, in 1992, he founded next to Ajo and Javier Colis, Mil Dolores Pequeños, with who he would record three albums, and in 1994 Destroy Mercedes (electronic, punk and psychedelia) next to Jaime Munárriz, editing two CDs in 1996 and 1997 respectively. In 1999 he creates Druhb, also with Jaime Munárriz, project which combines digital and analogical elements, fractured microrhythms, minimalist melodic touches and atmospheric layers. In 2002 they edit their first CD titled "Cone Of Silence" (Geometrik). Since then they have published different themes in electronic music compilations and in 2005 they have edited through Hazard Records a new CD presenting the soundtrack which they designed particularly in 2004 for a new visual montage created by Alvaro Luna based on the film by Fritz Lang "Doctor Mabuse". Also with Hazard Records they've edited a CD which consists of a selection of the sessions presented in live by Druhb on the year 2003 in the Mirador project (facultad de Bellas Artes de Madrid). At the present time Druhb is preparing a new album which will come out towards the end of 2005.
Links: www.experimentaclub.com/druhb - experimentaclub data Druhb - experimentaclub data Destroy Mercedes
Sunday 9th October - Dj - 18 h Exp'05 Program

guillermo castaño

photo: Fernando Martín de la Hoz

The development of the avant-garde music in Barcelona during these last few decades can't be analysed without meeting at some time the figure of Guillermo Castaño, main active character of thousands of initiatives seeking the disclosure and the enjoyment of the riskiest experimental sound formats, being present in all those fronts where these artistic proposals were fighting for space: in the media, in the record companies, in the creation of places to maintain stable programs of concerts, etc.
As a musical journalist, his unforgettable articles from the 80s at the Rock de Lux magazine, always paying attention to the more transgressor initiatives, are still remembered. As a tireless agitator, together with Gat and Gloria, Guillem creates in 1989 G3G Records, worshipped label that nowadays continues editing CDs so that the more curious minds can enjoy some of the riskiest works of artists, for example, Pascal Comelade, Raèo, Macromassa, Jakob Draminsky, Alien Mar, Oriol Perucho, etc.
In the same way as the lack of specialised labels encouraged the creation of G3G, the need for stages where these artists could perform and the necessity to promote the direct contact with the audience, where the reason that took Gat, Gloria and Guillem to advance one step more and create the G's Club in March 1991, paying attention not only to the music, but also to other artistic disciplines such as video, poetry, performance, dance, theatre and cinema. The G's Club worked during 13 exact years, throwing an official closure party last year, reuniting many of the artists which had performed there throughout all these years: Lydia Lunch, Mark Cunningham, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Ferran Fages, Antón Ignorant, Rafael Metlikovez, Tres, Anki Toner, Xavi Marx, Eduard Escoffet, Juanjo Zambrano (usual Dj in many of the sessions of the Club), etc.
The same eclecticism which has been present in the G3G as a label is what best characterises Guillermo Castaño's musical tastes: music without prejudices, a musical cascade that can go from minimalism to cabaret, from experimental rock to electroacoustic, from ambient to spoken word, from improvisation to the most bizarre disco-music...
Links: www.g33grecords.com
Friday 7th October - Dj - 19 to 22 h Exp'05 Program

vjbastian

Mario Bastian is connected since 1992 to the photography, the graphic design and the audiovisual creation, starting his works around music groups, dance projects, theatre and performance. At the beginning of the 90s he created the project Cabaret del Ruido (phonetic poetry, noisy investigation and visual experimentation). In 1996 he starts his trajectory in the interactive medium generating net art and multimedia projects. He has collaborated with important multimedia agencies as creative director in projects of 3d virtual communities, virtual reality and videogames. At present he shares his time between the videocreation and the design of interactive pieces and multimedia projects in the HybridaRT platform (www.hybridart.net), of which he is a founder and which is orientated towards the invention of visual and interactive experiences for artistic projects.
With the name of VJBastian (www.vjbastian.com) he has generated visuals and interactive systems during live performances for numerous spectacles of dance, theatre, electronic music clubs and artists such as Resonic, Irisono (www.hybridart.net/irisono), Ekg or LeKIM. In 2004 he founds with the artist Nico Arianoutsos (Resonic) the audiovisual project Unicoder, with which they have presented their works in La Casa Encendida (Ciclo Territorio Eléctrico 2004), FIB 2004 and Magma Meeting 2005, amongst others.
In his live performances as VJBastian contemporary philosophical concepts are recurrent; being posthumanism, queer theory, ciberpunk culture and post-digital attitudes some of his inspirations.
Links: www.vjbastian.com
Thursday 6th and Sunday 9th October - Visuals - 19 to 22 h Exp'05 Program

festival minúsculo <tiny festival>

The Tiny Festival is a microfestival dedicated to the small and intimate formats with irony and delicacy as the predominant notes, proposing a series of improvised musical miniatures. The aim is to reduce the distance between the audience and the musician, recovering the ability to interpret gestures thanks to the proximity. To make each concert a complicity space of singular dimensions, each improvisation will last between 5 and 15 minutes and will be limited to a maximum of six spectators that will listen to the performance with earphones. The Tiny Festival has already been organised once in Barcelona in the year 2004.
Wednesday 5th to Saturday 8th October - 20 to 21'30 h Exp'05 Program

Concept: Lionel Stora (L'Ovni Tendre). Program and Coordination: Pablo Rega.

pablo rega

Electroacoustic devices, amplified elements.
Pablo Rega, guitarist and electronic musician, at present belongs to the MUT project next to Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Ferran Fages, Avelino Saavedra and Artur Fernández. As an improvisator musician he has played with Ruth Barberán, Ferran Fages, Nilo Gallego, Markus Breuss, Iñaki Ríos, Rui Costa, Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Guillermo Torres amongst others.
Besides this, Pablo Rega has collaborated with Chus Domínguez and Enrique Otero in audiovisual projects. Also with the sculptor Oscar de Paz in several installations. Member of the association Música Libre de Madrid, he has participated in seminaries with Peter Kowald, Le Quan Ninh, Günter Heinz, Butch Morris, etc.
In 2004 he took part in the Tiny Festival at Barcelona, interpreting improvised electroacoustic micropieces.
Links: http://besalelosdientes.com/los_lirios/?q=pablo_rega - experimentaclub data
Wednesday 5th October - 20 to 21'30 h - Festival Minúsculo <Tiny Festival> Exp'05 Program

nilo gallego

photo: Celia Martínez	photo: Martín Ruano

Percussion and electronics.
Nilo Gallego (Leon), musician and performer, plays drums, percussion and electronics. At present he belongs to the Cova Villegas quintet (contemporary jazz). He has shared stage improvising with musicians, dancers or performers such as Pablo Rega, Africa Navarro, Patricia Lamas, Chefa Alonso, Markus Breuss, Günter Heinz, Wade Matthews, Phil Durrant, etc. Besides he has participated in improvisation orchestras directed by Peter Kowald, Butch Morris, Le Quan Ninh, Wolfgang Fuchs, Dave Tucker and Roland Ramanan.
He is a member of the Música Libre collective, dedicated to the improvised music in Spain. Also, at Leon, he belongs to the Piensan Las Manos collective (next to Chus Domínguez and Marino García), specialized in documental films.
Nilo Galle