CHARALAMBIDES WEEKEND AT CAFE OTO

Charalambides + The Michael Flower Band
Saturday 19 May 2012 8pm

Tickets : £8 advance / £10 on the door

Dedicated to a vision of spiritual music (in all its forms) as transformative force, Charalambides sound is uniquely personal and consistent, even through some outwardly extreme shifts in tactics - song-as-mantra, interstellar voids full of silence, or howling, ecstatically-received gnosis. For this first day of our Charalambides' weekend residency, Tom and Christina Carter will perform on the as Charalambides (The Sunday will feature their solo projects and various collaborations)

CHARALAMBIDES

Despite occasional attempts by yardstick-makers to place them in any of the various genres that rose & fell in their musical proximity, Charalambides have remained dedicated to a vision of spiritual music (in all its forms) as transformative force. Their sound is uniquely personal and consistent, even through some outwardly extreme shifts in tactics.

Charalambides formed in Houston in 1991 amid a flock of fearlessly exploratory (and often drug-induced) rock bands, when Tom, Christina, and Kyle Silfer put down their beers and picked up their instruments. Eventually Kyle went home to New York, and Christina & Tom assumed the name Charalambides for what eventually turned into a flood of releases- beginning with 1992's Our Bed Is Green on their own Wholly Other label, and continuing with dozens of LPs, CDs, and cassettes on labels such as Siltbreeze, Eclipse, Time-Lag, and kranky.

Despite occasional stints as a trio (first with guitarist Jason Bill and then with pedal steel guitarist & vocalist Heather Leigh Murray) and flourishing solo projects, Charalambides remains constant as the core duo of Tom & Christina Carter.

From their 2006 & 2007 kranky releases A Vintage Burden & Likeness onwards, Charalambides has renewed their concentration on song-as-mantra (with intermittent guitar solos). But earlier recordings (like 2001's Unknown Spin) whisper of interstellar voids full of silence, or howl with ecstatically-received gnosis (2004's Joy Shapes).

Charalambides' live shows sometimes (and unpredictably) continue this latter thread, which often startles fans familiar only with the band's deceptively low-key reputation. Charalambides began playing sporadic gigs in 1992, making annual or semi-annual forays into other parts of the world from 1993 to 2005 (with the occasional year or two off). In 2006, Charalambides hit the road in earnest, touring the US/UK and making appearances at that year's Terrastock, Arthurfest and the Thurston Moore curated All Tomorrow's Parties: A Nightmare Before Christmas.

In 2008, after months of incessant solo and duo touring in the US and Europe, Tom settled in New York City, and Christina went to Austin, leaving touring aside (for a finite yet undetermined period of time) to concentrate on writing and recording. Their upcoming shows in Amsterdam and Hasselt (Belgium) are their first European performances since 2008.

Charalambides continue their recorded collaboration with Exile, a double LP of new recordings now available on kranky.


THE MICHAEL FLOWER BAND

"Biker psych for the third eye rider"

A key member of legendary Leeds freak-out collective Vibracathedral Orchestra, Michael Flower's fearless explorations of sound have established him as something of a benchmark in the world of experimental transcendental music - both solo and as one half of one the intense psych/improv drenched Flower-Corsano Duo. He has also played with Jandek, Spectre Folk, MV&EE and Sunburned Hand of the Man, among others.



Christina Carter + Tom Garter + guests
Sunday 20 May 2012 8pm

Tickets : £8 advance / £10 on the door

Second day of our Charalambides weekend with solo sets from Tom and Christina Carter and various collaborations. Dedicated to a vision of spiritual music (in all its forms) as transformative force, Charalambides sound is uniquely personal and consistent, even through some outwardly extreme shifts in tactics - song-as-mantra, interstellar voids full of silence, or howling, ecstatically-received gnosis.

CHRISTINA CARTER

Christina Carter was born in the bayou city of Houston, Texas in November of 1968, and co-founded the group Charalambides there in December of 1991. Ever since then, she has deeply mined her own vein of sound-as-music with voice, guitar (both electric and acoustic), piano, and keys. For the past several years, Christina has utilized extended improvisational guitar passages within and without song-medley structures; re-contextualized certain Charalambides songs within the spare single guitar/voice form that birthed much of the group's music; and recently, investigated 'the song' as a thing unto itself, specifically concentrating on 'the word'- both in her own lyric writing and her interpretions of the work of other lyricists.

In addition to performing extensively in the US, UK and Europe as a solo artist, Christina has played and recorded in various groups and duos with Black Forest/Black Sea, Maria Chavez (as Weird Cookie), Loren Connors, Chris Corsano, Dredd Foole, Sandy Ewen, Paul Flaherty, Gown (as The Bastard Wing), Shawn David McMillen, and Thurston Moore. She is also a permanent member of Scorces (with vocalist/pedal steel player Heather Leigh Murray).

Concurrent with her work as a musician, Christina has expanded her involvement in writing and visual art. Her poetry has been published by Digitalis Industries, The Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, Glass Eye, and Slow Toe Press. In 2007, her art piece Forever 21 appeared at Salon Mijangos in San Antonio, Texas as part of a concert/exhibit featuring Tom Carter, Warmer Milks, and Tetuzi Akiyama. Forever 21 was a labor of love and destruction: six of her handwritten diaries cut up painstakingly with scissors into miniscule pieces, which then filled a large yellow plastic shopping bag.

Christina currently resides in Austin, Texas. Her latest albums are the Charalambides album Exile (Kranky), the double LP reissue Texas Blues Working (Blackest Rainbow), and two solo CDRs: Trickster Who Is Like God (Many Breaths) and a reissue of Future In Past (Many Breaths), originally released on the Wholly Other imprint in 2002.

TOM CARTER

Tom Carter's solo electric guitar work sculpts a richly varied landscape of immensely-stacked grit and beauty, weaving interlocking strands of visceral melody into towering (and often high-volume) long-form drones.

Born barely south of the Mason-Dixon line, and just in time for the Summer of Love, Tom Carter led a decidedly non-hippy existence being shuffled around various farm and mining towns in Maryland and Ohio by his newspaperman father, before finally making his way to Texas in 1985, just in time to watch all the good hardcore bands die. Already obsessed with American pre-punk and British post-punk, Carter dove into the lysergically spiked musical waters of Texas with both feet, augmenting his guitar skills with unreliable instruments, cranky analog electronics, and disintegrating practice amps. Over the ensuing decades, he managed to forge his evolving ideas of complete tonal immersion (and the quest for the perfect fuzz tone) into a layered sonic toolkit of rough beauty and unrefined proficiency.

Best known for his work with acclaimed iconoclasts Charalambides, which he co-founded with Christina Carter in 1991, he has branched out into other collaborations since 2001, playing and recording with long-term projects Zaika (with Marcia Bassett) and Badgerlore (with Rob Fisk, Ben Chasny, Liz Harris, and Peter Swanson), as well as in frequent collaborations with Bay Area sound artist Robert Horton. Other fellow travelers have included Christian Kiefer, Paul Flaherty, Tetuzi Akiyama, Shawn David McMillen, Thurston Moore, Dredd Foole, Loren Connors, Pip Proud, Inca Ore, Jandek, Bardo Pond, Starving Weirdos, Ensemble Economique, Steve Gunn, Robert Millis, and Matt Valentine, among many others.

Recently, Carter has focused on his work with free-rock improvisers Eleven Twenty-Nine (Carter, Marc Orleans, and Michael Evans) as well as his solo performances and recordings, which have increasingly featured visual components- including collaborations with filmmakers Martha Colburn and Margarida Garcia. He currently lives in New York City.


Buy a £14 Charalambides weekend pass

I have to go!

Gilded Gutter presents Zarjaz from Tronics and Freakapuss who will be making a rare live appearance to coincide with recent reissues of Tronics material on What's Your Rupture? Supported by fellow Londoners and DIY music makers The Pheromoans and Way Through.

Zarjaz will be playing Tronics and Freakapuss songs in his set.

Hope to see some of you fine folks there!

Tuesday May 29th
Dalston Victoria, E8
Doors - 8pm
Entry - £5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdzZo...&feature=share

I just booked my weekend pass for this, only 12 tickets left now... who else is going?

NENEH CHERRY AND THE THING
Village Underground, 15.07.12
Book tickets - £15.50

Eat Your Own Ears are very excited to announce a show with Neneh Cherry and The Thing, in celebration of their new collaboration.

Together they have recorded an album which includes covers of Suicide, (MF) Doom, The Stooges, Martina Topley Bird and Ornette Colemen, as well as a song by Neneh's father Don Cherry. Jazz trio The Thing first met while recording covers of the great Don Cherry's songs, and their name is derived from a Don Cherry song.

Neneh Cherry is a true artist, and today holds an indisputable position in the music world. Through her own desire to reinvent, progress and improve, she has flirted - and this better than anybody else - with a variety of musical genres from Soul to Rock, from Jazz to Rap and she can be named as one of the co-founders of Trip Hop. At the same time she remains untainted and as fresh as the day she stepped into the spotlight with her first solo release 16 years ago.

Rough Trade East In-store - BOB MOULD

Thursday 31st May, 1pm 31/05/2012
NO WRISTBAND NEEDED, JUST COME DOWN ON THE DAY

Rough Trade are proud to announce an intimate acoustic lunchtime set with Bob Mould.

Something to dü innit?

^
I saw him at ATP a few years ago, and I couldn't believe how boring it was. Too much folk, not nearly enough rock.

MAN FOREVER + ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE + PURPLE PILGRIMS
LONDON: Cafe Oto
SUN 29TH JUL, 2012 8PM
£7.00


MAN FOREVER

John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer who is perhaps best known as the drummer for Oneida. Man Forever, his vehicle for exploring the outer limits of drum performance, was created to overwhelm, to investigate the nuances that bloom in the midst of repetitive music, and to act as a pure sound experience.

Originally based on the idea of creating a sort of punk-infused Metal Machine Music for drums, Man Forever has evolved from a five or six full drum set ensemble to something a lot more stripped down. Based on two drummers playing single stroke rolls on a single drum and the patterns that emerge from that, Pansophical Cataract is propulsive without a pulse. Patterns evolve and burst through the static surface of the material, much of which was produced by electric instruments, though “Ur Eternity” remains mostly drums with only a few bass tracks making an appearance. The sounds created by these instruments were based on the drones that Colpitts hears when he is practicing (the not fully conscious singing or humming that arises when one practices alone), and then augmented and enhanced by the other musicians on the record. The repetitive rolls create a phasing effect, a music in and of itself, and the dynamic shifts that occur when the other instruments enter become not mere notes, but grand events.

In the live environment, these shifts and phasing effects, are amplified through sheer volume and duration. “Surface Patterns” and “Ur Eternity” are 30 and 40 minutes respectively (though have been shortened to around 18 minutes per side on record), creating an even more dramatic effect. Past performances have included Brian Chase (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs), James McNew (Yo La Tengo), Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend), Richard Hoffman (Sightings), Shahin Motia (Oneida, Ex Models), Sarah Richardson (Creeping Nobodies), Ryan Sawyer (Stars Like Fleas), Greg Fox (Liturgy, Guardian Alien), Christopher Weingarten (Parts and Labor), and many others.


ENSEMBLE ECONOMIQUE

Ensemble Economique is the solo project of Brian Pyle of Starving Weirdos and RV Paintings - mixing synth loops and electronic rhythms into narrative and organic structures. EE LPs have appeared via Not Not Fun and Dekorder.


PURPLE PILGRIMS

Purple Pilgrims are the the ex-Christchurch now Hong Kong based sister duo of Clementine and Valentine Nixon - together they explore the outer reaches of dream pop and bury it under a layer of fuzz that would make flying saucer attack proud. They latest LP is out via Pseudo Arcana.

I saw Sugar live and it was so dull. I thought some people might be interested though. Grant Hart wrote all the best Husker Du songs anyway!

I think I might go to this...

See you there.

Any reason why this is not mentioned here yet? http://www.atpfestival.com/newsview/1205240904.php
gy!be at London Forum on November 4.
I'll be there, and would appreciate if anyone could give me some hints on any other events taking place during that time. Will probably stay in London for a long weekend or so.

^
It's pretty much a case of if no-one gets excited by the news that a gig is happening, it probably won't get posted about.

For instance, no-one has yet got exctited about the fact that Spiritualised is playing at The Roundhouse on Monday 5th November, so it hasn't been posted.

Sylvester Anfang II - Aug 8 - Café Oto, London (w/ Liberez, Helm)

MV & EE with the Home Comfort Sound System - 18/09/12 London, UK Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/upset-the-rhythm-excepter.shtm

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/john-cage-i...beresford.shtm

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/acid-mothers-temple.shtm

Robert Hampson at Cafe Oto on the 16th of September. Guitars will be played.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Announce 2nd Forum Show - Tickets Available Now
 

Here's good excuse not to go see Spiritualized on the same day:

http://www.atpfestival.com/newsview/1206211015.php

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR ANNOUNCE 2ND FORUM SHOW - TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW

Thursday June 21, 2012
Due to popular demand ATP are proud to announce that Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be performing a 2nd night at the Forum on the 5th November. Tickets are available now.

ARTIST: Godspeed You! Black Emperor
SUPPORT: tbc
VENUE: The Forum, London
DATE: Monday 5th November 2012
ADVANCED TICKET PRICE: £20 stbf
VENUE ADDRESS: 9-17 Highgate Road, Kentish Town, London, NW5 1JY
VENUE TELEPHONE: 0207 428 4099
AGE RESTRICTIONS: Strictly Over 14s, Under 16s with adult (Photographic ID required to gain entry)
DOORS OPEN: 7.00pm
CURFEW: 11.00pm

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS