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Home What’s on Performance SOFT PEDAL II

SOFT PEDAL II

by beth sorensen

The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Saturday 20 March 2021
7.30 pm to 9.15 pm (with 30-minute intermission)
$20 Adult
$15 Concession
Age 14+
Click here to book

 

A night of experimental and electronic sound art by Sydney and western Sydney-based artists, curated by seasoned composer and video artist George Tillianakis.

Soft Pedal II features performances by Lucas Abela aka Justice Yeldham, a noise and improvisational musician whose signature instrument – a pane of glass fitted with microphones, which he manipulates and plays with his mouth – was described by NME as “crossing the line between music and bloodsport”.

Other artists include Flâneurs, aka Ernest and Andrew Aaron, exploring “audiovisual synaesthesia” with improvised soundscapes and video projections, Loose-y Crunché, who will perform an experimental composition exploring fluctuating mental states, and Naomi Oliver who remixes electronic glitch video and sound art live, using an audio-visual synthesiser.

Content warning: Lucas Abela’s performance includes playing a self-made glass instrument, which may cause small cuts to his mouth.


 Artists

Lucas Abela

Over the past 20 years’ maverick musician Lucas Abela’s unorthodox performances with shards of broken glass have become the stuff of legend. Since its invention the glass has evolved from a means to create free-noise cacophonies into an incredibly versatile instrument producing an organic form of outsider electronica. Played somewhat like a bellow-less saxophone, by subtly vibrating lips to transmit micro-sonic vibrations into the pane, this single source of audio then feeds a complex modular patch of parallel effects chains to give the instrument the illusion of ghostly accompaniment that together forms dense layers of anomalous music. The sounds produced are best summed by the New York Times who described a 2019 performance as “One moment you hear John Coltrane playing a volcano, the next you hear a string section being squeezed through a toothpaste tube”.

Flâneurs

Flanéurs will perform an improvised sound piece utilizing synthesisers, looped violin, and digital effects that will result in an experimental ambient sound experience. An abstract visual field of glitched colour patterns will also be projected simultaneously to complement the soundscape.

Loose-y Crunché

Loose-y Crunché will be performing an experimental composition exploring how fluctuating mental states can be communicated through, and respond to, different sounds creating a feedback loop of emotion and sound frequencies; think hard hitting rhythms against softer ambient palettes of field recordings, samples and synthesisers, sitting amongst abstracted live vocals.

Naomi Oliver

Naomi Oliver will be performing soundscapes and experimental songs with live synth vocals, accompanied by glitch video art mixed live.

 

Curated by George Tillianakis

 

SOFT PEDAL II is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW

Proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Blacktown City Council and Blacktown Arts.