[posted 8 July 2008]

RARE BASS SOLO

Rare 'candlesnuffer bass solo:
25 Jun 2008, 8:30 PM
MIUC BAR OPEN Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Victoria

candlesnuffer:
11th July 2008, 8PM Globe Theatre Brisbane with Grey Daturas,Secret Birds,Roshambo & No Anchor.

Embers:
12 July 2008, 8PM
Static Age Festival, @ Dirty Shirlows, Marrickville, Sydney with Grey Daturas.

[posted 23 June 2008]

EMBERS LAUNCH SLAG-WELTER

MONDAY JUNE 09, 2008. 8.00pm
EMBERS
BLARKE BAYER/BLACK WIDOW
DAVID SHEA (USA)
The Toff In Town, Second Floor, Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne, $10 on the door.

CDs AVAILABLE ON THE NIGHT.

Embers is a brutal, free-jazz/grind-noise quartet from Melbourne, Australia. The group is made up of bucketrider members, Adam Simmons (various saxophones), Dave Brown (electric microtonal bass) and Sean Baxter (drum kit and junk) with Globe Unity Orchestra alumni, Kris Wanders(tenor saxophone). Their music is freely improvised jazz-noise with echoes of blasting grind and heavy, free rock. They launch their debut CD on the Heathen Skulls label, Slag-welter, with support from American sound collagist, David Shea, and local noise impresarios, Blarke Bayer and Black Widow featuring Ben Andrews (Agents of Abhorrence/My Disco) and Rob MacManus (Grey Daturas).

[posted 2 June 2008]

Latest solo release - Wakool

Recorded over a series of four Sunday afternoons, Wakool is an interrogation into an expanded range of techniques and gestures applied to instruments including banjo, electroacoustic guitar, bandura, and eukolin. In part an antidote to laborious studio process, this project privileges live stereo recordings without additional overdubs, processing or equalization. The varied and spontaneous nature of David’s effortless playing across an eclectic range of instruments was recorded transparently to direct the aural focus on the dynamics and nuances comprising each performance. In some ways Wakool is pure documentation of process, simply demonstrating David’s formidable range of concepts and techniques developed over an extraordinary period of experimentation and research commencing in the late 70s. On the other hand David’s meticulous preparation of each instrument combined with his prodigious knowledge of improvisational practice provides a complexity that negates the need for sophisticated studio process. Wakool stands as a testament to David’s sustained and unwavering commitment to improvisation, which he executes with enthusiasm, vigour and inventiveness that easily posits him as the most vital figure in the Australian musical avant-garde.

Philip Samartzis

reviews + mp3s

[posted 5 June 2007]

MELBOURNE COMES TO FRANCE MAY/JUNE 2007 TOUR

Natasha Anderson, Sean Baxter, David Brown, Robin Fox and Anthony Pateras have all been invited to perform at France's prestigious Musique Action festival in Nancy.

EUROPE MAY/JUNE 2007.

15/5: Lille/La Malterie:
Duo with Natasha Anderson
Anthony Pateras/Robin Fox
Sean Baxter

16/5: Nancy/Musique Action:
Natasha Anderson solo

17/5: Nancy/Musique Action:
Natasha Anderson solo
David Brown solo
Sean Baxter solo
Anthony Pateras/Robin Fox

18/5: Nancy/Musique Action:
Anthony Pateras solo
Robin Fox solo

19/5: Nancy/Musique Action:
Pateras/Baxter/Brown + Xavier Charles

23/5: Marseille/Grim:
Robin Fox solo
Natasha Anderson solo
Pateras/Baxter/Brown

29/5: Rotterdam/Worm:
Record with Lukas Simonis

30/5: Rotterdam/Worm:
Duo with Lukas Simonis

2/6: Berlin/Ballhaus:
Philip Samartzis solo
David Brown solo

[posted 20 April 2007]

PATERAS/BAXTER/BROWN SUNDAY AFTERNOONS IN MARCH

Empress Hotel 714 Nicholson Street Nth Fitzroy. 4PM - 6PM $5 and $7 on the door.

Sun 4th March: P/B/B & Tony Buck. (The Necks/Berlin), Dale Gorfinkel/Rosalind Hall (Sydney).
Sun 11th March: P/B/B & Richard Francis. (New Zealand).
Sun 18th March: P/B/B & Joe Talia. (City City City).
Sun 25th March: P/B/B & David Chesworth. (Essendon Airport).

[posted 15 February 2007]

Philip Samartzis - Unheard Spaces

Dave Brown works again with Philip Samartzis on the new release, Unheard Spaces. read more...

[posted 31 July 2006]

Pateras/Baxter/Brown European Tour 2006.

24/11 FR: Paris – Instants Chavires
28/11 NL: Amsterdam – Zaal 100
30/11 FR: Lille – La Malterie
01/12 FR: Strasbourg – MAMC
02/12 CZ: Prague – Alternativa Festival
03/12 CH: Bern – Dachstock
04/12 CH: Geneva – L’Usine
06/12 SL: Ljubljana – Kinoteka
07/12 I: Venezia – Theatro Fondamenta Nuove
08/12 I: Faenza – Il Clandestino
09/12 I: Rome – Il Cantiere
10/12 DE: Berlin – Stralau 68
11/12 NL: Amsterdam – Kraakguleiden
13/12 NL: Rotterdam – Worm
15/12 FR: Nantes – Blockhaus

[posted 30 July 2006]

Recent release: apsomeophone

The evolution of experimental art music, alongside the evolution of the guitar from rock icon to sonic object, have both enjoyed healthy, idealogical intersections in the last forty years or so. This was arguably most prominent in the 70s and 80s, maybe before everyone got so fucking precious, as Rhys Chatham confirms in his essay "5 Generations of Composers at the Kitchen", we saw art music incorporating improvisatory techniques and rock gesture; we saw rock composers working with ideas drawn from the avant garde. Sometimes this was done consciously by the composer involved, and sometimes not.

Consciously or unconsciously, candlesnuffer covers a lot of ground on this record, demonstrating a cohesive understanding of extended guitar potentiality and infusing this with a deep insight into the techniques of the “traditional” post-war avant-garde (Ligeti, Cage, Berio, Penderecki, etc.). Simultaneously referencing everything from the GRM to Japanese folk to Bartok to devastating death rock, mended together with his unique style of prepared guitar, he creates a visceral performance language that would make any supposed “post” rocker shit their pants, and probably Boulez as well.

Through a broad range of techniques: preparation, music concrete, density, space, live, pre-recorded, stupid, serious, melodic, chaotic, candlesnuffer successfully encapsulates what’s exciting about being an experimental musician today: the citation of influences whilst remaining distinctive, a combination of pre-meditation and intuition, a blend of recognizable and other. What we hear is an approach, which simultaneously respects and disregards musical history to create something unique.

There is no one way, and there is no right way, but Candlesnuffer is asking some of the right questions. Improvisation, technology and composition all co-exist as one big and beautiful happy family on this record, the only sinister thing is that they’re all sleeping together.

In that dark, dank corner of the music world called experimental music where you are slagged for playing too many notes, for not using the right software, for not having the right box set, for having too few records, for not knowing that reissue, for not understanding “new folk” and God forbid for listening to Zappa, this music comes from a refreshingly pure, increasingly rare approach, a love of sound, a necessity of exploration, a knowledge of what’s been done and what can be done, and a compositional integrity that render musings of fuckwits who write liner notes irrelevant.

... Liner notes by Anthony Pateras ...

[posted 4 July 2006]