12 October 2010 - 0 Comments

 Thursday Oct 28th
The Classic, 321 Queen St
Doors open 8 pm
$15.00

Richard Youngs is one of the most acclaimed, chameleon-like explorers of modern music, traversing a diverse set of distinctive and multi-instrumental forms that encompass avant-folk, psychedelic drone, progressive minimalism, lysergic pop, and rock concréte. The stark, unyielding minimalism of his piano-oriented 1990 debut, ‘Advent’, prompted The Wire’s Alan Licht to list it alongside works by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Phil Niblock, and Tony Conrad as a revelatory favourite of rare minimalism, while Youngs’ subsequent and prolific collaborations with Simon Wickham-Smith as R!!!&S!!! are widely seen as opuses of mind-altering cosmic abstraction, with one critic describing them as ‘Throbbing Gristle reimagined as Zen garden desk accessory’.

is one of the most acclaimed, chameleon-like explorers of modern music, traversing a diverse set of distinctive and multi-instrumental forms that encompass avant-folk, psychedelic drone, progressive minimalism, lysergic pop, and rock concréte. The stark, unyielding minimalism of his piano-oriented 1990 debut, ‘Advent’, prompted The Wire’s Alan Licht to list it alongside works by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Phil Niblock, and Tony Conrad as a revelatory favourite of rare minimalism, while Youngs’ subsequent and prolific collaborations with Simon Wickham-Smith as R!!!&S!!! are widely seen as opuses of mind-altering cosmic abstraction, with one critic describing them as ‘Throbbing Gristle reimagined as Zen garden desk accessory’.

From the carnivalesque kazoo-psych and warble of ‘New Angloid Sound’, the heartbreaking candour of ‘Sapphie’ - featuring just Youngs’ plaintive voice and a classical guitar, and likened to a hybrid of Galaxie 500 and Nick Drake - the desolate a cappella of ‘Summer Wanderers’ and gorgeous pastoralism of his collaboration with Tirath Singh Nirmala, to the ‘ecstatic house’ of 2009’s ‘Like A Neuron’, the intrepid, curveball pop of ‘Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits’, and the cyclical, stream-of-consciousness and hymnal ‘Under Stellar Stream’, Youngs’ music remains as evocatively beautiful as it is perennially mutable.

While recording with an array of various collaborators, including Jandek, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Neil Campbell of Astral Social Club, Alastair Galbraith, Matthew Bower of Sunroof, and Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple, and appearing on a slew of labels such as VHF (Jack Rose, Pelt, Aethenor, Sandra Bell) and Table of the Elements (John Cale, Fennesz, John Fahey, SunnO)))’s Stephen O’Malley, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Rhys Catham, Faust), Youngs has been reticent as a live performer, playing only a handful of occasions between 2006-2008, at Thurston Moore’s All Tomorrows Parties in 2006, and alongside Jandek and Heather Leigh Murray on European tours.
It is thus a rare and special opportunity to witness in person what Melody Maker has described as the ‘grand-meister of contemporary British improv, spiritual son of Eddie Prevost and Maddy Prior; gentle manipulator of English hymn-notics and religious incantations; protégé, challenger and radicaliser of folk, blues, rock, minimalism and improvisation’

http://jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=youngsrichard

Alastair Galbraith is an experimental musician based in Dunedin and is one of the most admired musicians in the 'underground' music scene worldwide.

Recipient of the 2006 Arts Foundation Laureate, he employs amongst his instruments, violin, bagpipes, softly spoken lyrics, organ, and backwards-guitar to create what has been described as "otherworldly" and an "unerringly emotional" sound. Noted American critic Byron Coley has said "his work is filled with beautiful darkness, worthy of classic designation".

His long, consistent career began in the early 1980s, as leader of The Rip, who recorded two EPs for Flying Nun. He later joined other prominent South Island musicians Peter Jefferies, David Mitchell and Robbie Muir to form Plagal Grind, whose self-titled EP is regarded as a masterpiece of extra-academic experimental music.
Alastair’s solo work has gained a growing international reputation and is known as a benchmark of excellence for the independent, idiosyncratic mode it operates in. His works have been heralded in critical journals and documented by recordings on prestigious American labels. In his recent work, alongside solo recordings, Alastair collaborates with Bruce Russell in the improvisational group, A Handful of Dust, and with Matt De Gennaro, with whom he creates distinctive 'wire music', using piano wires in a site-specific installation. This will be demonstrated in a workshop before the event.

In 2006 the prestigious North American label, Table of the Elements, archivers of such twentieth century musical geniuses as Charlie Patton and Tony Conrad, gave Alastair's solo work the status of contemporary classics by reissuing his albums Morse/Gaudylight and Talisman. Alastair’s album of song-based material, the 20-track Orb, was released on his own label Nextbestway, via Global Routes, early in 2008 and received a glowing full-page review in the February edition of icon UK magazine The Wire.

http://www.myspace.com/alastairgalbraithplagalgrindtherip

Tickets can be bought at

http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/show/SID/15423/N/Altmusic-Presents:-Richard-Youngs.utr

Established in 2001 and now organized by committees in every major city in New Zealand under the Audio Foundation, Altmusic is an ongoing series of audio events, regularly bringing a vital injection of contemporary and experimental music from around the world to New Zealand. This year, the programme continues with each city curating its own event and touring this around NZ. Thanks Creative New Zealand!!

http://www.audiofoundation.org.nz

Thanks to www.audiofoundation.org.nz for this story.

Next: Detonate Festival 2010

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