The Nowhere! Festival returns!
Aotearoa’s premiere festival adventurous and avant-garde sonics is back, bringing more than 50 incredible acts of off-kilter experimentation to Auckland for four days and nights of boundary-pushing sonic bombardment.
Over Labour Weekend, artists from as far away as Belgium will converge across the city to engage in radical sound making, sonics on the edge of perception, extreme instrumental techniques, vocal catharsis and all round sensory stimulations!
In addition to utilising Auckland’s holy trinity of underground music venues – Audio Foundation, the Wine Cellar and Whammy Bar, this years Nowhere! Festival also takes over the spectacular acoustics of the Silo’s on Auckland waterfront for a day and night of reverb drenched experimentation.
See the complete line up, programme and artist info below, and www.UnderTheRadar.co.nz to purchase your ticket or festival pass!
LINE UP:
Floris Vanhoof – Divide and Dissolve – Bruce Russell – O/pus – Francisca Griffin and the Bus Shelter Boys – Gorge – Sewage – Fistkisser – Strange Stains – Barbara Paterson – Nereid Moon – Bib Kids – Rosy Parlane – K Group – Oksun Ox – Oona Verse – Ten Acre Bloc – Reuben Derrick – Motoko Kikkawa – Kraus – Mick Elborado – Gabriel Griffin – Peter Porteous – Ragged Veins – P.Wits – I.R.D – Droszkh – Lost Leader – Essential 5th Elements Brass Band – Orchestra of Snares – Campbell James Kneale – Empirical – Richard Francis – Pumice – Chronic Fatigue Sindrome – Susanna Ferrar – Ro RG – Liam Bowen – SL – Nilfisk – Jeff Henderson – The Family – Pom Pom – Hermione Johnson – Rosie Langabeer – Tom Rodwell – bOnEhead – John Bell – Rachel Shearer – Slaxative – The Not Quite Quiet Choir – Kimmy – Some Stringent Strings – Sophie & Evelyn – Stephen Bain – Bad Bandmate – SONSON – Blue Cheese – Sandra Bell
PROGRAMME:
Thursday 18 October, Audio Foundation, doors open 7.30pm.
$10 presale tix available at www.UnderTheRadar.co.nz
Kraus / Elborado / Griffen
O/pus
Oona Verse
Floris Vanhoof
Rosie Langabeer / Motoko Kikkawa / Reuben Derrick
Nereid Moon
Ten Acre Bloc
Friday 19 October, Whammy Bar / Wine Cellar / Backroom, doors open 8.00pm.
$20 presale tix available at www.UnderTheRadar.co.nz
Francisca Griffen & The Bus Shelter Boys
Barbara Paterson
Blue Cheese
Gorge
Divide and Disolve
Droszkhi
Strange Stains
Fistkisser
Bib Kids
Oksun Ox
Ragged Veins
P.Wits
IRD
Bruce Russle & Jeff Henderson
Sewage
Lost Leader
Kimmy
Saturday 20 October, Silo Park, from 2pm.
koha
Essential 5th Elements Brass Band
Orchestra of Snares
Slaxative
Some Stringent Strings
Not Quiet Quiet Choir
Bruce Russell / Peter Porteous / Tom Rodwell
Campbell Kneale
Reuben Derrick
Sue Ferrar
Chronic Fatigue Sindrome
Rosy Parlane
Richard Francis
Empirical
K group
Stephen Bain
Sunday 21 October, Audio Foundation, doors open 2.00pm
$10 presale tix available from www.UnderTheRadar.co.nz
Rachel Shearer
SL / Nilfisk
Campbell Kneale
Liam Bowen
Barbara Paterson
Bad Bandmate
SONSON
Pumice
Francisca Griffin (solo)
The Family
Reuben Derrick / Drew McMillan / John Bell / I.R.D.
Pom Pom
Sophie Sutherland & Evelyn
Sandra Bell
ARTIST INFO:
Floris Vanhoof
Floris Vanhoof explores hybridised forms of music, photography and film. Inspired by structural film and early electronic music, Floris makes audiovisual installations, and performance of expanded cinema and music. He builds his own instruments to discover the border between image, light and sound. As ‘media-archeologist’, Floris presents audiences with flickering 16 mm films and 35mm slide installations, formats doomed to disappear, choosing analog technology for the transparency it provides to workflow, and its rich dynamic range.
‘Cycles of Confusion’, released by KRAAK 2012
Divide and Dissolve
Music designed to decolonize & dismantle white supremacy – a heavy two-piece utilising drums, guitar, saxophone and live efx. Since crashing into the collective consciousness of modern music, the duo have been celebrated by publications and commentators including Noisy, The Fader, Junkee and Paper Mag, as well as inspiring ire in conservative circles for their controversial video, ‘Resistance’.
‘ABOMINATION’, released 2018
Bruce Russell
Bruce Russell is a public academic who has been unforgivingly ‘putting rock music to the question’ since 1987 with such groups as the Dead C. and A Handful of Dust. Described at times as ‘the Jimi Hendrix of no technique’, his approach to working with sound may be brutal, but guarantees results.
‘Topology of a Phantom City’ (with Alastair Galbraith), released in 1996, reissued by Ba Da Bing in 2014
O/pus
A supergrouping of avant-titans – Olympus meets Octopus.
‘Band on the Gum’ (Olympus), released 2018
‘Black Ink’ (Octopus), released 2011
Francisca Griffin and the Bus Shelter Boys
Flying Nun legend Francisca Griffin is best known for her multi-instrumentalism on bass, guitar and vocals as a part of Look Blue Go Purple, part of Flying Nun’s ‘second wave’ (along with Doublehappys, Straitjacket Fits and the Abel Tasmans). LBGP released three EPs before calling it a day, however Griffin continued to pursue music, later performing in Cyclops, before releasing her first solo work in 1998. Her recent release on CocoMuse epitomises a fresh and instantly recognisable guitar tones, recalling of its Griffen’s origins. “Psychedelic folk, perhaps. Southern NZ style, most certainly.
‘Falling Light’, released 2017
‘Some From the Sky’, released 1998
Gorge
Transcendent noise rock from Palmerston North.
Sewage
Explosive, skronking Dunedin duo of drums, saxophone, violin and vocals. Comprised of Gabriel Griffen and Ro R G, Sewage have been blenderising jazz, noise, punk and all of the above for coming up 10 years having formed in their tender youth at Logan Park High School.
‘Let Loose in the Art Gallery (Live)’, released 2017
Fistkisser
Enigmatic and mysterious Wellingtonian ambient / drone artist. A rare outing in Auckland (or anywhere, for that matter).
Strange Stains
Wellington’s Cooki M.’s solo electronic project is informed by close friendships and drunken, late night yarns. Sonically, the music of Strange Stains brims with hyperactive energy despite being built of droning synths and reverb-soaked vocal lines, conjuring a mood which sits somewhere between the soundtrack to an ’80s horror flick and a lullaby.
‘Bogan Atmosphere’, released by Dubbed Tapes, 2017
‘Subterranean Insides’, released 2017
Barbara Paterson
An extraordinary, classically trained solo vocalist performing the Berio Sequenza!
‘Barbara Paterson sings Six Songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff Op 38’ uploaded 2015
Nereid Moon
The solo projection of sonic-witch, Louise Mahoney…
Bib Kids
Fresh faced electro-clash ratbags bring the noise in a big way.
‘Heathens (Demo), released 2018
Rosy Parlane
Auckland-based artist Rosy Parlane began performing with the avant-garde rock trio Thela. Subsequently, he embarked upon a fruitful and celebrated arc working with abstract electronic music, both as a solo artist and alongside fellow Thela collaborator, Dion Workman, as Parmentier. His soundscapes are comprised of field recordings, pianos, guitars, household objects and other instruments manipulated via digital means. Rosy has released four solo albums, originally on Sigma Editions, and later on UK imprint Touch Records. Described by one reviewer as “inspired” and “exquisite”, Parlane’s soundscapes of beauty and destruction require a still patience easily offered as one is lulled from their position in time / space.
‘Iris’, released by Touch, 2004
‘Willow’, released by Touch, 2013
‘Jessamine’, released by Touch, 2006
K-GroupSTORAGE by K-Group/Omit
‘K-group 2’, Jan., 2015
Oksun Ox
Live finger beats, foot thumping, twanging, moaning, hard out riffs, dodgy singing, casio boogaloo, sound fx to the maximus. Ben Holmes stamps his foot & bellows a passionate croon. He plays keyboard notes with a plastic finger attached to the end of a tiny guitar, which he is also playing. He frowns cos it gets funky.
‘Dreamboat Screams Up The River Of Blood’, released by Stabbies etc., 2016
Oona Verse
NZ’s first lady of Rock n Roll Yodelling. A veteran of countercultural culture – Full Fucking Moon, Cortina, Fantasing.
‘Still Life With Black Light’ (Full Fucking Moon), released by Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, 2009
‘Ethereal Raunch’ (Fantasing), released 2013
Ten Acre Bloc
A massed orchestra with improvising conductors.
’10 are bloc conduction ensemble’, released 2018
Reuben Derrick
Christchurch-based musician, Reuben Derrick, has a multifaceted, almost contradictory approach to his craft. On one hand there is adept abilities as an improvising player on reeded instruments, especially tenor saxophone, and on the other is his academic, compositional research into “recorded space as soundscape composition” – improvised woodwind music meets soundscape composition: environments as musical systems
‘Poltroon encounters Stinging Nettles 25 05 18’ (with the Stinging Nettles), uploaded 2018
‘Pond Life’, released 2017
Motoko Kikkawa
Kraus
Composer, producer and multi-instrumental performer from Auckland, New Zealand. His singular and eclectic recorded work encompasses a range of influences, from Golden Age electronics and psychedelic rock to Eastern folk and pre-modern Western musics. Since 2002 he has released 15 albums, and presented his powerful and endlessly evolving live performances throughout New Zealand, Australia and Europe. His latest album “Grip the Moon” is available from Soft Abuse Records.
‘Grip the Moon’, released by Soft Abuse, 2017
Ragged Veins
Aching, visceral noise at the intersection of abstracted emotion and personal projection, Auckland’s Ragged Veins are one of the city’s preeminent noise-rock outfits.
‘Live at Whammy 2/9/16’, released 2016
P.Wits
The solo project of Benedict Quilter of Independent Woman Records. Quilter is a central node of Auckland’s noise community, and an increasingly international champion of Noisy-Land’s abrasive weirdness.
‘P.WITS: “S/T”‘, released by Chemical Imbalance, 2017
I.R.D.
I.R.D. is Christchurch’s Rory Dalley whose performances utilise junk noise and found sounds, music made with broken cassette recorders, unplugged mixers and collapsed (or collapsing) drum kits, using limited effects and abandoning many well-trodden psychedelic paths.
‘gas dreams of solid exchange’, released 2018
Droszkhi
Droszkhi is the solo music project of New Zealand artist and musician Torben Tilly. Following in the spirit of his previous electronic duo Minit (together with Jasmine Guffond) and more recent sonic explorations with the mercurial group Full Fucking Moon (Bek Coogan, Andy Wright, Steve Heather), Droszkhi pulls into its sphere layer upon spectral layer of electronics, custom synths, percussion & other mixed-media to produce a psychedelic sound world of mind-expanding elliptical loops, discombobulated techno-rhythms, electric pulses, and cosmic drones.
‘Violet November’, released 2013
‘Live at The Commercial 23.03.2013’, released 2013
Lost Leader
Lost leader are Gem Tones (Giant Cemetery Bear, Bad Bandmate) and Peter Porteous (Eye, Lapdog, Empirical, Pointsman). Dunedin psychic improv duo gently dismantling and reassembling the universe.
Essential 5th Elements Brass Band
A 20 piece brass ensemble of beginner brass players.
Campbell James Kneale
Campbell Kneale is an internationally renowned sound artist, a prolific recording artist and performer and relentless collaborator. He currently releases albums as Our Love Will Destroy The World, previous projects include Black Boned Angel, Birchville Cat Motel, Ming and Brilliant Swords. He has collaborated with Lee Ranaldo, Neil Campbell, Tomutonttu, Anla Courtis and Bruce Russell to name a few.
‘290416’ uploaded 2017
‘Blacksun Argonaut’, released by Celebrate Psi Phenomenon 2018
Empirical
Marcel Bear and the instruments he creates are collectively known as Empirical. Best known of these are the Shimsaws: 6 instruments of stretched steel bands and piano wire with amplifying pickups which played by bowing, rocking, tapping and generally trying to keep them under control. After an extended incubation, a seventh wooden shimsaw energed. A distillation of the second and third shimsaws, it is human scale with a band of shim and twin piano wires.
‘La Gloria’, released by Imperial Records, 1996
Richard Francis
Richard Francis uses field recordings, modular synthesizer and computer to compose and improvise sound works. He has released solo and collaborative albums on a number of labels including Korm Plastics (NL), Monochrome Vision (RU), Aufabwegen (DE), Last Visible Dog (USA) and his own record label CMR (NZ). Recent published collaborative CDs have been with Bruce Russell (NZ), Mattin (ES), Jason Kahn (USA) and Francisco Lopez (ES).
‘Combinations’, released by Entr’acte, 2015
‘Combinations 2’, released by Glistening Examples, 2015
‘Acid Songs’, released by Dungeon Taxis, 2011
Pumice
Everything Pumice owns is broken. Uninitiated audience members might think he is fucking up ’till half-way through, when it becomes clear they are witnessing a perfect solo ballet of mini-cassettes, modified guitar, foot-pedal drum-kit & short-circuiting spring reverb croon. Deep into a genius career, Pumice still surprises with his subtle mastery of broke-down sounds, slowed-down Magic Band rhythms, crumbling chord organ hymns & tragic ballads that reach deep into the very soul of Flying Nun/Xpressway/Root Don Lonie For Cash anti-pop pop music. For this performance Stefan will be joined by Jade Farley on violin
‘Platelets’ (with Jade Farley), released 2018
Chronic Fatigue Sindrome
Chronic Fatigue Sindrome, the occult-duo of Andrew McLeod and Liz Maw, play the pain and fatigue of the musical doom disease while the disease plays us.
‘Professionalism is for Amateurs’, released by Clean Teeth, 2014
‘Both of Us Could Die’, released 2016
Susanna Ferrar
Sussanna Ferrar is an NZ expat based in London where she performs regularly as part of the long-running London Improvisors Orchestra.
‘Susanna Ferrar, John Russell and Ken Ikeda’ uploaded 2017
Liam Bowen
An exploration of the musical potential and historical legacy of gourds
SL & Nilfisk
Sam Longmore is an artist, electronic-musician and writer based in Auckland, New Zealand. His work combines pre-recorded material with live electronics and is informed by his interest in auditory spatial awareness and geography. Longmore shifted from Dunedin to Auckland in 2013 and has since quietly developed a unique approach to electronic music. James Sullivan is a regular fixture in Auckland’s music milieu, but is rarely seen performing with electronic sounds. His duo with SL (Sam Longmore) in a Auckland lava cave will serve as inspiration for their set at Nowhere! 2018.
‘Live in a Lava Cave’, released by mfmp, 2018
Tom Rodwell
As ‘Storehouse’, Rodwell produces works at the intersection of surrealism, boogie and wit within which improvisation exists alongside discipline, dream-logic alongside narrative. At the Nowhere! Festival, Tom will perform alongside Bruce Russell and Peter Porteous in the cavernous Silo Park complex.
Jeff Henderson
A heavyweight of NZ avant-garde and Director of The Audio Foundation, Jeff has been blowing, blasting, bashing, slapping and thumping for years.
‘Gold’ (with The Slowdown), released by iiii Records, 2018
‘A’, released by Postmoderncore 2004
The Family
Guitar/electronic whizz Kraus with his Sth Island whanau Motoko Kikkawa, Gabriel Griffin and Ro Ro G.
Pom Pom
Swirly sonic guitar punctuated with driving bass and trance rock drums Pom Pom sidesteps the formulaic and serves up an instrumental journey from the sublime to the Salient. Noise-rock from dairy-country: Manawatu
‘Solar Shed Sessions’, released 2012
Hermione Johnson
Hermione Johnson is an intense improviser on prepared piano, an accomplished organist and conjures up unearthly sound worlds on keyboards and synths. She has been described as a “sublimely inventive pianist, keyboard player and composer.”
‘Scrum’ (with Stefan Neville), released by Feeding Tube Records 2016
bOnEhEaD
bOnEhEaD (Andrew McMillan) is an Auckland-based improviser, composer, and sound artist.
‘Live EP at Bodega’, released 2014
John Bell
John Bell is an extraordinary vibraphonist capable for that groove seamlessly to an irregular pulse. His is an approach define by musical courage and integrity. While the pure, ringing vibrato of the vibes is what we most often associate with the instrument, it is capable of more besides. Bell recapitulates the history of the vibraphone while showing us a possible future path. “Taking off from a rare precinct (the trio music of Bobby Hutcherson and Walt Dickerson) John Bell’s vibes find absorbing new trails on that most unexplored of jazz instruments” [The Wire]
‘Vibe Solo’ uploaded 2012
Rachel Shearer
Deep listening environments by renowned Sonic Artist. Rachel Shearer investigates the materiality of sound through installation, experimental music, live performance and sound design/composition for moving image. She has received public commissions for sound art and has actively participated in a culture of composing and performing experimental music, releasing recordings on Xpressway (in group Angelhead), Drag City, Flying Nun (in group Queen Meanie Puss), Corpus Hermeticum, Ecstatic Peace, Family Vineyard (as Lovely Midget & Rachel Shearer) along the way.
– http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/interview/648/Rachel-Shearer.utr (Read a 2013 interview with Rachel Shearer here)
– https://family-vineyard.com/artists/rachel-shearer-lovely-midget (Rachel’s profile on the Family Vineyard website)
– http://deepmeaningful.bandcamp.com/track/childish-vapours (A track of Rachel’s on the second Deep and Meaningful compilation, 2014)
Kimmy
The solo (sometimes duo) techno-deconstruction project of Auckland-based artist/musician, Catherine Ellis.
‘Elevator Music @ MOCA Bangkok’, released 2017
Sophie & Evelyn
An unknown electronic quantity.
Stephen Bain
Now based in Brussels, Stephen Bain is one of NZ’s leading makers of experimental / idiosyncratic theatre.
‘Presentation with a participatory performance’, 2018
Bad Bandmate
Gem Tones and Motoko Kikkawa expand time, space and consciousness.
’28 May 2018 9:44:27 PM’, released 2018
‘breathe in the circles of sound’, released 2018
‘SAXAMAPHONE’, released 2018
SONSON
Hermione Johnson and Jeff Henderson conjure a spasmodic mass of prepared piano and reeds.
‘Luxury Item’, released by iiii Records, 2015
Peter Porteous
Peter Porteous plays improvised guitar in long-running Dunedin psych/noise/rock band Eye, and new band Lost Leader. He has previously played in Empirical, Lapdog and Pointsman. He is also a co-organiser (with Peter Stapleton) of the legendary Dunedin-based Lines of Flight experimental music festival. For Nowhere!, Peter will perform on guitar alongside Bruce Russell and Tom Rodwell
Sandra Bell
Leading figure of peripheral oddities.
‘Red Leaves’ (with John Davis), released 1995
Blue Cheese
Electro-banshee-pop~!
‘Gouda Times’, released 2016
‘Melting’, released 2016