Now! Here! This! Ōtepoti has been postponed due to Covid-19. New dates will be announced soon.
The Audio Foundation is thrilled to present Now! Here! This! Ōtepoti.
Now! Here! This! Festival is making its way down the country, with the latest installment held in the depths of Ōtepoti from August 26 – 28. The 3 day festival is part of the re-invention of the popular Altmusic programme, which has seen regular tours by legendary artists of experimental music and sound art tour Aotearoa over the past decade. With the advent of Covid 19 and the impossibility of international visitors the Altmusic programme has been transformed to present 3 day festivals in Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington in addition to the regular festival in Auckland.
Curated by local dastardly duo Sewage (Ro Rushton-Green & Gabriel Griffin), Ōtepoti will be blessed across 3 nights and one day with experimental sound and adventurous music by a huge roster of visiting and local artists, hosted at the New Athenaeum Theatre and Lodge Maori.
Visiting Ōtepoti for the festival is legendary founding Trinity Roots drummer Ricki Gooch, sinister sound-sermonizers Vow Cave, eclectic multi-instrumentalist & composer Reuben Derrick, grindcore hotshot Bodyache, enchanting experimenter Samara Alofa, mysterious sound-sculptor Citacsy, and ambient maestro Jim-S.
The kaupapa of the festival is collaboration and the lineup features a full roster of unique first time meetings between local artists and visitors, including local superstars such as L.$.D Fundraiser, Crude and Ghost Bells, musical mischief-makers Blue Cheese, E-Kare and William Henry Meung, heavy hitters Mud Death and Kolya, and much more.
Tickets available from www.undertheradar.co.nz
FEATURED ARTISTS
RIKI GOOCH
Riki Gooch (Cave Circles, DJ Oboe) began his career as a founding member of seminal band Trinity Roots. He has since lent his drumming and production talents to legendary New Zealand artists claiming his position as one of New Zealand’s finest and in demand musicians. These artists include Jonathan Crayford, Bic Runga, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Ladi6, Recloose, Crowded House, Electric Wire Hustle, Leila Adu, Lord Echo, Fabulous Arabia, The Phoenix Foundation, The Adults, Vadim, and Adam Page. Riki is also the brains behind the massive Eru Dangerspiel Ensemble and a solo artist under the moniker Cave Circles. He is also one fourth of the Some Other Planets collective alongside Christoph El Truento, Julien Dyne and Parks.
VOW CAVE
Vow Cave is the evolving performance and recording entity founded by
Ava Louise Mahoney and Paul Blanchard in 2017. Melting soundscapes and shuddering loops, melodious folk hymns & hysterical chants.Chaotic cacophonies, falling towers and tales of ancient despair. Sinister sounds for the golden age
REUBEN DERRICK
Reuben Derrick is a saxophonist, clarinettist and composer. His ongoing projects in New Zealand include various and eclectic creative music groups, sound design, as well as multi-disciplinary collaboration. He is a member of the Cantabrian Society of Sonic Artists for which he hosts visiting artists and facilitates experimental music events.
Recently Reuben performed in Sydney and Melbourne with Baliphonics and the Australian Art Orchestra; Vienna, Ljubljana and Zagreb with Irene Kepl (2019); The Nowhere Festival (Auckland, 2018); Radio Asia Festival with Baliphonics (Warsaw, 2018) and at the Music Matters Festival (Colombo, 2016) with Sri Lankan folk musicians and other international artists. He was awarded a fellowship to the Music Omi residency (New York, 2015), where he collaborated with 13 other musicians from around the world.
Reuben’s Doctor of Musical Arts research Acoustic illuminations: recorded space as soundscape composition (University of Canterbury 2014) draws upon field recording and improvisation. This work featured soundscapes in New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka.
BODYACHE
Bodyache is a noise project fronted by Russian born and Pōneke based multi instrumentalist and visual artist Olga Lapin (She/her). Bodyache was conceived in Ōtautahi during 2018 and has since released grindcore infused harsh noise EPs. Bodyache takes a more stripped down and textural approach to live sound, switching the conventional live band dynamic into a more emotional and cathartic experience
SAMARA ALOFA
Samara Alofa is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Aotearoa, Tāmaki Makaurau. Samara’s enchanting soundscapes, stories of the past, future, and present, surreal visuals, and ritualistic rhythms/loops create new worlds. Their command over atmospheres transcend and reveal deep truths, that may leave you laid out on the floor or buzzing for more. Magnetic, enchanting, authentic and pure in purpose – Samara is one worth experiencing in the flesh.
CITACSY
Citacsy-D/Citacsy mutant twins project of Tash van Schaardenburg; on one shoulder sits a chimera of ambient journeys that spins synthesis between live sound sculpting of biographical field recordings and sonorous electronic noise ; On the other shoulder squats a gremlin sheltered under an umbrella of experimental techno, who relishes in the cathartic qualities of the club through somatic sonics, and mimicry of the percussive racket of urban life.
JIM-S
Jimmy Solórzano is an electronic musician and sound artist from Guadalajara, México. He holds a Bachelor of Audio Engineering from SAE Institute in Mexico City, and has been active as a recording engineer and music producer since 2015. Throughout 2020 Jimmy has worked as the in-house technician at the Audio Foundation, as well as developing bespoke electronic musical devices and workshops for the Musical Electronics Library. His principal creative focuses are performative and generative electronic music and his recent work has explored creative means of incorporating natural sounds into installation and performance contexts, as well as the development of different forms of psychoacoustic expression.
Thursday 26 August – 7:30PM
– Crude + L$D Fundraiser
– Riki Gooch
– Petal Play + Bodyache
– Ghost Bells
– Wailing Wind Ensemble
Visuals by Chris Schmelz
Friday 27 August– 7:30PM
– Dante + Kolya
– Vow Cave + Mud Death
– Samara Alofa
– Blue Cheese + Reuben Derrick + Motoko Kikkawa
– Drum Power Ensemble
Visuals by Beth Hilton
Saturday 28 August– 2-6PM
– L$D Fundraiser + GRVDGGR + Jim-S
– Citacsy-D + Beth Hilton
– GRVDGGR + Crude + Paul Blanchard
– Reuben Derrick
– Bodyache
Saturday 28 August– 7:30PM
– Citacsy
– Ava Mahoney + Samara Alofa + Kate Reid + Petal Play
– Murdabike + E-Kare
– William Henry Meung + Riki Gooch + Aaron Lovich + Scott Kendall
– Guardians
Visuals by Leben Young