Miles of Smiles & Cafe OTO presents: BILL ORCUTT

Event information

Miles of Smiles and Cafe OTO present an evening of excited strings with ex Harry Pussy Guitarist Bill Orcutt back at OTO for a solo performance ahead of his new LP release on Editions Mego, legendary ex-pat guitarist/songwriter/improviser Mike Cooper over from Rome and experimental fiddle duo Laura Cannell & André Bosman.


BILL ORCUTT

Bill Orcutt first became widely known as guitarist for Miami noise-rock trio Harry Pussy. Their sonically unruly performances quickly earned them a reputation as a wildly unhinged band whose violent and sexually charged shows were lauded by the likes of Thurston Moore and Lou Barlow.



Still highly influential despite having dissolved in 1997 (drummer Adris Hoyo has been cited as a major influence by Chris Corsano), Harry Pussy went their separate ways and Orcutt seemed to disappear for a while. Then in 2009, an album appeared entitled 'A New Way To Pay Old Debts', a glorious collection of apparently stream-of-consciousness guitar playing with sporadic and involuntary vocalisations that sounds like they were recorded to tape in his Californian living room, with the window slightly open and the phone even ringing at one point.

This was followed up with more regular live appearances including two great days at OTO in 2010 (solo and duo with Paul Hession) and an LP for Editions Mego 'How The Thing Sings' and a bunch of private press vinyl. Bill has also recently returned to electric playing - touring the states in a fiercely in-the-red duo with Chris Corsano documented on the Palilalia LP 'The Raw and The Cooked'.



palilalia.com

MIKE COOPER

For the past 40 years Mike Cooper has been an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres. Initially a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter his work has diversified to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations. He is also a music journalist, writing features for magazines, particularly on Pacific music and musicians, a visual artist, film and video maker, collector of Hawaiian shirts and appears on more than 60 records to date.

In the late 1970's he began to develop a parallel career and establish himself on the avant-garde and free-improvised music scene, working initially with members of the London Musicians Collective, such as Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe, David Toop, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Paul Burwell, dancer Jo-Anna Pyne. and vocalist Viv Corringham. With saxophonist Lol Coxhill and drummer Roger Turner, they formed The Recedents, a free improvising trio now in its third decade.



In 1999 he started HIPSHOT to produce limited edition cdRs from his studio The Steelworks in Rome where he currently lives. The first release Kiribati was chosen as one of the best 'Outer Limits' cds of the year by the prestigious UK magazine The WIRE and Rayon Hula won an honorary mention at the 2005 Prix Ars Electronica for Digital Music.

"Cooper here explores the drone in a loose tribute to fellow Rome resident, the late Giacinto Scelsi. Armed with his trusty National Resophonic and a small electric fan, plus some very discreet signal processing here and there, Cooper's work is, as usual, utterly spellbinding. The metallic resonance of his instrument heightens the harmonic overtones, producing gleaming textures that recall massed hurdy-gurdies one moment and indian tamburas the next. Cooper was forging connections between folk and experimental musics long before America got New or Wierd delving particularly deep into Hawaiian slide guitar styles. Giacinto is one of his more aesthetically demanding documents, not offering the consolation of the beautiful songs that broke up the rigorous improv of his 2004 album Reluctant Swimmer/Virtual Surfer, but still sounding like the work of one man, one guitar and endless supplies of imagination and heart." (Keith Moline - The Wire on GIACINTO - Hipshot 017)



LAURA CANNELL & ANDRÉ BOSMAN

Laura Cannell & André Bosman perform improvised experimental fiddle music with a focus on exploring the interweaving sounds and textures of their instruments. Through the use of extended techniques, distortion, feedback and space, they create a unified and untamed music of emotive otherness.

Laura explores the spaces between ancient, improvised and contemporary performance and has been described by The Times as a “Virtuoso Magpie Musician”. She is the founder member of experimental early/folk duo Horses Brawl with whom she has released four albums, toured extensively throughout the UK and beyond and appeared numerous times on BBC Radio 3. In 2011 Laura had an Aldeburgh Residency with harpist Rhodri Davies. She is also working on a new collaboration with Charles Hayward (This Heat) and Ralph Cumbers (Bass Clef).

André is interested in live performance and improvisation. With a love of distorted textures, early minimalism, American primitivism, and medieval dirge Andre attempts to explore the aesthetics of liminality and emergence within his music. André has a Masters in Electroacoustic music and has performed with Phil Niblock, Tony Conrad and Rhodri Davies. He has played all over the UK at places including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Faster than Sound.

www.lcab.co.uk