MILES OF SMILES & CAFE OTO PRESENT: ZAIMPH (MARCIA BASSETT)

Event information

ZAIMPH

Zaimph is the solo project of ambient noise artist Marcia Bassett. Although legendary for white-hot guitar and vocal brutality, Zaimph's recent recordings and performances infuse cracked-raga song structures with dense electronic and synthesiser drones to create soundscapes where a lurking apocalypse is eclipsed by shimmering, meditative beauty.

As a co-founder of Philadelphia's shambolic psychonauts un and tectonic drone pioneers Double Leopards, Bassett is deeply entwined with the American noise underground, and has mapped regions still only dimly understood by subsequent sonic travelers. From 2003-2008, Bassett joined Matthew Bower in Hototogisu, where her mastery of cacophonous eardrum shred achieved monolithic proportions. During the same period, she explored American underground psychedelic folk-improv music with Steve Gunn and Pete Nolan in GHQ, and with Tom Carter in Zaika.

Zaïmph CDs and LPs have appeared on independent labels such as Gift Tapes, Hospital Productions, W.M.O.r, Utech Records, Gypsy Sphinx, Volcanic Tongue and No Fun records. Bassett has released numerous Zaimph recordings on her own Heavy Blossom imprint. In 2012, Bassett retired Heavy Blossom and started Yew, a label showcasing Zaimph and other aesthetically allied projects.

"it would be tough to write a history of the last two decades in underground music without including Marcia Bassett ... and any angle would have to include Zaïmph, Bassett's solo project. Through small-run releases on numerous labels including her own, Heavy Blossom), Zaïmph has carved out a unique take on decaying feedback, assaultive fuzz, echoey ambience, and abstract expression." - Pitchfork, The Out Door, 2010

In addition to her work with Zaimph, Bassett is a frequent collaborator with a wide spectrum of musicians including Helen Espvall (Espers), Samara Lubelski, Margarida Garcia, Jenny Graf (Metalux), Taylor Richardson (Infinity Window), and Barry Weisblat.

STEFAN JAWORZYN

Writer, musician and misanthrope Jaworzyn was a notorious and energetic presence in the UK underground of the 1980s and '90s. Following a brief stint in Whitehouse, in '86 he formed Skullflower with Matthew Bower and remained the band’s guitarist for four years, playing on Birthdeath (1988), Form Destroyer (1989) and Xaman (1990), among others. In 1990 he established the Shock label, which, like the annual Shock Around The Clock film festival, grew out of Shock Xpress – the seminal, vigorously outspoken horror/exploitation zine edited by Jaworzyn for most of its lifespan. Shock Records was a resounding boot to the arse of the narrow-minded, welcoming artists as disparate as Lol Coxhill, Coil, Drunks With Guns, The Dead C and Ramleh into its fold.

Jaworzyn rejoined Whitehouse in 1990-91, and around this time was also invited to participate in a roundtable discussion about serial killers on Channel 4’s After Dark programme – it ended with him vehemently debating the meaning of the word “integrity” with fellow guest Michael Winner. Despite having supposedly renounced the guitar, in '91 Jaworzyn returned to the instrument with some venom, forming Ascension (later Descension) with drummer Tony Irving; the band’s turbulent brand of free music – documented on several substantial CD and LP releases – famously incited an audience riot when they supported Sonic Youth at Kentish Town Forum in ’96. In the second half of the decade Jaworzyn retired the Shock label and largely withdrew from music, choosing to focus on drinking and cursing; although his The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Companion was published by Titan Books in 2003, and on occasion he emerged to play live (including the Whitehouse 'farewell' show in a duo with drummer Chris Corsano).

Now, after seventeen years off the grid, Jaworzyn has reappeared. 2013 saw him reactivate Shock to issue two 12” EPs of emphatic new solo material, as well as Eaten Away By Shadows (a compilation of solo bedroom recordings from ’82-’83) and the aforementioned Skullflower KINO CD series. Pre-dating the Eaten Away tracks, the driving, faintly sociopathic and supremely zoned pieces on Drained Of Connotation (BLACKEST027) were created in early/mid-'82 at Jaworzyn’s then home in Cardiff using a Korg MS10 or 20 (on loan from musical collaborator Robert Lawrence) and his beloved Dr Rhythm drum machine. SJ: “While a maniacal edge predominates, a couple of pieces seem surprisingly ‘mellow’, a concept infrequently associated with my subsequent endeavours and disposition.”


HEATHER LEIGH

The daughter of a coal miner, Heather Leigh was born in West Virginia and raised in Texas and has been recording and releasing music since the 1990s. These days she's firmly rooted in Glasgow, Scotland, where she’s co-run Volcanic Tongue Record Shop & Mailorder since 2004. Her music has been described as "high metal masses for amplified strings and vocals that blow all notions of form and fidelity to pieces." She’s released numerous recordings on labels such as Not Not Fun, Family Vineyard, Fag Tapes, Ultra Eczema, Chocolate Monk, Kendra Steiner Editions, Ikuisuus, Eclipse Records, Fonal and her own imprints, Wish Image and Volcanic Tongue. Her main instruments are pedal steel guitar and voice, as well as electric guitar, keyboards, bells, cuatro, psaltery, drums, bass and harmonica. She’s toured extensively as a solo artist throughout the US, Europe and New Zealand and has also played/performed/released music with Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces (a duo with Christina Carter), the Dream/Aktion Unit (a group with Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano and Matt Heyner), Taurpis Tula, Jailbreak (a duo with Chris Corsano) and Jandek who she’s played live and recorded with in the States and the UK as well as played bass with on the only tours he’s ever done in Northern Ireland and Australia. She’s also collaborated with Richard Youngs, Blood Stereo, MV & EE, Robbie Yeats of The Dead C, John Olson of Wolf Eyes, Smegma, Jutta Koether, Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Baer and many others. Heather Leigh is also a visual artist.

POULOUMI DESAI

Poulomi Desai is a self taught multi-media artist, best known for her large-scale sound and photography installations that interrogate the politics of identity, listening and perception. Inspired by her post-punk theatre background, her tools are image-based, textual, performative and acoustic, traversing boundaries of physical location and structures of presentation. Her current pre-occupation investigates sacrilegious sound and vision through the machinations of her prepared, modified sitar, electronics and slide projections, performing on the noise and free improv scenes. Commissions and exhibitions include, The Serpentine Gallery, The Photographers Gallery, The Science Museum, INIVA, The Queens Museum (USA), The Oxford Gallery (India), Futuresonic UK and Souzouzukan 9001 Japan. She runs the Usurp Art Gallery and studios, an experimental tactical media artist-led space where she has curated over 100 exhibitions and events.

"Her irreverent aim is to shatter the contours of these fixed notions of sexual, national, cultural, personal, political and diasporic identities" - Professor Stuart Hall “Different” Pub. Phaidon.

LORAH PIERRE

Pierre’s practice utilises experimentation within hardware electronics. recycled materials and a DIY approach have been centred on developing systems that expose technologies chemical and physical properties. through the feedback, manipulation and hacking of electromagnetism, work results in ‘raw’ sonification and optical realisations of these processes. working methods are inspired by adopting scientific techniques and process of forgotten technology and scientific experiments. From interactive installations, performance and laboratory settings, Lorah has collaborated with scientists, performers and musician, focusing on knowledge transfer as a central part of her artist practice.

As a performer, Lorah explores feedback mechanisms in opto-electronics with electronic artists, Ewa Justka, and has also been commissioned to write traditional compositional accompaniments for performance artist, Nicola Canavan.