August 2014
Back to the Green Door Store in August, and a hat-trick of fine visuals to accompany the usual high quality music this month.
Andrew Greaves
Andrew Greaves began with a premiere of his piece for organ, ‘Octabeast’. A rare foray into composition for SoG, this was a massively physical performance, with his swift fingers producing relentless arpeggios, the effort becoming increasingly visible as the piece developed. The overlaying echo, and rhythmic pulse which began to introduce itself, produced a kosmische feel. The accompanying visuals were provided by street photographer Simon Peacock, presented in Andrew’s patent flowing slideshow format, and grounded the experience in a way that more spacey images would have failed to do. Watch out for a photographic exhibition from Simon, with the possibility of further collaborations in store, and you can also find a CD of ‘Octabeast’ at our Bandcamp page at http://spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/octabeast.
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Gagarin
Set to his trademark film of Soviet space footage, Gagarin’s set eased in with ambient washes and picked out keyboard notes, but soon his mode of more delicate physical performance was introduced. Moving as lightly as Fred Astaire, his hands and feet danced across his pads and keys, always a pleasure to witness. Glitch funk recognisable from his Biophilia CD, nicely pulled apart and played around with live, was interspersed with less rhythmic interludes creating a subtle and nuanced set. The visuals developed into a more abstract, washed out style as things continued, closing with a more robust beat-driven sequence.
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Pawnsphinx
The professionalism of Pawnsphinx’ musical presentation apparently caused some confusion, with some mistaking his set of original pieces for a DJ set. Muscular beats emerged from his laptop, bouncing well-developed drum and synth pads around the venue. He also shared with a bemused audience the bizarre video art of Matthew Barney, from his Cremaster cycle (www.cremaster.net/). This involved two identical women stealing grapes through a tablecloth from a load of air stewardesses in two blimps, with the stolen fruit defining the choreography of a Busby Berkeley-style dance troupe on an American football pitch below – no, I wouldn’t believe me either. Possibly a bit too distracting to make the most of the sounds developing, but Ben was given leave to continue past our normal curfew time to provide something of an SoG rave-up to finish the evening.
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