ONUKA: Electronic Experimentalism Meets Orchestral Magnetism

Just recently introduced to this Ukrainian girl trio, I instantly fell for their magnetic electronic soundscapes. Mesmerising as they are danceable, they play over the speakers while you lay back to sip a cocktail, or sway along a hypnotized crowd at your local dance club.

The following clip was taken at ONUKA's sold out gig in Kiev in 2015 . The girls play the keyboards, flute and an electronic drum next to the lyrical strings and horns of the Brevis Orchestra, conducted by Gennady Fiskov, while organic geometric patterns in black and white dance along in the backdrop.

Romantic, futuristic, melodic, avant garde all in one. With a little luck we'll see them soon enough somewhere around here in, admittedly, music-crazy London.

Yano: A Twisted Touch of Filipino Alternative

There's a mega-rich collection of lovelorn, sickly sweet ballads in the Original Pinoy Music repertoire, but take a listen to this: Yano's mix of sick punk rock and smart, truly original Pinoy alternative sound came in the '90s to mess things up - in the best of ways. Never mind the Tagalog, obviously not a dialect recognised by everyone on the planet, "Banal Na Aso, Santong Kabayo" is one of the best examples coming out of their 1994 self-titled debut. If anything, music speaks for itself.

Every Noise At Once: Interactive Music Map

"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing" is one of the foremost Greek philosopher Socrates's time-traveling quotes. It is quite accurately embodied in this interactive map featured, for your sonic bafflement, at Every Noise At Once. 

I have been writing about music for a dozen years now, exploring from Middle Eastern folk to OPM and plain old street punk, on the way, but I still have a hard time putting schranz, swirl psych and iskelma into words. This map reminds me of how little I still know, but by clicking on each genre and subgenre I can now be lead to a more detailed sketch packed with each sound's representative names. The visual architecture also makes for an excellent memorisation technique - for more visual types, at least.

 Knock yourselves out @ http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html.

Oscilanz & Distractfold @ Cafe Oto: Oscillate Distractedly

The Kammer Klang series introductory event for 2016 typically challenged the mind, as much as the senses. In a nonconformist gathering of vocal, instrumental and electroacoustic works, 21st-century angst met 12th-century spirituality at Dalston's Cafe Oto.

The digital dynamics of Lee Fraser

Jennifer Walshe and Juliet Fraser, two inspiringly uninhibited vocal performers, first grabbed their seats on stage, ready to confront the mic. Between delirious ramblings and abrupt silences they presented Louis d'Heudières "Laughter Studies", piecing together otherwise ordinary scenes from our everyday lives - from a cheerful TV audience to birds chirping. And, between the laughter, somehow, the two ladies ended up crying. It was the power of seemingly unnoticed background noise, a kind of "C2 to... Victoria" line playing on a loop on London buses, a minute acoustic detail probably as pleasant as a dripping tap in the middle of the night. Yet, nobody seems able to react to this forced modern plexus of cacophony that Laughter Studies shoots to the forefront of our consciousness. Despite the poor birds chirping in between, and its obvious sense of humour, it has the power to bring a whole lot of us 21st-century dwellers to tears.

Distractfold perform Michelle Lou

Distractfold and their assortment of contemporary composers took over next. Rebecca Saunders "Vermillion", for clarinet, electric guitar and cello, Lee Fraser's fixed piece"Stheno", for loudspeakers and Michelle Lou's "Untitled three part construction", for amplified cello and two object-performers further reflected on the motifs of urban unease, creeping horror and sonic distress, in this writer's eyes at least, jumping from acousmatic aggression to mechanical malfunction and syncopated noise. Obedient and rebellious at once, the performers executed calculated orders that halfway, somehow went caustically wrong. It was the unruly echo of 21st advancement - technology, mechanical engineering, our modern consumer lifestyle all drawn for sophisticated traveling into the future and yet, they collectively miss their true target. Construction meets deconstruction in a cultural pell-mell.

Oscilanz in early/contemporary action

Finally Oscilanz were there to bring touches of alluringly re-interpreted early music based on the obscure compositions of Hildegard Von Bingen. A 12th century nun and polymath who, among other, invented her own language, she gave the band their name (Oscilanz means October in Lingua Ignota) and, with it, a mystical medieval field to explore. A trio of adventurous experimentalists in their own right, Charles Hayward (This Heat, About Group), Ralph Cumbers (Bass Clef) and Laura Cannell (Horses Brawl LCAB Fiddle Duo) marry seductive drums, trombone, fiddle, flute and electronics. The pastoral soundscapes Hildegard drew with her music now got a liberal modern revamp, where ritualistic percussion and contrasting electronics release, ironically, an almost unhindered sexuality.

Charles Hayward knows uncompromising percussion

BBC 3 was there to record the event, programmed for broadcasting come spring - a well-documented treat for the crowd that clapped enthusiastically. For new explorers and fans, Kammer Klang will be back at the cafe on March 8 with the French ensemble Soundinitiative and the Parisian electroacoustic composer-sound artist :such:.





Words & photography by Danai Molocha.

Kooba Tercu @ Smoking Sessions vol.9

A boisterous psychedelic jam - followed, with some cool moves, by a dancing skeleton:)