con il patrocinio e il contributo del Comune di Ravenna e della Regione Emilia Romagna
con il patrocinio della Provincia di Ravenna | con il contributo di EniPower e C.M.C.
media partners: SentireAscoltare, Zero Edizioni, CTS, Bastonate
Clicca qui per la versione italiana.
The fifth edition of Transmissions – contemporary music festival organized by Bronson Produzioni in Ravenna (Italy) in various locations, March 15/18, 2012 –, curated by Stephen O’Malley (KTL, Sunn O))), Aethenor), has its final roster, which comprises Stephen O’Malley solo, Keiji Haino solo, Pan American, Tim Hecker, Grouper Violet Replacement, In Zaire, Alexander Tucker, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker, Peter Brötzmann trio (with John Edwards and Steve Noble).
«Over the years touring you end up coming back to places. You end up returning. These places become something like an island in the sea of inconsistency and unknown which constitutes our highly irregular and nomadic existences. One of these places has been, for me, Ravenna. Especially the hospitality of Chris, Federica and Dario, and their venues Bronson, Hana-bi and Teatro Rasi. It’s my pleasure to have been invited to help co-curate their festival TRANSMISSIONS V and the honor of being able to invite some of my favorite artists to perform. Prepare for occult sound experience». - Stephen O’Malley
BUY ONLINE THE FESTIVAL TICKET (30€)
thursday, march 15 2012 | Teatro Rasi, Ravenna – h. 21
Keiji Haino + Stephen O’Malley
Keiji Haino is without doubt one of the most fascinating and influential artists in the contemporary experimental panorama. A mysterious figure at the center of Japanese psychedelic rock and noise, beginning in 1971 with the legendary noise-rock group Lost Aaraff and adding to his notoriety with the trio Fushitsusha. His solo career, launched with the album Watashi Dake, signaled a fundamental development: with voice and guitar he gave life to improvisations with devastating emotional depth. For over thirty years Haino has explored contemporary music, offering performances where the rediscovery of sound invests every type of instrument, be it guitar, voice, drums or electronics. He also performs on percussion, synthesizers, hurdy-gurdy and instruments from a variety of ethnic origins. With Haino the tradition of Japanese noise is mixed with blues and free jazz, creating a new, inimitable genre. Without disdaining Japanese pop hits, the ’60′s beat and children’s songs, reinterpreted “as they should be heard”. He has collaborated with, among countless others, Tatsuya Yoshida/Ruins, Masami Akita/Merzbow, Z’EV, Tony Conrad, John Duncan, John Zorn, Thurston Moore, Peter Brötzmann, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Faust, among visual artists with Christian Marclay and recently Cameron Jamie. Haino released over 100 LP’s and CD’s.
Stephen O’Malley is a founding member of several groups including Sunn O))) (1998–present), Burning Witch (1995–1998), KTL (2005–present), Khanate (2000–2006). Within these groups and alone, he has collaborated with a variety of artists including Greg Anderson, Merzbow, Eyvind Kang, Alan Moore, Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram, F.M. Einheit, Randall Dunn, James Plotkin, Julian Cope, Joe Preston, Attila Csihar, Stuart Dempster, Peter Rehberg aka PITA, Lee Dorrian, Nurse With Wound, the Japanese psychedelic rock band Boris & Michio Kurihara, Jim O’Rourke, Daniel O’Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg (in the free improvisation act Æthenor together with Steve Noble), Aaron Turner, Oren Ambarchi, Alexander Tucker, and percussionist Z’EV. O’Malley also produced work together with the french choreographer and theatre director Gisèle Vienne (the pieces “Kindertotenlieder” (2007), “Jerk” (2008), “Eternelle Idole” (2009), “This Is How You Will Disappear” (2010)), “Last Spring: A Prequel” (2011), American sculptor Banks Violette (various projects between 2005–2009), the italian performance artist Nico Vascellari (2007–2011), swiss art collective KLAT (2009), and the belgian film maker Alexis Destoop (“Kairos” (2010), with Oren Ambarchi). O’Malley has directed and produced album cover art and design since the early 1990s for groups including Earth, Burzum, Emperor, Melvins and Boris. He has also worked as a rock/metal music journalist & published a black metal fanzine called Descent in the nineties. He was involved with creation of both the Southern Lord label and the experimental/neofolk/black metal label The Ajna Offensive. In 2011 he began curating and art directing the Ideologic Organ record label, in association with the viennese Editions Mego.
thursday, march 15th 2012 | Ardis Hall, Ravenna – h. 24
Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock
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6€ | FB
friday, march 16 2012 | Almagià, Ravenna – h. 21
Pan American + Tim Hecker
Pan American is the solo moniker of Labradford guitarist Mark Nelson and saw the man behind one of post-rock’s most influential bands take a turn into the world of experimental electronics. Following on from the magnificent “Quiet City” album for Kranky, Nelson has returned in 2011 with a new album under the Pan American moniker – and it’s another triumph of sublime understatement. “For Waiting, For Chasing” is underpinned by delicately caressed and manipulated Flugelhorns, Tibetan Singing Bowls and Chinese Cymbals, processed, weaved and loved into a throbbing mass of neon loveliness. Nelson never confines his music to simple ambience, moulding in noisier elements which work as a counterpoint to the warm tones of the Tibetan Singing Bowls and synthesized whisps – a conceit which manages to keep his work ever-contemporary when so many of his past peers have been stuck in an endless loop of repetition. A work of calming restraint, it’s really impossible to fault this musician and his ability, with this album, to craft another perfectly-formed microcosm of bliss.
Tim Hecker is a Canadian-based musician and sound artist, born in Vancouver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Kranky, Alien8, Mille Plateaux, Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His works have been described as “structured ambient”, “tectonic color plates” and “cathedral electronic music”. More to the point, he has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft which is both physical and emotive. The New York Times has described his work as “foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole”. His “Harmony in Ultraviolet” received critical acclaim, including being recognized by Pitchfork as a top recording of 2006. “Radio Amor” was also recognized as a key recording of 2003 by Wire magazine. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, as well as various writings. Hecker’s new album, “Ravedeath, 1972” (2011), has been critically acclaimed all over the world.
saturday, march 17 2012 | Almagià, Ravenna – h. 18
matinee con Grouper Violet Replacement
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Grouper is the solo project for electro-acoustic ambient/noise musician Liz Harris, of Portland, Oregon. Harris’ music is a mixture of softly-strummed guitar, Wurlitzer keys, and delicate vocals. Reverb and tape delay effects are used widely throughout Harris’ recordings. Grouper’s rare and acclaimed performances are always in tune with the architecture and acoustics of a space. “Violet Replacement”, the new performing project of musician Liz Harris is based on a recent commission for New York’s Issue Project Room.
6€ | FB
saturday, march 17 2012 | Bronson, Ravenna – h. 21
Caspar Brotzmann Massaker + Alexander Tucker + In Zaire
Formed in Berlin, Germany in 1987, the Caspar Brötzmann Massaker was a vehicle for its nominal leader, an acclaimed guitar virtuoso (as well as the son of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann) whose intense work summoned the spirit and power of traditions ranging from heavy metal to free jazz. A trio also comprised of bassist Eduardo Delgado Lopez and drummer Danny Arnold Lommen, the Massaker debuted in 1987 with “The Tribe”, a showcase for Brötzmann’s dive-bombing guitar work and ominous vocals. With 1992′s “Der Abend der Schwarzen Folklore”, the trio broadened its structural and rhythmic horizons over the course of four epic tracks ranging in sound from throbbing metal to blues; the following year’s “Koksofen” continued the group’s advancement, but only 1995′s “Home” earned any significant mainstream attention. The live effort “Zulutime” was released in 1996. “Mute Massaker” followed four years later.
British avant pop artist Alexander Tucker releases his much anticipated new album, Third Mouth, on Thrill Jockey in 2012. This album builds on the strengths revealed by his landmark debut for the label, Dorwytch, released in April 2011, culminating in his finest work to date. Using songs written over a 12 month period he achieves his own inimitable blend of psych rock and ambient pop using a variety of studio crafted effects, rudimentary beats, guitar and bass, as well as synth and cello drones. He pushes himself even further however as he breaks new ground on the electronics only track “Rh” and heads further out into the deeper reaches of space with the sci-fi influenced cosmic meditation “Andromeon” as well as experimenting with more progressive song structures like those in “The Glass Axe”. Tucker’s sound has developed over the years since his first self-titled solo album, which featured acoustic finger-picking, experimental electronics and was released on Jackie O Motherfucker’s U-Sound Archives label. He went on to combine compositional song structures, drones, layered vocals and improvisations on his 2005 album Old Fog released on ATP Recordings. This collection of spectral moods, eerie landscapes and fragile emotions was followed by Furrowed Brow (2006) and Portal (2008), where the songs and melodies became more pronounced, whilst infecting the tracks with underlying drone currents, traditional finger-picking, doom riffs and David Crosby inspired harmonies. There was a shift in direction away from improvisation and toward scored pop music for Dorwytch (2011) with its nods to Brian Eno’s Another Green World, while still retaining the organic drones of Cluster and Lichens.
In Zaire is a psychedelic tribal quartet involving the memers of the italian duo G.I. Joe, Claudio Rocchetti and Stefano Pilia. Their performance is able to bring the audience into a psychedelic trip. But their music is not only psychedelic. They mix dub-funk drum rythms, tribal and african percussions, electrical-indian bassguitar melodies, arabic and psychedelic voices, and minimal-introspective electronic sounds. A self-titled EP was released at the and of 2011.
sunday, march 18 2012 | CISIM, Lido Adriano (RA) – h. 21
Peter Brotzmann Trio: Peter Brotzmann, Steve Noble, John Edwards
limited to 140 seats
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John Edwards and Steve Noble have a reputation as one of the most hard-hitting rhythm sections on the European scene – whether in Noble’s power trio N.E.W, or with the legendary saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. Just look at a partial section of the list of people that Peter Brötzmann has played with over the course of his career to date: Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Derek Bailey, Sonny Sharrock, Andrew Cyrille, Keiji Haino, Rashied Ali, John Zorn, Evan Parker… the very best of the very best. To that list can now be added the London-based rhythm engine of John Edwards and Steve Noble.
12€ | FB
WHERE TO SLEEP
VIA ROMEA SUD, 1 – RAVENNA
