Touted by Rolling Stone as “the year’s most exciting experimental composer,” Ian William Craig’s Basinski-esque tape symphonies, paired with his formal training as an opera singer, result in a combination that has been described as both sweeping and cathartic.
This German debut concert will also feature a performance by Dial Records’ Christian Naujoks, for a very special set in ACUD’s outdoor backyard setting. DJing throughout the night will be NYC-via-Sierra Leone (and now Berlin-based) Lamin Fofana, who runs the Sci-Fi & Fantasy label and hosts a weekly show on Berlin Community Radio.
Blending choral, ambient and noise influences together into his customised array of analogue tape decks, composer/vocalist IAN WILLIAM CRAIG moves you over shifting tectonic plates of operatic improvisations, fields of tape hiss, haunting pastoral melodies and billowing clouds of becoming. Centres, his latest album released on Fat Cat Records ‘130701’ imprint in the summer of 2016, is set to be his breakthrough record as the static rises to the surface.
Praise for Craig has been widespread: “Craig’s presence as a vocalist is stately and precise, and as a songwriter, he has a penchant for sweeping, cathartic melodies. But beneath the ruinous landscapes of tape noise that seem to get deeper and darker with every release…” (Pitchfork); “To be both wildly experimental and fantastically listenable is a skill that precious few people possess” (The Guardian).
After his manifold debut in 2009, followed by a second album “True Life / In Flames” with focus on the grand piano, Dial Records last year released CHRISTIAN NAUJOKS‘ third solo album WAVE, a dedication to one of the artist’s essential instruments: the electric guitar. Inspired by The Durutti Collumn, John Fahey, Vincent Gallo, Azalia Snail and David Grubbs, and many others, Christian Naujoks breaks the boundaries between songwriting and minimalism, folk music and contemporary art. This performance will be a special and unique set in ACUD’s backyard.
Brooklyn-via-Sierra Leone producer LAMIN FOFANA runs the label Sci-Fi & Fantasy, which has for the past four years put out brain-stretching electronic music by the likes of Lotic, techno group DUST, and more. He has held residencies at NYC’s Trans-Pecos and Bossa Nova Civic Club and is affiliated with pan-global music collective Dutty Artz.
Phase Pattern 002 w/ Ian William Craig, Christian Naujoks, Dj Lamin Fofana
Wednesday, 24th August 2016 | 20:30 CET
Acud Macht Neu! | Veteranenstr. 21 | 10119 Berlin/Mitte
ianwilliamcraig.bandcamp.com | soundcloud.com/christian-naujoks | acudmachtneu.de
