QU Junktions presents...

Merzbow + Flower-Corsano duo
with Carlos Giffoni + Totton Glass

This is what it sounds like when you push music/sound a little further.

A joint headline show with the Japanese arch-extremist Merzbow playing a very rare UK solo set plus Chris Corsano and Mick Flower (Edinburgh and Leeds) playing as their amazing drums and shaahi baaja operation Flower-Corsano duo. Combine these two with No-Fun’s very own Carlos Giffoni from the USA and the new Bristol-based Hunting Lodge/Artamonova collaboration Totton Glass, and you have a pretty much unmissable event for those with a penchant for outer limits of noise, viral electronics and freeform drumming.

Merzbow is “the Godzilla of Noise” an assaultive, engaged artist who likes to make music of a socially transgressive form. An musician whose distinct and uncompromising vision has resulted in him making, recording and releasing a lot of ‘music’ that in most parts hits the listener with the force of a hurricane. Shuddering, sandblasted waves of condensed, massed sound. His work should not be categorized quite so easily though. With over 300 releases to his name it makes keeping up with his sound a difficult task. In fact more recently he has been concentrating on a more electroacoustic angle, playing with the spatial aspects of sound. His music has phased from his early tape-loop experiments in the late 70’s to the distinctive releases culled from his custom-made instruments in the 80’s/90’s to a much more laptop driven overloaded sound sometimes containing tantalising submerged beats in the noughties. Recently the sound has become politicised by his staunch belief in animal rights.

Merzbow has collaborated with many, including Russell Haswell, Total, Genesis P-Orridge, Alec Empire, Mike Patton, Pan Sonic, Smegma, Jazzkammer, Slugbait, P16.D4, Howard Stelzer, The New Blockaders, The Haters, Chris Sienko, Kapotte Muziek, Elliott Sharp, Emil Beaulieau, Jowonio Productions, Kim Cascone, Sunn O))), Boris, Tamarin, and John Wiese.

Masami Akita, the man behind Merzvow, is also a talented visual artist and writer. Akita has written numerous books, directed videos and produced artwork for nearly all of the Merzbow releases. He has accomplished a lot. Bear witness to a master.

Flower-Corsano duo are truly ecstatic players who are a joy to watch when in full flight. Their ‘Radiant Mirror’ album on Textile last year was a beautifully expansive sound stretch, tribal, zoned but acutely musical. As a duo these pair are dynamic (in a post-hardcore, improv sense) and heavenly in their mix of Chris Corsano's rhythm patterns, hand-claps and drums morphing into Mick Flower's eternal drone and ecstatic wall of noise. These are two underground music makers who have gelled as duo to a startling degree, and are able to enrapture audiences of all persuasions. Chris Corsano is a kinetic DIY drummer (who has recently been touring the world with Bjork’s band) who uses this project to inject some punk tabla-type rolls into the audio world; Mick Flower (from Vibracathedral Orchestra) is an incendiary guitar player who plays the 'shaahi baaja' or Japan banjo from India in a rocking, transcendent manner.

Carlos Giffoni gets things done, normally through screaming and shimmering noise. From his New York base he organizes and curates the pivotal No Fun Fest every year. Recently his recorded output has been nothing short of exceptional. All the while his record label No Fun Productions unleashes molten and steaming records of some repute. His intensity is artistic, his sound heavy analogue, shuddering with frequencies made to mesmerize. Carlos has a sense of space in his work that provides the listener a portal to fall through. Layers of transcendent deep electronics and distortion are made good. He has of course released albums with Merzbow.

Totton Glass are two parts Hunting Lodge (Dan Bennett, Clive Henry ) and one part White Nightie (Irina Artamonova), and that is enough to suggest serious music will be made. Both sets of musicians have produced gut moving performances and are players in Bristol’s primordial music set. They make scratchy, slate-echoed but piercing tracks of a highly strung out nature. Arrive early to set your ears off.

The Croft, Bristol
Friday 18th April 2008
7pm / £10 adv