[event] Super String Theory // 19th Aug 2011 @ Night & Day bar + gallery + friends

"Super String Theory"
feat. One Lick Less (FR, self-made tabletop guitar) & Jordan Johari (SG, guzheng, zither, guitar).

Admission by donation.

One Lick Less, a.k.a. Julien Bancilhon, brings to audiences a powerful, haunting dynamic sound using original, lapsteel guitars of the hawaiian and american tradition as well as unique, handmade guitars built from scratch in his home in Paris, France. A psychologist working with autistics by day, Bancilhon’s dedication to his music leads him by night to compose sublime melodies, augmented sometimes with poignant lyrics, fusing the traditions of american blues and experimental folk. Inspired by his travels and an insatiable appetite for life and the people he encounters through work and play, Bancilhon began his musical journey in his late teens with hours spent enraptured by the sounds of such blues and rock greats as Skip James, John Fahey and Henry Vestine. A native of South France, the decision in the mid 2000s to perform to a wider crowd beyond close friends and family has led One Lick Less to play and sing to enthralled audiences in Europe and China. Now, he is excited to deliver his richly layered and textured sonic style to South-east Asia.

Jordan Johari (born Rais Jordan Johari, on October 19, 1978, in Singapore) is a Malay multi-instrumentalist, experimental filmmaker, and score/song writer. Besides writing his own stuff, he also plays with Under The Velvet Sky, a Singapore-based free jazz/prog rock improv band.

Supported by Ujikaji Records.

And for those of you who may have missed One Lick Less's performance at his last gig (Frottage: Casual Encounters at the Pigeonhole iii.), you can do so here. Get stoked!

One Lick Less (Julien Bancilhon) live at Frottage III from Ujikaji Records on Vimeo.

[event] Frottage: Casual Encounters at the Pigeonhole ii. // 28th July 2011 @ The Pigeonhole

Unrelenting hardcore-punk party starters 7x0x7 and experimental music curators Ujikaji Records team up for something a little different – a series of musical presentations at book café and dynamic arts space The Pigeonhole.

Featuring touring bands from Belgium/Canada, New Zealand and France and representing a smorgasbord of diverse musical visions from Psychedelic Rock to Folk Soul, these casual encounters are designed to rub off on you in all possible ways.

This second installment occurs on the 28th of July w/ art-punk performative duo MR STERILE ASSEMBLY (NZ), avant rock clownz I\D, and space prog avant jazz cats UNDER THE VELVET SKY.

Doors open at 7:30pm, performances begin promptly at 8:00pm.

$10 at the door.

[event] Tribal Gathering of Tongue Tasters: An Alternative Ensemble // 4th June 2011 @ The Substation

Tribal Gathering of Tongue Tasters : An Alternative Ensemble
Saturday 4 June 2011, 8pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $15 / $10 (concession) available from the box office
Contact Mish’aal 6337 7800 / boxoffice@substation.org for tickets and more information

An Alternative Ensemble is a response to the dynamic music landscape in Singapore. AAE represents a palate within, and also an extension of, musical forms found locally. AAE is an experimental collective of musicians and visual artists, performing music written by Bani Haykal, following his recent developments on alternative music + narrative systems. All music performed is part composed and part improvised.

In this series of Tribal Gathering of Tongue Tasters, AAE reflects and expresses the complexity of urban living, the struggles and comfort experienced as inhabitants of this city. Throughout the performance, the audience and performers will interact through short discussions to better communicate the ideas of this experiment.

AAE presents the following performers:

Cheryl Ong (A Bigger Bang)

Matin Fellani

Misha’al (The Psalms)

Reef (Under The Velvet Sky)

Siraaj Anwar (b-quartet / mux / Page)

Yeong Shen (Snou)

With visuals by:

Jun (video projections)

Ila (OHP visuals)

About Tribal Gathering of Tongue Tasters

Each gathering is a sound and performance collaboration between established and emerging local music acts and artists to create a sonic event that recklessly challenges the imagination of home-grown music.

*Remember to bring your cameras and keep your ticket-stubs! Peek is offering all ticket holders 10% discount on cameras. Peek members will also receive 10% off their Tribal Gathering Tickets. More info at http://www.peek-ture.com.

[event] The Sound Gig #3: Acoustic Imaginature // 7th May 2011 @ Night&Day bar + gallery + friends

Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak (R.I.T.E.S) presents

The Sound Gig #3: Acoustic Imaginature

Performances by:

Mike Cooper (IT/UK)

Under the Velvet Sky (SG)

Duke Wen (SG)

Singlish Punk (SG)

7:30pm, Saturday, 7th May 2011

Entry: $15 + 1 drink

Venue: Night and Day Bar

139 A/C Selegie Road

Singapore 188309

http://www.nightandday.sg/

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Artists' Biography:

Mike Cooper has traced a path completely his own as an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres for the past 40 years. With his roots lying in acoustic country blues he has, arguably, stretched the possibilities of the guitar even more than his better known contemporaries, Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne etc. by pursuing it into the more avant-garde musical areas also occupied by contemporary guitar innovators such as Elliott Sharp, Keith Rowe, Fred Frith and Marc Ribot, with an eclectic mix of the many styles Cooper has practiced over the years. Ranging freely through traditional country blues, folk, original songs, free improvisation, pop songs, exotica, electronic music, electro-acoustic music, and ‘sonic gestural’ playing utilising open tunings and extended techniques. He is also a soundscape artist and film and video maker and performs live music for silent classic and contemporary films. His favored instruments - a vintage 1930’s National tri-cone resophonic guitar played acoustically and/or ‘treated’ through a series of digital sampling and looping devices and his voice.
http://web.mac.com/cooparia/iWeb/Site/welcome.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/cooparia#p/u


Under the Velvet Sky (UTVS) is a collective of multi-instrumentalists sharing a common passion for musical improvisation aspired by a diverse influence of music from Mozart to the avant-garde. Sharing a common belief in expressive divinity, UTVS experiments music in altering spontaneity.

Under The Velvet Sky started out as a 3-piece jam band with Jordan, Reef & Din Morello in 1998. The band worked on a few things together; including an Electronic music project which carelessly went missing upon its completion sometimes in 2000. Having to go through their separate ways in life’s direction at some point, they disbanded. Some years later, fate brought them back to making music together where they were occasionally joined by close friends and musicians sharing thoughts and ideas in music. Though the band was actively playing music on their own at home, in studios, at haunted hospitals & houses, it took them quite a while before they came out with a demo CD (and this time making sure it doesn’t get lost!). In late 2008, they released a concept demo album, The Black Sea Sorcery (2008)

After the release of their debut demo album, UTVS have been actively performing live in Singapore. For their first live performance, they were chosen to close the Singapore Arts Festival 2009 open mic session at City Hall. UTVS gets regular invitation to perform at underground and alternative venues. They were invited by overseas artists as an opening act for their performances in Singapore. In 2010, UTVS performed in 2 music and arts festivals in Indonesia.

Early this year, UTVS has been selected to be an artist residency in Pulau Ubin, a project run by The Artist Village. UTVS proposed to release a music documentary about the residency with a soundtrack supporting the film. UTVS plans to collaborate with other musicians and artists in this project. To name a few of the artists that are invited for this collaboration are Lee Wen, Zai Kuning, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Zai Tang, B-Quartet (band), Observatory (band), I am David Sparkle (band), Mike Cooper, Mark Wong and other artists under the Pulau Ubin residency project.


Duke Wen (A.K.A Lee Wen) makes a full circle with a return to his earliest forays of poetry and singing. Besides the other influences it was through poetry reading and jamming at The Artists Village that started him on the road to performance art and other experimental practices. Duke Wen’s lyrics are gutsy and poignant, sometimes personal and other times more socially relating to current cultural climate both local and global. Songs like “Art is ...Dead” deliver a punchy tune with simple lyrics warning us of the impending death trivializing our humanity by placing emphasis on market values and mindless consumer tastes for shameless repetition of tested formulas rather than research, innovations and explorations of new ideas or debate on social values.


Singlish Punk is a pseudonym started in 2005 by Kai Lam to conjugate his sound projects and experimental music with his performance art practice. Singlish Punk’s cross-disciplinary performances through electro-acoustic sets are made up of field recordings, an array of altered instruments and musical instruments, coupled with obsolete and hacked machines that are sampled and looped, manifesting into live improvised soundscapes. His deliberate alteration of the media technology is a means to re-examine consumerism and a challenge to the disposable nature of current media technology, re-utilising its limited shelf-life and intangibility as an alternative perspective towards our digital media-fixated society.