Atmosphere is everything,
and, in their own, unique way, both Chris Clark and
Mira Calix demonstrated this at 93 Feet East, for the
London leg of their recent 10-dates UK tour, following
a string of gigs in the US. First of five tours this
year to support the launch of Logarhythm, a new UK-based
initiative sponsored by the Art Council Of England,
this series of dates saw one of the pillars of the electronic
movement, Warp Records, getting involved with this new
scheme. Aimed at young artists involved in the fields
of electronic music and visual arts, Logarhtythm vows
to become a platform for artists to develop and have
the opportunity to exhibit their work by providing support
and training in the areas of funding, marketing and
promotion and offer advice, discussions and seminars
on the core technologies of electronic music.
After a warm up session from Andrea Parker on DJ duty,
Chris Clark was first to take the stage. Operating from
behind his laptop and mixing desk in near complete darkness,
his face shying away from the feeble backlight of his
screen, a clearly relaxed but focused Clark methodically
pulled track after track without proper break or pause.
Kicking off with the dense ambient break of the opening
track of his new Ceramics Is The Bomb EP, The
Gravel, Clark was soon sending seismic vibrations
through the walls of the Brick Lane venue. If his first
album demonstrated an equal aptitude at crafting beautiful
melodies and powerful angular beats, the tracks featured
on Ceramics Is The Bomb take a far more upfront
and aggressive stance. Basing his entire set on new
compositions, Chris had the crowd dancing in minutes,
with a couple of fans even taking their chance at drunken
stage dives. For a good forty minutes, Clark’s
raw post industrial beats and dark soundscapes engaged
in cataclysmic confrontation in front of an audience
clearly appreciative of his music.
Hardly giving the crowd time to breathe, and while Clark
was putting the finishing touch to his last track, South-African
born Mira Calix took her place behind her iBook and
lauched the luscious synthetic string sequence of Shadenfreude,
taken from her recent Skimskitta
album. With two albums and a handful of EPs of beautiful
and intricate organic electronica under her belt, the
former Warp publicist has imposed her extremely personal
take on a male-dominated genre. Her recent creation
for the Geneva Musée d’Histoire Naturelle,
Nunu, was a thrirteen-minute piece entirely
conceived around insect noises. Usually sourcing her
sounds from stones, wood and other natural elements,
Calix creates extremely minimal, yet intricate vignettes,
pushing the boundaries of electronic music to the extreme.
This is her first tour.
Contrasting with the dark Chris Clark set, Mira Calix
presented a dense and atmospheric selection of tracks
mostly lifted from her most recent album. The crowd,
still recovering from previous sonic assaults, seemed
at first rather bemused by the introvert nature of Calix’s
compositions, but soon warmed up to her progressive
constructions, eventually giving her rapturous reception
and cheers. Concluding her set in the same discreet
way as she’d started, Mira disappeared almost
immediately behind the black curtain hanging at the
back of the stage, leaving Warp DJ Ned to put the finishing
touch to the night.
Details of forthcoming UK tours, including Req &
Kid Acne in June and July, Mego in September, Rephlex
in November and Mille Plateau / Force Inc in December,
can be found on the Logarhythm website. |
