The night before the main event. We bring you an evening of soft and sharp sonic curiosities at Lyttelton Coffee Company. Sounds provided by Peter Wright and Bruce Russell's tone-wrangling duo – The Escalation, sound artist and head of Melbourne/Naarm's Nice Music Label – Simon J Karis, and Tāmaki based audio-visual artist Ducklingmonster.
Biographies:
THE ESCALATION
The Escalation is a guitar duo consisting of Peter Wright and Bruce Russell. Bruce can’t play guitar properly and Peter doesn’t try very hard. Peter Wright has had a long career - emerging from the post-punk Industrial miasma of early '90s Christchurch into an open landscape of drone-based guitar improvisation. Bruce Russell's career is even longer, hobbled to the looming shadow of the Dead C. His solo guitar playing is really the relevant touchstone here, pointing the duo towards the open fields of improvised sonic mischief. Together they explore the outer reaches of audible space, boldly going where only even bolder tone-wranglers have gone before. Together they gleefully take an axe to any preconceived notions of what guitar music is, or even what a guitar is. Purists beware!
SIMON J KARIS
Simon J Karis is the Melbourne-based electronic composer, sound artist and head of Naarm/Melbourne's Nice Music Label, presenting the best marginal electronic and experimental music Australia’s underground has to offer.
Karis’ own musical output across labels such as Altered States Tapes, Vienna Press and Nice Music is a varied, visceral and romantic meshing of smashed synthesis, concrète sounds, techno/dance-oriented forms and wrenching melodic patterns. In 2024 he collaborated with inimitable UK producer Actress on their 3 track release 'THRASH' and released his latest full length, the thunderous epic 'So Little Sorrow', paired with a stunning book of watercolour paintings by legendary ambient musician Andrew Chalk.
DUCKLINGMONSTER
Ducklingmonster is an audio-visual artist from Tāmaki. She builds combinations of broken beats, scratched 45 records, and field recordings of crashing oceans and Karangahape footpaths, with electronic and vocal textures to invite you into her sonic possible worlds.
