Humcrush

Humcrush is a collaborative project featuring percussionist Thomas Strønen and keyboard player Ståle Storløkken, both stalwarts of the legendary Norwegian label Rune Grammofon, and perhaps best known for their work with Food and Supersilent respectively.

The duo's live performances consist of a thorough, phrenetic deconstruction of free jazz, improv, and electronica idioms, executed with mesmerising precision and inventiveness. Superstructures are turned inside out as they are fed through the seemingly telepathic interplay of rhythms and tones. There appears to be a vast vocabulary at their disposal: at times the effect is glacial, austere and hypnotic, like a rawer Pansonic; elsewhere the sheer percussive maelstrom rivals the nervous complexity of Autechre, or the rhythmic density of Don Caballero.

These disparate touchstones are united through an erudite approach which belies an in-depth knowledge of contemporary live improvisation, and seeks to drag it forcibly into the future. The sheer creative force which drives the constant progression and mutation of Humcrush's music demands to be experienced first-hand.

http://www.myspace.com/humcrush

Leverton Fox

Live electronics/percussion trio featuring members from the London-based Jazz 'loop collective'. Alex Bonney (electronics, trumpet) also plays in Plummer’s World Sanguine Report, and leads a quartet exploring the music of Albert Ayler. Tim Giles (drums)’s other projects include the 'BBC innovation award'-winning Fraud, Golden Age of Steam, and Koby Israelite (signed to Tzadik).

The group's use of live trumpet and drums alongside field recordings and electronically-generated and processed sounds is by turns meditative and abrasive. Plaintive melodies and subtle timbres are buried beneath layers of chugging electronics and skittering percussion, emerging occasionally like buds forcing through tarmac. The music exudes a tension between pastoral and urban; acoustic and electronic, which is a source of endless sonic invention and variety.

Sam Britton (electronics), of electronic duo Icarus, has recently joined Leverton Fox, having previously released music on Output Recordings, Temporary Residence, Domino and The Leaf Label. His input has been evident in recent live shows, with a dense floor of bass and abrasive clouds of fragmented sound lending a new intensity and richness to the overall texture.

http://www.myspace.com/levertonfox

Michalakos/Mital/Zhang

Minimal electronics with microsound and experimental ambient-sonic elements. An new electronics-trio by Christos Michalakos (laptop), Parag Mital (visual), Lin Zhang (electronics, aka Aliased Neuron).

http://pkmital.com/
http://christosmichalakos.com/
http://www.myspace.com/aliasedneuron

More information and downloads

More information and audio downloads from the performers are available from http://www.dialogues-festival.org/2010-outlying/Humcrush