Thursday, 03 December, 2015 - 21:30

Trophies + Andreas Willers

Andreas Willers
Trophies
Alessandro Bosetti
Kenta Nagai
Tony Buck

Trophies
Alessandro Bosetti – voice/electronics
Kenta Nagai – guitar, fretless guitar
Tony Buck – drums

Andreas Willers – electric guitar

Andreas Willers is an exceptional guitarist with an enormous range of stylistic background and technical possibilities that are carried by a reliable feeling for form and emotional strength. Since his debut in 1981, a solo LP of the Berlin Free Music Producation label, more than 40 LPs/CDs were published in diverse constellations and instrumentations. For this solo performance Andreas Willers refers to the material of his Drowning Migrant CD, published in 2009 by the English label Leo Records. Here Willer's direct sound, recalling the early times of the electric guitar, is interwoven with abstract electronics which all in all results in a kind of metastylistic music. A reference to the migration politics of the EU is not unintended and hasn't lost anything of its relevance.
"It sounds to me that Mr. Willers is a master of manipulation as he selects the sounds or textures that consistently evoke images or provoke ideas. 'Drowning Migrant' is the most successful experimental solo guitar(s) offering I've heard in recent memory."  (Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery New York/USA)

Composer and sound artist Alessandro Bosetti is joined by Kenta Nagai and Tony Buck for Trophies. Focusing on mantra loops of spoken/sung abstract and highly emotional poetry Bosetti has created a powerful trance band where voice and electronic sound melt with the hallucinatory fretless e-guitar playing of Kenta Nagai (Miya Masaoka, Eugene Chadbourne), and the patiently groovy and virtuoso pulses of Tony Buck (The Necks). Throphies uses lenghty, repetitive and higlhy dinamic text-sound forms in a totally unique and genre defying way. Central to the music of trophies is the voice or a multitude of voices. A type of voices bordering song and speech but not embracing either one of those practices completely. Spoken/sung phrases are repeated over and over by three vocalists and embedded in a musical texture created by drums, fretless guitar and electronics. Looped phrases in Trophies disappear from the listener's perception after a while. They become hidden in plain sight and vanish altogether after repeated listening.

” … In the work of composer Alessandro Bosetti, the gap between music and speech gets a lot smaller. Both in his solo music and with his trio Trophies, he explores what he calls “repetitive speech-loop forms.” Frequently, this involves him recording people either reading lines or speaking extemporaneously, then transposing the recordings into written music. Often, Bosetti then speaks the same words himself in conjunction with that music. On his latest solo CD Royals and Trophies’ new album Become Objects of Daily Use (both released by Polish label Monotype), he constantly questions the roles of music and speech: whether they convey literal meaning, act as pure sound, or do something in between … (Marc Masters – Pitchfork)

Andy Moor (The Ex) on Trophies new release “You Wait to Publish” (out on Monotype Rec october 2013): "First time I heard this trio was after 3 days of no sleep at the Konfrontationen Festival in Nickelsdorf…Alessandro gave me a CD and we gave it a spin on hour 7 of our 18 hour drive home to Amsterdam. This is a good state in which to listen to music … tired , happy and  ears  saturated by  three days and nights of music … listened with Terrie Ex and Valentina  and we all agreed it was good driving music and also something we’d never heard before ….it was very hard to figure out what the hell was going on …I was sure Alessandro’s voice was triggering some kind of midi device that made guitar sounds that would follow the rhythm and melody of his voice ..but at other times it sounded like the guitarist Kenta Nagai was actually playing along … which seemed almost impossible. In fact it was the latter and I still believe its impossible which is why I like this trio so much …and what better drummer to accompany this bizarre music than Tony Buck, who has an unmistakable and instantly recognisable language  when he plays and one that seems to get better and better every year I hear him.  Its also an inspired choice because Tony plays the same way he speaks, fast , funny , with surprises and  lots of words and sentences that take unusual corners. Kenta’s guitar sound has many more textures and variations recalling early Keith Levine (P.I.L)  and Roland Howard (Birthday Party)  especially on the opening track  “You Wait to Publish” . Guitar and voice in unison for me has always been a challenge to listen to… we know the guilty parties without mentioning names … but here it works because it is done with incredible detailed care, Alessandro continues his bizarre texts … similar to Morton Feldman musical phrases… repeating the same sentence over and over yet each one sounding different. Somehow he manages to sound dead serious and very funny at the same time …. “Matta Clark” made me laugh …who is following who ?? but that isn’t really the point …this music demonstrates the musicality of spoken word … and seems to be mocking it and celebrating it at the same time… Tony’s drums are clearer, better recorded and more present than on the previous two releases and this gives the whole sound a brighter, more dynamic, and exciting element. On some pieces, maybe due to the addition of Hilary Jeffrey’s trombone and Els Vandeweyer’s  vibraphone they accidentally venture into  Beefheart territory … but it sounds so great because it does seem to be accidental. I listened to this CD also while driving … and for me it seems to be the best way to listen to Trophies  … its ideas and tempo seems very similar  to a car moving at about 130 km an hour, but it doesn’t feel fast or rushed … just full of moving energy and constant change.  ” ANDY MOOR ( 2013)

Kindly supported by Kulturverwaltung des Landes Berlin

Doors: 8.30 pm
Concert start: 9.00 pm

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