Wednesday 18 June 2014

Mississippi Records on tour: 'A Cosmic and Earthly History of Recorded Music according to Mississippi Records' (A film & talk presentation)



Upset The Rhythm presents…

Mississippi Records on tour: 'A Cosmic and Earthly History of Recorded Music according to Mississippi Records' (A film & talk presentation)
Including live performances from…

MARISA ANDERSON
LORI GOLDSTON
DRAGGING AN OX THROUGH WATER
Monday 15 September
Café OTO, 22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, E8 3DL

A once in a blue moon showcase that features a brand new live film/talk/slide show presentation by Eric Isaacson (Mississippi Records label boss and store owner) plus three live acts, all of whom have released records on the Mississippi Record label. Marisa plays emotive acoustic and electric whirlwinds, Lori wanders across borders with her atmospheric cello playing and DAOTW gloriously ruptures songs rooted in folk and country traditions.

Mississippi Records is modern day record phenomena, where there is never a dull moment and run with the care and passion that it is hard to suppress. Based in Portland, Oregon, USA it is a very local shop and a very outernational record label that has released unheralded lost classic's from all over the globe, collections of Harry Smith's anthologies as well as Alan Lomax's recordings, some truly amazing compilations that wear the compilers tastes loud and proud as well as some punky and quick off the shelf undercover albums that sell out pretty much as soon as they are made. Eric Isaacson who helped set up and runs a lot of the Mississippi Records labels and shop activities is also a wonderful, playful and sincere guide through the highs and lows of music history with a keen eye on the marvellous outsider types. For this tour he will introduce a brand new show film/talk presentation and his fellow travellers are three musicians with super strong ties to the label, all on the bill and performing.

'A Cosmic and Earthly History of Recorded Music according to Mississippi Records' is Eric Isaacson's new concoction, a combination of film, slide show, lecture and soundscape. It instinctively and idiosyncratically illustrates a entire history of recorded music (focusing on Eric's patch, North America!), from the birth of the first star in the universe all the way to the dark ages of the 1980's. The ultimate intention of this travelling exhibition is to give the audience a sense of wonder; that anything is possible and art is worth doing. Tonally, the presentation navigates into the outer reaches, bypassing academic stuffiness in favour of entertainment value and immediacy. All materials will be from Mississippi Records vast and seldom seen archive of film, music and art.

This whirlwind 90 minute sound and visual representation will attempt to sum up as many important points in the evolution of recorded music that can be done in such a short amount of time. Subjects hit upon include:

* The cosmic patterns that resemble music generated by stars being born and dying.

* The musical patterns in the natural world that work on the same principals as music.

* The untold early history of recording technology. Including tales of Archeoacoustic technology that allows us to hear recordings from 2,000 years or more ago, cat pianos, the phonautogram which reproduces sounds from dust and much more.

* The rise of the blues, rock and roll, and other revolutionary American music forms and their subsequent destruction by the powers that be.

* 45 minutes of incredibly vibrant archival footage of some some the greatest musicians on Earth (as well as some novelties) including Bo Diddley, Rosetta Tharpe, The Collins Kids, Gary Davis, and the Staple Singers.

MARISA ANDERSON is a composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon who works both solo and in beautiful tandem. Inspired by Delta blues, West African guitar, country and western radio from the 60s and 70s, gospel, noise, rhythms, cycles, mortality, and praise. Featuring an impressive 12 improvisations for guitar and lap steel Marisa has released two albums on Mississippi. In the past two years, Anderson’s music has landed her slots with artists including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Devil Makes 3 and Sharon Van Etten.

LORI GOLDSTON is a cellist, based in Seattle, with an emotional and magic touch. Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher . Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic is full, textured, committed and original. She wanders recklessly across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography, performing in clubs, cafes, galleries, arenas, concert halls, sheds, ceremonies, barbecues, and sanctuaries. Collaborations famously include being thrown in the dark end with Nirvana and enjoying the songs of David Byrne and Cat Power. Lori also co-founded Black Cat Orchestra and has been key to Earth live shows. She has received commissions to do live scores for several silent films.

DRAGGING AN OX THROUGH WATER is a solo project from Brian Mumform, performing songs rooted in folk and country traditions, though ruptured, complicated, and complimented with broken textures of feedback, drones, tape hiss, and homemade oscillators. Chance elements and candlelight sensitive instruments destabilize customary electro-amplified-tightness & introduce improvisation to the recitation of these songs.  Brian also plays in Sun Foot, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Deep Fried Boogie Band, & Jewelry Rash. He runs a small cassette & CDR label called Musical Impressions. Brian has collaborated with TJO, Chris Johanson, John Wiese, Makino Takashi, John Butcher, Gino Robair, Fred Lonberg-Holm,  Vic Chesnutt, Pete Swanson, and many others.


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