On May 5th, we are delighted to announce that Takuji Naka and Tim Olive (Naka/Olive), will be bringing to Birmingham their unique blend of aggro musique concrete and improvisation from the DIY heartlands of Japan’s Kansai region. They will be joined by Sound of the Mountain, a Canadian electro-acoustic duo from Montreal’s experimental and improvisational scene.

£5 on the Door

// NAKA OLIVE //

The duo of Takuji Naka and Tim Olive use modified devices (cassette decks, spring reverb, magnetic pickups), self-made instruments (resonating surfaces, simple oscillators, lung-driven tubing), consumer detritus (springs, styrofoam, aluminum foil) and analog electronics to make a lo-fi, difficult-to-categorize music, existing at the intersection of noise, live electronic music, musique concrete and sound art. The duo’s performances are visually engaging, sonically absorbing and strangely evocative, with sound-textures and scraps of pitched material evolving, shifting and mutating in real time, resulting in a music which is uncanny, uneasy, and yet somehow beautiful.

Naka/Olive have been active as a duo since 2014 and have completed tours of Europe and Taiwan, as well as performing extensively in Japan, performing mainly as a duo but also in collaboration with Cristián Alvear, Anne-F Jacques, Jason Kahn, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Makoto Oshiro, Carl Stone and others. They have released three CDs, on Japanese and American labels.

Tim Olive’s work, utilizing magnetic pickups and analog electronics, is predicated on collaboration. Numerous tours of North America, Asia, Europe and Australia have provided opportunities to play with a wide range of musicians in event-specific one-off contexts, as well as ongoing performing/recording collaborations with Cristián Alvear, Pascal Battus, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Doreen Girard, Anne-F Jacques, Nick Hoffman, Jason Kahn, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Francisco Meirino, Takuji Naka, Makoto Oshiro, Ben Owen, Jin Sangtae, Martin Tétreault, Frans de Waard and Yan Jun. Other collaborators include Tetuzi Akiyama, Che Chen, Joda Clement, Crys Cole, Chris Dadge, Katsura Mouri, Toshimaru Nakamura, Mathieu Ruhlmann, Carl Stone, Fritz Welch and Nate Wooley. A Canadian residing in Kobe, Olive runs the 845 Audio label. His work has also been published by Caduc, CFYRe, EM Records, Ftarri, Intonema, and Notice Recordings.

Takuji Naka uses low-tech electronics, cassette tapes, spring reverb and self-made reed instruments, creating an eerie soundworld with influences from musique concrete, noise, free jazz and dub. Regular collaborators include Anne-F Jacques, Anthony Guerra, Guilty Connector, Jason Kahn, Carl Stone, Tim Olive and Takahiro Yamamoto. Living in Kyoto, where he also works as a traditional temple gardener, he regularly organizes concerts and is a member of the free-noise band Culpis. He launched the “akuseku” record label in 2013.

https://soundcloud.com/user-808506969-471261874
www.timolive.org
www.845audio.bandcamp.com
http://akuseku.net/
https://www.musicworks.ca/profile/tim-olive%E2%80%99s-flexible-aesthetic

// SOUND OF THE MOUNTAIN //

A duo featuring the hollowed-out of amplified clarinet and trumpet, Sound of the Mountain comes from a strong history of improvisation and extended performance techniques, offering their audience long-form deep listening experiences through the sculpting of vitalized breath.

Since forming in 2015, they have played over 100 concerts together, developing a sound language which merges acoustic and electronic textures through amplification and extended performance techniques. With this language they create long-form improvised soundscapes, evoking a vast range of textures, from silence and spaciousness, to rumbling bass and room saturation. The duo works with closely-mic’d instruments and minimal equalization, avoiding the use of effects pedals and loops, such that their constant physical attention drives the music. The whistles and creaking of metal and reed anticipate the more dense moments of distortion and feedback in pieces that can be appreciated as discreet moments, or longer forms.

Active touring artists, they have played internationally throughout Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia, and coast-to-coast throughout Canada. Making a point of collaboration, the duo has collaborated with Japanese improvised music pioneers Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Takahiro Kawaguchi, Michiyo Yagi and Akira Sakata, Canadian experimental trailblazers like the electro-acoustic duo Instant Places, Tone Deaf’s Matt Rogalsky, or Guelph’s own hurdy-gurdy player Ben Grossman, and members of Quebec’s experimental electronic community Alain Lefevbre, Anne-F Jacques, and Emilie Mouchous, along with many many more. Favouring community-building and DIY ethics you’re most likely to hear them playing in your friend’s basement, artist-run-centres, galleries and cafes.