see you in 2022!

So here we are with our second electronic music festival and the weekend line up for the ticketed events is tantalising in itself. It’s an honour to be able to present such a selection of well known names.

Kicking off the festival is the legendary Suzanne Ciani. Suzanne is a 5 time Grammy Award nominated composer and electronic music pioneer. Over her 40 year career she’s worked in feature films, video games and countless commercials as well as producing 16 studio albums, the latest being her comeback quadraphonic Buchler synth performance recording “LIVE Quadraphonic”.

She plays the Band on the Wall on Friday 24th June in Quadraphonic sound. More information and tickets here…. https://bandonthewall.org/events/suzanne-ciani-in-quadraphonic-sound/

On Saturday 25th June it’s the return of the mighty Adrian Sherwood’s Tackhead Sound System. Adrian has been at the forefront of music production for over forty years. Taking influences from his work with reggae artists such as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, he takes the essence of dub production and applies it to electronica and dance. Here it will be used to devastating effect with Adrian’s mixes from his work as producer to the seminal Tackhead.

Tackhead formed in the mid 1980’s when Adrian met drummer Keith LeBlanc in New York. Keith, along with Skip MacDonald (guitar) and Doug Wimbish (bass) had previously been the house band at Sugarhill Records playing the musical backing to such seminal hits as ‘The Message’ and ‘White Lines’ as part of The Sugarhill Gang. With Adrian joining as producer and mixologist the four released a volley of singles and albums under the names of Tackhead and Fats Comet as well as Keith LeBlanc and DJ Spike. Adrian Sherwood’s Tackhead Sound System will be Adrian’s tribute mix to the Tackhead sound. This is not a live performance by Tackhead the group.

The Tackhead Sound System comes to Band on the Wall on Saturday 25th June. Tickets here https://bandonthewall.org/events/adrian-sherwoods-tackhead-sound-system-subliminal-impulse-festival/

On Sunday we have given the day over to a more relaxed mood and head over to Cutting Room Square and the Halle St Peter’s for Ambient Sunday, 26th June. Headlining will be Scanner and Ian Boddy.

Tickets are available here https://bandonthewall.org/events/scanner-meets-ian-boddy-presented-by-subliminal-impulse-electronic-music-festival-ambient-sunday/

Scanner (British artist Robin Rimbaud) traverses the experimental terrain between sound and space connecting a bewilderingly diverse array of genres. Since 1991 he has been intensely active in sonic art, producing concerts, installations and recordings, the albums Mass Observation (1994), Delivery (1997), and The Garden is Full of Metal (1998) hailed by critics as innovative and inspirational works of contemporary electronic music.
To date he has scored 65 dance productions, including the hit musical comedy Kirikou & Karaba Narnia, Qualia for the London Royal Ballet, and the world’s first Virtual Reality ballet, Nightfall, for Dutch National Ballet. More unusual projects have included designing sound for the Philips Wake-Up Light (2009), the re-opening of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 2012 and the new Cisco telephone system used in many offices around the world.
His work Salles des Departs is permanently installed in a working morgue in Paris whilst Vex, the residential house by Chance de Silva architects, featuring his permanent soundtrack, won the RIBA London Award 2018.
Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Wayne MacGregor, Mike Kelley, Torres, Michael Nyman, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson and Hussein Chalayan, amongst many others.

Ian Boddy is a North-East composer who has been recording & releasing Electronic Music for the past 40 years. During this time he has released a huge catalogue of music as well as performing hundreds of concerts both in the UK as well as in Germany, The Netherlands & the USA. For the past 20 years he has run the Electronica label DiN which has over 80 releases by an internationally renowned collection of artists including Robert Rich, Node, ARC, Erik Wøllo, Bluetech & Markus Reuter. He also composes music for TV, documentaries and films and has done sound design work for the likes of Apple, Camel Audio, Soniccouture, Zero-G & Time & Space.

This specially commissioned performance comes in three stages. Ian Boddy will perform solo followed by a solo performance from Scanner. Scanner and Ian will then perform a duet to close. Expect the supernatural.

Described as a “sonic enchantress” (BBC Radio 3), Caro C is a composer, producer and performer of creative electronic music. She loves to get into the sound, carefully sculpting each sound world using found sounds (everyday objects and sound), her voice, piano and technology. Her fourth album “Electric Mountain” is out now carrying themes of interconnection and respect (personal, interpersonal, planet and universal). Caro also creates music and sound design for film, theatre, dance and works in podcast production including Sound On Sound magazine. Caro is the instigator and project manager of electronic music charity Delia Derbyshire Day. Her passion and expertise includes working as a mentor, teacher and a researcher on “Sisters with Transistors”, a feature film about women pioneers of experimental electronic music. For this “one-woman electronic avalanche” (BBC Introducing), it’s ultimately about humanity via technology.

This special ambient live show will involve voice, synths, lampshades, a colander and other objects with live sampling and mixing to build a textural sound world for you to bathe in.

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan has seen two albums released to critical and popular acclaim under the much respected Castles In Space imprint. The first album, “Interim Report, March 1979” was released in February 2021, and made the Top 20 of Electronic Sound magazine’s albums of the year. The second album, “People & Industry”, also sold out.
A third album, called “Districts, Roads, Open Space” is due in the autumn.
“A potentially overwhelming experience for anyone ever separated from their mum in a crumbling multi- storey car park”-Electronic Sound
“An on-boarding seminar for a distant time and place, when specks on the map of England had enormous cooling towers on their horizons”-Bleep

K of ARC is an audio/visual artist from the North of England, working with samples, synthesis and hand-built instruments. Utilising spectral drones, electronic atmospheres and ritual drums, K of ARC draws inspiration from weird sci-fi, Industrial New Towns, non-human encounters, magnetic hauntings and Cosmic horror, performing occasional live shows, including The Delaware Road Festival, The Lowry Theatre and The Holden Gallery, Manchester. K Of Arc’s debut album is out now on Cruel Nature Records.

Manchester’s Dave Clarkson has been involved in electronic music for over three decades, with more than 30 releases to his name, including five Guide albums created from field recordings. For the festival, he will play a selection of music made from caves, forests and other recordings

Jaydev Mistry is an exponent of cinematic and ambient guitar creating evocative textures, atmospheric pads and glitch effects manipulated into haunting riffs and melodies. Jaydev has designed and built an augmented guitar which is populated with various electronic sensors that allow him to manipulate his instruments sound, enabling him to push the guitar into sonic territories not usually associated with this instrument.

 

Plus…

Birthed from Nottingham’s underground queer scene, ARCH FEMMESIS are an Electro Punk duo formed by Performance Artist ZERA TØNIN and Androgynous Synthesist MEDDLA. Their blend of brooding, chaotic basslines with intense, psychosensual poetry creates an intoxicating mix that horrifies and hypnotises the audience. The duo have been gaining rave reviews around the UK for their extrovert performances and DGAF attitude, combining art, fashion and music into an immersive electronic experience.

Mindcrime Café is an unintentional passion project from longtime collaborators, Jaydev Mistry and Marizu Okereke.
The project serves to agitate, explore and resonate the interstitial spaces of their experiences.
This exploratory journey through the auditory undergrowth is interweaved and punctuated with immersive achaeocyclonic visual rhythms in the pursuit of a monistic experience.

Lo Five is the melodic ambient electronic moniker of Neil Grant, a Wirral based producer specialising in tape-worn rave-influenced hypnagogic electronic which explore themes around consciousness, memory and spirituality.
Lo Five oversees Emotion Wave, which is primarily involved with releases and events, and continues to work with labels such as Castles in Space, Miracle Pond, Cue Dot, Front and Follow, Patterned Air and Woodford Halse – with new releases scheduled for later this year.

Shunt Voltage at Wonky Acid House Disco

Shunt Voltage hail from the hinterlands of northern Manchester where once goods for the world were manufactured. Now Shunt Voltage manufacture beats, a combination of grooves, textures, effects and samples jammed together against a backdrop of danceable industrial sounds. Tracks are mixed live on the fly resulting in something unique every time they play. Tracks have been remixed by Tici Taci and played out by Andrew Weatherall. shuntvoltage.bandcamp.com

Valentich is the electronic music project of Manchester based Danni Morris. Valentich combines aspects of lo-fi, techno and more left field genres, whilst citing Aparde, Tycho and Boards of Canada amongst their influences. Expect a big, meandering and danceable set.

Xenosine is the moniker of Tamil-Australian audio-visual artist Vijay Thillaimuthu. Xenosine provides multi-sensory live experiences driven by heavy rhythmic progression by means of modular synthesizer and theremin controller. Creating unique immersive environments, the work is developed through synergistic approaches with technology and inspired by the rich history of analogue sound synthesis as well as sound reactive electronic art. Vijay has performed alongside Suzanne Ciani, Kieth Fullerton Whitman, Richard Devine, Robin Fox, Atom and Dasha Rush. Amongst a range of diverse outcomes, Vijay Thillaimuthu has presented work for Unsound, Liquid Architecture, What is Music Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, Red Bull Music Festival, The Substation, The Banff Centre Canada and the Tokyo Festival of Modular.

ReturnCodeZero has been honing his skills as a producer, performer and DJ for well over a decade now and his passion for music is insatiable which is clearly evidenced in his emotive, technical and detailed compositions. Live performances consist of a Eurorack modular system, a variety of hardware and Ableton Live. His DJ sets are 100% vinyl. Expect the unexpected. Influences include Autechre, Aphex Twin and many, many more.

Dark Fidelity Hi Fi is one of the Manchester underground’s best kept secrets. The electronic wizard has a stunning back catalogue of releases under his belt that include a slew of albums under the Bricolage label. When it comes to live performance, few can translate their sound to the live setting with such aplomb. Old school track structures hark back to the glory days of 90’s IDM but with a modern twist. Meticulous preparation of drum work and melodies create a labyrinth of sounds that cover ambient, glitch, jazz and much more. These are just parts of the Dark Fidelity Hi Fi puzzle that make a sonic explorer like no other.

The all Electronic Music Open Mic (EMOM) is back in Manchester courtesy of Subliminal Impulse and Martin Christie. Taking place at The Castle Hotel in Northern Quarter on 25 June (6pm start) this event is designed for electronic music producers, creators and enthusiasts. Time to get together and listen to some music, have a chat and maybe a dance.

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