The People's Republic is incredibly thrilled
to finally welcome back from Berlin
one of the world's greatest experimental musicians
for a rare and very special solo event...
TONY BUCK
SUNDAY January 9th
at 8 p.m. [doors at 7.30]
UNEARTH is a new solo music performance
incorporating composition, improvisation,
installation, machines and video.
Following the release of Tony Buck's solo CD "Unearth" on the Room40 label, Tony has developed a live performance and installation work drawing on the music and atmospheres of the recording as inspiration for a multi-disciplinary solo piece. Incorporating percussion, machines, video and movement, "Unearth" explores the sound and space of the performance venue in an organic and meditative way, while at the same time developing dense and dynamic sound worlds.
An early iteration of this work has been described by Downbeatmagazine’s Kurt Gottschalk as "an installation piece... more like an atmosphere than a performance... the piece aims to operate at a multitude of levels simultaneously... both an ambient installation and an engaging solo instrumental performance."
"Surprisingly, transportingly beautiful… Tony Buck’s thinking on his craft has uncovered something and it's something enormous."
- Brisbane's 4ZZZ
"Buck’s grasp of the slow-evolving dynamic of the long-form composition
is abundantly clear as the gradual transitions flow effortlessly."
- Aural Aggravation
"A masterpiece of textures, noise and suspense." - Amusio
Tony Buck is regarded as one of Australia’s most creative and adventurous exports, with vast experience across the globe. As a drummer, percussionist, improviser, guitarist, video maker and producer, he has been involved in a diverse array of projects but is probably best known around the world as a member of The Necks.
Apart from The Necks he has played, toured or recorded with Jon Rose, Otomo Yoshihide, John Zorn, T. Cora, Phil Minton, Keiji Haino, Evan Parker, Machine for Making Sense,
Lee Ranaldo, Ne Zhdall, The Ex, and more...
Following studies and early experience in Australia, he spent time in Japan where he formed Peril with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki before relocating to Europe in the mid-nineties.
He also creates video works for use with live music performance and has had pieces shown in Tokyo, Belfast, Berlin, New York and Sydney.
Current projects include a live solo adaptation of the UNEARTH music, incorporating installations, video, drums and guitar; Spill with Magda Mayas; Transmit, a guitar driven post-rock project; New York based trio Glacial with David Watson and Lee Ranaldo; Circadia with Kim Myhr, David Stackenas and Joe Williamson; a longstanding duo with Axel Doerner and more...
TONY BUCK on UNEARTH: The development of my live solo performance, inspired by the recording of the release "Unearth", has initiated interesting and surprising areas of exploration and investigation for me. Combining aspects of my work across various disciplines, (percussion, composition, improvisation, video production, guitar playing) and setting in motion new, hitherto unexplored areas of artistic practice such as staging, movement, installation and costumes, I find I am discovering and uncovering a new, personal Gesamtkunstwerk that brings together approaches and interests in ways I could not have predicted.
In this multi-disciplinary performance I’ve also been attempting to explore the sound and space of the performance venue in an organic and meditative way, while at the same time developing
dense and dynamic sound and visual worlds.
As a performer in this piece I want to be casual but decisive, to be both a functional worker and, conversely, a transmitter of spectacle - it's a ritualistic process, focused and
present as well as ambiguous, anonymous and veiled in the fabric of the performance
space. This has led to me to develop costumes and masks which act as both a method of camouflage in the visual field and as a sound-making device, adding other layers of sonic material.
The installation exists as a self-contained environment, a self-generating sound environment,
extremely simple in function but with often unpredictable outcomes. My interventions reflect both an improvised response to unexpected events and also my agency as the director of the action.
Like the "Unearth" CD release, I play both percussion and guitar in this live version, interacting
with the sound of the various machine-driven instruments, which I sometimes control and sometimes let loose to randomly generate a constantly shifting percussive accompaniment.
Musically, the piece combines insignificant small sounds and movements contrasting with
immersive clatter and action, paradoxically almost static but inexorably moving forward.
The video projected into the space, which envelopes both the performer and the installations,
creates an ambience of nature and the elements - a transplanted magic-realism within which
the piece unfolds.
Movement through and around the space is essential to access the instruments and ‘workstations’. This movement, in turn, is traced and registered by sound from the costume and interactions with the instruments themselves. This whole process introduces an element of choreography into the work, which, when combined with the video projections, creates an immersive environment within which the piece unfolds.
It is part performance, theatre, dance, composition, improvisation.
I’d like the audience to feel they are witness to a piece being 'constructed' before their eyes, to feel they're participating in an intimate eavesdropping.
ALL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC EVENTS ARE FREE
WITH GENEROUS DONATIONS INVITED
AND ENCOURAGED
PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A CASH-ONLY EVENT
SO PLEASE BRING ALONG PLENTY
OF THOSE QUAINT COLOURED RECTANGLES
PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS A.S.A.P.
FOR FULL DETAILS
AND TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE
THIS EVENT WILL FILL UP QUICKLY SO PLEASE ENSURE
THAT IF YOU CONFIRM AND ARE SUBSEQUENTLY UNABLE TO ATTEND,
YOU LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
SO WE CAN OFFER THE PLACE TO SOMEONE ON OUR WAITLIST
OUR EVENTS ARE B.Y.O.
please bring along any beverages you wish
but no food is allowed