We're very thrilled that one of our great friends from the early days of the People's Republic, a wonderful Australian improviser who has become an established and respected performer in Europe, is returning after many years for an exclusive show with us in our new space...
Solo Bass and Electronics
Mike Majkowski is a bassist from Sydney, based in Berlin, who’s been active across a wide range of experimental music over the last two decades, including backing Ethiopian accordionist Hailu Mergia and appearing in Chris Abrahams’ Roil.
The last time Mike joined us at the People’s Republic was way back in 2016.
Mike's work ranges from purely acoustic to electroacoustic to electronic and explores relationships between stillness and pulse, resonance, duration, and perceptions of listening. He has now appeared on over 40 albums and has produced 15 albums of his own solo music to date.
Mike has collaborated with a huge number of artists particularly in Europe and Australia including Jim Denley, Chris Abrahams, Splitter Orchestra, Gunter Hampel, Jon Rose, Hailu Mergia, Sarah Hennies and many others.
doors at 5 and show at 5.30
"Fantastic, obsessive solo double bass compositions by Majkowski... utterly absorbing listening... wonderful, unusual and extremely focused"
- Just Outside
"This Aussie minimalist based in Berlin takes his music to its darkest location... each of Mike Majkowski's records tends to have its own distinct sonic insignia..." - The Wire
Following Mike's performance, we will be screening a very rare experimental documentary made by the brilliant avant-garde British director Dick Fontaine during visits Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage made to London in 1967. Kirk was playing a residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Cage was working on a dance production at the Saville Theatre with the choreographer Merce Cunningham. Kirk and Cage do not actually meet in the film (Cage's enigmatic questions about sound are intercut with some of Kirk's more ambitious experiments with it) but were aware that their contributions would be cut up and spliced together by Fontaine.
"Today, it’s nearly universal that everything can be music one way or another. John Cage and Roland Kirk paid the dues for everybody that followed." - WFMU
"As an investigation, albeit an oblique one, into the meaning and function of music, the film stands the test of time..."
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THERE IS NO ADMISSION CHARGE FOR PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC EVENTS - PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY ON THE NIGHT KNOWING THAT EVERY CENT GOES TO THE ARTISTS
PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A CASH-ONLY EVENT SO PLEASE BRING ALONG PLENTY OF THOSE QUAINT COLOURED RECTANGLES
OUR EVENTS ARE B.Y.O.
please bring along any beverages you wish
but no food is allowed