Michael Chapman + William Tyler + Eli Keszler
(Tue 5th Apr 2011 / 7.30pm / £7 adv)
A double bill of nomadic guitar men who follow their own maps and hearts, with the welcome addition of a superlative new-school percussionist.Michael Chapman is a UK folk legend, his records have been released by Harvest and John Peel and has been championed by artists such as No Neck Blues Band and Jack Rose, with whom he toured the US. William is versed in more wayward indie country ways, and has been playing out with Lambchop a lot over the last 10 years. Via his jams with Silver Jews he also hooked up with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Different types, ages and influences but, each possesses their own special way of playing the guitar.
While William Tyler was sessioning with artists as diverse as country legend Charlie Louvin and soul singer Candi Staton, he spent time at home working on fragmentary guitar pieces and tape collages under the moniker The Paper Hats, calling on the spirit of Sandy Bull and the early Siltbreeze catalog. Then in 2008, his old friend and collaborator Volker Zander (Calexico) released the Paper Hats LP 'Desert Canyon' on his Apparent Extent imprint, and the two toured Europe. Now Tyler has released his first album under his own name, 'Behold the Spirit' (Tompkins Square), a collection of acoustic and electric guitar works intertwined with open form audio landscapes and delicately arranged instrumentation. Equal parts Appalachian drone and ambient noise.
Eli Keszler is a composer/multi-instrumentalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. He primarily uses percussion, bowed crotales, guitar as well as invented instruments (his harps which use strings and motors) to create his sound that balances droning harmonics with shaterring acoustic sustain and fast, free rhythm, all working in balance with his integrated installations.
In recent years Eli has collaborated with artists as diverse as Jandek, Roscoe Mitchell, Phil Niblock, Aki Onda, Ran Blake and Loren Connors, as well as performing and recording regularly as a solo artist. Drawing on elements of muscular free jazz skronk and sparse pointillist improv, Eli's music straddles the worlds of DIY art-punk and textural post-war composition. Alongside the string of CDs, cassettes, records and prints released through his own Rel Records imprint, he has recently released a mind-blowing LP, Oxtirn, on the iconic ESP-DISK label. Hot on the heels of some great reviews (The Wire, Volcanic Tongue, Digitalis, etc), Eli Keszler is back for his second UK tour.
