FRIDAY 20 April
9:15PM - 5AM
THE SUBSTATION - 1 MARKET STREET, NEWPORT
Visceral and intimate, ONO journeys toward a collective understanding of rhythm and sound in the belly of the SUBSTATION.
Room, artists and audience—all form part of the storyline.
As narratives unfold, the response is both sonic and social. Part music performance, part installation—ONO presents an evening of international and local guests exploring the undercurrents of music today.
Presented by The SUBSTATION and ONO.
BEE MASK presents MARBLES [live]
(Editions Mego, Spectrum Spools, Room 40 // USA)
AGONIS [live/hybrid]
(Amenthia Recordings // CH )
SIMON LEMONT [live/hybrid]
(SENSE, A Walking Contradiction // CH )
ALBRECHT LA'BROOY [live]
(Analogue Attic Recordings // AUS)
Tickets available from The Substation
Bee Mask presents Marbles - live
Editions Mego, Spectrum Spools, Room40 // USA
Perhaps best known for his assemblages of found sound, synthesis, modular explorations and insane audio processing, Chris Madak aka Bee Mask aka Marbles balances his work with an intricate sense of detail, tension, humour and the absurd to create sonic worlds of amazing depth and resolution.
Based in Philadelphia, Chris has been dedicated to recording music ever since he had the means. As he puts it, his work has “accumulated an absurd amount of ‘private infrastructure’ — self-referential jokes, crackpot mythologies, formalities, superstitions, and preoccupations”. On top of this foundation, it’s also the way the work exists in the public sphere that holds his gaze, the way performance iterates and aligns with the studio process.
Since 2004 he has released 36 limited-edition cassettes, LPs, and CDs through his own Deception Island label and other small imprints. This work grew into major album releases on Spectrum Spools and Editions Mego and his ‘Vaporware’ release on Lawrence English’s Australian label Room40. Collaborations with Peter Van Hoesen, Surgeon, Oneohtrix Point Never, Anthony Linell / Abdulla Rashim, Autre Ne Veut & Donato Dozzy are all worthy of exploration. Contemporary art institution, Bow, also commissioned Madak's realization of experimental music theorist, John Cage's ‘Fontana Mix’ as part of the Cage: Beyond Silence festival.
Whilst many make the connection to Chris’ work via the ‘Vaporware’ reinterpretations of Donato Dozzy, his own historial retracing takes us back through “...jazz, punk (i.e. ‘super ideological pre-internet DIY’), and experimental music (in the historically specific ‘post-John Cage’ sense of the term).” His knowledge and specific interest in these musical theories lays fertile ground for him to draw from.
Chris will be presenting as Marbles on April 20. Marbles is a particular avatar he has been using to interpret and explore concepts he has encountered of late. We are expecting it to be heady, complex and devotional. Drawing upon our experience of our first event, we are giddily anticipating how the topography of The SUBSTATION, the design of the sound system and the openness of the audience might come together under the private/public sounds of Bee Mask presents Marbles to yield a highly satisfying sonic wash down.
Agonis - live/hybrid
Amenthia Recordings //Switzerland
In a lesser known epicentre of exploratory sound, a small flame is burning bright.
Basel, the Swiss bordertown nestled between the Alps and the River Rhine, is home to an enthusiastic and close-knit group of musical explorers. Free from the scaffolds and tropisms of larger European cities, they have been bubbling away and finding their voice in relative independence over the last decade. It is there we found our first featured artist for ONO’s second major show: Agonis.
Resident at Basel’s enviable establishment Elysia, home appearances are becoming all the more rare as the broader Techno community stakes its claim on a rising talent. At the genesis of his career, Agonis has already been invited to share his vision on some of the most exalted stages in dance. Next month he will perform for the first time in Australia before debuting a new live set at Organik festival in Taiwan.
Co-Founder of Amenthia Recordings and producer in his own right, Agonis is a pivotal piece to the ever more discernable homegrown Basel sound, a sound that maintains a persistent optimism unusual in to the otherwise tenebrous Techno genre, and a quality cherished by ONO. Ambient works and solid club cuts are lined with pop-music hooks that quickly worm their way into the memory and spur on celebration between dancers.
A talent in every direction, it is our pleasure to have Agonis perform his slow-flow hybrid DJ/Live set at ONO 2.
Simon Lemont - live/hybrid
SENSE, A Walking Contradiction // Switzerland
In Simon’s own words, “the closest connections to others I've experienced in my life weren't built through either sight or a natural language. It is the very moment of inexplicable neural exchange with other people that makes an experience profoundly interesting and rewarding.”
Considered over an afternoon, a season or a phase of life, he imparts the passage of time and the metabolism of a mood to the listener.
Our second artist hailing from Basel, Switzerland, Simon Lemont is key member of the town’s close-knit and nurturing scene. Sharing his vision across a number of projects, Simon is forever propping-up the ideas of those around him—as well as his own DJ and production work, he curates SENSE, an ambient podcast and event series focused on local Swiss talent and Hang-Zu, a micro-sized open-air celebration of experimental sounds in the foothills of the Swiss-Alps.
Simon’s long-standing love of ambient music recognises the very personal, private space these sounds can occupy for the listener. Far from engaging in musical escapism, Simon is willingly vulnerable alongside his audience, creating an intimate world with feelings rising to the surface about everyday experiences and subconscious thoughts.
Intentionally bypassing the shortcomings of text and language, Simon’s ethos of wordless interpersonal connection guides him to create touching aural environments. He finds deep pleasure in the discovery of new sounds: listening, cataloguing and banking each one, waiting for the ideal moment to share them with his audience—a DJ in the purest form.
His sets are nourishing, contemplative and sometimes unnerving. An internal journey shared together that finds its way back again through connection between space, place and people.
Albrecht La'Brooy
Analogue Attic // Australia
Continually leveling up in the Australian music scene, Albrecht La’Brooy will once again bring their interpretation of the sublime to ONO 2 at The SUBSTATION, April 20. Exploring the endless iterations of mother nature and what she can inspire, this composed and accomplished duo are a synchronicity to behold.
Signing this year to the R&S ambient imprint, Apollo Records, the ‘Tidal River’ EP exemplifies how the pair continue to enliven the conversation around the Melbourne sound - a sound which is becoming increasingly refined and diverse. For us Victorians it certainly is special to see a picture of Wilsons Prom on the front of a release gaining so much international renown.
With their own record label, Analogue Attic Recordings, Alex and Sean have built a back-catalogue that speaks for itself. Through this avenue, the pair continually challenge themselves to present both their own and their labelmates’ work in different ways, expanding the spaces where their music is appreciated. This summer they hosted an intimate live recording event at the Montsalvat artist colony, one of many choice examples of how eager they are to take their music and audiences to the places that inspire them.
Performing at our first ONO last year, Albrecht La’Brooy immediately synced with our intent. They set a high tone which languidly carried throughout the night. Observing the concept of the hearth, their version of storytelling in the round is inclusive, meditative and moving. We’re hanging to hear them write the next chapter at ONO 2.
