7pm
Antidote
The Victoria Theatre’s unique and experimental music programme
Antidote is for audiences that like to challenge their understanding of live music and features some of the UK’s finest performers. Each event is unique, and guest curated by Andy Abbott (ADRA Promotions).
Andy Abbott is an artist, musician and writer who has released records on independent labels and toured across the UK, Europe and Asia, performing in a range of venues, including London’s Alexandra Palace and Leeds and Reading festivals. As Fellow in Music at University of Bradford, he produced the M@BU programme of pioneering grassroots music, and Bradford Threadfest and Recon festivals – both in The Guardian’s top-ten metropolitan festivals.
Soft Noise Ensemble (SNE) are a Norway-based trio operating somewhere at the junction of jazz, free-improv and (soft) noise. Expect sonic explorations of objects hidden sounds, double bass rumblings, and textural synth layers. Think Taj Mahal Travellers playing in the belly of an old Norsk fishing vessel, perhaps.
Eline Rafteseth is a bass player and composer from Vestnes in Møre and Romsdal, living in Bergen. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz from the Grieg Academy in Bergen, runs the band Shakai, and also plays in the experimental trio NH3 and cosmic avant-pop band Heavy Astro.
Omar Emanuel Johnsen is based in Bergen, Norway. He composes and performs music within the realms of the electronic, ambient and experimental kind. Lately he also performs and composes under the moniker Neo Borneo and is a member of Norwegian snythpop ensemble Casiokids.
Luke Drozd is a UK-born artist and maker currently based in Bergen, Norway. His work takes various forms, focusing on print and sculptural works alongside music and performances both solo and as part of the duo Reet Maff’l.
Faust-esque zygotic zitherist and two-headed acidic folk outfit Samantheplants.
Partially separating the frost bitten fells that make up Lancashire’s lucid landscape are small clusters of naked black trees and hedgerow that provide shelter for a host of disgruntled inhabitants hibernating from typically cruel British Winters.
In a wood not dissimilar to this you’ll find a welcome co-inhabitant who spends his time making fractured folk songs with limited electricity and a wide range of mutant, mechanical music machines ranging from zygotic zithers to 10 second tape loops, lutes and flutes. Imagine Delia Derbyshire in deepest Lancashire recording a Nepalese Incredible String Band with members of Os Mutantes and Faust keeping the generator warm and the kitchen operating in audible proximity.
Honing his craft travelling the length and breadth of the country with his counterpart and assistant in sonic wizardry, Magpahi (Bird Records), sharing stages with the likes of Voice Of The Seven Woods and Acid Mothers Temple, Sam McLoughlin’s viscously self-sufficient, fair-weather commune band make the type of acid soaked folk and handicraft punk-rock that unified Gong and Soft Machine fans before he was born.
This event takes place in the Victoria Theatre Green Room Bar.
Please note there is no wheelchair access to the Green Room Bar and circle level at the Victoria Theatre. But there is an alternative entrance with fewer steps for people with severe mobility issues – please inform the box office at the time of booking if you would like to use the alternative entrance.