>> VIEW PHOTOS
Following last months performance with Actress, Eddie Peake and Nic Hamilton, St John Sessions return to present their fourth show on Thursday 19th September with live performances from Canadian sound artist and composer Tim Hecker, Yellow Swans co-founder Pete Swanson and Young Echo member Vessel.
Tim Hecker’s secretly Canadian brand of ebbing, drone music comes to St John’s on the eve of his new release “Virgins“. From the mostly improvised Instrumental Tourist to the minimalist source compositions of Dropped Pianos, Hecker’s drift through performance ensembles to the svelte chimes of Arvo’ Paart’s influence on Virgins feels like it leads a path to St John church in Hackney.
Virgins is a record which in Kranky’s own words, “points to the theological aspirations of early minimalist music” at once sparser and denser than anything he’s ever done. Tim’s performance at St John’s will be in blackout, with only the subtlest ambient lighting from St John’s surroundings finding it way through the stained glass.
Pete Swanson‘s recent string of pulsing, vitriolic techno make him a giant in his own right – the flashes of dark metal sensibility never lose the focus on tonality honed during his legendary years as part of Yellow Swans. Swanson’s live set retains all the guttural physicality of his back-catalogue.
Vessel is one of the most challenging artists to come out of Bristol’s dark lineage of Vex’d, Emptyset and Skull Disco. Moonlighting in the far-reaching Young Echo collective, Vessel signed to Tri Angle for his exceptional long player Order of Noise. His fractured techno seems far removed from maximalist approach of Swanson but is tied to him in post-punk disorderly spirit – Order of Noise took techno through that same meat-grinder with a gauzy darkness and density that puts him on a sonic billing with Tim Hecker.