SHIFT will be five years old at the end of September. Come and spend some time with us, share some space, and help support artists and community spaces.
A big thank you to everyone who has helped, supported and shared space in SHIFT over the past five years.
Special thanks to Pria Borg-Marks, Andy Fung, Eugene Capper,Paul Battenbough, Abi Birkinshaw, Jake A Griffiths, SHIFT studio residents, TactileBOSCH, Umbrella, Dyddiau Du, John Abell, Tess Wood, Chris Parfitt, Leona Jones, Richard McReynolds, Xavier Boucherat, Jo Sheehy, Dan Johnson, Gwilly Edmondz, Wayne Mcauliffe& The South Wales Improvisors.
SHIFT would not exist without Axis's support. We are grateful to Mark Smith & Harlan Whittingham for giving SHIFT the opportunity & the support.
C & J x
SECLUDED BRONTE
Wednesday 13th September & Thursday 14th September
Secluded Bronte Two day residency.
Wednesday 13th 7:30pm
Secluded Bronte are joined by filmmaker James Holcombe
W/support Chris Parfitt, Tim Bromage, Richard McReynolds & Jon Ruddick
+ Come Lord, 1969
Thursday 14th 7:30pm
W/support Batterson a bono + Howl Hubbard & tsta
Secluded Bronte are Adam Bohman, Jonathan Bohman and Richard Thomas. Formed in London and launched in New York City, the Anglo-Welsh trio have been together for 21 years. Since that time in 2002 they have continued to plough an idiosyncratic furrow into the heart of what one might call art-music. It’s quite hard to classify the group, but they have been likened to This Heat, Wire, The Specials, The Residents, The Fall, John Cage and Sun Ra.
Since 2020 they have released four albums on the Ffordd Allan label, an album on Takuroku, a 7” EP on Felix Kubin’s Apolkalypso label and contributed to several compilation albums.
As a solo artist Richard Thomas has released two albums since 2022, The House Rabbit of Jesus Green and The Painted Orchid. The third volume of Adam Bohman’s Music and Words has just been released by Paradigm Discs. Forthcoming is a remix of a Jérôme Noetinger album for Apolkalypso/Gagarin Records, a radiophonic work for Dutch radio, Zond 5, and a new Secluded Bronte EP and an album are also imminent in 2023.
Concerts
Sónar Festival, Barcelona, Misterioso/Das Institut, Zurich, Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels, OCCII, Amsterdam, Cave 12, Geneva, Instants Chavirés, Paris, Papiripar Festival, Hamburg, Blow Out, Oslo, Supernormal Festival, Oxford, Queens University, Belfast, Wysing Festival, Oxford, Gerlesborg School, Sweden, WORM, Rotterdam, The Knitting Factory, New York, Le-non Jazz, Paris, All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, Prestatyn, Cafe Oto, London, Wharf Chambers, Leeds, The Cube, Bristol, Close-Up Cinema, London, Musik Aktuelles Festival, Bremen, Kongsberg International Jazz Festival, Kongsberg, Audiograft, Eastville Project Space, Yeovil, Klang Tone Records, Stroud, Audiograft, Oxford, Rammel Club, Nottingham Le 102, Grenoble, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, FON, Barrow-in-Furness, Fuel, Manchester
Press
“Metronomic electrical pulses are made beautiful by multiple layering into complex rhythms with melodic pitch changes, accompanied by spoken words as if walking through a hall of mirrors or a scene from Alain Resnais’s Last Year in Marienbad”. – Jo Hutton, The Wire Magazine December 2022
“Secluded Bronte at Supernormal was my favourite show of the festival, even though I left five minutes before the end to avoid passing out from the fearsome heat inside the Vortex venue”. – Jennifer Lucy-Allan, The Quietus/BBC Radio 3, October 2022.
A night of performance art, sound, movement and installation.
Five artists were selected through the TactileBOSCH Agora project call out and will be working together in the SHIFT basement and on site within Welsh landscapes....
Selected artists
Vivian Ross Smith
Alkmini Gkousiari
Joao Saramago
Ki Lando
Aoife mcaleese
Works will be presented on the 21.09.23 from 7pm
Free event
Featuring an Exhibition by Visual Artist Molley May
Muriel began as the recording project of songwriter Zak Thomas based in Cardiff, Wales. It incorporates classical guitar driven arrangements, layered vocals, and introspective lyricism.
Over time Thomas has been joined by a cast of friends and musicians including Rachel Crabbe, Andy Oliveri, Will Davies, and Jamie Joiner who have helped him realise his bedroom recordings as fully-formed songs and finally begin to perform them live, where they take on a life of their own as lush, emotive soundscapes packed with pathos.
On Muriel’s forthcoming debut album, Thomas explores themes including the stages of grief and his own spirituality. Written at home in his bedroom and recorded in his beautiful boutique tattoo shop, Still Hands, in Cardiff, the creative process behind the music mirrors the experimental drive that led the project.
Featuring production contributions from Tom Bromley (LosCampesinos!), the record was also mastered by Kliph Schurlock (ex drummer of The Flaming Lips), both fellow Cardiff residents.
Performing An evening with Muriel;
Zak Thomas
Rachel Crabbe
Jamie Joiner
Andy Oliveri
Will Davies
Tom Bromley
Holly Carpenter
WILL GUTHRIE, GWILLY EDMONDZ, DAN JOHNSON, SLOW MURDER & TSTA
28th September 7:30pm:
Will Guthrie solo, Gwilly Edmondez solo, Dan Johnson solo, Slow Murder & tsta duo.
Will Guthrie, is an Australian drummer / percussionist living in France. He plays solo using different combinations of drums, percussion, amplification and electronics, and leads the contemporary hybrid percussion / gamelan group ENSEMBLE NIST-NAH. His music has been released on labels such as Black Truffle, Editions Mego, Erstwhile, Clean Feed, Gaffer Records, Hasana Editions, 23five, iDEAL and his own label Antboy Music.
Regular collaborators past and present include Oren Ambarchi, Sarah Hennies, James Rushford, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Erell Latimier, Mark Fell, Roscoe Mitchell, Chulki Hong, Mark Simmonds, Jérôme Noetinger, Keith Rowe, David Maranha, Ava Mendoza, the film maker Hangjun Lee and choreographer/dancer Mette Ingvartsen. LINK
Gwilly Edmondez, emerged in the 1980s from Bridgend, South Wales, where he was a founder member of Radioactive Sparrow, once dubbed ‘the most legendary band you’ve probably never heard of.’ Gwilly practices a form of composition that disavows fixity and rehearsal, preferring an approach that dissolves the line between ‘life’ and ‘performance’ in ways that compromise neither. Having coined the term Wild Pop to describe his aesthetic as both a solo artist and as Gustav Thomas in YEAH YOU (est. 2013), his embracing the age of evaporation is manifest in a relentless auto-pathology oriented towards devotional sublimation. LINK
Dan Johnson, Over the past decade, Dan has established himself as a key figure in Bristol’s, and the wider UK experimental arts and music community. A distinctive improviser and performer whose practice is centred on percussion performance, he has collaborated widely in important groups and ensembles including EP/64, Run Logan Run, and performed nationally at festivals and events such as Supernormal and Unwedding festivals. LINK
Slow Murder & tsta duo, Cardiff based duo’s debut performance harnessing Power electronics, processed percussion, No-input mixing, field recordings & synths, all fed through walls of delay and distortion.LINK & LINK
Midding. Taking influence from 60s and 90s guitar music, Midding delivers a wall of sound, dirty and raw but underneath lies carefully crafted pop songs alike to the Beach Boys or the Kinks.
FFO: My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground, Ultra-Vivid-Scene.
Lighting In A Bottle. A duo comprising improvised Guitar & Drums, creating free form rhythms & open ended sonic textures.
Jake A Griffiths is an artist who uses mangling, sampling and re-imagination to create new sonic/visual world around the concept of playback, composing atmospheres and sight specific sonic painting.
South Wales Improvisers established itself in partnership with SHIFT and creates the opportunity for an individual to play free improvised ensemble music on a regular monthly basis.
SW Improvisers welcomes all players of all levels who are interested in exploring new paths to music.
Players can come to the sessions freely and without any prior experience. We ask only that you have an open mind, a willingness to listen, to respond and to enjoy.
If you are interested in taking part in regular sessions contact; chris-parfitt@sky.com
Next sessions 2023: All sessions take place Sundays 2pm-4pm on the dates below.
