ERIC CHENAUX WITH ZOLATEC & DAVID BIRCHALL

ERIC CHENAUX is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter, singer and sound sculptor. He has released seven full-length solo albums on the Montréal imprint Constellation, charting an adventurous and uncompromising path through avant-folk and out-jazz compositions increasingly rooted in a unique and elemental juxtaposition of fried, frazzled, semi-improvised guitar and smooth, clear tenor balladry. Chenaux has been called “a musician like no other” by Tiny Mix Tapes; his solo work praised by The Quietus as “stunningly beautiful, genuinely inimitable, whose reputation will only grow with time.” Gracing the cover of The Wire magazine in 2017, the feature article declared: “A singer and songwriter possessed of angelic sweetness and clarity accompanying himself with largely improvised, visceral guitar textures that seem intent on undermining and obscuring his own songs. It’s the need to communicate tussling with the urge to obfuscate; lucidity versus opacity; form against chaos.”

ZOLATEC is an experienced pannist and music producer. Inspired by music ranging from metal to dub, she uses software to fuse these influences into her own dark & melodic compositions, creating a unique live set performed differently each time. Breakbeats stutter in dark soundscapes, cut with steelpan polyrhythms, ethereal vocals and shoegaze textures. Wide basslines pay homage to sound system subs, shaping dynamic build-ups and heavy drops.

DAVID BIRCHALL is a guitarist, free improviser and composer living in Manchester. He has performed in the UK, Europe, Russia, Palestine, USA & Japan. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 Music, SWR in Germany, WFMU in the US & ABC in Australia. He’s still convinced the practical musical experiences of free improvisation and consensus/dialogue social forms it models offer us one of the best ways through all this.