Gwilly Edmondez (uk), Virginia Pipe (fr), Copydex (uk), Gustav Thomas (fr)

WORM/detour presents: Gwilly Edmondez (uk), Virginia Pipe (fr), Copydex (uk), Gustav Thomas (fr)
DJ Albért Bernàrd, Sgt. Maierhofer (new weird favoriten)

Growing up in South Wales, Gwilly Edmondez and his friends felt a strange uneasiness when listening to their favorite rock and pop bands. The music made them feel free and alive, revolutionary and ready to rule this world, but they were wondering why, how and if this kind of music could seriously require being so structured in the way it is made - written down and translated in to the standard language of any other music, then rehearsed, performed, marketed and repeated?

Having nothing better to do they went on and founded Radioactive Sparrow (1980-2003, reformed 2009), a stand-up improv lets-just-do-this instant rock band. Soon though, some infidels started to express their doubts about the validity of this kind of music, not even impressed by the sheer mass of their output of no less than 25 tapes between 1980 and 1986. [1] So Gwilly Edmondez went even further and studied BA, MA and PhD degrees in music composition, focussing his research on proving everybody else wrong. Among his teachers at Goldsmith University was John Tilbury of Scratch Orchestra and AMM fame, who, after Edmondez was thrown out of Goldsmiths, congratulated him and said “Now you can get on with some real work.” So he did and today Gwilly Edmondez is teaching postvernacular composition at Newcastle University, where his main research interest lies in liberating the idea of improvised music from the influence academia had on it. He also frequently appears on Vicky Bennetts Do or DIY with People Like Us show on WMFU. His own radio show “Make Property History” is live on Culture Lab Radio every monday at 8pm.

Gwilly Edmondez’ improvised sample spitting solo vocal live performances could be described as the closest thing to the sound of an angel landing in an electronic music gear shop.

[1] Historical note: Radioactive Sparrow reformed in 2009 and so far recorded 87 albums in total (The most recent, ‘Museum of the Future’ is to be released soon on Kakutopia). Their live return was an invitation to play the Cheltenham Fringe Jazz Festival, a show that was recorded by the BBC but remains as yet unbroadcasted, for reasons unknown.

An event by WORM/detour moddr_lab Rotterdam/Vienna, Supported by Wien Kultur