Euphonic Productions
presents
Raoul Björkenheim (guitar) & Lukas Ligeti (drums)
plus special guests
Girl Friend Experience
9pm, Thurs, June 3
$5 at the door
Eyedrum
290 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 8
404-522-0655
www.eyedrum.org
Raoul Björkenheim was born to Finnish parents in Los Angeles in 1956,
his veins coursing with Finnish, Swedish and Russian blood. As a youth
he attended French, Swedish and English speaking schools, and then
studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. From there he moved
back to Helsinki, where he worked with the Finnish guru of European
free jazz, Edward Vesala. Recording several albums with him, the last
one on ECM, brought Raoul to the attention of a broader international
audience. He went on to form the group Krakatau and recorded 4 CDs, two
of them also on ECM. Thanks to these, he began to appear as a sideman
in many ensembles, performing around Europe with Bill Laswell, Jah
Wobble, Paul Schütze, Henry Kaiser, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Mats
Gustaffson and Toshinori Kondo, among others. Over the years he has
been commissioned to write for several symphony orchestras, the most
successfull work being “Situations”, a concerto for guitar, violin and
orchestra. He has won the Young Finland prize, the Emma prize for best
jazz CD of the year (Finnish Grammy) and has been nominated three times
for the Nordic Music Prize. He now lives in New York City, and his main
group is the Scorch Trio, with the Norwegians Paal Nilssen-Love and
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, whose second CD is to be released on Rune
grammofon in September, 2004.
Lukas Ligeti’s work covers areas as diverse as “classical” composition,
electronics, improvised music, and cross-cultural collaboration. Ligeti
studied composition and jazz drums at the Vienna Music Academy as well
as two years at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in
Music and Acoustics. He has composed music for Ensemble Modern, the
Kronos Quartet, and his own group Beta Foly, which combines African and
Occidental music in experimental ways. His music has been performed by
the London Sinfonietta, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players,
Orchestre National de Lyon, London Composers’ Ensemble, Amadinda, and
Synergy; and at festivals such as Other Minds (San Francisco), Festival
d’Automne a Paris , Meltdown Festival (London), Wien Modern (Vienna),
and many more worldwide. As an improvising musician, he has worked with
Henry Kaiser, Elliott Sharp, Michael Manring, Wadada Leo Smith, John
Tchicai, Benoit Delbecq, Gianni Gebbia, Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore,
Ned Rothenberg, Marilyn Crispell, and many others. His ensemble Beta
Foly, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, explores the combination of
African traditions and new technologies and has performed in seven
countries in Africa and Europe. In 2000, he began a collaboration with
Maï Lingani, a singer from Burkina Faso.
Both musicians are trained in jazz and classical Western music theory,
and they share a keen interest in African and Asian traditional forms
of music. All these influences, harnessed to razor sharp intellect and
instrumental dexterity, give Shadowglow a sound unlike any other record
ever made. Live, Björkenheim and Ligeti continue the conversation begun
on Shadowglow, always extending their language while entertaining and
nourishing intellectually curious music lovers everywhere.
Girl Friend Experience:
Jeff Bradley – contrabass
Scott Burland – pedal steel, keyboard, computer
Rob Cheatham – saxophones, keyboard
Raoul Björkenheim & Lukas Ligeti will also perform at the Flicker
Theater, located
at 263 W. Washington in Athens on Fri, June 4. Showtime is 8:30pm.
upcoming Euphonic Productions
June 12: Burton Greene
June 22: Lucas Niggli Zoom
Sept 23: psi, Gruppe Freie Elektronisch
venue: Eyedrum
http://tk-jk.net/euphonic/