From the same people that brought you Pop Levi, Counter Records released John Matthias’ album Stories from the Watercooler to great acclaim and proved a bit of a ‘Camp Fire’ favourtie of Gilles Peterson. The gig is a album launch party but not only that, it’s going to be an extra special performance as his modern classical collaboration with Nick Ryan, Cortical Songs, will also performing live.

Modern classical? Yep, Cortical Songs is a work in four movements for string ensemble and solo violin written by John Matthias and Nick Ryan in which the orchestra is partially controlled by a tiny computer wizardary. Its beautiful and warped all at the same time and come with 10 remixes by not your usual suspects, Thom Yorke, Neil Grant and John Fisher (their ‘Electronic Water Feature’ is particularly cinematic), Gabriel Prokofiev (he Classical-Tech-Minimalism and The Elysian Quartet) and many more).

Meanwhile back at Stories From The Watercooler, the album is a collection of twelve short stories on themes such as the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, to fake alternative therapies, credit ratings and telephone banking, from boxing to Japanese internment camps in California and bombs with the face of Britney Spears painted on. Not exactly a party but I think the label sum it up when they say its “kind of folk music for a new millenium, it’s about life and the world”.

Not only that, there’s folk experimentalist David Thomas Broughton (Plug Research, Birdwar, Golden Lab, Acuarela and ‘Village Green’) will be performing live and Coldcut’s Jon More and Gabriel Prokofiev will be interviening with DJ sets.

This is like a folky equivalent of Unsafe (Unsafe 4 this year is 31st Oct to 1st Nov)

Links
8th October at The Bush Hall, West London
7.30pm
£10 in advance from here
John Matthias www.myspace.com/johnmatthiasmusic
Cortical Songs - Tracklistings: 1st, 2nd, 3rd &-4th Movements. Remixes: 5 Thom Yorke 6 Neil Grant 7 Gabriel Prokofiev 8 Jem Finer 9 Marcas Lancaster 10 David Prior 11 John Maclean 12 Simon Tong 13 Dominic Murcott 14 Andy Prior 15 Marcus Coates
David Thomas Broughton www.last.fm/music/David+Thomas+Broughton
Jon More (Coldcut DJ Set)
Gabriel Prokofiev (DJ Set)
www.counterrecords.com
www.myspace.com/counterspace
www.myspace.com/nonclassicalmusic
Gilles Peterson 04.09.08 :: GP Camp Fire mix & John Matthias in Session
Gilles Peterson :: 8th May :: GP’s Brasilian Shuffle
John Matthias - ‘I Will Disappear’
Gilles Peterson :: Tracklisting 10/06/04
The Elysian Quartet - ‘Gabriel Prokofiev String Quartet No.1’ (G Prokofiev Hip Hop remix) (White)
www.elysianquartet.com
www.nonclassical.co.uk
www.myspace.com/nonclassicalmusic