Live Stream footage of The Drone Ensemble performance at TUSK 2017

The TUSK Festival website features the live stream footage of the performance by The Drone Ensemble at The Sage.



It can be viewed via this link:

https://livestream.com/tusk/tusk2017/videos/164206934

Our set begins around 7mins 50seconds into the footage.



We also documented the performance ourselves and made a high quality audio recording. We will share these once we have edited the footage. So watch out for another blog post with more documentation.

Hans Grüsel's Krankenkabinet perform at TUSK 2017

Hans Grüsel's Krankenkabinet perform in a very theatrical manner. The three performers were transformed into Hansel and Grettle-like characters wearing huge fabric headgear that covered their entire face apart from a couple of holes for their eyes. Sporting a pretty pinafore dress, the violinist danced wildly around the stage in an energetic and enthusiastic manner so much so that she continuously had to readjust her headgear as it became loose. The seemingly innocent appearance was in contrast to their chaotic, wild and aggressive noise which left me feeling disquieted and in need of some fresh air!

"Hans Grüsel's Krankenkabinet is an ever-changing woodgrain diorama of dark forest characters. Using electronics, field recordings, acoustic instruments, props, costumes, and scenery, the ensemble explores the lost Teutonic rites of the past, while stumbling into the failure of the future."

http://www.hansgrusel.net/history.html

"What this band are like really can’t be done justice with a few pithy sentences. They’re genuinely like nothing you’ve heard before – and bizarre to the point of actually being quite disturbing: dwelling too long on their singular version Tea For Two can feel like you’re opening the door to a rapidly descending psychological staircase from which you may never escape. Heavy Vibes magazine had a good stab at defining the Krankenkabinet experience though – “Imagine yourself in a pre-WW1 German village where wooden children with mekanikal insides have taken over as they conspire to concoct the most demented Moog-driven kilng klang you’ve ever heard in your livenlife”. Lovers of Caroliner and last year’s sanity-tweakers Rubber O Cement will hear psychic parallels and there are rumours of shared personnel, clandestine though facts re Hans’ membership are. Whoever they are and whatever the hell they are doing though, this is going to be some kind of spectacle."
http://tuskfestival.com/artists/hans-grusels-krankenkabinet/

Staraya Derevnya performance at TUSK Festival 2017

Before the start of TUSK Festival 2017 I received an email from Gosha, one of the members of the collective, Staraya Derevnya, who was interested in The Drone Ensemble.



"Staraya Derevnya are a Russian/Israeli collective with a tangible feel of the steppe and the ice and a curious musical hybrid that suggests endless/lawless, hard-bitten territories but yet with submerged echoes of the Incredible String Band and MV+EE, or maybe Caroliner but with psychedelic stimulants forsaken in favour of eyesight-endangering homebrew hooch. Of course there are remnants of some kind of un-placeable folk music in there too, the ethno-musical signature of some imagined state long gone rotten, perhaps. And yes, fleetingly yet more than once there is a glimpse into what Comus would have sounded like had they been Russian. Staraya Derevnya make bewitching music that seems impossible to place in terms of direction and intention, like climbing into a cab only to realise its not a cab at all.."

Gosha explained that he was really excited about seeing The Drone Ensemble play as part of TUSK 2017, but that unfortunately the band had other commitments on Friday evening and so were going to miss our performance. We agreed to meet on the Saturday after Staraya Derevnya had performed in Sage 2.



I thoroughly enjoyed their performance, and found it very interesting talking to them about how they work together despite different members of the band being based in London, Moscow and Tel-Aviv. They play some of their own handmade instruments alongside sounds and noises and other instruments such as flutes, guitars, Theremin, Mbira, Shruti box and a kazoo. Vocals are in Russian. For their set at TUSK 2017 they worked with an artist to produce visuals for the performance. Hopefully The Drone Ensemble will get the opportunity to collaborate with Staraya Derevnya at some point in the future. Watch this space!

http://www.starayaderevnya.co.uk/

http://tuskfestival.com/artists/staraya-derevnya/

The Drone Ensemble perform in TUSK at The Sage

A few photos from an amazing event - more to come later!

The Drone Ensemble Live At The Sage, Gateshead On Friday 13th October, 6-7pm

TUSK Festival 2017 will kick off with a live performance by The Drone Ensemble from 6pm on Friday 13th October at the Sage I'd like to invite you to join me on Friday 13th October when I'll be playing in The Drone Ensemble from 6-7pm in the main concourse of the Sage. No tickets are required and entry is free! I'll then be heading up the road to The NewBridge Project: Gateshead, 232-240 High Street, NE8 1AQ for the opening of REALITY CHECK, a group exhibition that I have work in. I hope you can make it along to what should be a treat for your ears and eyes! THE DRONE ENSEMBLE The Drone Ensemble emit vast, deep, sonorous drones using instruments we have almost entirely designed and built ourselves. Joe Sallis leads musically and on instrument design and the Ensemble’s evolving line-up has been causing some excitement in Tyneside’s subterranean circles and how those sonorous waves of sound interact with the interior of Norman Foster’s architecture is something we can’t wait to hear. TUSK FESTIVAL 2017 Once more, alongside a truly eclectic and international music menu and TUSK’s trademark slew of UK debuts, festival goers can again enjoy the festival’s renowned film programme, exhibtions, talks, installations, interactions and more, all curated to inspire the musically curious. The announcements for TUSK 2017 are typically genre transcendent, offering festival goers a unique opportunity to broaden their musical horizons whilst enjoying a rip-roaring festival experience. The Line Up is: Fri 13 Oct Concourse 6pm Drone Ensemble Sage Two 7pm Swarmfront Sage Two 8pm Duncan Harrison Sage Two 8.45pm The Tea Towels Sage Two 9.45pm Valerio Tricoli Sage Two 10.45pm United Bible Studies Sat 14 Oct NRFH 12pm Andrew Liles NRFH 12.45pm Panel Discussion NRFH 1.45pm Midwich NRFH 2.30pm Film Programme Sage Two 6pm Luna Del Cazador Sage Two 7pm Kink Gong Sage Two 8pm Staraya Derevnya Sage Two 9pm ELG Sage Two 10pm Hans Grusel’s Krankenkabinet Sage Two 11.15pm Brainbombs Sun 15 Oct NRFH 2.30pm Film Programme NRFH 5pm Hans Grusel’s Krankenkabinet & Staraya Derevnaya NRFH 5.45pm Radio Play Sage Two 6.30pm Kara-Lis Coverdale Sage Two 7.30pm Ulas Ozdemir & Arash Maradi Sage Two 8.30pm Klein Sage Two 9.30pm Brigid Mae Power Sage Two 10.30pm Beatrice Dillon Sage Two 11.30pm Nurse With Wound As well as 3 days of TUSK’s unique and famously diverse live music programme, the festival will also include films, talks and more, as well as afterhours action and exhibitions at The Old Police House, Workplace Gallery and Shipley Art Gallery. tuskfestival.com | Twitter | Facebook Weekend Tickets for TUSK Festival 2017 are £60. Day Tickets are also available for £21.80.

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