Improv 1

Can electronic music sound both instrumental and acoustic? Improv 1 presents on 16th November at the Upper Stage of the Onassis Stegi, one of the most important trends in contemporary improvisational jazz, with two representative groups that experiment with live electronics, sampling, treated musical toys, and anything that can create original, sweeping soundscapes.
Centering on avant jazz and using new media, the Athens quartet RSLG lifts the audience into moments of emotional charge, leading it into a liberatory dimension, creating a sense of time expanding. Super-group Glue and sound artist Ignaz Schick of Berlin enrich their improvisations with treated electronic sounds.
Their unconventional approach is based on the equal contribution of instruments and offers the listener a fascinating aural layering full of secret intensities and cathartic surprises.

Credits

Glue & Ignaz Schick
Tom Arthurs: trumpet
Miles Perkin: contrabass
Yorgos Dimitriadis: drums & microphones
Ignaz Schick: turntables & electronics

RSLG Quartet
Vassilis Roupas: piano, sound effects
Giannis Leloudas: drums
Stelios Giannoulakis: electronics
Panagiotis Raptis: saxophone

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Stef Gijssels of the Free Jazz Collective wrote of Glue in 2014: “They create quiet, yet incredibly intense sonic universes, without real soloing, but rather with only one task for the musicians, to create a coherent and unique sound, as the result of the instruments playing their sparse notes on an open canvas of silence. The result is absolutely great, primarily because of the dynamic nature of the music. Even if there is no rhythm or harmonic development, the sounds move forward, little notes get stretched, accentuated by dry percussive beats. Less is more, but here with substance and depth”.

Glue first performed in Greece in November 2014 at the festival “Improvising at the Onassis Stegi". Their participation in Improv 1 will be their second appearance before an Athenian audience.

The RSLG Quartet was founded in 2014 and performs contemporary improvised music. The combo explores a musical idiom centered on timbre, with influences from avant-jazz, electronic and contemporary music. The way the electronic and acoustic sounds are combined is especially interesting, as it's done not with a laptop, but with a group of circuit bent toys modded to produce a palette of sounds. These sounds are enhanced with samples from mobile electronic devices like tablets and smartphones. That said, the group's overall sound is more acoustic than electronic. Over the last 4 years, the quartet has played at numerous venues and festivals in Athens, and released an album entitled "Interplay". They are currently working on new material, under the working title "Steps".