Wednesday 22 April 2015, 8pm
Debut OTO show for White Magic – aka Brooklyn-based artist, vocalist, pianist, percussionist and composer Mira Billotte – currently touring a special, stripped-down set utilising sparse harmonium and percussion, with some songs purely acapella.
Mira had her musical beginnings performing and composing for Quixotic along with her sister, Christina Billotte (Casual Dots, Slant 6), recording two LPs produced by Guy Picciotto of Fugazi. White Magic has released numerous recordings, with the label Drag City, including “Through the Sun Door” EP, “Dat Rosa Mel Apibus” LP and “Dark Stars” EP, recording with musicians including, Jim White (Dirty Three, Cat Power), Tim Koh (Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti), and Douglas Shaw (HighLife, Gang Gang Dance). White Magic has toured with the likes of Animal Collective, Sonic Youth, Joanna Newsom, and Will Oldham, and recently released a limited 7" with Cass McCombs.
Also on the bill, a new duo of drummer/percussionist Terry Day and violinist Billy Steiger.
Terry Day and Billy Steiger turn around, together, can turn back, and turn into (often).
Some bamboo pipes and a violin.
White Magic is artist, vocalist, pianist, percussionist and composer Mira Billotte. Performing with accompaniment or solo with hand drums, shruti box, effects, and with an array of acapella songs, White Magic has a wide range of sound, from loud psychedelia to meditative trance, the focus is on the voice with Folk, Soul and Spiritual music at it's roots.
Mira had her musical beginnings performing and composing for Quixotic along with her sister, Christina Billotte (Casual Dots, Slant 6), recording two LPs produced by Guy Picciotto of Fugazi.
White Magic has released numerous recordings, with the label Drag City, including “Through the Sun Door” EP, “Dat Rosa Mel Apibus” LP and “Dark Stars” EP, recording with musicians including, Jim White (Dirty Three, Cat Power), Tim Koh (Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti), and Douglas Shaw (HighLife, Gang Gang Dance).
Terry Day is a first generation pioneer improviser from the 1960s: an improviser, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, songwriter, visual artist and poet.
A self-taught musician in a family of musicians, he began improvising on the drums with his brother in 1955. In the early ‘60s he formed the Hardy Holman Day trio, focusing on free improvisation. Later he became part of the band Kilburn & the Highroads, with Ian Dury. Sharing their interest in visual art and painting they both studied at Walthamstow School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art, London. As an art student in the ‘60s he was also a pioneer of free improvisation, free jazz & experimental music.
He formed a duo with guitarist Derek Bailey in the late ´60s and was a regular member of The Continuous Music Ensemble,The People Band and, later on, Alterations with David Toop, Steve Beresford & Peter Cusack.
Terry has collaborated with many musical luminaries, groups, dancers, painters, poets and performed in theatre. He now plays bamboo reed flutes, drums, recorders, balloons & improvises with his lyrics, prose and verse. Since 2000 he has been part of London Improvisers Orchestra. In recent years he has toured twice in both Japan and Brazil, and has performed with improvising orchestras in Malaga, Tokyo and Madrid.
Billy Steiger is an artist working across performance, recording, drawing, and printmaking. This work often takes systems of reproduction, transmission and mediation as both material and subject.
Active/upcoming solo projects include:
- a proposed (re)history of technology, using the vibrating string as framing mechanism.
- an album of modified pipe organ recordings, to be released by OtoRoku in 2027.
- an ongoing investigation into audio compression algorithms and the artefacts and loss inherent to digital/analogue boundary states.
Active group projects include:
- O Yama O (w/ Keiko Yamamoto, Rie Nakajima, Marie Roux)
- X-Ray Hex Tet (w/ Paul Abbott, Edward George, Crystabel Riley, Pat Thomas, Seymour Wright)
- Portraits (w/ Daniel Blumberg, Seymour Wright)
Completed(?) solo projects include:
- composing and recording the score for Stacy Martin's short film Amaretti
- Box (for EKM) for piano and string quartet, premiered by Apartment House in 2024
- Loud Object, a 2023 violin record.
https://billysteiger.bandcamp.com/
