The Crossroads of Evolutions, Distractfold @ 15!
To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Distractfold are hosting a two-day contemporary music festival at Cafe OTO from July 4-5, 2025. Connecting geolocation with its sonic expression, the festival is divided into three programming strands which explore the acoustic ecology of geology/rocks, marine biomes, and industrial landscapes.
Festival Blurb
In his last publication shortly before his death at 103, James Lovelock (2019), a prominent environmental scientist, explores the emergence of hyperintelligent entities in a future era known as the Novacene. Lovelock contends that AI will soon surpass human intelligence, ushering in an epoch where intelligent machines, or 'cybernetic organisms' (cyborgs), act as planetary stewards, shaping and sustaining Earth's environment. He predicts a cooperative, joint struggle for survival of cyborg life forms and humans on overheating and dying planet (Lovelock, 2019).
What does this publication have to do with experimental music?
For humans it seems hard to connect our wellbeing and existence with the wellbeing and survival of the ecosystem. Our perspective is shrouded by concepts such as anthropocentrism, individualism and the conspicuous workings of capitalism. In curating this residency’s program, I wanted to draw attention to understanding human creative expression as intrinsically linked to the evolutionary and transformative processes happening in our home, planet Earth, and the systems that determine our species’ survival: geological processes, marine biomes, and technological progress.
Linda Jankowska (Distractfold)
Programme
July 4th
Alexandra Solovkina-Nilsson (SE) - Öländsk Svit (2018), for amplified limestone and sandstone
Öländsk Svit, is a work comprising a setup of limestones from the Swedish island of Öland, carefully chosen for their sonic properties. The formation of the Öland limestone dates back to an estimated 480 million years ago, around the Ordovician geological period.
Performed by Hidden Mother (SE): Magdalena Meitzner & Ulrik Nilsson
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Monty Adkins (UK) Aerial, multichannel electroacoustic work
Aerial was composed with recorded materials from the UK’s Peak District and Lake District – a limestone landscape with formations also dating from the same geological period as the Öland stones.
Sarah Hughes (UK) - Mute Teachers (2025, WP)
"Stones are mute teachers; they silence the observer, and the most valuable lesson we learn from them we cannot communicate.” Goethe
July 5th
Ute Wassermann (DE) - Plankton (2025, WP)
A new work developed in co-creation with voice artist and composer, Ute Wassermann, Plankton explores how water acts as an acoustic filter for field recordings and vocal/instrumental sounds aimed at engaging audiences with the elusive sonorities of water and exploring the sonic life of marine biomes.
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Sivan Cohen-Elias (IL/US) - New work, for guitar(s) and cello (2025)
Presentation by artistic researcher, AI artist and improviser Dr Maria Sappho
Linda Jankowska & Jo Christman – recallfiction (2025)
recallfiction is a duo project by Linda Jankowska and Jo Christman. Using analogue and digital technology (guitar pedals, mixers, computer software), resonant surfaces (cymbal, snare drum, speaker cone) and tactile transducers, the piece focuses on listening as a form of meta and environmental sonic consciousness formation. Taking memory and sonic memories as its foundational building blocks, recallfiction looks at their almost instantaneous modulation and alteration as a result of individual perception, awareness and presence, in order to create a rich, process-oriented and durational set. Linda and Jo hope to create a sonic environment where source materials are put into question. Are they sources or is it a continuous becoming?
Performers
Distractfold: Daniel Brew, Linda Jankowska, and Alice Purton
Guest artists: Hidden Mother (Magdalena Meitzner & Ulrik Nilsson), Ute Wassermann, Maria Sappho, and Jo Christman
Curation: Linda Jankowska
Festival Production and Fundraising: Daniel Brew
Sound: Jo Christman
Thanks!
Distractfold is proud to present a project supported generously by the Ersnt von Siemens Music Foundation, the Hinrichsen Foundation, and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
