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 human-machine interactions.

TICKETS VIA CAFE OTO

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

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. 

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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.

Mute Teachers is written in response to the limestone geology of Öland. The accretion and dissolution of the stone is translated into a sonic interplay of performers as they carve out spaces for each other to play within.

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.