MIA ZABELKA (AT) + DJ STILL (US)
Mia Zabelka - electric violin
DJ Still - turntables, electronics
The 2004 Donau Festival (Vienna, Austria) marked the meeting of two wildly
contrasting contemporary artists. As members of the Dälek/I-Wolf Big Band,
avant-garde-noise violinist Mia Zabelka and 'out-there' experimental turntablist
Still worked with, against and near one another charging the Big Band's songs
with melodic solos and sheets of aggressive noise.
In their new project, Still moves away from his beginnings as a hip hop DJ -
working with no less than four turntables, he now finds himself in new territory
with the likes of Philip Jeck, Christian Marclay and John Cage. Manipulating the
instrument in exciting and new ways, Still re-creates himself as a sort of
post-modern DJ.
Mia Zabelka has been intensely engaged in the development of new improvisational
techniques on the electric violin for more than ten years. Her music and composition
revolve around the translation of the body, movement and gesture into sound.
Together, Still and Zabelka create music which is informed by and maps out a diverse
sonic landscape, one which shuttles between sweetness, terror, subtlety and violence.
Melodies form from out of a precious fog of old, shattered vinyl -and remain long
enough to feel like the half forgotten memory of a dream. The violin recreates,
through deep connection with the turntables, a sound unexpectedly mechanical and
the turntables form a voice unexpectedly humane. The result is a truly unique
experience.
www.kunstradio.at/BIOS/zabelkabio.html
www.kunstradio.at/BIOS/djstillbio.html
