Bedroom Community Presents... Nico Mulhy, Ben Frost, Valgeir Sigurosson, Sam Amidon

[Urchin PR]

Bedroom Community presents: THE WHALE WATCHING TOUR

Nico Muhly – Ben Frost –
Valgeir Sigurðsson – Sam Amidon

National Concert Hall, Dublin April 21st, 2010

Tickets €25 online from www.nch.ie, or the from the National Concert Hall box office 01-4170000

In 2006, Icelandic producer Valgeir Sigurðsson founded the Bedroom Community record label with Nico Muhly and Ben Frost, soon adding Sam Amidon to the intimate roster. After three years of concerts, collaborations and acclaimed album releases, the Bedroom Community is heading out together for a trek across Europe: The Whale Watching Tour.

More than just a series of concerts, this tour is an extension of the ongoing musical exchange between these diverse artists. Disparate musical backgrounds will coexist and collide as Valgeir, Nico, Ben and Sam perform music from their catalogues, as well as introducing new and previously unreleased material (and a surprise or two along the way).

The program will be constructed in true Bedroom Community fashion, where all the artists will contribute to each other's music on stage, akin to their many studio collaborations. The set will flow undivided between Nico's twitchy modern compositions, Valgeir's surgical acoustic-electronica, Ben's vast noise-scapes and Sam's traditional tunes and murder ballads (mixed perhaps with liturgical dancing, projections and stories that you never know whether are true or not...)

To aid the creation of this remarkable amalgam of genres on The Whale Watching Tour will be a quartet of extraordinary musicians; Nadia Sirota (viola), Una Sveinbjarnardóttir (violin), Borgar Magnason (double-bass), Helgi Hrafn Jónsson (trombone and vocals), all of whom have all recorded and toured with the four headliners.

www.bedroomcommunity.net

About the artists:

Nico Muhly

...quickly made a name for himself in classical music as well as other musical genres after graduating from the Juilliard School with a degree in composition. He has amassed a highly impressive resumé including commissions from orchestras around the world and arrangements work for Antony, Björk, Grizzly Bear, Rufus Wainwright and many more. He has worked extensively for Philip Glass as conductor and has scored several major films including the Oscar winning movie The Reader.

www.myspace.com/muhly

“Muhly’s range is expansive- the relationship between the emotional seriousness of his music and it’s boundless sense of humor is complex and rewarding.”
-The Fader Magazine

“...Muhly pieces achieve a cool balance between ancient and modern modes, between the life of the mind and the noise of the street.”
-The New Yorker

"Some people are getting rather over-excited about Nico Muhly. They are right to do so."
- The Wire

"Small, elegant parcels filled with clear melodies, pulsating rhythms and the occasional alarming abrasion" "[he has] a capacity to express emotion through circumspect means." -New York Times

Ben Frost

...burst into the spotlight with his breathtaking and critically acclaimed Theory of Machines album in 2007. Treading a fine line between composer, producer and sound artist, Ben Frost fully exploits the unique sonic resources at his disposal – blending visceral, minimal and haunting electro-acoustic fragments with more human, fragile elements. Wire Magazine said "it is simply awesome--- this is Arvo Pärt as arranged by Trent Reznor", the BBC's Mary Anne Hobbs called it "arresting and exquisite". Boomkat named Frost "one of the most interesting and groundbreaking producers in the world today" and even went so far as to call Theory of Machines "the future of electronic music". His new album By The Throat was Produced by Ben and Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Coco Rosie, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) and features performances by Amiina, Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara, the Swedish metal outfit Crowpath and composer Nico Muhly.

www.myspace.com/theghostofbenfrost

“Simply awesome... Frost reminds us that minimalism was never just the polished sheen of Reich and Glass, but also the sweat and grime of Michael Gira's Swans...A deeper, darker minimalism- menacing and claustrophobic... This is Arvo Pärt as arranged by Trent Reznor... Magnificent”
- Wire Magazine, 2007

"Its a hollow, unforgiving, brutal yet utterly beautiful record full of deep intricacies that wont let you go. 'BY THE THROAT' indeed."
-NME

“Reaches right out of the thought bubble and punches you out of your skin.”
–BBC, David Stubbs

"Defiantly new, and distinctively dramatic... all-encompassing and eerily real. A sharp-edged Hi-Def encounter with the dangerously sublime."
- Wire Magazine

"...The compositional complexity of Arvo Pärt and the sonic nothingness of Wolf Eyes...Yes, it is that good"
-Vice Magazine

Simply awesome... Frost reminds us that minimalism was never just the polished sheen of Reich and Glass, but also the sweat and grime of Michael Gira's Swans... Truly brutal... A deeper, darker minimalism- menacing and claustrophobic... This is Arvo Pärt as arranged by Trent Reznor... Magnificent
- Wire Magazine

“Ben Frost BY THE THROAT review: 'This formidable and far-reaching body of work might be one of 2009's most singularly impressive listening experiences, and very likely the only record you'll hear this year whose repertoire consists of both luscious classical chamber compositions and the hunting calls of killer whales... A very high recommendation.”
- Boomkat

Valgeir Sigurðsson

...made his mark as an artist with the release of his debut album Ekvílibríum in 2007. He has made a notable contribution to the music of an array of leading artists as producer and collaborator (Björk, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, CocoRosie, múm) and is the owner and founder of the Bedroom Community label and Greenhouse Recording Studios. As a producer and collaborator he has worked in various genres of music while his own style often shifts between, or combines, post-classical and electronic music.

www.myspace.com/valgeirs

The strength of Ekvílibríum is in the organic way Sigurdsson weds the electronic to the human... The result is a singular album, as ornate as it is direct.
-The Fader Magazine

“...almost collapses under the power of its own trembling beauty... Valgeir Sigurðsson delivers his bonded masterpiece... prepare to be dazzled.”
-God’s In The TV

“an album for all connoisseurs of recorded sound, marrying exceptional electronic detail with real instrumentation on a grand scale.”
-Boomkat

Sam Amidon

...raised in Brattleboro, Vermont by folk-musician parents Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. He sings, plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, and can count in binary code on his hands really fast. "All Is Well," a collection of re-worked folksongs produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson and featuring chamber-orchestral arrangements by Nico Muhly and contributions from Eyvind Kang, Aaron Siegel, Ben Frost, and Stefan Amidon, is his first album for Bedroom Community. His previous album of songs, a duo with Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) under the name Samamidon and called "But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted," was labelled "the most interesting folk album of 2007" by Stylus magazine.

Sam lives in New York City. He plays in the lamp-rock bands Doveman and Stars Like Fleas, and has also played with Tall Firs, The Swell Season, and Stares. In March, he premiered the Nico Muhly composition "The Only Tune" at Carnegie Hall.

Sam studied with the late free-jazz legend Leroy Jenkins and downtown/jazz violinist Mark Feldman. As a teenager he became known throughout the United States folk scene as a fiddler, releasing five albums with his band Assembly to great acclaim, as well as performing with his parents. Along the way he and Assembly gathered attention from All Things Considered, CNN, The Boston Globe, and Fiddler Magazine, and eventually Sam acted in a starring role in a feature film called "American Wake," which had its premier at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Life is odd.

Sam makes videos and draws comics.

www.myspace.com/samamidon

"In an era of overheated Nick Drake comparisons, Amidon is eerily close to the real thing, singing in a fragile but certain tenor against the deep breath and soft sweep of Nico Muhly’s orchestrations."
-Rolling Stone Magazine, David Fricke

"Amidon doesn't just update the old world to the new, but finds the roots of the new world in the old."
-Pitchfork

"Young Sam has a talent for reinterpreting traditional folk standards, and in the hands of the ever-empathetic Valgeir Sigurdsson and his bedroom community, he's produced a work bordering on the timeless."
-David Sylvian

"Nothing less than a goose-bump-manufacturing sonic piéce de résistance."
-CMJ New Music Monthly

[Jasper]

Wow - this sounds fantastic! Ben Frost's "By the Throat" is a brilliant album.

[worthit]

That's handy. It's in my workplace.

[Mitchum]

Wow - this sounds fantastic! Ben Frost's "By the Throat" is a brilliant album.

Indeed. Album of the year for me.
Impressive roster. Really liked that Sam Amidon record too.

[Urchin PR]

To see the footage, check here:

[Foggy]

[Jasper]

Concert excerpts from the Bedroom Community Whale Watching Tour
1. Theory of Machines, AB Theater Bruxelles Belgium 08/11/09
2. Híbakúsja, AB Theater Bruxelles Belgium 08/11/09
3. Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes, Effenaar Theater, Eindhoven Holland 09/11/09

http://soundcloud.com/benfrost/ben-f...ium-08-11-2009

[Unicron]

Early days I know but Sigurosson isn't going to be trapped in Iceland is he?

[I Bleed Black]

Early days I know but Sigurosson isn't going to be trapped in Iceland is he?

I think Iceland is one of the few places where planes aren't grounded at the moment but I guess where can he fly to? The tour is due to start tomoro in berlin so I guess we'll have a better idea if that goes ahead.

[I Bleed Black]

Ok I just read on the Bedroom Com. site that the first two dates of the tour in Berlin and Gent are cancelled but it sounds like they are trying hard to make the rest of the tour happen. Fingers crossed.