Pop Mutations presents:
Kiran Leonard
plus Otis Jordan + Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Thursday 9th May at The Glad Cafe
Kiran Leonard’s unique and ambitious body of work spans more than a decade of releases on labels such as Moshi Moshi and Hand of Glory, limited-run noisy DIY fare, and everything in between. The adolescent guitar/chamber prog of early records such as ‘Bowler Hat Soup’ (2013) and ‘Grapefruit’ (2016) earned praise from Pitchfork, the Guardian and the Quietus, and produced several BBC 6Music-playlisted singles. More recent work has seen Kiran attempt to synthesise interests in situated/home recording, collage, his live practice, and a combination of songcraft with graphic scores, as documented on the monumental (i.e. two-hour-long) and abstract ‘Trespass on Foot’ (2021) and ‘River Holds Peace, Some Live’ (2023), a collection of new and old material arranged for an ensemble of multiple electric guitars, cittern and double bass.
Returning this year after half a decade of songs without choruses at the ripe old age of 28, Kiran will release new album ‘Real Home’ on 17th April via Memorials of Distinction. Preceded by two singles, ‘Treat Me a Stranger’ (a 44-second country-tinged ode to domesticity and the Singing Brakeman himself, Jimmie Rodgers) and ‘My Love, Let’s Take the Stage Tonight’ (a more standard-length three-minute quote “guitar pop banger”), ‘Real Home’ is the most concise and well-honed summary so far of his multivalent oeuvre (in other words, it’s his best!) Following a sold-out show at Windmill Brixton in early March, he will be supporting the album’s release with a short UK tour in May, with a new band featuring members of caroline, Shovel Dance Collective, and Historically Fucked.
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Born in Manchester, and based in Glasgow, Otis Jordan is a musician and artist who makes experimental folk music with a range of acoustic instruments, electronics, field recordings and homemade instruments. He has released solo albums with Them There Records and is a member of the Folklore Tapes collective. His new live group is a 6 piece band with trumpet, violin, homemade bells and musical saw.
Recently, he curated the compilation ‘Early Experiments in Recording, Vol.1 (1976-2021), which brought together 21 different artists’ first recordings spanning 5 decades. This was released by the experimental record label Hood Faire.
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Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh is a viola player exploring the tonal possibilities of gut strings and wood in both amplified and acoustic contexts.
Amalgamations of influences from improvised, traditional and early music styles can be heard on solo recordings Oreing (Fort Evil Fruit 2017), The Rounds (KRUT 2021) and most recently Live At Sonic Acts (Scatter Archive 2023).
She lives in Glasgow where she plays in free-improv quartet Dome Riders with Fritz Welch, Armin Sturm and Mike Parr-Burman.
An active collaborator, Nic Oireachtaigh has toured with experimental Irish bands Woven Skull and Cian Nugent & the Cosmos and has performed internationally with artists Josephine Foster and Circuit des Yeux. She has created music for theatre works by Isadora Epstein and collaboratively with Pat Thomas and Rhodri Davies.
In May 2022 she composed New Mountain, Reaching Plane, a surround sound piece for orchestral and gamelan musicians as a commission for BBC Scotland’s Tectonics Festival.
Recent performances include a newly commissioned work by Natalia Beylis and a premier of Eliane Radigue’s Asymptote Versatile(1963-64) at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2023.
Other passing/recurring musical companions include Jorge Boehringer (in viola duo Swiss Barns), Andrew Cheetham (free style drum/viola duo Lus), Cal Folger Day, Josh Thorpe, David Lacey, Aonghus McEvoy, David Donohoe, Anna Clock.