We wrap up the spring season of Free Folk Mondays with a London invasion, taking you from old banjo tunes and raw improvisation with Jacken Elswyth to futuristic explorations with Cam Deas.
Cam Deas is a musician and sound artist based in London. His practice concerns abstract sound, polytempos, irregular tuning systems, improvisation and stochastic and computer generative systems to create immersive environments of sound and music. His work is not subject to straightforward categorisation, with output ranging from solo acoustic guitar exploration through live electro-acoustic performance, to pure synthesis and computer generative music. In 2018 he released ‘Time Exercises’ on The Death of Rave, consisting of five works for synthesiser and computer, his first release of purely electronic work. The pieces explore polytempos and relative ratios between pitch and rhythm in a dense electronic space, described as “disembodied music playing out a thrilling dramaturgy and syntax of alien dissonance and disorienting rhythmic resolution”. His new album, ‘Mechanosphere’, continues his work exploring stochastic and generative harmony and polytempic rhythm through shared ratios of pitch and tempo, framed within a dense, immersive and abstract electronic space.
Jacken Elswyth is a London-based banjo player exploring traditional tunes, extrapolations thereon, and improvisational pieces for clawhammer banjo. Drawing on old-time Appalachian playing alongside American Primitive guitarists and English folk revivalists, Jacken adds drone accompaniments, extended playing techniques, and elements of free playing to push at the edges of these styles and traditions.