tQ’s John Doran will be giving a virtual talk on Aphex Twin on July 19 as part of the inaugural Sofa Sonic.
The weekend-long digital event, which has been organised as a replacement for the annual Supersonic Festival, will also feature a kids gig featuring one-man band ICHI, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs bingo and a socially distanced pub quiz hosted by our Rum Music columnist, Jennifer Lucy Allan.
Also featuring on the line-up for Sofa Sonic are Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai, Steve Von Till of Neurosis, Natalie Sharp, Will Brooks of Dälek, Trikilatops, The Melvins, Gnod, Bulbils, Valentina Magaletti of Tomaga, and White Hills.
For his appearance, Doran will be beaming in from rural Wiltshire to present an audiovisual talk called Selected Ambient Walks: Aphex Twin And Cornish Mythology. The lecture will be presented in 5.1 AFX Vision* and draws many links between the tin mining industry, West Country witches, the legend of Merlin’s Keep, state-sponsored English vandalism of the Logan Rock, Michel Foucault and the deep history of the Cornish pasty.
Speaking about Sofa Sonic, organiser and Capsule head honcho Lisa Meyer said: "Cancelling this year’s festival was a heart breaking but necessary decision. However, we think it is important, despite the year’s unprecedented events, to mark what should have been this year’s Supersonic Festival 2020 weekend in a big way.
"We’ve lovingly crafted a weekend of unique and exclusive online performances, panel talks, DJ sets and more oddities from a plethora of Supersonic artists and its wider community. The programme is free but we are asking for donations to help support the festival, artists and freelancers, with 25% being donated to the Trussell Trust Food Banks."
Sofa Sonic runs from July 17-19, 2020. The full line-up for Sofa Sonic can be found
here, and the festival can be streamed via the Supersonic YouTube channel.
(*A Zoom presentation with the backgrounds messed about with.)
