London-based producer/artist Spatial has announced that his new project, Primitives, will premiere at Cafe Oto on July 3rd. His performance takes place as part of the latest Unconscious Archives event – more details here – which also features Nominoë and Sami Van Ingen.
Primitives is quite a shift away from the Infrasonics boss’ usual precision-tooled garage/techno hybrid club tracks, instead finding him taking steps towards a performance-based audiovisual mode, centred around his own custom coded software. The aim, the text accompanying the Oto show explains, is "to explore sonic and optical intensity articulated by simple geometric figures and high and low frequencies. Projected images drive a sensory assault, consumed by your eyes, then your ears and existing somewhere between perceptions." For a taste of what to expect from the performance, he’s uploaded a trailer demonstrating the project, which you can watch above. (Warning: decent speakers or headphones are useful here, given the low, physical frequency range it works within).
As well as being premiered live, we’re promised that official documentation of the project will be released in future via the ever on-point Broken20 label, in a package that includes two performances by Spatial himself using the software, and other specially commissioned audio works. It will also include the source code and an executable version of the Primitives software itself, presumably allowing users to create their own audiovisual works as well as scramble around with the program’s internal workings.
Primitives arrives just after the release of two new club-focused records from Spatial: a 12" on West Norwood Cassette Library, and a remix of Kirk Degiorgio on a 12" also featuring interpretations by Rick Wilhite and NX-1. You can also listen to his great mix for Colony from earlier this year here. For more general info on Spatial’s ongoing projects, click here to visit his website.