Art Of Noise co-founders will perform in London in October
The Art Of This have announced their debut London show at The ICA on 18 October. Tickets for the event, which is being billed as A Futurist Evening With The Art Of This, are on sale now from www.ica.art/live/the-art-of-this.
Electronic Sound unveiled this pulsating, profound, production-led new project from JJ Jeczalik, Gary Langan and Paul Morley, three of the original co-founders of The Art Of Noise, in a lengthy cover feature earlier this year. We also released an exclusive seven-inch single featuring the group’s first recordings. We’re expecting to hear a brace of new tracks at The ICA, as well as groundbreaking Art Of Noise works from both their ZTT era (‘Close (To The Edit)’, ‘Beatbox’ and ‘Moments In Love’) and their time at China Records (‘Legs’, ‘Backbeat’ and ‘Instruments Of Darkness’).
The show will be part of The ICA’s In The Round season and is set to make use of their Soundscape installation, an innovative surround-sound system from d&b Audiotechnik. The Soundscape was used by Brian Eno and Roger Eno for their first-ever joint performance, which took place at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre in Greece in 2021. The system also brought to life Nature Manifesto, a collaboration between Bjork and IRCAM at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in February of this year.
The Art of This is rounded out by ZTT label manager and curator Ian Peel. Rather than sending us a press release about the ICA event, Ian forwarded a 20-page manifesto for the group, an extract from which goes some way to explaining the whole project:
“The Art of This curates and continues the Art of Noise catalogue and honours the spirit of Art of Noise. But it is able to extend, warp and adapt it, while doing so giving it new energy and life. The Art of This will ensure that the Art of Noise exists in the present, even after forty years of sometimes being, and sometimes not being. Mostly, though, Art of This will look after Art of This. This is without prejudice.”
While the whole project is very future-focused, Jeczalik, Langan and Morley have long and fascinating histories behind them. JJ was the UK’s first entirely computer-based musician, becoming the go-to Fairlight CMI operator for Trevor Horn, Kate Bush and Paul McCartney. He produced the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Opportunities’ and helped create pivotal records like ABC’s ‘The Look of Love’, Yes’ ‘90125’ and Godley & Creme’s ‘Cry’. Having started out as part of the early 1980s synthpop scene – working with John Foxx, Visage and Landscape – the 1990s saw JJ’s energy switch to dance music and projects with the likes of The Orb and LFO.
Gary Langan is a Grammy award-winning record producer and founder of Metropolis Studios. The first record he ever worked on was Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and he also engineered the band’s ‘A Night At The Opera’ and ‘A Day At The Races’ albums. Gary produced classic LPs of the 80s for Scritti Politti, ABC and Public Image Limited, as well as tracks for The The, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, The Dream Academy, Spear of Destiny and Kevin Rowland. He has most recently worked with James, Seal and Natalie Imbruglia.
Paul Morley is a member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music and author of ‘The Age Of Bowie’ and ‘A Sound Mind: How I Fell In Love With Classical Music And Decided To Rewrite Its Entire History’. As well as being one of the NME’s best-known writers, he was the first presenter of BBC Two’s ‘The Late Show’ and the focus of the BBC Four documentary ‘How to Be A Composer’. Brian Eno describes Paul Morley as “the greatest thinker/writer/social critic/TV presenter since Plato/Keynes/Duchamp/Betjeman (delete where not applicable)”.
