ANLA COURTIS, BRUCE RUSSELL, HI-ASOBI. 5 February 2011



Anla Courtis’ restless safari across a ton of musical borderlands has seen his founding of the legendary and super prolific Argentinean rock unit, Reynols, and collaborations with a constellation of sonic magi, including Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Damo Suzuki (Can), Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple), Yoshimi (Boredoms), Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), Glenn Donaldson (Jewelled Antler, Thuja), John Oswald, The Skaters, Christina Carter (Charalambides), Astro (C.C.C.C.), Michael Snow, Pauline Oliveros, The Nihilist Spasm Band, and Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins). His solo work ranges from extreme, bricolage minimalism through hypnotic guitar blues, to obliterated techno, the chamber skronk of "Unstringed Guitar & Cymbals", and the processed failure punk of “Broken Walkman Research”.

Bruce Russell is an artist, composer and writer based in Christchurch, and is the founder of seminal labels, Xpressway and Corpus Hermeticum. His work has appeared on a panoply of labels, including Smalltown Supersound, Ecstatic Yod, Spirit of Orr, Siltbreeze and Helicopter. His bands, The Dead C and A Handful of Dust have appeared on an equally formidable array of imprints. Russell has recorded with the likes of AMM’s Eddie Prevost, Mattin, John Wiese, RLW, Tetuzi Akiyama and Birchville Cat Motel, and has performed alongside a similar host of like minded, but diverse artists.

Hi-Asobi’s Peter Wright, Antony Milton and David Khan invent a flecked din of sparring drone guitar, ET electronics, malware keyboard bondage and dialled-in choral objection, before departing to play the fabled Lines of Flight festival in Dunedin.