image jo williams copyright

HOWLING OWL PRESENT: JOHN BENCE AND KAYLA PAINTER

Friday 15 January 2016

Howling Owl Records invites artists, John Bence and Kayla Painter to perform in the Dark Studio.

For the opening event of the weekend, Howling Owl bring together John Bence and Kayla Painter for an intimate live show in the Dark Studio.

John Bence

Mercurial, elusive and of seemingly limitless imagination, John Bence is rising to the surface. From a family background rich in classical pedigree and firmly embedded in Bristol’s forward-facing electronic music culture, Bence has pooled a breadth of influence scarcely credible for a composer only entering his second decade, and now he is starting to put his inspiration into live and recorded motion.

As a producer he is already thinking ten steps ahead, often incorporating voice or home recorded percussion into his cyclical technique of scoring, recording, manipulating, re-scoring and re-recording in waves, creating heady, intoxicating ripples of harmony and noise.

An obscure snippet of dubplate drone under a previous moniker was enough for Nicolas Jaar, who instantly approached him about a release on his Other People label. Six months on Disquiet was released, a masterful hybrid of classical and electronic clocking in at a tantalising ten minutes.

Kayla Painter

Heavily influenced by Bristol’s legendary bass heritage, Kayla’s sound draws from techno, garage and post dub; she crafts her experimental soundscapes from intriguing and restless rhythms, surging deep bass lines and warm washes of cloudy ambience.

In 2014 Kayla expanded her live show to include a dual screen setup, creating beautiful and immersive depth. The hypnotising visual show, crafted with the help of Jason Baker (The Crisis Project), draws on themes and aesthetics seen in her artwork. Please note: due to the size of the space, this performance will be a singular screen AV show.

Review

My heart sank when I realised I was at an event, where, yet again, my failure to have a brutal arty fringe/hair do, and lack of granny coat made me stand out as an outsider.

I got chatting to a local who came over after a smiled back awkwardly after cramming some crisps in my mouth. Didnt' think it would add to my lack of cool to be crunching my way through the perfomance, I nearly perforated my foodpipe wolfing them down.

Turns out the guy Dave Williams, helps run Jelly Records. Still not sure of this significance, especially after he told me they do a set on Bradley Stoke Community Radio. (At this point I worried less about feeling uncool until he started talking). Apparently he'd helped champion Kayla Painter, and lo and behold in the break, she handed over some EPs, for him to play.

Think I was expecting to be underwhelmed
I'd seen Kayla Painters video hyped on Bristol Social Media last year, the busy, surreal footage made in a recognisable Cabot Circus was distracting.

She performed behind a large gauze like screen, cable tied to a frame, whilst the person responsible for the visuals Jason Baker was out of sight in the blackness.

The building, layering and tilting of the visuals, to give a 3-D effect was mesmerising. I was pretty much transfixed throughout the whole set. Bristol trance, without any chemicals, sat in darkened boxy room on the second floor of the Arnolfini on a Friday night.
I'd taken a punt.

Kayla, artful of fringe, slow of DJ dancing motion, was quietly spoken and completely lacking in attitude. As was John Bence the main act, who despite ending it with mentions of Jesus and Hallelujah, performed an equally awe inspiring set, of growling, droney-hypnotic rhythms. I noticed my Sanctum co-conspirator and all round font-of-knowledge guru at Queens Road Wes in the audience. Later found out he was more taken with John's work and knows him already. can you become cool by third hand acquaintances? Anyways, great way to spend an evening that felt like a punt. Still struggling to answer earnest questions about what kind of sound art I do.
To do list:
1. come up with a coherent answer to sound art question
2. get a fringe/clip-on fringe
3. Write more coherent blog entries

http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/howling-owl-presents-john-bence-and-kayla-painter-av-show