Experimental electronic musician Ariel Kalma collaborated with Robert Lowe (stream + NYC show pics)

photos by Greg Cristman

Kalma & Lowe @ Artists Space Books & Talks 8/8/2015

Born in France but rarely in one place for long, Ariel Kalma’s 1970s migrations took flight through the decade’s furthest spaces of musical and spiritual invention. As a hired horn for well-known French groups, the young musician toured as far as India in 1972, where he would later return to immerse himself in sacred music traditions. Kalma loyally worked with dual ReVox set-up– two tape machines “chained” together to form a primitive delay unit. Over looped saxophone melodies, Kalma would mix in all shades of polyphonic color, synthesizing fragments of poetry with ambient space or setting modal flute melodies to rippling drum machine patterns and starlit field recordings. The results collapse distinctions between “electro-acoustic”, “biomusicology” and “ambient” categorization.

Last year, electronic/experimental music pioneer Ariel Kalma compiled unreleased recordings from his archives on the RVNG Intl-released An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972 – 1979). That followed his collaboration with Brooklyn’s Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (aka Lichens), We Know Each Other Somehow, the 12th installment of RVNG’s FRKWYS series.

This past weekend, Ariel and Robert wrapped up a short tour in support of that album, hitting NYC on August 8 at Artists Space Books & Talks, a show that was presented by Issue Project Room. Lowe’s hauntingly processed vocals combined perfectly with Kalma’s multi-instrumental accompaniment (keys, programming, sax and more) into a transportive whole that had the room pindrop quiet. Pictures from this rare performance are in this post.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe has another NYC show coming up with Circuit des Yeux. More pictures from Saturday’s show, with a stream of “Almora Sunrise” from An Evolutionary Music, below…

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