East End London based electronic artist Grigori’s moving and sparse rework of the delicate ‘Seahouses’ from British experimental trio Troyka’s third album which has just been released.
Speaking of the collaboration, collaboration Grigori says, “Having been a Troyka fan for years, getting the chance to remix a track for Ornithophobia was like opening a sweet jar. Seahouses is a beautiful album closer and I felt it had some room left for re-interpretation. I ended up with a pop song which talks about longing, waiting and indecision.”
Royka are an experimental British trio who make rich and enthralling instrumental music.
Featuring Kit Downes (once Mercury nominated in his own right) on hammond/synths, Chris Montague on guitar/loops and Josh Blackmore on drums, Troyka is far more than the sum of its parts and is definitely not your usual Hammond organ trio.
Ornithophobia is the London three-piece’s third studio album – their first for Naim– and truly marks the fruition of five years’ worth of musical experimentation. Influenced by the likes of Tim Berne, Aphex Twin, Deerhoof, Albert King and Flying Lotus, their music is intense, ambitious and iconoclastic. Unpredictable, yet catchy, melodies woven into complex time signatures may be a trade mark of the trio at full swing, but it is the flavours of textural beds, polyrhythmic post-dance, haunting trip-hop and atmospheric post-rock that make this record a sensation of the heart as well as the mind.
The album’s title, Ornithophobia, was first inspired by guitarist Chris’ fear of birds. This became the aptly chaotic groove of the album’s title track, which, in turn escalated into an album set in a fictionalised London; a post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare in which people have contracted a form of avian flu that is slowly turning them into human-size birds and gradually making them lose their minds. If this sounds like the stuff of comics, then you’re not far off, as the album artwork encompasses a dark, comic book storyboard, featuring our heroes Troyka, created by artist Naiel Ibarrola.
Ornithophobia Tour 2015
Feb 8 EDINBURGH Voodoo Rooms
Feb 9 LEEDS Leeds College of Music
Feb 10 BARNSTABLE North Devon Theatres
Feb 11 MILTON KEYNES The Stables
Feb 12 LONDON Rich Mix (Launch Party)
Feb 13 CARDIFF Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Feb 20 MANCHESTER Royal Northern College of Music
Feb 25 BIRMINGHAM MAC
Feb 27 LIVERPOOL Capstone Theatre
Feb 28 MORECAMBE Morecambe Hothouse
Mar 12 SHEFFIELD Sheffield Student’s Union
Mar 26 BELFAST Moving on Music
Apr 2 OXFORD Spin Jazz
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