When Daniel O'Sullivan was invited to curate the sixth installment of Transmissions Festival in Ravenna in 2013, his first request was for Charlemagne Palestine, the shamanic world-maker and sacred toy emissary associated with the New York, '60's minimalist scene and one-time student of Pandit Pran Nath. Palestine is known primarily for extended performances with Bösendorfer piano, cathedral organs and falsetto voice, but has also exhibited his visual work internationally. After Transmissions, O'Sullivan invited Palestine to play a two-night residency at Cafe Oto, the second night of which was a collaboration with Grumbling Fur, the duo of O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker.
The performance at Oto was a ritualistic union of crystalware, processed strings, live tape-manipulations, Indian harmonium, shimmering piano clusters, bleating cattle, a Japanese orgy, disembodied vocal harmony and rousing choruses often led by sing-a-ma-jigs (singing Fisher-Price toys affectionately referred to as "the singing assholes"). A continuous flow of overtones and plainchant sieved through mutant simulations of processed pulses, orbiting strings and heliotropic vocal mantras.
Following their recent critically acclaimed avant-pop albums Glynnaestra (Thrill Jockey) and Preternaturals (The Quietus), this is the first incarnation of the Grumbling Fur alter-ego "Time Machine Orchestra," an alias put together to explore extended drone works, improvisation and automatic composition.
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