Luc Ferrari: Stereo Spasms Festival

Cafe Oto is celebrating what would have been the 90th birthday of composer Luc Ferrari this February with ‘Stereo Spasms Festival’. The eight-day programme of live concerts, talks, and exhibitions will culminate with the launch of the English translation of his Complete Works.

Luc Ferrari first gained recognition in the late 1950s and 1960s in France for his affiliation with  the influential Groupe de Recherches Musicales. During this period he focused on the research and composition of music concrète works, often manipulating pieces of metal scoured at flea markets and factories in the studio to form abstract music.

His best-known work, ‘Presque Rien n°1’ (1967-70), was inspired by John Cage and described by Ferrari as “anti-music”. The minimalist composition was assembled from various “anecdotal” field recordings captured using a portable tape recorder while Ferrari was living in rural Korčula – a Croatian island in the Adriatic sea. The full title of the resulting sonic tapestry translates to ‘Almost Nothing No. 1, Daybreak at the Seashore’ in English.

In 1982, Ferrari opened La Muse en Circuit, an electroacoustic music centre in the outer suburbs of Paris dedicated to the creation of multidisciplinary sound works. Here, Ferrari continued to compose award-winning, subversive soundscapes. In his later career the integration of speech, in the guise of radio plays or travel diaries, introduced a narrative sensibility to his works.

Contemporary composers ranging from LCC Professor David Toop to Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore will perform interpretations of Ferrari’s works spanning five decades at Stereo Spasms Festival. The event takes place from the 7th to the 15th of February 2019 at Cafe Oto, Dalston.