FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Kayla Painter is an acclaimed experimental sound artist, musician, producer and DJ and we are pleased to host a special live audio-visual show tailored to the Phoenix auditorium!

Painter’s immersive, ever-evolving AV performances are a natural consequence of the entire writing process – the visuals figure into the earliest stages of her music. 2024 saw her biggest release to date, with her debut album ‘Fractures’. Written about NASA’s mission to Jupiter’s Frozen moon.

Kayla was awarded ‘Best Electronic Album of the year’ by Bandcamp for ‘Fractures’, as well as the Women Make Music PRSF award for the album’s creation.

Having grown up as a multi-instrumentalist, and playing in more conventional bands at University, Painter’s personal journey led her deeper into electronic music production. Her academic work focuses on the human relationship with sound, and this is reflected in her compositions.

She is a passionate explorer of the creative potential within field recording (see: Ambient Owl Core a genre Painter coined to describe her ambient music with field recordings of Owls); her compositions bristle with self-sourced timbres captured in an enduring spirit of experimentation. She also uses her platform to explore specific themes both personal and external: 2018’s Cannibals At Sea grappled with her mixed Fijian-British heritage, juxtaposing Pacific islander beliefs with British working class values in a compelling exploration of her own identity and the wider world around her. 2021 EP Somewhen followed similar themes of her heritage this time exploring lost and vibrant future landscapes and Kayla’s personal relationships with her Fijian-British heritage. Drenched with synths, rich sounds and bright colours, the EP and accompanying visuals envisage a lost future that brings two cultures together. Somewhen is looking into the past to create a new future with a dream like familiarity.

Kayla Painter is a visiting lecturer in creative composition and electronic music production at a host of Higher Education institutes. She works with education charities to deliver workshops, mentor individuals, and create course content. Her teaching spans a range of topics relating to being a musician in today’s world, from creative composition, field recording, studio ideas, to grant applications and surviving as a musician in the landscape. Underpinned by an authentic drive for creation, her lectures and workshops prove popular and inspiring for attendees.

Her most notable panel appearance was alongside Laurie Anderson and Hannah Peel, for the WITCiH digital festival and Kayla currently hosts a monthly radio show on Resonance Extra.

About Matthew North’s Department Factory…

Live support comes from Matthew North’s Department Factory, a rare performance of improvised instrumental progressive music involving looping guitars and synthesizers from the man behind All Living Fear and Secrets for September.

This event is a fundraiser for Exeter’s sound alternative community radio station, Phonic FM.

Henge

Extra-terrestrial joy-mongers HENGE have been delighting audiences in the UK and Europe since they landed on Planet Earth seven years ago. Their scintillating live performances earned them ‘Best Live Act’ at the Independent Festival Awards and they have since cemented their reputation with two acclaimed albums, numerous tours and regular main-stage festival appearances.

Their music escapes definition but occupies a space between rave and prog rock that nobody knew existed. It is energetic, subversive and invigoratingly playful, jovially going ‘where no one has gone before’. Ultimately, HENGE are spreading a message of hope which leaves audiences feeling amused and uplifted in equal measures.

Gong

From its beginnings in a French commune in 1967, through the Virgin Records years, mismanagement, court cases, break-ups and re-joining’s, deaths and rebirths – there has always been a continuous thread of beautiful, dangerous and extraordinary music emanating from Gong.

The current holders of the flame have come together over the last eight years; sinuous bass player Dave Sturt joined just as the album 2032 was shown to the world; Ian East (Sax, Flute) was the next to blow in through the portal; Fabio Golfetti brought his guitars from Brazil (after working with Daevid Allen for many years); Kavus Torabi (lead vox and guitars) appeared to Daevid in a vision; Cheb Nettles (drums) just sort of turned up.

Gong’s musically diverse world includes shades of psychedelia, space rock, jazz, avant-garde, krautrock and surreal soundscapes. Gong consists of: Kavus Torabi: Vocals, Guitars Dave Sturt: Bass, Ian East: Sax, Cheb Nettles: Drums, and Fabio Golfetti: Guitars.

This event is a fundraiser for Exeter’s sound alternative community radio station, Phonic FM.

In the 1980s the band built a fan base on the festival circuit and made a series of cassette releases, sold at gigs and via a fan club. Their first label release was Pungent Effulgent in 1989, which was also re-released in the early 2000s, packaged with Strangeitude. This was followed by Erpland (1990), an album dedicated to Erp, a character who appears on many of the band’s album artworks. 1991 saw the Strangeitude LP. The track “Sploosh!” was used by BMW in an advertising campaign and became the band’s only single. By 1993 the band had grossed over three million dollars, and their Jurassic Shift album reached the top ten of the U.K. album charts.

The band has gone through many line-up changes, with only Ed Wynne (guitar and keyboards) maintaining a constant presence. The sonically illustrated excursion through the musical realms the band have explored has resulted in 17 albums to date, with their latest, Lotus Unfolding, released in their 40th anniversary year. The band maintain their identity and continue to tour worldwide and produce intriguing albums.

Ozric Tentacles are:

Ed Wynne: Guitars / Keyboards
Silas Wynne: Keyboards
Corey Wallace: Bass
Pat Garvey: Drums
Saskia Maxwell: Flutes

This event is a fundraiser for Exeter’s sound alternative community radio station, Phonic FM.