Underskog

Thursday 15th February
Part One – Humans
Part Two – Nature

with special guest Frederik Ness Sevendal

Working with a baritone guitar as source material, ex- Cranes guitar/bass player Mark Francombe, combines completely conventional guitar playing and less standard “improv” techniques, with a heavy artillery of filters, delays, samplers, loopers, synthesisers and the inevitable laptop to modified and process his sound.

Much of his work stems from the process of playing and sampling small snippets and phrases of simple melody, which then degrade and distort into digital noise or analogue grunge. Layers build and fade, melodies loop hypnotically till they transform into something else. All is enveloped in a reverby haze that gives the result a kind of classical quality, sometimes reminiscent of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks, and other times the Fripp/Eno classic, No Pussyfooting.

Francombe’s baritone guitar is pitched somewhere between a regular guitar and a bass, which ideally places it for both melodic and low-end work, however harmonisers and pitch shifters are often in play moving the sound into un-natural registers. The click and chop of glitch is also present, but in Francombe’s work it has less to do with the sound of digital malfunction and more an audible process of re-organisation, as he moves sound around from one place to another.

Second half will be on Monday 26th February.