Women take centre stage festival celebrates international women's day with a night of innovation at scala including music, film and visuals by Andrea Parker, Neotropic and Mira Calix
8pm _ 1am, 8 March 2001 @ Scala 275-277 Pentonville Road, London, N1 (Kings Cross tube)
Tickets: £8 / £6, available from Ticketweb: 020 7771 2000
Information line: 020 7281 6781 (discussion forum with the performers 7pm)
Women Take Centre Stage celebrates female creativity with an innovative night of electronic music, film and visuals on 8 March at the Scala with globally acclaimed electronic producer/DJs Andrea Parker, Neotropic (Ntone) and Mira Calix (Warp) never before on the same bill. Andrea Parker will be playing, for the first time, a two-hour set of her own, original music, including unreleased tracks, together with visuals incorporating rare footage from Andrea's work around the world. The special early preview of La Prochaine Fois, a short 'ambient road movie', by Neotropic will open the evening plus there will be an exciting set from cutting edge exponent of electronica Mira Calix.
Andrea Parker will play a special, one-off set spanning all of her extensive musical output over two hours of original music, including new and un-released material. Having produced dark, brooding records such as Kiss My Arp (Mo' Wax), hard hitting tracks such as Ballbreaker and re-mixes for the likes of Depeche Mode and Steve Reich, Andrea's music spans electronica, techno, hip hop and classical music. Andrea will play tracks from her forthcoming five track mini-album The Dark Ages (out in late March on Quatermass). Andrea is also putting together her own label, Touchin' Bass, which will provide opportunities for artists, unsigned and well known, to be truly creative and feature an eclectic range of styles all with a strong bassline in common. Andrea has already had tracks from the likes of DJ Assault, DJ Godfather, Tipper, DMX Krew and DJ Panic.
For her set at the Scala Andrea will work closely with a VJ to fully incorporate visuals with the music. These will feature footage of the Finnish ballet (who commissioned a piece of dance to one of Andrea's tracks) plus excerpts of her work worldwide and images that have, and continue to influence her music.
Neotropic (aka Riz Maslen) has become increasingly involved in film and cinema having provided music for the forthcoming independent film "System Noise," directed by Josh Ferrazzano, which was shown at the Sundance 2000 festival, being involved in the music for a John Woo television series, and working on her own short film, a kind of "ambient road movie" entitled La Prochaine Fois. Riz's film, which features new tracks from the forthcoming album of the same name (to be released in June 2001), will receive a special early preview at Scala on 8 March as part of Women Take Centre Stage.
The album La Prochaine Fois (and hence the film) features Nick McCabe of the Verve playing guitar (and even cello) on most of the tracks, Sally Herbert, who has provided string arrangements for the Manic Street Preachers and the highly-respected group Low. It continues Riz's search for emotion and earthiness in electronics, this time with a more organic and live approach that harks back to the English folk tradition of Nick Drake, sideways to the post-rock experiments of Jim O'Rourke et al and forward to a new way of making electronic music.
South African born Warp artist Mira Calix (aka Chantal Passamonte), who can count Boards of Canada and John Peel amongst her fans, also joins in at the Scala with an exciting set of her own brand of electronica. Her own work, which will feature in the set, is a new take on electronic music, one that reflects her love of guitar blazers like Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine as much as any techno influence. Using a mass of sometimes contradictory elements, such as savage beauty and rough grittiness, fragrant melody and rhythmic sweat, Mira Calix is redefining electronic music for a new generation.
Women Take Centre Stage will also hold a night at Cargo on 7 March featuring some of the finest music being produced by female artists from around the world, including the Tunisian born Amina, who has worked alongside Afrika Bambaata and Renegade Soundwave, the reggae/dub vibe of Z Starr and the polish born vocal star Jarmila Xymena Gorna.
Women Take Centre Stage is now in its ninth year as London's leading annual international music festival and continues to create and encourage opportunities for innovative creative productions amongst new and established female talent from the UK and abroad. Women Take Centre Stage 2001 endeavours to make sure that female creativity continues to be supported, performed and celebrated worldwide. WTCS is produced by Jazz Moves and financially supported by London Arts Board, Camden Council, French Music Bureau.
For further information, photographs and interviews please contact Maija Handover, P: +44 (0) 20 7419 7055, M: 07939 568 053, E: maija@promote.flyer.co.uk
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