SOLAR FLARES

SOLAR FLARES BURN FOR YOU
An evening of psychedelic cine-sonic shape-shifting
at
Bethnal Green Working Mens Club, Pollard Row, London, E2
16th September 2011, 8pm-2am

Presented by

The Anti-Gravity Chamber
&
The House of Black Fuzz

with the kind assistance of the British Film Institute

Featuring:
* A 90 minute programme of rarely seen mind-blowing psychedelic short films funded by the BFI Production Board, all projected in their original 16mm format as they were originally seen

*A special performance of mind-bending live music by Raagnagrok

*Special guest DJs Julian House and Jim Jupp (Ghost Box Music) will sonically enhance the mood of the happening and extend the evening into an after-show party

* All accompanied by a mind-frying live psychedelic light show with ultra-vivid coloured oils boiled alive before your very eyes

Solar Flares Burn For You presents a specially curated programme, of rarely seen short psychedelic and pop-art films (1967-73), all originally produced with the financial assistance of the British Film Institutes late lamented Production Board. To mark this triumphant return to the public psyche, the films will be screened at East Londons Bethnal Green Working Mens Club. Famed for hosting underground burlesque nights, performance art and raucous music events, for this evening only the venue will be transformed into an immersive moving image environment to invoke the spirit of the original underground arts lab culture from which the films emerged, taking the appreciation of moving images and sonic experimentation outside of the staid and reverential space of the cinema theatre, beyond the screen and into the fabric of a live happening in which all are welcome to participate.

With the 90 minute programme of short films forming the centrepiece of the event, the screening will segue into a special live music performance by Raagnagrok, visually augmented by a live mix of visuals by the Bardo Light Show and the Anti-Gravity Chamber. Beyond this final frontier our special guest DJs, Julian House and Jim Jupp of Ghost Box Music, visually enhanced by their own official video loops will shift the mood up a gear and into after-show party overdrive with an eclectic sound-collage of way-out library music, obscure folk, soundtracks, electronica and psychedelia until the small hours of the morning.

Fusing together the spirit of psychedelic culture and the arts lab happenings of the 60s with the music cultures, performance art and spontaneity of contemporary concerns, SOLAR FLARES BURN FOR YOU will unite the world of the artist-filmmaker with retro-futurists, cutting edge sound artists with tribes of psychedelic adventurers, DJs with live film and video loop projection experiments, analogue with digital

THE ARTISTS

RAAGNAGROK
Since the baptism of fire that was their first performance on the night of 7th July 2005 in London, this cosmic drone duo comprising Mark Pilkington, the mastermind behind the acclaimed Strange Attractor Press (who will also play a DJ set later in the evening) on electronics and Tibetan bells and Zali Krishna on electric sitar and oboe has expanded to include a free jazz drummer, psychedelic cultural historian and author of Shroom, Andy Letcher on Breton Pipes and video installation artist Nathaniel Mellors, (flushed with success from his debut solo show at the ICA), on bass. This evening they will be enhanced by a convocation of projected light spirits, causing them to glow maniacally, even as their vibrations transport you to landscapes at the furthest reaches of your psyche.
www.raagnagrok.co.uk
www.strangeattractor.co.uk

GHOST BOX MUSIC
Jim Jupp and Julian House founded the record label Ghost Box in 2004 and have since been feted as re-inventors of electronica powered by musique concrete and avatars of that elusive and allusive style of cultural re-purposing, hauntology. The label was formed to release the recordings of their own groups, who draw on a potage of library music, soundtracks, folk, psychedelia and public information broadcasts, Belbury Poly and The Focus Group. Since then they have attracted international interest, most famously for the Focus Groups collaboration with the highly influential Broadcast, whose charismatic singer Trish Keenan sadly died earlier this year. This special eclectic DJ set will be enhanced by projected video loops created by their own fair hands in his other life Julian is an acclaimed graphic designer and video artist. Expect some spectacularly tasty eye candy.
www.ghostbox.co.uk

THE BARDO LIGHT SHOW
Inspired by the projections of the 1960s light shows, the BLS researched, hoarded kit, and experimented to develop an authentic psychedelic light show. Liquids and chemicals are at the heart of the light show mixed, boiled, squished and literally obliterated on the screen and in the minds of the viewers. These analog effects are mashed up with digital footage and effects manipulated live using video processors. The process is hands on, mechanical, and driven by a healthy trust in chaos. The output has organic, natural, and primordial aesthetics, which integrate with, enhance, and reference the psychedelic experience.
www.bardolightshow.co.uk

THE ANTI-GRAVITY CHAMBER
Since its first public performance on Halloween, 2009, the Anti-Gravity Chamber has continued to expand its arsenal of optical liquid effects and slides to integrate 8mm and 16mm film and projections. Appropriately, the Chamber was initially inspired by a screening of pop collage films by Jeff Keen, who specialises in performing his expanded cinema pieces live using multiple projectors. This event completes the circle by presenting Keen films, alongside contemporaries, in just such a context.
www.antigravitychamber.wordpress.com

HOUSE OF BLACKFUZZ
Has been promoting film and music themed events for the last 2 yrs in London. These have included a Tribute to Dennis Hopper which featured a screening of the rare proto-punk masterpiece Out Of The Blue with dj support from Cherrystones and Blackfuzz, and An Evening with Jack Bond screening Dali in New York and Anti-Clock followed by a Q&A with the legendary director.
www.bit.ly/cuH4nd

Tickets are on sale now and available in advance for 7 via We Got Tickets

10 on the door, 5 after midnight

For further information contact :
Stuart Heaney
chamberofcuriosities@gmail.com
Mat Harvey
matcharvey@hotmail.com