Kali Malone & Stephen O’ Malley perform with Modular Organ System

Since 2017, Berlin-based musi­cians and artists Phillip Sollmann and Konrad Sprenger have been devel­o­ping the Modular Organ System. This con­ti­nuous­ly gro­wing sound sculp­tu­re with organ pipes and horns offers a soun­ding envi­ron­ment that lis­te­ners can explo­re by wal­king around and can be both an instal­la­ti­on and an instru­ment for live per­for­man­ces. Especially for the occa­si­on, Swedish-American com­po­ser Kali Malone and American gui­t­arist, com­po­ser and Sun O)))-founder Stephen O’ Malley will per­form a site-spe­ci­fic duo per­for­man­ce with the Modular Organ System. Expect elec­tro­a­cous­tic explo­ra­ti­ons and shim­me­ring dro­nes with gre­at phy­si­cal and per­cep­tu­al impact.

KALI MALONE

The com­po­si­ti­ons of Kali Malone imple­ment spe­ci­fic tuning sys­tems in mini­ma­list struc­tu­re for pipe organ, choir, cham­ber music ensem­bles, and elec­tro­a­cous­tic for­mats. Malone’s music is rich with

har­mo­nic tex­tu­re through syn­the­tic and acous­tic instru­men­ta­ti­on in repe­ti­ti­ve moti­ons and extended

dura­ti­ons. The music emits dis­tinct emo­ti­ve, dyna­mic, and affec­ti­ve hues which bring forth a stunning

depth of focus.

Malone’s 2019 cri­ti­cally acclai­med album ​’The Sacrificial Code’ is a major work fea­tu­ring almost two hours of con­cen­tra­ted pipe organ pie­ces with pro­found emo­ti­o­nal reso­nan­ce. With its slow, puri­fied, and see­min­gly aus­te­re qua­li­ties, The Sacrificial Code gui­des us through an almost tran­ce-indu­cing pro­cess whe­re we beco­me vul­ne­ra­ble recep­tors for eve­ry slight move­ment, whe­re eve­ry mini­a­tu­re shift in sound beco­mes mag­ni­fied through still­ness. As such, it’s a uni­que­ly satis­fying exer­ci­se in trans­cen­den­ce through self-res­traint, a stri­king rea­li­sa­ti­on of ide­as bor­ne out of aca­de­mic and con­cep­tu­al rigor which gra­du­al­ly reveals pro­found per­so­nal dimen­si­ons. It has a per­cep­ti­on-alte­ring qua­li­ty that encou­ra­ges self-explo­ra­ti­on free of sign­posts and wit­hout a pre­or­dai­ned endpoint.

Kali Malone has per­for­med exten­si­ve­ly in Europe and North America at Musica Festival, Berlin Atonal, Moogfest, Kanal Pompidou, Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, and Radio France. Her com­mis­si­on pro­jects and resi­den­cies inclu­de the Ina GRM, Berlin Monom, The Richard Thomas Foundation, MACBA, Macadam Ensemble, Orgelpark, Elektronmusikstudion and Tempo Reale. She col­la­bo­ra­tes and per­forms with various artists, inclu­ding Stephen O’Malley, Lucy Railton, Frederikke Hoffmeier, Leila Bordreuil, Drew McDowall, Caterina Barbieri, and Ellen Arkbro. In 2016 she co-foun­ded the record label and con­cert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm.

STEPHEN O’ MALLEY

The American com­po­ser and musi­cian, though best known for his role as gui­t­arist and foun­der of Sunn O))), has ear­ned admi­ra­ti­on as a wizard of fier­ce­ly inno­va­ti­ve col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons and as a pro­mul­ga­tor of the musi­cal and artis­tic avant-gar­de at large.

O’Malley was born in New Hampshire, USA and rai­sed in Seattle. After for­ming Sunn O))) with Greg Anderson in 1998, he also foun­ded the groups Khanate (2000), KTL (2005), Nazoranai (2011), and ÄÄNIPÄÄ (2011). He left Seattle for New York, whe­re he spent ten years, and is now based in Paris. He col­la­bo­ra­tes fre­quent­ly with out­si­der musi­cians, artists, and com­po­sers in various for­ma­ti­ons and in both live and stu­dio set­tings. He hel­ped cre­a­te the record labels Southern Lord (in 1998) and Ajna Offensive (in 1995) and wor­ked as the art direc­tor for Misanthropy Records from 1997 to 2000. In 2011 he cre­a­ted Ideologic Organ, an Editions Mego subla­bel, together with Peter Rehberg.

O’Malley’s work is defi­ned by its remar­ka­ble bre­adth and vari­e­ty and has been mar­ked by joint efforts with a wide ran­ge of expe­ri­men­tal musi­cians, inclu­ding Scott Walker, Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Mats Gustaffson, Peter Rehberg, and Oren Ambarchi; French cho­re­o­grap­her and the­a­ter direc­tor Gisèle Vienne; author Dennis Cooper; Israeli con­duc­tor Ilan Volkov; American sculp­tor Banks Violette; Italian per­for­man­ce artist Nico Vascellari; American film­ma­ker Jim Jarmusch; Fashion desig­ner Rick Owens; Belgian film­ma­ker Alexis Destoop; and con­tem­po­ra­ry com­po­sers Roger Tessier, Eyvind Kang and Alvin Lucier, and Iancu Dumitrescu