TICKETS- https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Oldham/Golden-Lion-Hotel/Tor-Festival/13559292/
Tor Festival is held in the West Yorkshire market town of Todmorden, this year taking place across two stages at The Golden Lion pub. Friday night is warm up night, this will be in the intimate live room upstairs, tickets will be very limited! Saturday is all day, two stages and loads amazing performers, Sunday afternoon is free entry and we've invited Willie Stewart (Woven Skull, Divil A' Bit) to curate Floor Tom Fest, a celebration of experimental drum based music!
Friday night, 7.30pm start
Game_Program:
Game_Program is an ongoing exploration of pre-digital electronic hardware by Cowtown singer/guitarist and Hookworms/Nope drummer Jonathan Nash. Initially conceived as a constructive way to pass the time between other musical endeavours and an opportunity to interact with and learn from previously unattainable and now semi-obsolete technologies, Game_Program has slowly evolved into a genuinely expressive outlet where half remembered, re-imagined memories coexist with child-like flights of fantasy and retrofitted nostalgia.
Lady Vendredi:
Special solo set from recent Oram Awards winner, Nwando Ebizie aka Lady Vendredi. Ebizie is a multidisciplinary artist whose work converges around performance art personas, experimental theatre, music and African diasporic ritualistic dance. Through her projects she investigates the contradictions of identity found in projected personas, the formation of mythopoeia, and the transcendence of ecstatic group ritual.
Lee Patterson:
Lee Patterson has devised and performs with a selection of amplified devices and processes. Whether working live with amplification or recording within an environment, he has pioneered a range of methods to produce or uncover complex sound in unexpected places. From rock chalk and springs, to aquatic plants and insects, Lee eavesdrops upon and takes inspiration from places and situations otherwise considered mute.
Emperor Machine and Waka Dj set downstairs in The Golden Lion from 8pm. Free Entry!
Saturday, 1pm – late
Gnod + guests
Since their inception, Gnod’s musical trajectory has been one of constant fluctuation borne out of an incessant need to discover new sonic worlds. Beginning life as a shamanic drone ensemble, at times fitting up to 15 members on stage, these early rituals informed the core ideals that have come to define the group in their years of activity; community and trance-inducing repetition. Gnod offer a gateway to an aural black hole and along with firm guiding hand, the opportunity to dive head and body first into a powerfully new psychedelic maelstrom full of possibilities.
Gnod will be performing a special set for Tor Fest which will feature a rotating cast of other performers from the festival and locally based artists from the Upper Calder Valley.
Emmanuelle Parrenin
Emmanuelle Parrenin is a French folk singer, harpist and hurdy-gurdy player who was first active in the late 1960s and 1970s as part of "le mouvement folk". Her much loved album ‘Maison Rose’ was originally released in 1977 but enjoyed a recent reissue by Light in the Attic Records. In addition to solo works, Parrenin regularly improvises with other musicians and for this show in Todmorden she will be presenting a combination of solo and improvised pieces with local artists, Sam McLoughlin and DBH.
Natalie Sharp (Lone Taxidermist)
Natalie Sharp is an accomplished sound & stage designer, performance artist and make-up artist whose design practices converge around sound and the body. Well known on the ‘New Weird Britain’ circuit as Lone Taxidermist, Sharp will be presenting her new project ‘BodyVice’ that shines a light on the artist’s experiences of chronic pain and how this can be communicated through hypermedia combining the art forms of sound art, wearable and playable body sculptures, interactive video and performance.
Space Afrika
Comprising of 2 long term friends both called Joshua, Space Afrika create slow stepping, spacious urban dubscapes, harnessing ambient Detroit techno and shades of early nineties Sheffield with a fresh open approach to composition and DJing. We are thrilled to have Space Afrika over from Manchester to DJ our Saturday night party.
Nadja
Nadja is a duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff alternately based in Toronto and Berlin. The duo makes music that encompasses experimental drone, ambient, shoegazer and doom metal. Originally formed by Baker in 2003 as a solo endeavor, Buckareff joined in 2005 to bring the project out of the studio and into a live setting. They have since released numerous albums on Essence Music, Hydrahead Records and Beta-Lactam Ring Records.
Vasco Alves
Alves will be joining us in Todmorden from Portugal and will performing using a unique combination of electronics and bagpipes. Alves’ work investigates unstable electronics through the use of synthesis, customised and malfunctioning devices and amplification systems. These processes are often of volatile nature and their outcome subjected to strict live processing techniques.
Divil A’ Bit
Tor Fest and Morrison’s bottle bank regulars Divil A’ Bit join us from Ireland. Comprising of members of Woven Skull and United Bible Studies, Divil A’Bit divide their time between recording indoors in anonymous spaces, abandoned houses and crumbling, forgotten forests. The result is an epic journey where the smallest of scrapes get amplified across astral planes.
Marlo Eggplant
Marlo Eggplant is a prominent figure in a thriving and diverse international scene of female experimental music performers. With an intuitive command of minimal instrumentation, including processed autoharp and contact microphones, Marlo Eggplant's sparsely structured notes and layered static textures build into sonically dense drone improvisations.
NikNak
Nicole Raymond, also known as NikNak, is a DJ & Turntablist who specializes in playing eclectic styles of music in her sets. One goal of hers is to continue developing the role and general perception of a DJ/Turntablist by incorporating self-recorded soundscapes and multi-channel performances. She brings her experience in DJ-ing and wide musical knowledge across into each of her sets from continually incorporating a wide array of genres, to experimenting with new mixing and scratching techniques.
Jo Kennedy
Jo Kennedy lives in Todmorden. After a long spell in the environmental sector she studied Creative Music Technology at Huddersfield University and now works creatively with sound. Her live experimental music involves the use of field recordings, everyday objects, diy gadgetry, looper pedals, effects units, and a mixing desk, with recent pieces exploring the transition between human and natural sounds.
Simon Fowler
London based Simon Fowler is already well known for his amazing illustration work which includes highly detailed album sleeves for Sunn O))), Dylan Carlson of Earth and The Bug. He has recently got into making music as well so we’re pleased to have him play a solo show of ambient synth journeys at Tor Fest.
Mammoth Beat Organ (Graham Dunning & Sam Underwood)
The Mammoth Beat Organ is unlike anything you’ve seen before! Taking up the space of a small car this mechanical, modular music contraption will be parked up at The Golden Lion for the duration of the festival. The operators, Graham Dunning and Sam Underwood will be providing occasional demonstrations and performing the full kit throughout the day.
Dead Sea Apes
Manchester based huge vista rockers, Dead Sea Apes are a perfect combo of sun-scorched psychedelia, raga infused improvisation and classic kraut-rock circularity. The band are signed to Cardinal Fuzz Records and have recently recruited Jack Toker on bass guitar, owner of Jack’s Guitars. Support your local and only guitar shop!
Plank
Manchester’s Plank create constantly evolving prog infused krautrock rhythms. Plank’s music never stays in the same place for too long, tempo’s shift and change, synths fade in and out but the motorik beat
Disclaimer:
Neither the artists,the venue, the event host or promoter posted the event details to this feature. Please check that the details listed are true (eg venue, date and start time) before traveling to the event. To verify the information presented visit the host website or the event facebook page.