Convergence + RFB Present Ben Frost A/V Show

29 September, 2017
Written by Marky Edison

Convergence and Rockfeedback announce a special Ben Frost Audio - Visual performance featuring Marcel Weber at Heaven, London on March 16. Australia-born, Iceland-based composer Ben Frost returns to Convergence with a colossal and compelling new live show featuring material from his highly anticipated new album, The Centre Cannot Hold which will be released today via Mute.

The Centre Cannot Hold was recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago. The music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator. In collaborating with Albini, Frost chooses a new immediacy and raw directness. As an artist whose command of sound design lies at the heart of his practice, by placing himself primarily in the role of live performer and handing the studio recording process over to Albini, Frost continues pursuit of Theseus’ paradox; the question of whether a ship restored by replacing every single part remains the same ship.

Glenn Max, Artistic Director of Convergence says: “It was a turning point for us in 2014 when Ben Frost decided to place his A U R O R A album-release performance within Convergence. His performance at Village Underground that Friday night - accompanied by two drummer/electronicists -- was riveting and a palpable sense of Convergence's identity was formed on that night. It’s a pleasure to welcome him back with his new special audio / visual presentation with Marcel Weber”

For this special outing, Ben Frost will be collaborating with the visual artist Marcel Weber who works with imagery, light and space. His performances and installations have been commissioned and featured by festivals such as CTM and Transmediale, Unsound and Mutek and he’s collaborated with artists including Clark, Kuedo and Kode9.

Weber’s work is marked by a well-defined and distinctive aesthetic, using images that both resonate with and form a relationship to sound. Applying the musical language and its ability to cut to the heart of our emotional worlds to moving image, an uncommon and ethereal quality emerges, brought to life by his passion for experimental narratives. The outcome is a multi-layered experience communicated by dynamic imagery: a cosmos made out of textures and distortions, a magical experience of surreal moments, stimuli for the subconscious.

Convergence returns in 2018 for its fifth edition. Held annually in March, the event series has entertained & educated over 100,000 attendees across London since its inception. Through concerts, exhibitions and talks, Convergence celebrates the latest technological developments of digital culture, elucidating issues, developments and innovation across art and society.