Bill Orcutt + Alexander Tucker

BILL ORCUTT is a guitarist and composer. He has been described as “thrillingly original” (Will Ainsley, Bandcamp Daily) as "a go-for-broke guitar improviser," (Ben Ratliff, New York Times) “creating a new language” (Marc Masters, Pitchfork) whose playing would "make Derek Bailey do a double-take" (Lars Gotrich, NPR). Orcutt tours actively, appearing at festivals worldwide, including Rewire (The Hague), Presences Electronique (Paris), Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon), Goner Fest (Memphis), Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville), Big Ears (Knoxville), Music Unlimited (Wels), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), Nouveau Festival du Centre Pompidou (Paris), Unsound (Krakow), a Maida Vale session for BBC 3 (London) and a Tiny Desk concert for NPR.

2025 saw Orcutt release ‘Another Perfect Day’, his first solo electric guitar record since 2017’s eponymous Bill Orcutt. While that eight-year gap might not seem like a ton of time on the cosmic scale, it nonetheless represents a busy half-decade plus for Orcutt projects: a raft of improv collaborations, an acclaimed run of chopped and looped albums on Fake Estates, and the collision of Orcutt’s computer and guitar music on Music For Four Guitars and last year’s How to Rescue Things, both on Palilalia. The undeniable alchemy of those latter mashups inspired not only a wider appreciation of Orcutt-as-composer, but also the resurrection of Orcutt-as-bandleader, as the Bill Orcutt Quartet hit the road in support of Four Guitars, Orcutt’s first work with a proper score. ‘Another Perfect Day’ sees Orcutt building tension with short phrases, repeated with slight variability until it seems like they’ll never stop, finally slamming into a fresh line like the dawning valley at the crest of the mountain pass. It’s an affirmation that Orcutt is above all a lead player - angular runs scaling the heavens, ricocheting back to ground zero before climbing again.

ALEXANDER TUCKER returns to the guitar, after spending the last few years focusing on his modular experimental techno guise MICROCORPS. Since the early 2000s Tucker has released solo guitar and cello based albums on Thrill Jockey Records, Subtext, and ATP Recordings, blending songs, electronics, strings, vocals and extended techniques. Creating music that sits between structured song writing, composition, drone and noise, Tucker is also a prolific collaborator, with projects that include tape-loop duo Imbogodom, and electronic pop with Grumbling Fur and Charlemagne Palestine. More recent live collaborations include work with Lasse Marhaug, Kenichi Iwasa, and Elvin Brandhi.

2026 sees Tucker melding his past work with acoustic guitar, and his present explorations with modular synth systems and electronics, processing minimal steel string guitar into unrecognisable sonic forms through improvisation, synthesis and electronic manipulation. Tucker’s investigations into electroacoustic and music concrete composition has led him to seek out ways to warp, stretch and mangle this own guitar playing beyond its original form, revelling in the sheer pleasure of transforming sound and creating imaginary and unspoken spaces.

Presented by Upset The Rhythm.

This is an 18+ event