< back

Carey Young invited DJ and electroacoustic musician Simon Vincent to create new improvised compositions from her selection of original recordings of the most frequently-played anthems of the Communist labour movement. Whilst inherently Soviet revolutionary propaganda, the songs evoke a mixture of influences, from bombastic militaristic march to Hollywood chorus line, children's folk song and barbershop quartet. Vincent performed live in the ICA's main gallery, cutting, stretching and reconfiguring the digitised material into a sequence of abstract and beat-based rhythms, loops and sonic textures, some of which stretched to last the entire duration of his 45 min set. Even following such drastic alterations the songs seemed to remain utterly recognisable.

Simon Vincent explores jazz, electroacoustic and abstract experimentalism in his solo and group live performances. He studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, played live hip-hop with Def Tex, worked with LTJ Bukem, djed with Carl Craig and Stacey Pullen, and has gained critical attention in the Wire, Time Out, Jazzwise, Mojo, International DJ, Breaking Point and Straight No Chaser. In 1997 he launched visionofsound records, specialising in contemporary electronic musics.

Revolutions as performed at the ICA, London, 2005