The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters // Katariin Raska + Villem Jahu

Standard £25 // Solidarity £32.50 // Kirklees £23 // Under 30 £8
Our Solidarity ticket price is an opportunity for audiences to support our work by purchasing a ticket at a slightly higher price (the cost of a Standard ticket plus 30%). Read more about Solidarity prices here.

Advance booking required

Estimated end time: 11.30pm

Please note: this performance includes an interval

Katariin Raska + Villem Jahu:
Katariin Raska torupill (Estonian bagpipes)
Villem Jahu electronics (forses zi-hai, tocante thyris, tocante phashi)

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The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters:
Mette Rasmussen alto saxophone
Gabriele Mitelli piccolo trumpet / electronics
Mariam Rezaei turntables
Lukas Kõnig drums

Two fearless acts push at the boundaries of improvisation, noise and experimentation in this late-night double bill at Bates Mill Blending Shed.

Estonian duo Katariin Raska + Villem Jahu bring together ancient and futuristic sound worlds – Raska is a pioneering multi-instrumentalist and improviser in the Estonian electroacoustic experimental and traditional music scenes, performing new and century-old music on jaw harp and bagpipes and collaborating with improvisers, folk musicians, poets and storytellers; while sound-artist, synthesist, free improviser and cultural organiser Jahu performs on self-built electronic instruments, creating improvised sonic landscapes shaped by close listening and spontaneous interaction. Together, they bounce soundwaves and weave timbres to create a “charmingly irritating” soundscape.

Forged in the crucible of turntablist Mariam Rezaei’s November 2023 residency at London’s Café Oto, The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters is an incendiary new quartet featuring Mette Rasmussen on alto saxophone, Gabriele Mitelli on piccolo trumpet and electronics, and Lukas Koenig on drums. Their punk approach to free improvisation draws on elements of jazz, noise, hip-hop, techno and new music to create a thrilling sonic maelstrom that is beyond category or convention.

As Rezaei scratches diverse samples – Iranian vocoder melodies, doom guitar riffs, wailing saxophones, torrential drums – into ecstatic new forms, Mitelli blows a wild trumpet, wrangles his noise boxes and hollers cosmic chants. Rasmussen plays with her characteristic blend of ferocity and precision, jousting with Rezaei and Mitelli while surfing Koenig’s waves of breakbeats, heavy metal thunder and free jazz abstraction. It’s a thrilling example of where experimental music is at right now, as creative musicians from diverse backgrounds build a world beyond genre.

“A superb, absorbing release – thoughtful and creative” – Andy Hamilton, The Wire

“Explosive, edgy and radical” – Matthieu Jouan, Citizen Jazz

“A monster party band with a sense of total having it, a raucous and rapacious bricolage of jazz history and arty ideas in a mad bundle of vital chaotic energy” – AJ Dehany, London Jazz News

Produced by hcmf// as part of Music Traditions in a Contemporary Context; supported by Estonian Centre of Contemporary Music

Photo: The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters © Alexia Toussaint