Cement no.6: Martha Skye Murphy + Oï les Ox

We are thrilled to be back with a sixth edition of our much loved Cement. Infamous for the interesting locations we hold this series in, we decided to turn the scenery up a notch… De Thomas has welcomed us with open arms to realize this evening together. Inspired by Le Corbusier, the church is rich with asymmetries, symbolism and unexpected shades(?).
You will have to see it for yourself.

Responding to the proto-brutalist architecture of the church, Martha Skye Murphy will be performing a unique and raw piano rendition of her acclaimed debut album ‘Um’. This confessional record uses field recordings and a broad range of classical vocals to create music which is as theatrical as it is intimate. The show will draw on pentecostal services, carefully positioning the audience for a ritualistic experience.

Oï les Ox will present J’ai 60 caractères: a 5-channel piece with 3 self-crafted wireless speakers. Creating an environment of tangled systems that play together–a communication network with numerous interferences. By multiplying the sources, she confuses the listener’s attention and superimposes several contents present. With occurrences of glossolalic polyphony in which the listener chooses where to put their focus. She uses wireless streaming tools to transmit and retransmit numerous sources that are scattered in the space. She plays with effects, feedback, and the hesitation between what is already written or generated instantly, writing itself. By using light structures, easily dismantled, by installing a network of speakers to broadcast sound to several points, by using voice and moving around, she shapes and modifies the church.

Martha Skye Murphy is an experimental chanteuse and composer whose work uses a mutation of genres and vocal dexterity to immerse and disarm listeners within encoded narratives and discussions of the unknown. She has collaborated with Nick Cave, Squid, Roy Montgomery, claire rousay and LEYA. Unpredictable, theatrical and tender, her debut album ‘Um’ was released in June 2024 to critical acclaim on label AD93. Murphy has also written an electronic opera, ‘Postcards Home’, which premiered at The Southbank Centre, delivered an ambient score with an interactive website for Ivan Krzeszowiec’s film ‘The Late Departure’ and writes for the feminist Art History publication, Woman’s Art Journal.

Aude Van Wyller, is a french composer and visual artist who explores under Oï les Ox alias multiple outputs of songs, sound poetry and various music genres from new wave to sound collages, in-situ and through recordings. She recently published a radio piece called Serrure Relax commissioned by Jajaja Neeneenee (Amsterdam) dealing with themes of duplication and covers, as well as a new LP AI les Axes on Constructive music (London), where she enforces her automatic writing techniques taken in a flux of deconstructed and experimental electronics, following her 2020 debut on the Death of Rave, Crooner qui coule sous les clous.

Tickets are free for Subbacultcha members and 16,- (online) and 18,- (door) for non-members. Please make a reservation by sending an email to mailinglist@subbacultcha.nl with “Cement #6” in the subject line.

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Martha Skye Murphy

Oï les Ox