SlapBang
photo © Laura Aurora
Bio:
Lina Andonovska (flutes) and Matthew Jacobson's (drum kit) worlds collided in Ireland’s experimental music scene - Andonovska from a contemporary music background and Jacobson from the world of improvised sounds. Their collaboration seeks to blur the boundaries and distinctions between genres. Together they subdivide, recite semiotic quotes, and bring new sounds into the ether.
Independently, both are internationally respected soundmakers in the fields of composed score and improvisation. Collectively, they are embarking upon a quest to commission new work and improvisational scenarios for their combination of amplified low flutes and drum kit.
So far, SlapBang have presented offerings at New Music Dublin, University College Dublin’s ‘text/sound/performance’, the Association of Irish Composers, in residence at the Dun Laoghaire Lexicon, as featured performers as part of Bottlenote 10: an artist-led annual festival of improvised music in Dublin and at Brilliant Corners in Belfast where they premiered two Arts Council-commissioned pieces by Rachael Lavelle and Colm O’Hara.
Two pieces composed for the duo by Barry O'Halpin (Hox) and Nick Roth (Bátá) featured on Lina's recent solo album 'A Way A Lone A Last' on Diatribe Records.
The duo are currently booking for 2022/23 to perform a programme featuring works from innovative Irish composers including Judith Ring, Nick Roth, Barry O'Halpin, Rachael Lavelle and Colm O'Hara.
Lina Andonovska (flutes) and Matthew Jacobson's (drum kit) worlds collided in Ireland’s experimental music scene - Andonovska from a contemporary music background and Jacobson from the world of improvised sounds. Their collaboration seeks to blur the boundaries and distinctions between genres. Together they subdivide, recite semiotic quotes, and bring new sounds into the ether.
Independently, both are internationally respected soundmakers in the fields of composed score and improvisation. Collectively, they are embarking upon a quest to commission new work and improvisational scenarios for their combination of amplified low flutes and drum kit.
So far, SlapBang have presented offerings at New Music Dublin, University College Dublin’s ‘text/sound/performance’, the Association of Irish Composers, in residence at the Dun Laoghaire Lexicon, as featured performers as part of Bottlenote 10: an artist-led annual festival of improvised music in Dublin and at Brilliant Corners in Belfast where they premiered two Arts Council-commissioned pieces by Rachael Lavelle and Colm O’Hara.
Two pieces composed for the duo by Barry O'Halpin (Hox) and Nick Roth (Bátá) featured on Lina's recent solo album 'A Way A Lone A Last' on Diatribe Records.
The duo are currently booking for 2022/23 to perform a programme featuring works from innovative Irish composers including Judith Ring, Nick Roth, Barry O'Halpin, Rachael Lavelle and Colm O'Hara.
Press:
"The final day of Brilliant Corners 2022 kicked off with a Saturday afternoon performance in the more intimate surroundings of The Green Room. The small but attentive crowd was spellbound by SlapBang, the duo of flautist Lina Andonovska and drummer Matthew Jacobson... To date, this duo has recorded just two tracks, which appeared on Andonovska's album A Way A Lone A Last (Diatribe Records, 2020). Hopefully, there is a lot more to come from SlapBang."
All About Jazz
"A Way a Lone a Last opens with Barry O’Halpin’s Hox. This skittering, intimate piece is a great statement of purpose: it features Matthew Jacobson, the other half of her improvising duo SlapBang, on percussion, and is written with wonderful sensitivity to Andonovska’s and Jacobson’s strengths... Particularly exciting was Andonovska’s use of percussive effects, which, combined with Jacobson’s delicate playing, gave the two instruments a compelling timbral unity when they could easily have failed to blend....
What certainly does unify the album are Andonovska’s (and Jacobson’s) incredible performances. Not once does she nod, even in performing music of great difficulty demanding a huge breadth of competence: in extended techniques, free-jazz improvisation, classically beautiful tone, working with electronics – and often in rapid succession. From this point of view, the album is a tour de force, and well worth a serious listen."
The Journal of Music Ireland
"Jacobson and Andonovska are reunited on the grooving 'Bátá', which combines spoken word interjections and driving rhythms. It's not always clear who is playing what, but either side of the ambient sounds of amplified bass-flute feedback and crying cymbals, the duo delves into rhythms that stretch from drum 'n' bass to African ritual grooves. A mesmerizing thirteen minutes concludes on a gentle, though stubbornly pulsing flute note...
It is also evident that Andonovska and Jacobson must surely continue to pursue their fascinating dialog at greater length."
All About Jazz
"The bookend works on this album feature percussionist Matthew Jacobson who together with Andonovska comprise the duo SlapBang. Commencing with Hox by Barry O’Halpin, the curious combination of amplified bass flute and drum kit spins a web of husky rhythmic utterances on bass flute and percussive tapping which is coloured by an electric tapestry of stumbling freneticism, the players in flawless rhythmic unison for much of the work.
This work gave me the feeling of having been pocket dialled and being led down the rabbit hole of listening to the rhythmic groove of someone’s daily ritualistic patterns, muffled and fluttering in and out of focus. Techno meets Boulez, this otherworldly kind-of-dance number is a thrilling opener for this excellent record."
Loud Mouth, Australia
"The final day of Brilliant Corners 2022 kicked off with a Saturday afternoon performance in the more intimate surroundings of The Green Room. The small but attentive crowd was spellbound by SlapBang, the duo of flautist Lina Andonovska and drummer Matthew Jacobson... To date, this duo has recorded just two tracks, which appeared on Andonovska's album A Way A Lone A Last (Diatribe Records, 2020). Hopefully, there is a lot more to come from SlapBang."
All About Jazz
"A Way a Lone a Last opens with Barry O’Halpin’s Hox. This skittering, intimate piece is a great statement of purpose: it features Matthew Jacobson, the other half of her improvising duo SlapBang, on percussion, and is written with wonderful sensitivity to Andonovska’s and Jacobson’s strengths... Particularly exciting was Andonovska’s use of percussive effects, which, combined with Jacobson’s delicate playing, gave the two instruments a compelling timbral unity when they could easily have failed to blend....
What certainly does unify the album are Andonovska’s (and Jacobson’s) incredible performances. Not once does she nod, even in performing music of great difficulty demanding a huge breadth of competence: in extended techniques, free-jazz improvisation, classically beautiful tone, working with electronics – and often in rapid succession. From this point of view, the album is a tour de force, and well worth a serious listen."
The Journal of Music Ireland
"Jacobson and Andonovska are reunited on the grooving 'Bátá', which combines spoken word interjections and driving rhythms. It's not always clear who is playing what, but either side of the ambient sounds of amplified bass-flute feedback and crying cymbals, the duo delves into rhythms that stretch from drum 'n' bass to African ritual grooves. A mesmerizing thirteen minutes concludes on a gentle, though stubbornly pulsing flute note...
It is also evident that Andonovska and Jacobson must surely continue to pursue their fascinating dialog at greater length."
All About Jazz
"The bookend works on this album feature percussionist Matthew Jacobson who together with Andonovska comprise the duo SlapBang. Commencing with Hox by Barry O’Halpin, the curious combination of amplified bass flute and drum kit spins a web of husky rhythmic utterances on bass flute and percussive tapping which is coloured by an electric tapestry of stumbling freneticism, the players in flawless rhythmic unison for much of the work.
This work gave me the feeling of having been pocket dialled and being led down the rabbit hole of listening to the rhythmic groove of someone’s daily ritualistic patterns, muffled and fluttering in and out of focus. Techno meets Boulez, this otherworldly kind-of-dance number is a thrilling opener for this excellent record."
Loud Mouth, Australia
Commissions:
Composers currently writing for SlapBang
– Judith Ring
Premieres
– Hox by Barry O’Halpin
– Bata by Nick Roth
– Deuce by Rachael Lavelle
– Duo by Colm O'Hara
Composers currently writing for SlapBang
– Judith Ring
Premieres
– Hox by Barry O’Halpin
– Bata by Nick Roth
– Deuce by Rachael Lavelle
– Duo by Colm O'Hara
Upcoming Dates:
29 January 2023 • Dublin Jazz Coop @ Workman's Club – Dublin, Ireland
10 March 2023 • Smock Alley Boys' School — Dublin, Ireland
29 January 2023 • Dublin Jazz Coop @ Workman's Club – Dublin, Ireland
10 March 2023 • Smock Alley Boys' School — Dublin, Ireland
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photo © Laura Aurora
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photo © Laura Aurora
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