RORQUALS - Live @ Ealing Extranormal 21/10/23 (Experimental, Improvised, Drone, Strega, Chase Bliss)

On Saturday 21st October this year I had the great honour of performing at the prestigious Ealing Extranormal experimental electronic music night. In preparation for this performance I was very aware that they had volume restrictions, so I opted to create a more ambient set and chose to use my Meng Wingie as the main sound source for the first time. The material took some time to write - in fact it was a real stress putting together something I was happy with, but a week before I managed to finalise a set which had some nice melodic ideas running through it. I was feeling a lot better about my performance and looking forward to playing.

Roll forward to sound check a few days later in the venue - the Wingie does nothing but squeal harsh high pitched feedback. Going through the PA (which I hadn't done before) reacted similar to waving a mic in front of a speaker. I had no time to try and figure a way round the problem. I was devastated - all that hard work and stress writing the set was for nothing. The Wingie could not be used as my main sound source, I was on stage in 15 minutes, and I literally had no idea what I was going to do. Panic stations.

I took myself out of the room for 10 minutes, calmed myself down and realised that I had my trusty Korg Kaoscillator as part of my live rig. I was only using it on occasion for some extra ambient tones, but it was now going to have to be my main sound source. I still had no idea what I was going to do, but I figured as long as I was patient and took my time, I could build up something ambient, something droney.

This is the result - my fully improvised 20 minute set. I was so surprised with how it went and I don't think I've been able to immerse myself so much into a live performance in a long time. Those in attendance seemed to very much enjoy it which was a real relief. Unfortunately my Zoom recorder had some weird digital error which messed up my desk recording, so what you hear here is simply a mix of two phone recordings - please excuse the odd bang, chair scrape, cough, drink opening etc! Nothing I could do about getting rid of those. Hopefully the recording is good enough for you to get the idea. I may pop it onto my Bandcamp with some of the original practice recordings is due course.

I really hope you enjoy the set. I'd like to also say a huge thank you to Martin Lau for asking me to play and for being such a delightful compere for the evening. Ealing Extranormal really is such a wonderful event and I highly recommend checking it out - they're on all the usual socials. I'd also like to say thank you to my wife Elyza for making the stunning visuals you'll see on the screen behind me.

If this is your first time to my page, please give the video a Like and hit the Subscribe button for further info and videos - it really helps me grow this channel. Cheers, Rob.