Performed by Ben Frost with Greg Fox, Shahzad Ismaily and Thor Harris and largely written in Eastern DR Congo, “A U R O R A“ aims directly, through its monolithic construction, at blinding luminescent alchemy; not with benign heavenly beauty but through decimating magnetic force.
Starved of all the adornments of its predecessor; wholly absent of guitar, of piano, of string instruments and natural wooden intimacy, “A U R O R A” offers a defiant new world of fiercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins and pure metals.
A series of films has been created by Trevor Tweeten and Richard Mosse, watch the first one here:
About Ben Frost:
Born in 1980 in Melbourne, Australia, Frost relocated to Reykjavík Iceland in 2005 and working together with close friends Valgeir Sigurðsson and Nico Muhly, formed the Bedroom Community record label/collective.
His albums, including “Steel Wound” (2003), “Theory of Machines” (2007) and “BY THE THROAT” (2009) fuse intensely structured sound art with militant post-classical electronic music, shape-shifting physical power with immersive melody, concentrated minimalism with fierce, rupturing dark metal.
Frost regularly collaborates with other musicians and artists; in the production of albums such as Tim Hecker’s “Ravedeath 1972” and “Virgins”, SWANS’ “The Seer”, Colin Stetson’s “New History Warfare” and on various Bedroom Community releases. On the stage Frost has produced scores for Choreographers including Wayne McGregor/Random Dance, Akram Khan, Gideon Obarzanek/Chunky Move, and German Director Falk Richter. In film he composed the score for the Palme d’Or nominated Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh, and Djúpið by Icelandic Director Baltasar Kormákur (with Daníel Bjarnason). And in the visual arts, where, with artist Richard Mosse, Frost travelled deep beyond the frontlines of war-torn Eastern Congo to produce The Enclave; a multi-channel video and sound installation that premiered at the Venice Biennale in 2013.
2013 also marked his debut as a director with the première of Frost’s first Opera, based on Iain Bank´s infamous 1984 novel The Wasp Factory.
These various collaborations and alliances underline Frost’s continuing fascination with finding ways of juxtaposing music, rhythm, technology, the body, performance, text, art -beauty and violence- combining and coalescing the roles and procedures of various artistic disciplines in one place.
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