Two London based bands
an all female post punk noise rock band with French singer and Turkish bassist:
Savages (Matador Records) &
an all Japanese psychedelic rock band, similar to another Japanese band, Boris:
Bo Ningen
are in a special collaboration

London 2012. Savages are recording the debut album. In the middle of an intense three weeks, they set out one evening to see the band Bo Ningen. A few days later producer Johnny Hostile begins to muse over the possibility of two bands playing in the same space at the same time.  Concurrently Gemma Thopson of Savages is reading about the performances at the Cabaret Voltaire.

“Zurich in 1916 and Hugo Ball is instrumental in creating the Cabaret Voltaire – a club which will become central to the performances of the Dada movement, during which the artists would experiment with forms of sound poetry and simultaneous poetry. A movement created through the horror of World War One, it attempts to understand how society has reached such an illogical decision. Through simultaneous poetry begins the attempt to delve into chaos and maelstrom, to find the voice of the individual struggling to be heard. We decide to approach Bo Ningen with the idea of collaborating on a Sonic Simultaneous Poem.”

The idea begins to take shape in early 2013, they prepare for both bands to rehearse together in a studio with a loose composition based around five chapters. As the musicians of both bands consider how to apply themselves with their instruments to each chapter – revolving, colliding and intertwining with words sang in Japanese, French and English. They also envisage the physical space in which to perform.

„We imagine a stage in a large u-shape to contain as much of the audience as possible in the centre. The two drummers next to each other at the ‘bottom’ of the u, then leading around symmetrically (facing each other): guitarists, bassists and singers at the tips of the u-shape. Bo Ningen have a guitar extra, so we hang one from the ceiling to hit as you would a gong. Eventually we fix a date and a space for what we believe is a one-off performance that we name „Words To The Blind.” It was performed at The Red Gallery, London on May 29th 2013. The 37-minutes long track will be released on November 17th by Stolen Recordings (UK) and Pop Noire Records (France).

Snippets from the performance

They will do it again together this on 19 November at the Oval Space, London.
Tickets have been sold out.