b°tong is Chris Sigdell, former member of Nid (German experimental sound-collective that existed from 1995 to 2005). b°tong reaches for the nether regions of experimental electronic sound. Born in the winter of 2004 it is a full-time project. b°tong has shared stages with artists the likes of: To Live And Shave In LA (USA), Sudden Infant (CH), Column One (DE), Dave Phillips (CH), Asmus Tietchens (DE), Thomas Köhner (DE), Ditterich von Euler Donnersberg (DE), Origami Galaktika (N), F.T.B.P.D. (DE) and more. b°tong has played at renowned festivals such as: Sinus-Series (Basel 2006), Ausklang (Hamburg 2006), Shift (Basel 2007), and has appeared on radio stations Radio DIO (France) and vm.radio (Greece). b°tong has also collaborated with other artists (To Live And Shave In LA, Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, PS Stamps Back), partaking in installations (Polarkreis and 95° by Brigitte Gierlich & Camilla Schuler) and video-projects (Ulrich Fischer’s Images). His tours, so far, have taken him to Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Greece. The video to Sphere II (from Polar:is CD) was shown at the 2007 Miami Art Fair as part of the Urban Nomad film-festival. A new video, Black Dog Dream, made together with video-artist Silvia Bergmann, will be shown in Beijing.
b°tong is influenced by the original purveyors of industrial muzak and the early pioneers of experimental electronics. His music varies from dark ambient layers of sound, brooding drones, itchy-scratchy tones to weird electronics or harsh noise. The sounds created give birth to images of darkness and tranquility... the solitude of an icy polar night... or the equivalent of an underwater journey in a bottomless pit! Welcome to the darker side of laptop histrionics!
b°tong deconstructs samples from television, radio and film, recordings of natural and artificial sounds, and processes his own recorded voice. When playing live, he leaves the laptop at home! Instead he relies on microphones, sp-202, self-made noise generator, casio, metal, ventilator, vibrator, electric-engines, and kitchen utensils. The music is improvised on the spot and fed into a loop machine and through various effect-pedals giving him that trademark b°tong soundscape.
THE ARTS MAY BE AT AN END - B°TONG IS ALIVE
Past dates:
08/08 Lustwerkstatt, Burgdorf (CH) - 05/08 Cave 12, Geneva (CH) - 05/08 Cinema Oblo, Lausanne (CH) - 04/08 MS Stubnitz, Rostock (DE) - 03/08 Kasal Jove de Roquetas, Barcelona (ES) - 03/08 Casa de Los Jacintos, Madrid (ES) - 03/08 Convivio, Guimaraes (P) - 03/08 Maus Habitos, Porto (P) - 03/08 Oremus Gothic Bar, Gijon (ES) - 03/08 Antzoki, Bilbao (ES) - 03/08 Noiznahi, Getaria (ES) - 03/08 Le Bokal, Bordeaux (F) - 03/08 La Jungla, Barcelona (ES) - 03/08 L’Assomoir, St. Etienne (F) - 03/08 Echokammer, Augsburg (DE) - 03/08 Kalkbreite, Zürich (CH) - 03/08 Schlachthof, Basel (CH) - 03/08 White Rabbit, Freiburg (DE) - 02/08 AZ Conni, Dresden (DE) - 01/08 Hirscheneck, Basel (CH)
10/07 - Shift Festival, Basel (CH) headphone concert - 10/07 Studio, Athens (GR) - 10/07 Platformes, Athens (GR) - 10/07 VM Radio, Athens (GR) - 09/07 Salon Bruit, Berlin (DE) - 07/07 Kiosk Feldbergstrasse, Basel (CH) - 06/07 Cargo Bar, Basel (CH) - 06/07 Keller 264, Freiburg (DE) - 06/07 Friends Bar, Basel (CH) - 04/07 Centre Culturel CROUS, Reims (F) - 04/07 Envers Swa, Antwerpen (BE) - 04/07 Driest HQ, Gent (BE) - 04/07 Astra Stube, Hamburg (DE) - 04/07 Raum ()()(), Berlin, (DE) - 04/07 Salon Bruit, Berlin (DE)B°Tong
