Braw Gigs & NEHH Present: Ex-Easter Island Head

Ex-Easter Island Head are a UK-based musical collective composing and performing music for solid body electric guitar, percussion and other instruments.

Primarily performing as a quartet, the group incorporates multiple electric guitars augmented through mechanical preparations and extended techniques to create works that explore group interplay, repetition and melodic invention through purposefully limited means.

Their records, Mallet Guitars One –Three, Large Electric Ensemble and Twenty-Two Strings have been released to significant critical acclaim from the likes of The Wire, Pitchfork, the Quietus and the New York Times. The group have received airplay on the BBC, ABC and more with their music favourably compared to the likes of Steve Reich, Glenn Branca and John Cage. Their two volumes of library and production music for EMI/KPM – Mechanical Landscapes One and Two – have seen use on television and radio productions internationally.

Collaborators include the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Immix Ensemble and composer Arnold Dreyblatt. Between 2012-2017 they created two “Large Electric Ensembles”, bringing together musicians from Nottingham, Manchester and Salford’s experimental music scenes to create ambitious concert pieces for up to 20 players.

In 2019 the group joined forces with Laura Cannell, Charles Hayward and Andre Bosman to release the critically-acclaimed collaborative album Whistling Arrow on God Unknown records.

The group are currently putting the finishing touches to their new album and continuing in their pursuit of new sounds and creative strategies.

Support will come from Shona Macnaughton, a performance artist based in Glasgow. Shona’s performances explore voice with tone, mimicking forms of address within various state, institutional and labour structures. Shona has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally in art galleries, theatres, public space and across online platforms.”

Support from Shona Macnaughton.