Icarus is the misadventure of Ollie Bown and Sam Britton, following the fiddly twisted rhythm along a scratchy line; noise from black boxes through which only certain pieces of data may pass. This in turn feeds through boards and wires to become processed as musical, by default.
In short, an effect similar to dropping ink into water is experienced aurally as a series of ineffable blips, interleaved within the sounds of the marketplace. With a bit of luck this should reconfigure musical industriality into a dadaist work of precision chaos, but a freak occurrence could equally spell disaster for us all. All Icarus can do is try to mediate the event; this is the true fate of the modern musician, sending his or her sound bouncing along wires until somewhere, at some unknown point, they crash headlong into context. It’s like tapes and cars. It’s like the junk equation. It’s like the effect of indifference to sound, which is less than the difference in sound from in front or behind.
The dissolution of noise clears way for a fragmented melody; a flux of harmony on a polymetric pulse. The rate of growth of data is the marker for an indifference to sound. Overwhelming are the demands on music: As yet more vibrations fall victim to the staccato bit-wise we say "let noises run amok."
Press Quotes:
‘deliciously and maddeningly unclassifiable’ – Chris Sharp, The Wire.
‘… proves that experimental music can be accessible to a bigger audience. One of the most surprising new albums (…) Perfect!’ – Michael Muck, Cuemix Magazine.
‘Icarus are one of the most underrated and overlooked electronic groups who are so perfect at their craft, it almost concerns me how they´ve gone virtually unnoticed. They deserve far more attention then they have ever gotten throughout their entire career, and it is my hope this album will prompt people to invest time into the strange, wonderful and confusing musical progression that is Ollie Bown and Sam Britton´s music project, Icarus.’ – Eric Common, The Silent Ballet.
‘Imagine placing albums by Four Tet, Amon Tobin, Squarepusher, Murcof, Lutz Glandien, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, SND and Philip Glass into your cd changer and then pressing play only to find them all playing at the same time.’ – experimusic.com
‘A playful masterpiece of hyperrhythmic avant beat freetronica’ – audioculture.org
‘Sam Britton and Ollie Bown create uncompromising experimental improvised music that manages to be at once evocative and captivating’ – themilkfactory
Albums on Not Applicable:
Fake Fish Distribution – Icarus
Flensburg – Icarus / Badun
All Is For The Best In The Best Of All Possible Worlds – Icarus
Carnivalesque – Icarus
Misfits – Icarus
Soviet Igloo – Icarus
Tracks on Not Applicable:
Elliogy – Icarus
Films on Not Applicable:
Keets – directed by Alice Scott, music by Icarus
Treatment – directed by Yannig Willmann, music by Icarus
Carnivalesque Part 2 – directed by Laurent Duriaud, music by Icarus
A Film – directed by Daniel Clift, music by Icarus
Distributed Recordings:
Sylt – Icarus
Sylt Remixes – Icarus
Bookings:
To book Icarus email info@not-applicable.org
Images:
Icarus performances are usually accompanied by a specially commissioned film by Martin Hampton. A gallery of images from the film can be seen here.