Counterflows 2016: Pat Thomas Gaile Griciute & Antanas Dombrovskij

Pat Thomas is a pianist based in Oxford. To us, he is one of the greatest living UK-based improvisers; a fearless and uncompromising player who – despite coming from a background of free improvisation and new music – can strangely feel as close to the worlds of noise and experimental music. One minute it can sound like he is ripping out the guts of a piano; thumping discordant chords with his fists or rattling the exterior wooden frame – the next he can be delicately gliding over the keys or creating microscopic tones with the inside of the piano.

Thomas’ musical CV is never ending but he has played with the likes of Derek Bailey, Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson and Chris Corsano – to name but a few. He is also currently involved in About Group (with Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip, Charles Hayward from This Heat and John Coxon) and Black Top (with Orphy Robinson).

Gailė Griciūtė is a pianist, composer and sound artist, based in Lithuania. Graduate of Sibelius Music Academy in Finland, at the moment finishing her composition studies at The Lithuanian Music of Theatre and Academy. Gailė Griciūtė has been a member of various sound projects, she has participated in number of improvised music festivals and events in Finland, Germany, Holand, Japan, Kingdom of Bhutan and Lithuania. As a pianist and composer she is elaborating the notion of indeterminacy in music using improvisation as a composition technique, questioning, layering and inter – weaving sounds, thoughts and perceptions.

Currently Gailė is working extensively with a German based Artist Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi. As a member of contemporary art music ensemble “Varjo” Gailė has performed in Tokyo, Berlin London and Helsinki. While living in the Kingdom of Bhutan Gailė has formed free improvisation group called “Driklam Namza”.

Antanas Dombrovskij is a Lithuanian sound artist constantly looking for this ‘other’ sound which reminds of the original instruments as little as possible. It is common for the artist to drift among various genres, concepts and projects under the influence of collaborations with different artists. He became a member of the audio-poetic band Betoniniai triušiai in 2005. Poetry of Tomas S. Butkus and electroacoustic music of Antanas Dombrovskij is joined in the works of the band (the band has released 3 albums). Since 2005 he has been a member of the laptop quartet Twentytwentyone. The activity of the quartet (founded by Arturas Bumšteinas) started from the interpretations of graphical scores and soundtracks for silent experimental movies of the beginning of 20th century. In 2009 Antanas Dombrovskij and sound artist Vilius Šiaulys formed a joint project Tiese. Their debut cassette tape Ant širdies was released in 2013. He has also created music for several modern dance performances and from time to time continues performative collaborations with the theatre artist Benas Šarka and the singer Skaidra Jančaitė.

Antanas Dombrovskij performs as a solo artist and as a member of all the above mentioned bands and projects. He can be seen performing in art galleries, summer open-air festivals and underground clubs. His works can be heard at the main Lithuanian electronic music festivals: Garso Zona, Jauna Muzika, Centras, Enter, TARP, Speigas, Sumirimas, STRCamp. In foreign countries he usually performs as a member of Twentytwentyone and Betoniniai triušiai.

Gailė and Antanas started playing together in year 2014, their collaboration is an extension of probabilities and capabilities. It’s a constant search for sounds as an attempt to communicate.