James Holden & Wacław Zimpel + drift FM

A concert at EartH in London pairing the British DJ and composer James Holden and Polish clarinettist Wacław Zimpel with the duo of Pavel Milyakov and Ugnė Uma, presented within a new festival of Eastern European music.

James Holden is a British DJ and composer working in techno and electronic music. Born in Exeter, he has been active since 1999, and his debut album, The Idiots Are Winning, appeared in 2006 on Border Community. He shares the first part of the bill with Wacław Zimpel, a Polish clarinettist with whom Holden has collaborated over many years. Their set centres on instrumental improvisation and repetitive, trance-inducing patterns.

Pavel Milyakov, an electronic musician who performs as buttechno, follows with Lithuanian artist and vocalist Ugnė Uma. Together they draw on abstract pop, R&B and trip-hop, combining atmospheric electronics, spare rhythms and textured noise, and moving the voice between song and abstraction.

The evening is part of the inaugural Festival of New Music from Eastern Europe, a multi-venue festival showing music and art from the region and its diaspora, with UK debuts, rare performances and international collaborations. The programme also takes place at Cafe Oto and Ormside. EartH is a concert and performance venue on Stoke Newington Road in north London.