TASHI DORJI

We're hugely excited to be welcoming the great Tashi Dorji back to Newcastle for his first show at the Star & Shadow. The Bhutanese guitarist and improvisational musician is known for his avant-garde and experimental (read: deeply gnarly, finely arty) approach to music. Tashi’s idiosyncratic take on the instrument, one defined by movement and profound openness to technique, adds up to a post-colonial disembowelment of guitar traditions that stands next to de- and re-constructionist giants as various as Derek Bailey, John Fahey and Bill Orcutt.  

His latest solo album, We Will Be Wherever The Fires Are Lit, came out on Drag City last year. A sort of sequel to Tashi’s first Drag City release Stateless, it takes the torch and storms forward, with ten improvised acoustic guitar anthems. These musical thoughts are torn from the fabric of Tashi’s life and music. “Strumming in opposition to the towers” (as he puts it) is part of an existence that is always political, even in its most abstract iterations – a truth laid bare in these deep, raw performances”.

In addition to his solo work, Dorji has collaborated with the likes of Joe McPhee, Alex Zhang Hungtai, Tyler Damon, Mette Rasmussen, Steve Noble, Shane Parish, Susie Ibarra, David Grubbs and Eyvind Kang.  

MARIAM REZAEI

Support comes from Newcastle's own legend of the turntables Mariam Rezaei. A multi-award-winning composer, turntablist and performer working across experimental new music, free improvisation, mutant club music and hip-hop, she has been described by The Wire as “one of the most technically adept and creatively daring artists to use the turntable as a musical instrument.” 

Praised by The Wire, Uncut and Bandcamp Daily, her latest solo release FRACTURED (Heat Crimes) was one of The Quietus’ cassette releases of 2024. In addition to her solo work, Rezaei is a member of the international free music supergroup The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (with saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, trumpeter/electronics Gabriele Mitelli and drummer Lukas König) and the pioneering Turntable Trio with Evicshen and Maria Chávez, with whom she recently toured Canada and the USA.

She has composed orchestral works with Matthew Shlomowitz (6 Scenes for Turntable and Orchestra, premiered at IMD Darmstadt 2023) and collaborated with the likes of Pat Thomas, Jennifer Walshe, Edward George, Farida Amadou, Valentina Magaletti, Robyn’s Rocket, Lasse Marhaug, Evicshen, Raymond MacDonald, Lukas König, Okkyung Lee, Dali de St Paul, Kenosist and Ali Robertson. 

POSSET 

Our DJ for the evening will be the mighty Posset aka Joe Murray. A dictaphone and vocal improviser, and chronicler of the No Audience Underground, Posset is a hero of the UK weirdo scene. We're thrilled that he'll be playing a cassette only set. Spools out for October!