EMPTYSET 'Borders'

EMPTYSET is the innovative electronic duo of James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas. The pair shares a history in Bristol’s underground music scene as well as an impressive list of production credits. Ginzburg, now Berlin-based, runs a network of record labels including electronic music label Subtext and Arc Light Editions, whose reissues include a work by Arthur Russell. He's a prolific producer and remixer for both independent and major labels, with diverse projects such as Faint Wild Light, Ginz and more recently Bleed Turquoise. Purgas, now based in London, founded the We Elude Control label in 2009, a curated collection of rare experimental music. Purgas is an artist, writer and curator who has presented projects with Tate, Whitechapel and Serpentine Galleries, and he is also an active promoter of electronic music in eclectic spaces from a carpark to a Modernist pavilion. The duo composes within a complex set of self-imposed parameters or rule sets and the results of their expeditions on 'Borders' are at once minimal and visceral. Focusing on shifting timbral changes over melody, EMPTYSET’s work is an exploration of the relationship between rhythm, texture and space. Each project’s framework and parameters dictate how the sound or performance evolves. In the past, EMPTYSET have explored the ways in which the sonic and spatial interact within different architectural contexts: often site-specific locations such as the decommissioned Trawsfynydd nuclear power station in North Wales, or the neo-gothic Woodchester Mansion. 'Borders' takes a different approach, centering around the performative and the performer. Having each created their own tactile instruments, a six-stringed zither-like instrument and a drum, EMPTYSET focuses on how organic sounds interact with the analogue processes that have defined their work to date.