Toby Driver / Alora Crucible, Christina Ruf, and Nick Hudson

Toby Driver / Alora Crucible, Christina Ruf, and Nick Hudson

Toby Driver is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who navigates between genres. He is “a tirelessly inventive recording artist” (PopMatters) with a prolific career of over 25 years. His work–– impressionistic, architectural and emotionally vulnerable––has been described as “unlike any other” (The Quietus), displaying “A greater vision of how music can evoke feelings both grandiose and devastatingly intimate.” (Vice/Noisey). His multifarious projects share a sensitive and detail oriented composition ranging from the metaphysical to the avant-garde, and an insatiable search for the new: there's “absolutely nothing to compare it against.” (Echoes and Dust)

Alora Crucible, his most recent musical identity, explores transcendental instrumental music with Driver on guitar and hammered dulcimer in collaboration with violinist Timba Harris and keyboardist Ana Cristina Pérez. With their recent second album, Oak Lace Apparition, released on the enigmatic and elite House of Mythology label in the company of titans Ulver and Current 93, Alora Crucible has made a strong and enduring statement about this music's exalted place in Driver's diverse body of work. Simultaneously with that, Driver also released a new solo album of ballads, Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything, and completed a yet-to-be-announced major work with his long-running outfit Kayo Dot, “one of the greatest and most exciting contemporary progressive/experimental/avant-garde bands going,” (Treblezine) showing that his reputation as “one of the most endlessly creative and thrilling band leaders” (Treblezine) is a well-earned one.

Toby and his band present music from both the Toby Driver solo albums and the Alora Crucible albums in a cmbined set, featuring guitar, violin, hammered dulcimer, synths, vocals, and percussion.

----------

Christina Ruf: Electric Cello, Electronics

Christina Ruf works in tonal and formative dimensions on and through her instrument, that only on reflection suggest classical playing. Rather, through her use of a 6-string electric cello, various effect pedals and electronics to influence, manipulate and expand the form and sound, she manipulates and extends, giving it a unique expression. Often constructing expansive, dark soundscapes, she manages with her work, to create an authentic wealth of ideas, that not only deliver a performance, but move you.

----------

Nick Hudson is a UK-born, Tbilisi-based composer/artist/image-maker/activist..
In April 2021 Nick released his first solo album in five years - Font Of Human Fractures - to glowing reviews from The Quietus and Libération.
"There isn’t really anyone making music like Nick Hudson” - The Quietus
“Genius” - BBC Introducing
“Scott Walker channeling Coil” - Mojo

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rhiz - Bar Modern, U-Bahnbogen 37, Wien, Austria