For Eroteme 25, we are excited to welcome Scottish-based Semay Wu and her intimate ecosystem of cello, toys and household objects aswell as the electric bass preparations of French artist Frise Lumière.

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Frise Lumière

Under a grazing light, Frise Lumière is a personal project by artist, musician and composer, Ludovic Gerst. By refining the instrumentation to only his bass, he is able to find and extract more rhythmic, harmonic and percussive melodies.

Frise Lumière began as a series of work sessions, collaborations, and experiments with dancers, artists, and textile designers before evolving into a fully solo project. Exploring and perfecting this rhythmic instrument, to the fullest extent possible before creating, his debut album, Bisou Genou, was released at the end of October 2021 and performed throughout Europe.

Ambo (October 2024) is the outcome of numerous interactions from the past and present, affirming and advancing the research of his prepared bass’s acoustic possibilities. His use of broomsticks, mallets, and drumsticks enhances his rhythmic playing, whether he plays his instrument more conventionally or flat on his lap. A method that is already audible in a few of the tracks on his first LP.

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Semay Wu

Since the 90’s, Semay Wu has been a regular presence in NW England, with Homelife, Mayming, The Earlies, and others. She’s written a host of music for various media, dance and theatre, while also recording and performing for a vast number of others on cello. Now based in Scotland, she’s actively focusing on her own imaginations, collaborative or solo, as composer-performer, improviser and sound/media-artist.

Her primary sound is electro-acoustic, and current musings reassess her relationship with her cello by rattling “the strangulated tones she gets out of it…” Along with household objects, toys and her cello, Semay Wu’s improvisations begin to morph into an orchestral ecosystem of babbling sounds.

Boomkat review: Raspberry Hotel – Akashic Records, Glasgow – 2022

“Raspberry Hotel’ is the long-awaited solo debut LP by cellist Semay Wu […] here left to her own devices on ravishingly inventive improvisations made in Glasgow. Her first solo album is collaged from […] unpredictable instrumental experimentation from her trusty cello plus a range of toys, electronics and everyday objects. The results form a semi-live showcase where runs of in-the-moment thought are ruptured with fleeting jump-cuts and spangled with a distinctive playfulness that will charm lovers of free music and sculptural sound art by artists ranging from Okkyung Lee to Rhodri Davies or Andy Votel, Sean Canty & Doug Shipton’s mixtape collages.”

Her second (digital) release, Sharmanka, was with Scatter Archive Label, in 2023, combining two live recordings of performances in 2019 and 2022, at Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Glasgow.

Semay has had numerous performances since then, notably at Tectonics Festival in Glasgow, and the Newcastle Jazz and Improvised Music Festival, both in 2023. A new release is expected to be available for the tour.