Photo by Victoria Loeb
Sunday, April 10, 2022; 6:30pm doors / 7pm show
Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street, San Francisco, 94108
Mask & proof of vaccine required for entry
Kali Malone will play Grace Cathedral’s 7,466-pipe Aeolian-Skinner, one of the first American classic style organs and among the largest organs in the West. Featuring Kali Malone’s compositions from The Sacrificial Code, this performance includes additional accompaniment by Stephen O'Malley on several 4-handed organ pieces.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Kali Malone is an American composer and musician who creates sonic monoliths that tug at the very material of listening. Her compositions implement specific tuning systems in minimalist structure for pipe organ, choir, chamber music ensembles, and electroacoustic formats. Malone’s music is rich with harmonic texture through synthetic and acoustic instrumentation in repetitive motions and extended durations. The music emits distinct emotive, dynamic, and affective hues which bring forth a stunning depth of focus.
With its slow, purified, and seemingly austere qualities, The Sacrificial Code guides us through an almost trance-inducing process where we become vulnerable receptors for every slight movement, where every miniature shift in sound becomes magnified through stillness. As such, it’s a uniquely satisfying exercise in transcendence through self-restraint, a striking realization of ideas borne out of academic and conceptual rigor which gradually reveals profound personal dimensions. It has a perception-altering quality that encourages self-exploration free of signposts and without a preordained endpoint.
Kali Malone has performed extensively in Europe and North America at Musica Festival, Berlin Atonal, Moogfest, Kanal Pompidou, Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, and Radio France. Her commission projects and residencies include the Ina GRM, Berlin Monom, The Richard Thomas Foundation, MACBA, Macadam Ensemble, Orgelpark, Elektronmusikstudion and Tempo Reale. She collaborates and performs with various artists, including Stephen O’Malley, Lucy Railton, Frederikke Hoffmeier, Leila Bordreuil, Drew McDowall, Caterina Barbieri, and Ellen Arkbro. In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm.
“Like some of the most affecting drone music, The Sacrificial Code is imbued with almost magical, time-stretching properties.” - Lewis Gordon, Resident Advisor.
Stephen O’Malley is a guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone and experimental music groups for over two decades – SUNN O))), KTL, and Khanate being among his best-known projects.
Photos of Kali Malone by Robert Divers Herrick