Drew McDowall (USA) – Live AV Performance
Alternative Culture proudly present: Drew McDowall (USA) – Live AV Performance. Guest Pedro Maia (PT) / October 19, 9 PM — Closing Night / Bucharest Photofest, 10th Edition
Tickets here
A legendary figure in experimental and industrial music, Drew McDowall (ex-Coil) takes the stage with a rare and immersive live performance — a sonic ritual rooted in decades of avant-garde exploration. Drawing from the deep well of mystical drone, modular synthesis, and haunting electroacoustic textures, McDowall crafts a sound world where the sacred collides with the profane.
His most recent work, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, co-produced with Randall Dunn, fuses pibroch-inspired atmospheres with spectral voices and dissonant echoes. It is a music of immanence, tension, and transcendence — charged with raw spiritual force. His backstory reads like a primer of psychedelic fiction woven into statements of the unbelievable, superhuman, and outright insane.
After a stint with The Poems, a band he started with his then-wife Rose McDowall, he joined the ranks of UK avant-gardists Genesis P-Orridge, David Tibet, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, John Balance, and countless others who would come to define the industrial music’s blossoming experimental vanguard. McDowall eventually collaborated with Psychic TV and became a full-time member of the hugely influential cult outfit Coil, where his influence shaped the group’s later output: exercises in magical practice and music-as-psychoactive effect.
For this special performance, visual artist Pedro Maia joins as a guest contributor, enhancing the live set with analog film visuals that respond in real-time to the music’s intensity and flow. Known for his work with experimental musicians worldwide, Maia adds a luminous visual layer — transforming the concert into a full-body audio-visual experience.
Pedro is a Portuguese filmmaker working predominantly with 16mm and 8mm film, pushing the boundaries between analog, digital and live cinema. Extending the limits and aesthetic of analog medium by manipulating the raw materials, challenging the traditional process and continually expanding the visual and technological heritage of classic film methods.
His work has been presented and exhibited at renowned film festivals, institutions and galleries, including The Barbican Center, Serralves Museum, The Centre Pompidou, Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum, Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art, MACBA Barcelona, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Mostra São Paulo, Curtas Vila do Conde, Indie Lisboa, amongst others.
This is not just a live performance — it’s a closing night concept crafted for the 10th edition of Bucharest Photofest. One night only. One transformation. An unique experience.
Links > Drew McDowall / Dais Records / Pedro Maia
YouTube > Rhizome / Agalma V / GRM Présences Electronique