Aurelie / Focal Gaol
Music and performance projects
2007 - present
Aurelie is a music and performance group that formed in 2001, recording and releasing their first album, 'Desde Que Naci', on Swim Records in 2003. The album combined ambient electronics and minimalist instrumental pieces, receiving positive reviews from magazines including The Wire and Uncut.
Aurelie reconvened in 2006, developing new working methods during a period spent as artists-in-residence at Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre that resulted in a series of multi-media performances made in response to the city’s vanishing industrial architecture. Since then, they have regularly performed in arts centres, universities, music venues and festivals around the country with support from the PRS for Music Foundation. In 2009 they performed their ‘football drone opera’ An Unorthodox 1-2 at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre.
Aurelie is: Francis O’ Donnell Smith, David Dhonau, Glenn Boulter and Euan Rodger.
Performing with an array of warped tapes, modified record players, ancient drum machines and dented kitchenware, Focal Gaol is an offshoot of Aurelie, taking the form of a loose-knit improvising collective. Past shows have seen them performing in venues across the North West and in support slots with artists ranging from Volcano the Bear to Anti-Pop Consortium and Mouse on the Keys.
