Defibrillators are an improvising duo who combine live drumming with a range of homemade electronics, circuit bent devices and a repurposed Nintendo Wii remote.

They formed in March 2008 at The Croft in Bristol when Seth Cooke and Anton Maiof started chatting over a cigarette outside the Merzbow, Flowers/Corsano Duo and Carlos Giffoni concert playing that night. The plan was to form an improvising duo that would be more flexible and spontaneous than other bands the two had played in previously.

Since then they have gone on to play shows with William Bennett of Whitehouse, Charles Hayward of This Heat, Neptune, Kayo Dot, Team Brick, Flowers/Corsano Duo, Ryan Jordan, Heather Leigh Murray of Scorces and Charalambides and played at the inaugural Hokaben Festival with Aufgehoben and Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Their sound could be described as occupying the spaces between all these disparate bands and musicians, but they don’t mind if they’re summarised as ‘Merzbow meets Konono #1.’

Seth plays drums, cymbals, crotales, gongs, the bowl of a stainless steel waste disposal sink and assorted electronics. Anton plays keyboards, homemade devices and manipulates pre-recorded and live sampled real-time audio via his laptop and a Nintendo Wii remote. Both provide electronically treated vocals.

Defibrillators at Café Oto from Freq on Vimeo.

Besides Defibrillators, Anton plays guitar and sings for Geisha (AKA Geisha Noise Research Group) and performs and records as a solo artist under the name DTV. He also produces Italo disco as Antoni Maiovvi. Seth plays drums for Hunting Lodge, Magical Parents, Masterly! & Farewell and Gavotte & Bow; has contributed to live performances with Ashtray Navigations, the A Band, Kayo Dot, Team Brick and Afrirampo; and has performed pieces by James Weeks, Ignacio Agrimbau and Michael Finnissy. He also performs solo shows using assorted electronics and percussives.

They record most of their live performances and make the recordings available for free download via www.myspace.com/defibrillators. One of these live sets – a performance at Catch 22 in London – was released on a limited edition CDr by Colour Ride. Defibrillators’ self-titled debut album will be released in 2010 on Gravid Hands.

Contact: cooke dot seth at googlemail dot com

Defibrillators photo taken by Stuart Green and linked via Flickr.