BITOI stands for Bass Is The Original Instrument – and it is on the four-stringed instrument and bassist Cassius Lambert that a musical project exploring the limits of the human voice, creation and the connection between a performing player and three female vocalists is based. Heartnoize presents the Czech premiere of BITOI as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Atrium Žižkov, the concert will take place on 14 April at the Žižkov Cultural Centre.

The band, based on the border between Sweden and Denmark, combines one of the oldest instruments – the human voice – with the relatively new sound of the bass guitar and electronic post-production. BITOI’s lyrics are based on phonetic pronunciations of bird sounds, interspersed with vocal cord drumming, layering of tones and harmonies (reminiscent of Holly Herndon’s AI-generated vocals, for example). The group thus creates hypnotic music live, blending traditional practices with contemporary technologies. BITOI Quartet is one of the latest projects of Swedish-Ethiopian composer and producer Cassius Lambert, who has invited three female singers to join him on stage: Alexandra Shabo, Anja Tietze Lahrmann and Agnes Åhlund.