Kowä Axis

Kowa Axis is London-based guitarist, improviser and writer, James Barry. The first roots of his music sprung from the glimpses of noise he heard as a teenager from bands like Nirvana and Helmet. But he was guided to find his own voice by artists like Thurston Moore, Caspar Brötzmann and Derek Bailey. While these days he feels a closer affinity to free-improv players than metal bands, his music can rival most doom acts when it comes to sheer weight of sound. He’s as much influenced by the late-period explosiveness of John Coltrane, as the long crushing drones of Sunn O))). “I’ve long had a fascination with the sounds guitars aren’t supposed to make”, Barry says. “Whether it’s the notes between the notes, or the way the guitar can behave like a living, breathing creature when the conditions are right. Sometimes you find yourself man-handling the instrument rather than playing it. I’ve never felt more free or alive musically than when I’m on the precipice of chaos.” 2019’s ‘Niche Field’ (an improvised collaboration with UK-noise legend Joe Parkes’ Pale World) showed how Kowa Axis could create long, hypnotic distortion meditations. 2021’s double album ‘Ones And Threes’ was a pure solo effort that contained both Barry’s darkest material yet, alongside his most beautiful. With two upcoming releases incorporating analogue synth too, Kowa Axis is one of the UK’s most compelling voices in improv/noise guitar.