Five Men Three Missing

Five Men Three Missing. It’s an interesting choice of name for a duo who make live electronic music. Beautifully layered, looped, finely tuned, beat driven music. Music thats causing quite a sensation in their home town, Johannesburg. Music that has taken performance and technology to a new level. Music, quite simply, that gets their audiences attention.

Emile Hoogenhout and João Orecchia are Five Men Three Missing. The name gives one an immediate idea as to what their stage looks like. Its littered with instruments - bass, guitar, electronic drum kit [more], effects pedals, mixing consoles - yet the band has only two members.

The duo create their music using real time looping, incorporating live instruments and original samples. Real time looping is a totally new area of music. In fact the Looper used to create these loops was released only last year. The Loopers are connected to all of the different instruments used by the band. So the band are performing live acoustic music, presented in an electronic format melded together with carefully chosen sound samples. Add to this, the fascination of watching this process live, and you begin to have an idea as to why they have build a loyal fanbase in such a short time.

For this band, performing a track is unlike any other. The song begins with the live performance of a short instrumental piece. This segment is recorded live, and looped so that it is continues to be heard by the audience in recorded format. As more parts are recorded live, they are laid over one another in sequence. This creates ‘layers’ of loops which are synchronized in a time pattern. The final song is a finely crafted mix of drum grooves, synth part, guitar parts, bass lines, sound samples, vocal samples and other captivating sounds.

Five Men Three Missing played their first gig at Melville’s Berlin Bar. The event was packed to capacity and their facebook group was instantly launched. The group are becoming known for the interactive element of their performances – such as the masks that audience members created and wore at the second gig. They also offer the audience an opportunity to play an instrument, which is recorded and looped live on stage. The band’s name was chosen in a competition at their first gig providing a great insight into the audience’s perception of the band.

Emile Hoogenhout - A new interest in electronic music has turned this world class drummer into a live music producer. A multi talented multi - instrumentalist, Emile has recently turned his interest from instrumentation to music production. This new music project has allowed him to contribute his production, instrumentation and performance skills. Emile was recently awarded a scholarship to study music at the world renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.

João Orecchia - Born in Brooklyn, NY, Joao began his music career with improvised and experimental music in Phoenix, Arizona in 1999. A later move to Berlin rerouted his interest to theatre productions, films, and installations. He joined Berlin based record label & music community blankrecords, specializing in mixing soundscapes, song structures and improvisation. His first solo album Motherless Brooklyn was released on blankrecords in May 2005.

Second Hand Secret We create big multi-instrumental compositions between just the two of us, using something called real-time looping. We would record parts live, loop them and move to a different instrument to do the same. With every layer our compositions become bigger and more intricate.

Electronic

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