I suspect we’re going to start seeing a lot of notices as artists, musicians and creatives of all sorts count the costs of the fires over in LA, we’re starting to hear stories of painters who have lsot studios, musicians who have lost equipment.

“We’re sorry to announce the cancellation of the ExOrg performance on Jan. 18th. The catastrophic fire that has destroyed large parts of Los Angeles has tragically affected the group directly. Houses have been burnt to rubble and fires are still burning. We had been looking forward to coming to London and creating an amazing performance but now we’ll remain here to take steps toward moving forward”. – Rick Potts

The photo up there features Photo L-R: Joe Potts, Paul McCarthy, Alex Stevens, Rick Potts (copyright Fredrik Nilsen). The announcement was on the IDA projects Instagram feed

The plan was that ExOrg, the LA based free improvisational group that abbreviates Extended Organ to three of it’s five members: Paul McCarthy (vocals and guitar), Joe Potts (Chopped Optigan) and Alex Stevens (processing and synths) were to play London’s Cafe Oto this coming Saturday 18th January, they were to be joined on this occasion by fellow LAFMS collaborator Rick Potts (electronic and customised acoustic instrumentation). while later in the evening the group were to be joined by Charles Hayward (This Heat, This Is Not This Heat, Abstract Concrete) on drums. According to Cafe Oto the whole evening is now cancelled, although do check Oto just in case they fill the date.

Extended Organ perform live at The Regent Theater, downtown Los Angeles, California, opening for This Is Not This Heat back in July 2019

And this from 2013 and a perfomance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

“Extended Organ is Tom Recchion, Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, and Paul McCarthy with Alex Stevens. Mike Kelley was a longtime member of the group and continues to be a contributing member by virtue of the sound recordings he provided to the group before his death: “in case I can’t make a gig, I can still play.” Tom, Joe and Fredrik are founding members of the seminal West Coast experimental noise cult collective, the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS).

The roots of the LAFMS trace back to 1972 when disparate groups of improvising sound experimenters in eastern Los Angeles discovered their mutual interest and banded together to design modes of self production and distribution of recordings and publications, helping to develop and propel the DIY moment. Paul McCarthy began collaborating with the LAFMS in the late 70’s and has been an integral participating supporter since the mid 90’s.

Formed in 1994, Extended Organ produce a dynamic otherworldly ambience that can be simultaneously hilarious and ominously frightening. Overlaying the carpet of sound produced by Joe Potts and his self-engineered drone instrument, the “Chopped Optigan” is Paul McCarthy’s vocal and guitar improvisations channeled and processed by Alex Stevens. Tom Recchion, simultaneously renowned as an inventor of crude homemade instruments and as an innovative composer of electronic and tape music, performs an array of sounds blending lush beauty and horror sensibility into the matrix. An antique Rheem Mark 7 organ is layered in by Fredrik Nilsen along with electronic sound and the aforementioned recordings provided by Mike Kelley. Mike Kelley’s varied array of sounds are unprocessed mouth generated tugs, gurgles and bubbling masterfully recorded in 2010 by Scott Benzel”.