Come on, we all do it. It's not due to peer pressure, it's not because we care: it's out of sheer necessity. Of course, we're referring to a bodily function, one that is neither a source of disgust or social taboo: breathing. Take A Deep Breath assembles academics, artists, philosophers, musicians, historians, scientists and others who were at some point compelled to take a better look at all that inspiration and expiration. This three-day symposium will provide a broad discussion on this very symbol of life as a source of reflection on today's environmental concerns. Starting with artists' talks by Lise Autogena and Cornelia Parker, the event is replete with entertaining and thought-provoking bits and parts such as performances by musicians Richard Craig and Bjork collaborator Mikhail Karikis, temporary installations from artists Max Streicher and Nikos Navridis and a sound project by Michael Clark.

NB: Take A Deep Breath takes place on 15/11 (2 - 6pm), 16/11 (10:20am - 8:30pm) and 17/11 (10:20am - 8:30pm). Admission ticket includes refreshments and entry to all events.

In an all-out decision by The British Library to practice what it preaches, the Library has brought in a collection of performance artists and musicians to stage a kind of Cagean happening, inspired by its latest exhibition Breaking The Rules (till 30/04/08). Soloists from the London Sinfonietta will collaborate with Planningtorock, Tim Exile and VJ/artist Pablo Fiasco to create an evening exploring the avant-garde. Pieces by Berio, Stravinsky and Parmegiani will sit alongside new work in a programme reminiscent of Warp's Ether festival. As anyone who has been to any of the Ether concerts will know, though they offer a seemingly limitless enthusiasm for what might happen if you fused some of today's pioneering electronic artists with highly skilled musicians and ensembles, little thought is given to the fact that the exponents, more often than not, speak in completely different languages. While this evening's concert seems more strategically organised, it is still difficult to discern any real artistic motivation for this elaborate fusion. It will be interesting to see if those involved can turn the situation around.

NB: this event is part of the Arrivals festival (14/11 till 25/11) which has been programmed in conjunction with the opening of St Pancras International, the new Eurostar train station.

KODE9 & SPACEAPE + THE BUG + SKULL DISCO @ PLASTIC PEOPLE (15/11)
Dirty hyperdub-stepping backwards masher Kode9 plays one of The Wire 25 send-off gigs, with gritty and sticky radio prodigy The Bug. The Spaceape's eccentric audio-visual stylings bring together layers of electro dub and deep dark beats with sickly stills and ambiguous renderings of the human stain in a series of digital video installations that will bring the space to life -- albeit looping and lurching, protozoan and vaguely political life -- and add another layer to the stratosphere of music and madness.

RAFAEL TORAL + ROGER TURNER + TRAPIST... @ BUSH HALL (17/11)
[no.signal] presents diverse layers of jazz improvisation, alternative rock and electronic sounds. Thrill Jockey signed Austrio-Canadian trio Trapist -- Martin Brandlmayr (from Radian) on drums, Martin Siewert on guitar, lapsteel and electronics and Joe Williamson on double bass -- defies all concept of categorisation with their stunning work of space rock and improvised music. Portuguese electronics genius Rafael Toral will premiere his Space Project work as a first collaboration with UK improv maestro and drummer Roger Turner. German minimal electronic musician Bernhard Guenter has been collaborating with "stereo guitarist" Gary Smith for the past six months and will inaugurate their Klangstaub project. Opening the evening is Swiss minimal duo Bo Wiget and Luigi Archetti on cello, trumpet and electronics.

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER + POLLY SHANG KUAN BAND... @ CARGO (18/11)
Jackie-O Motherfucker is returning to Cargo as a part of the Wire and Upset The Rhythm's all day drone and dance event with Axolotl pumping out some serious noise and The Polly Shang Kuan Band bringing a slightly raunchier sound, maybe to bridge the gap between the abstract wall of sound and twinkly melodics of JOMF and the deeper dance beats. JOMF deliver something different every single time they play, but the line-up here looks suitably complementary and ranges from the slightly twisted to the completely wired.

NB: these three events are part of The Wire 25 festival which runs till 22/11.

Ridley Scott's latest epic, American Gangster, is the true story of Frank Lucas, a leading Harlem mobster who, helped by his US serviceman cousin stationed in Vietnam, used army transport and body bags to bring in huge shipments of Grade A heroin over to poison his own neighbourhood. And yet, despite this being a thoroughly riveting film, with incredible performances from leads Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and which recreates the financially and morally bankrupt New York of the '70s as good as any film we've ever seen, we still left the cinema somewhat peeved. This is largely because this cold and calculated murderer's charisma, business acumen and wealth are fully illustrated while the death and mayhem that he and his product caused is glimpsed at only in flashes. And now that the UK is flooded with cheap smack from Afghanistan (where US and UK troops are now engaged) a film about a black male with a gun who becomes a multi-millionaire through selling this most heinous of substances is, in our opinion, not only not ideal but also thoroughly irresponsible.

NB: American Gangster is released in London on 16/11. Also of note this week are the special Q&A screenings of I Don't Want To Sleep Alone with director Tsai Ming-liang (16/11 at 6:30pm) and The Edge Of Heaven with director Faith Akin (18/11 at 5pm). And lastly, Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (18/11 till 06/12).

As one of the key filmmakers, along with Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-hsien, of Taiwan's second "New Wave", Tsai Ming-liang returned to his native Malaysia for his most recent film I Don't Want To Sleep Alone. Enigmatic and dreamlike, the film continues with Tsai's familiar themes of isolation and loneliness, with a story focusing on migrant workers displaced by the collapse of Kuala Lumpur's boom economy. Parallel narratives of two seriously ill men (both played by Lee Kang-sheng, the star of all Tsai's previous films) -- one in a coma and one badly beaten -- begin to merge as the men's two carers become involved in what becomes a sensual triangle. Images of water and decaying locations -- habitual in Tsai's films -- are key, and combined to gorgeous effect in the flooded basement of the abandoned, half-finished building where the characters are squatting. Released simultaneously is Tsai's previous film, the sexually explicit futuristic musical The Wayward Cloud, which combines Lee as a porn star, with unusual and inventive uses for watermelons....

NB: this screening is part of the BFI's retrospective of films by Tsai Ming-liang. I Don't Want To Sleep Alone is released in London on 16/11. Also of note this week is the special Q&A screening of The Edge Of Heaven with director Faith Akin (18/11 at 5pm) and Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (18/11 till 06/12).

At one point, it seemed like all successful artists had to have a band. Witness Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw and Paul McCarthy with Destroy All Monsters, Kelley -- again -- with Tony Oursler in The Poetics, and Martin Creed with Owada, not to mention rock 'n' roll art school grads like Pete Townshend and Kim Gordon. Today, though, they just DJ. To coincide with the opening of The Hayward's brand spanking new bar, Concrete, artist Eberhard Havekost will be presenting his own videos and DJing with Bohnerwachs Tontraeger, label mate Dennis Bartetzko (aka Fat Fendres) and Suburban Trash Industries boss, Noize Creator. One of the youngsters in The Hayward's hip celebration of that juncture where painting meets photography, The Painting of Modern Life, Havekost is an artist who takes images, manipulates them in Photoshop, and translates them into paint. The result always looks like the representation of a representation; an image eerily detached from reality, reminding us of how mediated our lives have become. Perhaps the electronica produced this evening will also detach us from reality. Certainly this new bar will!

NB: The Painting Of Modern Life runs till 30/12. To coincide with the exhibition The Hayward has programmed a symposium Pause On The Image (30/11 and 01/12).

While we wouldn't normally recommend fighting your way through the crowds of achingly hip scenesters at The Old Blue Last on a Friday night, this week we are willing to make an exception as they play host to Plastic Little, the latest escapees from what Pitchfork have dubbed the "Hollertronix Quadrant". If you like to jump around and party hard to hip-hop rather than stand in the shadows, arms crossed with a scowl across your face, then you're in for a treat similar in style, sound and substance to Spank Rock, with whom they've shared a stage many times back in their native Philadelphia. Plastic Little mix booty shaking Baltimore Club style beats, snatches of sampled indie tunes and hilariously obscene lyrics to party starting effect, a combination sure to endear them to the hearts of students everywhere. With their debut album She's Mature yet to be released this side of the Atlantic, make the most of this opportunity to see them up close and personal -- this time next year you'll be peering at them from the back of hall.

NB: if you cannot make this gig catch Plastic Little on 21/11 (8pm) at the Dazed Gallery, 22/11 (8pm) at the Notting Hill Arts Club and 24/11 (11pm) at Astoria 2.

It's a busy week for the Allez Allez boys: they just hosted a night at Plastic People with the Kompakt label, before heading south for the weekend to celebrate their first birthday at the newly re-opened Amersham Arms. Having bedded themselves in nicely last month with an enjoyably eclectic line-up that included Four Tet and One More Grain, they've headed into deeper waters this time with dubstep pioneers Shackleton and Appleblim taking charge of the decks. As the pair behind the critically lauded Skull Disco label, they've managed to revitalise a genre that, despite being in it's early development, was beginning to show the first signs of becoming formulaic. In doing so, they created a sound that has crossed over to fans of intricate electronica artists such as Monolake and Basic Channel, even finding favour with the likes of minimal main man Ricardo Villalobos, who contributed an 18 minute remix to their seventh release. Add to that a live set from Basteroid (aka Sebastian Riedl and one of the co-founders of Areal Records) and the Allez Allez DJs themselves, and you have a fine looking party, maybe even enough to tempt a few of North London's braver residents into making the psychologically scarring ten minute journey south of the river. You never know -- stranger things have happened.

NB: you can also catch Shackelton live alongside Kode9, The Spaceape and The Bug on 15/11 (9pm) at Plastic People (part of The Wire 25 festival).

Martin Buttrich was given his wings in Hamburg in 1995 by a then unknown Timo Maas. Since then his collaborations with Maas, genre chameleon Loco Dice and former partner Andy Bolleshon have journeyed from trance right through to techno -- with a notable soujourn in breaks in between that was credited as launching acts like Plump DJs. But it's only since 2006 that he has emerged from the shadows as a solo artist, defining himself with quirky but minimal beats and the occasional stirs of trance melodies. Alex Smoke, on the other hand, is a techno-obsessed Berliner stuck in the body of a Glaswegian. Soma Records' brightest young thing in electronic music is making his name with sonically powerful, experimental rhythms that bear the mark of a disciplined musician -- Smoke hails from a classical background. Such is his appetite for the lateral that he's also working on a hip-hop project, Fool (although we wouldn't expect to hear much of that at DDD).

NB: also of note is run's 3rd bday party with Daniel Bell and Andy Vaz (16/11, 10pm - late).

The great Indian director Satyajit Ray was still a graphic artist with no film-making credits when he first picked up the novel Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. It was the 1940s and Ray loved the novel, but didn't know how to film the story of a struggling rural Bengali family. Then, in 1948 he saw Vittorio De Sica's neo-realist masterpiece The Bicycle Thief and suddenly everything became clear. In the early 1950s Ray started filming Pather Panchali, the story of Apu, a boy born into a poor, but loving family, whose father leaves for the city to pursue a writing career. It took four long years to complete, but on its release was immediately hailed in the West as an extraordinary debut feature. Ray quickly went on to become the darling of the European film festival circuit. Aparajito was made in 1956. The second part of the trilogy, it tells of Apu's progress to the city and through college education. The final installment in the trilogy, The World Of Apu, was made in 1959 and follows Apu as a young man, searching for work, falling in love and dealing with the devastation of bereavement. Overall, it's a stunning example of personal film-making.

NB: The Apu Trilogy screens at the ICA on consecutive Sundays and Mondays from 18/11 till 06/12. Also of note this week are the special Q&A screenings of I Don't Want To Sleep Alone with director Tsai Ming-liang (16/11 at 6:30pm) and The Edge Of Heaven with director Faith Akin (18/11 at 5pm).

Although originally starting out as an actor, German-Turkish director Fatih Akin performed a swift about-face and found his true calling on the other side of the camera. A key face in the new wave of German cinema, and a continual award magnet, Akin has gathered international prizes for everything from his debut short, through awards at Locarno for Short Sharp Shock and the 2004 Golden Bear at Berlin for the brilliant, raw Head-On. Scheduled for release next February, The Edge Of Heaven -- winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes 2007 and Germany's entry to the 2008 Oscars -- continues his winning tradition. Drawing on his own experiences, his films explore the conflicts and contradictions inherent in the lives of the offspring of immigrant Turks -- not totally accepted in Germany; not completely at home in Turkey -- and how it feels to be where the two cultures merge (and, more importantly, clash). Head-On captured this conflict brilliantly, and The Edge Of Heaven once again incisively explores love and tragedy across generations, countries and cultures.

NB: this screening will be followed by a Q&A with Faith Akin and a Turkish-themed reception with music, drinks and food. Also of note this week is the special Q&A screening of I Don't Want To Sleep Alone with director Tsai Ming-liang (16/11 at 6:30pm) and Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (18/11 till 06/12).

Almost epitomising the idea of an offbeat musician, many music fans will have heard of Vic Chesnutt but not be entirely sure who he is. Indeed, many will have heard of him through his list of collaborators: Michael Stipe produced his first two albums (1990's Little and 1991's West Of Rome), his 1998 album The Salesman And Bernadette was recorded with backing from Lambchop, and since then his songs have been arranged and embellished by Van Dyke Parks, Bill Frisell and many more. His musical output is characterised by an acoustic Southern folksy feel laced with vocals characterised by unique neo-jazz phrasing, in which each individual syllable is elongated. His lyrics are heavily poetic, veering between the obviously autobiographical and oblique Gothic ruminations. Chesnutt's newest album North Star Deserter includes contributions from A Silver Mt. Zion, as well as Fugazi's Guy Picciotto. As if to cement his status as the end in hipster collaborations, the album was produced by cult documentary filmmaker Jem Cohen. This gig will be a great opportunity for the curious to discover a genuine cult icon.

The Gate Theatre is a small gem in London's theatre scene, an important producing house devoted to international contemporary drama, hidden above a pub in Notting Hill Gate. The Car Cemetery by Fernando Arrabal is an unusual play deeply rooted in Theatre of the Absurd, exploring the condition of life in a meaningless, abstract and timeless universe that could be described as a post-modern mixture of Delicatessen, Blade Runner and Emir Kusturica's fantasy films. The magical world of Arrabal's play is greatly supported by Lorna Richie's design; this year's finalist for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design transforms the Gate into a bizarre place of wonder. Sadly the direction lets the play down. Natalie Abrahami's interpretation of the text fails to see the abstraction of the play. Her cast deals with the text as if it were social-realism, taking too literally the absurd universe they enter. The production lacks the precise lightness to lift it above the real.

NB: runs till 01/12.

Having previewed at The Old Vic last year and performed at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Richard Shannon's topical The Lady Of Burma, now comes to Riverside Studios. A solo performance from the exceptional Liana Mau Tan Gould sees Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in her prison cell after the Depayin incident of 2003, where an assassination attempt saw one hundred of her followers beaten to death. Shannon places his protagonist in a realistically minimal and effective set as the prisoner -- often directly addressing the audience but occasionally lost in thought -- narrates the history of her tumultuous but inspiring life, both political and personal. Gould is excellently cast in her role, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Burma's most eminent detainee, and she brings both poise and dignity to the part. John Mills' sound is expertly designed; often unexpected, it adds equally to both the startling terror of machine gun fire and the inner peace that a piano can bring to a person under house arrest. This is a moving production and after the recent arrest and confinement of thousands of protesters and the murder of dozens of dissidents in Burma, it is a particularly important one.

NB: runs till 02/12.

The intensity Lucas Samaras has brought to his work over the years deserves far more attention in this country than he has had thus far. A participant in Allan Kaprow and Lucas Samaras's Happenings of the '60s, Samaras' early objects -- boxes covered with nails, fishhooks, razors and other sharp objects -- were fetishistic at a time when art seemed more concerned with "grander" issues. They were personal rather than philosophical, hence his subsequent use of self-portraiture and his body. Given Louise Bourgeois' successes in transforming the personal into the sensational, Samara's obsessive and "narcissistic" choice of paths seems all the less strange. Though with that in mind the selection here will make him seem even weirder. On view are works that span his later oeuvre, from the giddy spectrum paintings to deconstructed chairs and chicken wire boxes to the giant, walk-in, mirrored box from the '60s that was remade this year. This colourful Samaras taster shows the manifold pathways that the Macedonian -- transposed to America as a child -- invented to fulfil his creative urges.

NB: runs till 17/11.

There's definitely an intrinsic flaw in all the music that labels such as Ed Banger and Kitsune are putting out. It all sounds so very right when you're at Durrr and you've had several rum and cokes and Erol Alkan drops that mythical SebastiAn edit of Boyz Noise you read about on Fluokids, just as that girl with The Fiery Furnaces fringe and vintage Sonics top you've been exchanging flirtatious glances with sidles over and starts shaking hips with you. However, removed from the club sound system and spread over the length of an album, there just isn't enough going on to maintain interest. For a perfect example, look no further than Idealism, the much-anticipated album from Digitalism. Predictably, 15 tracks of lysergic dance rock failed to justify the hype built up by the more angular press and an ever growing network of obsessive mp3 blogs. Not to say Idealism is by any means terrible, it just doesn't really exhibit much in the way of innovation. Despite this, Digitalism's reputation began and was cemented on the live stage and this is demonstrated by how quickly the Scala show on their UK tour sold out. Such popular demand has seen a second London date at King's College added and is likely to sell out soon, so you best get yer booking on!

In the '70s, you'd have referred to Jon Thompson as a "total footballer"; today he'd just be a "utility player", one capable of playing in different positions. For those of you unfamiliar with his name, Thompson's is as synonymous with Goldsmiths as that of Michael Craig-Martin's. The educator, author and curator liberated the structure of the now venerable institution, and is therefore truly the great granddaddy of the YBAs. Like all his other endeavours Thompson is an intellectual; these predominately hard-edged paintings superficially seem to be about colour, pattern and flatness, but if you look hard and think slowly, they offer a lot more. They hint at other artworks, belief systems, Persian miniatures, as well as religious iconography, not to mention just plain plaids and dots. Like the smell of perfume, they are full of allusions, but Thompson's paintings are not just conceptual, they are visually smart. Look hard, take your time and their riches will eventually offer themselves... Goooaaaalllll!

NB: runs till 24/11.

Will Adamsdale is the Computer; or rather, the man who, unable to use one, became one. It's easy to see why this was a hit at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Adamsdale has real stage charm. He's cute, funny and his show is intelligent. He banters effortlessly with the audience, warming them up for some ridiculous audience participation but it is all much more theatrical and dramatic than pure stand-up. The guy ends up going to war (action!) against a virus (disaster averted!), with his new buddies Arrow and Hand. The audience participation is panto stuff but for some reason you feel clever when you do it. Throughout the show, people really do jump up on stage at random. All this is encouraged by the charming Adamsdale. The cardboard cut-out props and slap-dash brushstrokes of the set design are a further stroke of genius, reducing PCs to the random pieces of plastic and metal that they are. Only one question remains: why was the audience predominantly made up of guys in striped shirts? Has the man inspired his own cult already?

NB: runs till 24/11.

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