Familiars: Debut performance at Stranger Than Fiction, London, 26th Novemeber

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

On Saturday 26th November will be the first performance from Familiars, the new improv sound and movement group I’m involved with, at a night called Stranger Than Fiction in South London. Myself, musician Anthony Donovan and Dancers Rebecca Bogue and Jane Munro form the group, blurring the lines between free improvised music, live art and contemporary dance. Below is the press release for further info.

‘Stranger than Fiction…’
A Monthly Celebration of Improvisation in Performance
in collaboration with Independent Dance
Saturday 26th of November at 7:00PM

with
Neat Timothy
Performers: Seke Chimutengwende, Gareth Green, Jane Leaney, Rick Nodine and Gabriele Reuter.
Neat Timothy improvise with text and movement in performance – with their own distinct aesthetic. They mix contemporary dance, contact improvisation, storytelling, folk songs, stand up comedy and the occasional audience experiment.

Language Game
Performers: Alex Crowe and Amaara Raheem.
A flat white after a job interview. A barmaid scrubbing down tables while a fat man holds forth. A major philosophical work consisting entirely of jokes. What lures them in, those elusive meanings that lurk between language and movement?
A structured movement improvisation based on texts by Alex Crowe, Amaara Raheem and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Sense[less] Acts
Performers: Jenny Hill and Rosanna Irvine.
Sense[less] Acts works with movement and text to create particular parameters for an improvisational event. It continually challenges the performers to hone their attention in the present, as a strategy to elude an already recognized future.

Familiars
Performers: Rebecca Bogue, Anthony Donovan, Graham Dunning and Jane Munro.
Familiars acknowledge the movement of the musican and the sound of the dancer; listening and sensing both as they arise in the moment.

Siobhan Davies Studios
85 St George’s Road
London SE1 6ER
Elephant & Castle or Lambeth North tube - Directions
£7 cash only (includes refreshments)
Doors open at 6:30PM

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Ritual performance with Ingrid Plum: Apiary Gallery, London

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

This Friday, 4th November I’m performing in a improvising duo with artist Ingrid Plum. I’ll be using turntable, analogue synth, bowed cymbal and electronics; Ingrid will bring her elongated annunciations, movements and play singing bowl.

The performance is part of a night called BURN MAGICK BURN which is showcasing works crossing of live art, ritual, sound, improvisation and performance-lecture. See the press release below for more info:

—

BURN MAGICK BURN
Friday 4th November 2011
Apiary studios
458 Hackney Rd London, E2 9EG
DOORS 7PM
FREE

Curated By Kevin Quigley

BURN MAGICK BURN is a unique evening of performance that brings together a series of artists / performers to explore the boundaries between performance, music and ritual. Coming together under the cloak of Fire magic Ritual in conjunction with the sacrificial Guy Fox’s bonfire weekend the artist’s will present new performance works evoking the sprites and imps of fire!

- expect an evening of spine chilling immersive enchanted music -

ARTIST DETAILS

ENGLISH HERETIC
English Heretic Present: Burnt Out – Fire Sermons, Fire Summons
Tonight English Heretic explore together the Buddhist concept of The Fire Sermon in the context of its Black Plaque recipients. The Fire Sermon – a metaphor for the burrning nerves of complete psychic capitulation epitomised by the suicides of Michael Reeves and Robert Cochrane; the schizophrenic Ian Ball’s act of royal treason. The Fire Sermon was made popular in the West by TS Eliot’s Wasteland. In 1925, Elliot wrote the Hollow Men, an allusion to the straw effigies of bonfire night, an allusion to his own mental breakdown.

GUY HARRIES + YUMI HARA CAWKWELL
Yumi Hara Cawkwell and Guy Harries perform another intense sound ritual around the theme of fire, using electronics, found objects, movement and voice. Otherworldy, engimatic, transformative, magical.

MYSTERIUM
will perform a intense drone vocal piece with earthquaking ‘transcending’ vocals / drone phasing guitar / dark organ / euphoric saxophone
mysterium players for this performance are -
Christos Fanaras (analog synth-organ)
Colin Webster (alto-sax)
Kevin Quigley (Guitar / electronics)
Leslie Goosey (vocals)
Leigh-ann Abela (vocals)

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Curating the Oramics to Electronica exhibition

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

The new exhibition at The Science Museum, Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music, is now open to the public. Above is a short film by Nick Street and Jen Fearnley about the show itself and the process that me and the other eleven co-curators were involved in.

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From Oramics to Electronica – The History of Electronic Music exhibition at The Science Museum

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Earlier this year I was honoured to be one of twelve co-curators on a new exhibition at London’s Science Museum about the history of electronic music. The main focus of the exhibition is Daphne Oram’s Oramics Machine, a synthesizer with amazingly forward-looking capabilities.

The machine itself is already on show but this month sees the opening of a second part of the exhibition which aims to tell the story of electronic music. Items such as Delia Derbyshire’s lampshade which she sampled for the Dr. Who theme bassline, an original Roland TB-303, a specially commissioned circuit-bent Speak & Spell and plenty of other interesting analogue and digital equipment will be on display.

At the official opening event on 10th October none other than Brian Eno will give a speech. The exhibition is then open to the public from the 11th October, with an evening event related to the show scheduled for 26th October.

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Figure Ground book launch

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Earlier this year I took part in a three day residency aboard LV21, a decommissioned light ship moored off the Kent coast, organised by Figure Ground. Myself and 19 other artists, collaborated, made new work and gave performances. Each of us have written evaluations of the process and the results are being made into a book.

The launch event for the publication takes place on THURSDAY 6TH OCTOBER at the Book Art Bookshop, 17 Pitfield Street, London. 6-9pm (times tbc).

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Collaborative recording weekend at the Merzbarn

Posted on September 16, 2011 by

This weekend I’m excited to be heading to the Lake District to Kurt Schwitters‘ original Merzbarn to collaborate with a group of other musicians and artists in recording an album. Organised by White Label Music and the Kurt Schwitters Foundation, the event is a tribute to the infamous dadaist, sound poet, painter and father of installation art. The resulting recordings will be released on CD later in the year.

On Saturday the participants will be giving some performances of both Schwitters’ work and some of our own compositions. In addition there will be a digital link up with artist Jack Ox at the Mesa Gallery in Los Alamos, New Mexico. More info on that parallel event here.

I’ll add documentation of the weekend and more info on the release in future posts.

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Release: Open Sound Group – Warehouse One

Posted on September 15, 2011 by

On 25th August I organised another Open Sound Group event featuring 12 improvising musicians and sound artists. I played turntables with dubplates of field recordings, prepared piano and drums. The recordings are now available on the OSG netlabel. Info below.

Open Sound Group - Warehouse One

Open Sound Group - Warehouse One

Four improvised recordings from changing improvising ensemble, Open Sound Group. Rhythm, drone, spoken word, small sounds and noise.

The second OSG event, these tracks were recorded in a warehouse in Manor House, London, in late August 2011. The session was run as an open workshop with players invited to experiment with new ideas, new instruments and new ways of making sounds.

Participants at the event were: James Alaska, Tom Mudd, Andrea Night of Pan, Colin Webster, David Gadson, Jonas Golland, Sharen Sum, Justin Paton, Carlos Slazenger, Caveman Joe, Cathy Gerber and Graham Dunning.

Instruments used included prepared piano, gamelan, violin, saxophone, laptops, turntables, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, spoken word, drums, didley bow, synthesizers and voices.

Click here for the archive.org dowload page.
Click here to download direct [zip].

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