Midnight Sun?

At 6am this morning, with about two hours sleep the night before, I left Malmö and the Art of the Overhead event and flew to Bergen, Norway. After a quick nap and yet again the price shock (EUR 8 for a beer!), I realized that it was 11 at night and the sun hadn’t really gone down yet. Crazy…

I will post some videos and reviews of the Overheads event later on, but first I must repeat the mantra I learned–quite painfully–during my time in Sweden:

I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again. I will not tour without my own mixer ever again.

Three days lost and a one performance ended after 5 minutes due to stupid technical problems with borrowed mixers. Luckily I borrowed yet another mixer and managed to make it up to the very patient audience on the second night of the festival.

Up and Coming!

Next Life
Snöras
Derek Holzer and John Hegre
21.00, 30 May 2009
Landmark
Bergen Norway

Can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to this one. John Hegre (of Jazkammer) has been one of my favorite people and favorite experimental musicians for years now, so playing a duo with him could end up being the highlight of this tour! Thanks again to Piksel & Ny Musikk for organizing both this and the Neanderthal Electronics workshop I’m doing here this week.

fOO_bar!
w/ macumbista (us/de)
column one (de)
‘Systems Crash’
NEANDERTHAL ELECTRONICS PARTY!!!
21.00, 5 June 2009
WORM
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

‘fOO_bar’ is the public interface of WORM’s medialab moddr_ >> a combination of presentation, installation and performance of digital art and music, showing current interests from the lab without excessive 2.0_fluff – enjoy true interactivity and have a drink while you’re at it…

This night we host the closing event of our ‘Neanderthal Electronics’ workshop by Derek Holzer, with a presentation of the projects created during the week and a Stone-Age style group noise performance.
Live on stage we have COLUMN_ONE and Macumbista, and we start the evening with “Systems Crash” – a new series of public lectures jointly organized by Piet Zwart Institute Media Design and WORM.

Plus earlier in the week I get to see Mudboy open for Lightning Bolt, and on the weekend I go play with the analog synths at the WORM studio. Who says life on the road is all that rough?

Now Playing

Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers – The Power of Myth (TV)
Emeralds – What Happened [2009 No Fun]
Jana Winderen – Heated [2009 Touch]
Jana Winderen – Surface Runoff 7″ [2009 Touch]
Jason Crumer – Ottoman Black [2008 Hospital Productions]
Mika Vainio & Lucio Capece – Trahnie [2009 Editions Mego]
Minsk – With Echoes in the Movement of Stone [2009 Relapse]
Nate Young – Regression [2009 Ideal Recordings]
Natural Snow Buildings – Daughter of Darkness 5XCS [2009 Blackest Rainbow]
Nicholas Szczepanik – The Chiasmus [2009 Basses Frequences]
Our Love Will Destroy the World – Stillborn Plague Angels vinyl [2009 Dekorder]
Pärson Sound – Pärson Sound [1968]
Peter Wright – Snow Blind [2009 Install]
Prurient – And Still, Wanting [2008 Hospital Productions]
Prurient – The Black Post Society [2008 Cold Spring]
Stephan Mathieu – The Key to the Kingdom 7″ [2009 Dekorder]
Stephen O’Malley – Keep an Eye Out [2009 Table of Elements]
Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions [2009 Southern Lord] (bit of a dud, really…they are overcome by their own artiness…)
Swans – Omniscience [1992 Young God]
Unknown 1970s Thai psychedelic orchestra
Wolf Eyes – Always Wrong [2009 Hospital Productions]

Neanderthal Electronics workshop Derek Holzer

Slideshow from the Neanderthal Electronics workshop last week in Berlin, photos by Farahnaz Hatam/NK. There are still places for the Norway and Netherlands workshops open!

BERGEN, NO

***DATES: Monday 25 May – Friday 29 May 2009 10.00-16.00 daily
***LOCATION: Lydgalleriet, Østre Skostredet 3, Bergen, Norway
***COST: 500 NOK (approx 56 EUR)
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Friday 29 May, 19.00, Lydgallerie
***REGISTRATION: post@lydgalleriet.no +47 48 23 78 88
This workshop is a collaboration with Piksel.no

ROTTERDAM, NL

***DATES: Monday 1 June – Friday 5 June 2009 11.00-18.00 daily
***LOCATION: WORM, Achterhaven 148, Rotterdam
***COST: 50 EUR
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Friday 5 June, 21.00, WORM, 5 EUR entry
***REGISTRATION: workshop@moddr.net

TONEWHEELS at The Art of the Overhead, Malmö

I will be in Malmö, Sweden next week to perform the TONEWHEELS set at the Art of the Overhead festival…an event dedicated entirely to sonic and visual arts with the overhead projector!

http://www.overheads.org/

S C H E D U L E

S E M I N A R
MONDAY May 22
10.00 – 12.00 Home Made Media Archaeology at Stapelbäddsparken with prof dr. Verena Kuni (de)
The seminar is presented in collaboration with MEDEA, Collaborative Media Initiative, Malmö University.

P E R F O R M A N C E W E E K E N D
FRIDAY May 22
18.30 Exhibition Opening
20.00-00.00
Junichi Okuyama (jp)
Kunst
& Musik mit dem
Tageslichtprojektor (de)

Derek Holzer (us/de)
170
cm (fr)
Reassemble (uk)

SATURDAY May 23
14 – 17.00
Rune Søchting & Zeenath Hasan (dk)
Maria Karagianni (gr)
Alistair Gentry (uk)
Eva Elander (nl)
Jan Holmberg (se)

20.00-01.00
Goodiepal (dk)
Loud Objects (us)
Katrin Bethge & für diesen abend (de)
Milk Milk Lemonade (de)
Raumzeitpiraten (de)
Martin Haussmann (de) & Desinformation (se)

P S Y C H E D E L I C C L O S I N G P A R T Y
SATURDAY May 30
20.00 Finissage
Ohpia with Mickey Guitar (jp)
Kristian Nihlén (se)
John Wentworth
(se)
VJ Mako Ishizuka & DJ (jp/se)
“OH-istory! A Genealogy of The
Art of the Overhead” by Kristoffer Gansing & Linda Hilfling

O H P e n S u r f a c e W o r k s h o p
17-21 May
The Ohpen Surface workshop is an artist driven workshop. It works as an artist-knowledge-exchange where participating artists are developing their own projects for the festival, but also with the possibility of artists showing a specific technique to oth
ers. The workshop is co-organized and supervised by “Kunst und Musik mit den Tageslichts-projektor”.

ADDRESS:
Stapelbäddsparken – the large concrete building along Stora Varvsgatan, West Harbour, Malmö.

Now Playing

Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor [2009 Editions Mego]
Peter Rehberg – Work for GV 2004-2008 [2008 Editions Mego]
Pita – Get Out [2008 Editions Mego version]
Whitehouse – Erector [1981 Susan Lawley]
jgrzinich – Time’s Arrow Landing [1998/2009 Maaheli Editions]
Saint Vitus – Saint Vitus [1984 S.S.T.]
Earth – Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars Live [2006 No Quarter]

Northern Ireland, 26 April 2009

A long time ago, I promised myself that for every week I spend traveling to do workshops or gigs behind the computer or in front of electronics, I would give myself one day in nature. This was one of those rare times where it actually worked out. Thanks to Richard Davis from Queen Street Digital Studios in Belfast for the opportunity!

The show last Wednesday with Column One and Burial Hex went down well. Thanks to everyone who came out! Unfortunately for me, a cable crapped out on my recorder, so I only have my set in mono… The gig on the 10th with Pure and Habsyll at Raum 18 should be great too. Don’t let the new venue throw you…the only neighbors are a Turkish wedding hall, which means noise will never be an issue! But first, I have to survive the Neanderthal Electronics workshop at NK next week.

I’m looking for someone to sublet my flat in Berlin while I’m away from 20 May to approx 15 June. Rent is EUR 10 a night, minimum one week. Also, I’ll be passing through Paris on 8 June and would love to do a workshop or a gig. Get in touch if you can help either way!

Now Playing

Bodychoke – Cold River Songs CD [1996/2009 Relapse reissue]
Calcination – Calcination CD [2009 Utech] (Thx Antoine!!!)
Antoine Chessex – Terra Incognita amazing gatefold 12″ [2009 Amphissa] (Thx Antoine!!!)
House of Low Culture – Live from the House of Low Temperature one-sided, screen-printed 12″ [2008 2XHNI] (Thx Aaron!!!)
Merzbow & Pan Sonic – V CD (live at Victoriaville, 2002) [2003 Victo]
Merzbow – Karasu (13 Japanese Birds Part 4) CD [2009 Important]
Moss – Tombs of the Blind Drugged CD [2009 Rise Above]
Mudboy – Mudmux Volume One 7” [2008 DNT]
Haunted Castle – Sagging Skull and Street Beast CS [2006/2007 Self Released]
Einstürzende Neubauten/Sogo Ishii – Halber Mensch film [1986]
Victor Pelevin – Babylon post-Soviet Buddhist critique of New Russian advertising culture novel (???)
Vince Collins – Malice in Wonderland unbelievably twisted/perversely surreal animation [1982]

Upcoming Berlin gigs!

Now Playing

Josh Lay – Heirophant (Sentient Recognition Archive)
Nicholas Szczepanik – Mi Otra Mitad 3″ CD (Basses Frequences)
Monno – Ghosts 12″ (Conspiracy)
Herman Hesse – Steppenwolf (book)
Carl Gustav Jung – Man and His Symbols (book)
Robin Hardy – The Wicker Man (1973)(film)
Daniel Higgs – Hymnprovisations for Banjo by the A.I.U. with Piano and Raindrops (iDEAL)
The Bastard Noise – Rogue Astronaut (Gravity)
Xasthur – All Reflections Drained (Hydra Head)

Neanderthal Electronics workshop, Tartu Estonia from macumbista on Vimeo.

.:::DATES + CITIES:::.

20-24 Apr: Queen St. Studios, Belfast UK
04-09 May: eNKa, Berlin DE
25-29 May: Lydgalleriet, Bergen NO
01-05 Jun: WORM, Rotterdam NL

.:::NEANDERTHAL ELECTRONICS:::.

More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal predecessors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins…), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others.

Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it “easier” to make music, so long as we channel our creativity into such socially acceptable avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. As with any established genre, the results are often completely predictable, and therefore quite boring.

But some of us, deep in our wild hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!

This 5 day workshop is designed for 8-10 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. They are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips…) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. Each is a tiny world of its own, using primitive analog computers in combination with feedback, sensors and audio inputs to create a unique sound. Even from the same plan, no two are alike!

Participants are encouraged to use found materials for the construction of their personal instrument. The workshop concludes with a group performance and an invitation to the audience to experiment with each of the instruments which have been created.

.:::VIDEOS FROM PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS::::.

.:::ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:::.

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and heavy metal music. He has played live experimental sound as Macumbista or Derek Holzer–as well as taught workshops in Pure Data and electronics–across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.
http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista
http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista
http://www.umatic.nl/info_derek.html

.:::REGISTRATION INFO:::.

Please register early for all workshops, as they are limited to 10 places each! All workshop fees include electronic components + use of tools.

BELFAST

***DATES: Monday 20 April – Friday 24 April 2009 10.00-16.00 daily
***LOCATION: Digital Arts Studios, 37-39 Queen Street Belfast BT1 6EA
***COST: This workshop is FREE!
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Saturday, 25 April 2009 9pm til late. Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court Belfast BT1 6BX. £5 donation welcome.
***REGISTRATION: events@digitalartsstudios.com or phone 02890312900

BERLIN

***DATES: Monday 4 May – Saturday 9 May 2009 12.00-18.00 daily
***LOCATION: eNKa / ElsenStr. 52 (2.Hof) Berlin, Germany
***COST: 120 EUR
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Saturday 9 May, 19.00, eNKa
***REGISTRATION: eNKa_NK@gmx.de www.myspace.com/enka52 +49 (0)176 20626386

BERGEN

***DATES: Monday 25 May – Friday 29 May 2009 10.00-16.00 daily
***LOCATION: Lydgalleriet, Østre Skostredet 3, Bergen, Norway
***COST: 500 NOK (approx 56 EUR)
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Friday 29 May, 19.00, Lydgallerie
***REGISTRATION: post@lydgalleriet.no +47 48 23 78 88
This workshop is a collaboration with Piksel.no

ROTTERDAM

***DATES: Monday 1 June – Friday 5 June 2009 11.00-18.00 daily
***LOCATION: WORM, Achterhaven 148, Rotterdam
***COST: 50 EUR
***FINAL PRESENTATION: Friday 5 June, 21.00, WORM, 5 EUR entry
***REGISTRATION: workshop@moddr.net

Noise=Noise, Goldsmiths London, 18 March 2009 from macumbista on Vimeo.

Live AV noise performance “Noise=Noise” at Goldsmiths University, London. Hacked hardware, screaming circuits, hypnotic digital flickers. Video features Mick Grierson (video performance), John Bowers (GEM video + noise), Julien Ottavi (kung-fu wii), John Richards (cracklewig + light&sound) and Derek Holzer (optoelectronic tonewheels). Organized by Ryan Jordan. No thanks to the wanker tools at the Student Union who forced us to change venues midway through…

Side note: I’ve been having a bitch of a time getting videos to play right with Vimeo. They stutter like mad. If anyone has any advice for me on how to encode stuff so that you don’t need the latest dual-core to watch a simple video, let me know…

Now Playing
Victor Pelevin – The Sacred Book of the Werewolf (novel)
Barn Owl – From Our Mouths a Perpetual Light [2009 Digitalis]
Habsyll – MMVIII [2009 PsycheDOOMelic]
Isis – Wavering Radiant [2009 Ipecac]
Kevin Drumm – Malaise [2009 Hospital Productions]
Merzbow – Suzume (13 Japanese Birds Part 1) [2009 Important]
Merzbow – Fukurou (13 Japanese Birds Part 2) [2009 Important]
Merzbow – Yurikamome (13 Japanese Birds Part 3) [2009 Important]
Roman Polanski – Rosemary’s Baby (film)

18 MAR: NOISE=NOISE, Goldsmiths, London UK

6pm-9pm Wednesday 18 March 2009 FREE
Small Cinema, Goldsmiths University
FREE

John Bowers
Disinformation
Mick Grierson
Derek Holzer
Ryan Jordan
Martin L
Julien Ottavi
John Richards

19 MAR: TONEWHEELS lecture+performance, Thursday Club @ Goldmsiths, London UK

6pm Thursday 19 March 2009
Seminar Roooms, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths University
FREE

20 MAR: Blinking Ears presents Electroacoustic Performances, E:Vent Gallery, London UK

8:30pm-1am Friday 20 March 2009
E:vent, 96 Teesdale Street
5 POUNDS

Derek Holzer
Joel Cahen
Leafcutter John
Lina Lapelyte
Peter Cusak
+ DJ Alex Czinczel

24 MAR: Future of Sound/Future of Light, Goldsmiths, London UK

Symposium: Media Resources Building, Screen 1, 2pm-6pm, Free

Andrey Smirnov (keynote speaker) http://asmir.theremin.ru/
Jo Hutton myspace.com/johuttonmusic
Derek Holzer www.umatic.nl/tonewheels_historical.html
Rob Mullender http://silentlight.blogspot.com/
Dr. Mick Grierson mickgrierson.co.uk/

Show: The Great Hall, 7pm-10pm, Free

The Sancho Plan thesanchoplan.com
United Visual Artists uva.co.uk
Scanner scannerdot.com
Sophie Clements sophieclements.com
Andy Cameron futureofsound.org/4.htm
body>data>space bodydataspace.net/

Now Playing
Tomas Alfredson – Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) film [2008]
Michelangelo Antonioni – Il Deserto Rosso (The Red Desert) film [1964]
Pussygutt + Story of Rats – Sea of Sand [2007 Olde English Spelling Bee]
Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade [2009 Southern Lord]
Light – A Million Dead Beneath the Ice [2008 self released]
Mudboy – This is Folk Music [2005 Last Visible Dog]
Skepticism – Aes [1999 Red Stream]
Various Artists – Destroyers from the Western Skies [2005 Killzone Records]
Jason Kahn & Asher – Vista [2008 AND/oar]
Jeph Jerman – Metal Drift [Fissur 05]
Loren Chasse & Michael Northam – The Otolith [2008 Helen Scarsdale Agency]
.murmer – We Share a Shadow [2008 Helen Scarsdale Agency]

I was once told by my Butoh teacher, Joan Laage, that there is much more life in darkness than we take for granted. Turn over any stone in the garden and you will find a million living things twisting about, crawling over one another and skittering across the earth–all driven by the basest instinct to escape the light.

An improvised exploration of self-modulating synthesizer feedback. During the soundcheck, one of my Doepfer modules actually caught fire. The first thing which the audience encountered when descending into the small basement of Die Remise was the smell of burnt plastic.

Burned Doepfer A-136 Distortion/Waveshaper module

To those in Berlin: if you haven’t had the chance to enjoy an evening of dinner+concert at Die Remise, I can highly recommend it. Excellent food and great atmosphere. A nice change from the usual smelly bars and squats or sterile white cube galleries.

Video: Pippa Buchanan/Edits: DH

My apologies for the poor audio recording quality. If someone has a small video camera with a proper line/mic input they would like to give up, please let me know!

ps…pls let me know if you get crappy framerate with this clip, I’m still working out my settings for Vimeo…

“It’s not that I don’t like people. I just feel better when they’re not around.”
–Mickey Rourke as Charles Bukowski, Barfly

I’m at the end of a pretty heavy load: five workshops in four different cities in five weeks. That must have left me pretty groggy, because I managed to miss my cheap flight home from the final workshop in Estonia last weekend. So I’m currently engaged in a sort of accidental residency at MOKS in Mooste until next week when the tickets become affordable again.

It was many degrees below zero outside when I began to write this Tuesday night, and even the deepest footprints got buried by snow within an hour. My first action was to crank up the heat in the smallest room of the building, pile every mattress I could find on the floor, throw four or five blankets on top of that and bunker myself in.

I am completely alone here. There was a shy local boy once. He showed me how to light the fire, and then I never saw him again. If I want company, there are three busses a day to the next village where Evelyn Muursepp, the organizer of MOKS and my kind benefactor this week, lives. The local grocery store is also quite an experience, resulting in my current diet of bread, cheese, pickles and vodka. Every night I throw wood into the fire at 30 minute intervals until I’m too tired to continue. Then I fill up a couple 2L Coke bottles with hot water and climb into bed with them.

Is it all worth it? Hell yes. Almost every day I spend a couple hours navigating the quiet, frozen forests of the Estonian countryside, everything covered in white and the dead black arms of the trees reaching for the gray-blue sky. I’ve never seen a national flag so appropriate:

Image: .Janne.

So still, with some kind of Black Metal soundtrack playing in my head…”Eternal winterrrrrrrrrr…” And Thursday afternoon–snowblind! Unimaginably intense white light, coming from all directions. I retreat into shadows of the woods until I can no longer see straight lines, right angles, Euclidean geometry, any evidence of the work of human hands…

I’ve started to wonder why people live in cities at all, until I remember the awful reality: there’s just too damned many of them to do otherwise!