Photos by napkinshoe/Amy Hope Dermot @ Flickr. Thanks Amy!!!

Now Playing

stan brakhage–essential brakhage, selected witings on filmmaking book[2001]
meara o’reilly–chladni singing[2010]
william t. vollmann–rising up and rising down: some thoughts on violence, freedom and urgent means book[2003]
andrzej zulawski–diabel (aka the devil) film[1972]

REGNSKOG

Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen NO, October 11-17 2010

REGNSKOG: a Collaborative Workshop/Performance/Installation in the Spirit of David Tudor
Produced by Piksel.no

INTRODUCTION: HANDS DIRTY ART

Over the past few years, a strong reaction against the sterile world of laptop sound and video has inspired a new interest in analog processes, or “hands dirty” art in the words of practitioner John Richards. With this renewed analog interest comes a fresh exploration of the pioneers of the electronic arts during the pre-digital era of the 1960s and 1970s. Artists and inventors such as Nam June Paik, Steina & Woody Vasulka, Don Buchla, Serge Tcherepnin, Dan Sandin and David Tudor all constructed their own unique instruments long before similar tools became commercially available or freely downloadable–and often through a long, rigorous process of self-education in electronics.

DAVID TUDOR’S RAINFOREST

David Tudor, in particular, has become the focus of intense interest (c.f. Leonardo Music Journal 14, 2004). His transformation from John Cage’s concert pianist to an electronic performer and autodidact engineer in his own right is archetypal for the contemporary media artist, who also must oscillate between the creative and the learning processes. His work Rainforest also stands out as an exemplary model of the collaborative process within a technically defined, yet socially open system.

Rainforest used a series of transducers to play prerecorded and live sounds through various resonant metal objects suspended by wires in the performance space. It was also conceived as a workshop, involving different musicians and artists in a collaborative setting, each contributing their own sounds, ideas and energies to the performances, which often lasted four or five hours! A complex mixer system allowed the sounds coming from one resonant object to be directed through another, spawning chaotic generations of new sound patterns. The sounds played could be heard through loudspeakers as well as the objects themselves, however they could also be physically felt by touching the objects. Tudor was especially interested in two audiences: children and the blind.

REGNSKOG

Regnskog is conceived as a contemporary re-interpretation of Rainforest as a workshop, performance and public installation. In the spirit of Tudor’s work, much of the equipment and materials will be built by the participants/performers themselves.

PARTICIPANTS

Harald Fetveit, Oslo
Signe Lidèn, Bergen
Ryan Jordan, London
Derek Holzer, Berlin
Julien Ottavi, Nantes
John Hegre, Bergen
Jørgen Træen, Bergen
Gisle Frøysland, Bergen

Now Playing

bitchin bajas–tones & zones lp[2010 important]
burn–burn 7″[1990 revelation]
chen santa maria–chen santa maria[2008 gssd/shit on]
drudkh–handful of stars[2010 season of mist]
eleh–repose[2010 touch]
j.d. emmanuel–wizards[1982/2010 important]
prince rama–shadow temple[2010 paw tracks]
seijiro murayama–4 pieces with a snare drum[2010 petit label]

Hungarian Tour

From 31 August until 5 September, I will be joining András Nun (UH Fest, Budapest), Luka Ivanovic (Luka Toyboy, Beograd), Balázs Pándi (Merzbow drummer/A38, Budapest) and Péter Szabó (Jackie Triste, Budapest) for a tour of various locations in Hungary related to András’ work with human interest NGOs.

András has described the theme of our excursions as Poverty and Exclusion in Hungary–or–What Can an International Festival Representing Peripheral Music Do About the Problem of People Forced to the Periphery, How Can It Act Against Their Exclusion? and the project has tie-ins to the upcoming UH Festival in Budapest in October.

Our trip will take us through the cities/regions of Monor, Budapest, Esztergom, Vanyarc, Szomolya, Berettyóújfalu and Bicske and will end with a sound workshop for young Afghan refugees. A challenging situation to be sure, but one I look forward to!

ISEA Disasters

On the topic of challenging situations…I just returned from my participation in the KHM Heavy Matter show at ISEA 2010 in Dortmund. I had much harsher words lined up about the way this event unfolded, which I will refrain from putting into print.

Suffice to say that, in spite of massive infrastructural shortcomings and an almost complete lack of support from the venue (an investment-wreck shopping mall) or the organizations involved, I at least succeeded in playing one half hour set of extremely loud and chaotic analog synthesizer sound in the confines of a very small elevator. Photos and sounds soon…

ISEA Highlights

Besides this glorious waste of my own time and money, the weekend there was brightened by seeing exhibited projects by Natalie Bewernitz & Marek Goldowski, Aernoudt Jacobs, Yunchul Kim, Herwig Weiser, HC Gilje, Carsten Nicolai, Sophie Bélair Clément and Joyce Hinterding at the two major locations in Dortmund.

The Arctic Perspectives show organized by Hartware Medienkunst Verein at the Phoenix Halle was also mind-blowing in its scale, and could easily consume several days of attention with its collection of videos, field recordings, literature and architectural models.

Climbing around in the beautiful rust-scape of the abandoned factory next to the Phoenix Halle was certainly worth the trip, and seeing the collection of analog synths at Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media (ICEM) in Essen-Werden was a memorable experience, even if it meant sitting through almost an entire day of dry, cliched electroacoustic compositions (sometimes with goddamned opera singers!) to get to that point. And finally props to the Estonians for You Must Relax – A Day Without the Mobile Phone, by Eve Arpo and Riin Rõõs. If only every day could be so nice!

Thanks go out to Servando Barreiro for being Da Roadie, and to Timo Toots for being Da Man!

Now Playing

bruno maderna–musica elettronica[1994 stradivarius]
common eider, king eider–worn[2010 root strata]
david tudor–neural synthesis nos. 6-9[1995 lovely]
earle brown–selected works 1952-1965[2006]
grouper–hold-sick 7″[2010 room40]
heart museum–leaf[2010 mars pyramid]
hecker–neu[2010 editions mego]
jan jelinek & masayoshi fujita–bird lake objects[2010 faitiche]
keiji haino & pan sonic–in the studio 2LP[2010 blast first petite]
mood organ–calcinatio 52 x C13, vols. 9 & 10[2010 self-released][thx timm!]
nadja–sky burial[2010 latitudes]
the dan people (ivory coast)–dan masks[1993 ocora]
various artists–forge your own chains-heavy psychedelic ballads and dirges 1968-1974[2010 now-again]
various artists–mata la pena-a compilation of international music[2010 mississippi]
various artists–string of pearls_jewels of the 78rpm era 1918-1951[2010 mississippi]
von goat–septic illumination[2010 nuclear war now!]

Tiny Noise showcase/TodaysArt
subject = LOUDNESS
De Vinger, Bagijnestraat 25
Den Haag 25 September 2010

Andre Goncalvez [PT]
Derek Holzer [USA/DE]
John Fanning/Massaccesi[USA]
Koray Tahiroglu [TU/FI]
Kyd Campbell [CAN/DE]
DJ Toni Dimitrov/Every Kid on Speed[MK]

Looking forward to the chance to do another chaotic synth-controlled strobe piece here. Thanks to Kyd for hooking the whole deal up!

Now Playing

g.i. gurdjieff–meetings with remarkable men book [1963]
starkweather–this sheltering night[2010 deathwish inc]
thrones–late for dinner 7″[2010 conspiracy]

Just confirmed to play UH Fest on the night of 9 October, sandwiched tightly in between one workshop in Malmö and another in Bergen that I will post about later on. The UH set will be solo for chaotic analog synthesizer, smoke and lights.

So far the confirmed artists for the night are:

Derek Holzer
Lau Nau
Valerio Tricoli with Robert Piotrowicz
Kuupuu
Jazkamer
STU
Thomas Fehlmann

More fun than a poke in the eye!

Now Playing

antoine chessex–le point immobile 3″ cd[2010 mnoad]
antoine chessex & valerio tricoli–chessex/tricoli 12″[2010 dilemma][merci antoine!!!]
bastard noise–a culture of monsters cd[2010 deep six]
don hassler–no subsequent interference cd[2010 vicmod]
elu of nine–elu of the nine cs[2010 woodsmoke]
jason r. butcher–chaotic synthesis recording #3 cd[2009][thx jason!!!]
keith barnard–colour harmonies cs[1985]
neanderthal–official discography[1990-92]

Hot off the bench! Click to enlarge!

Dual Serge 1973 Voltage Controlled Filter (CGS)
Dual Active Real Ring Modulator (CGS)
Quad Joystick Controller (Macumbista)
Quad Resonant Lopass Gate 292 (Buchla/T. White)

Think I’m gonna build me a little analog computer next, something like this one. All this stuff should get put to good, chaotic feedbacking use for my ISEA Dortmund performance in a few weeks.

Now Playing

whitehouse–great white death special edition cd[1984/1997 susan lawly][iiiiiiiiii’mmm cooooommmiiiiiiiiiinnnnnggg…]

On 25 June, 2010, I played a live synthesizer improvisation in the hot, airless basement of Le Chat Noir, Paris. Accompanying me on this journey through the depths was Andreas Siagian (House of Natural Fiber, Jogjakarta), who made amazing video projections directly onto the audience from his position just behind me. Thanks to Mal Au Pixel for a fantastic time in Paris!!!!!!

All photos by Sylvie Astié (Dokidoki) except the last one of me and organizer Kevin Bartoli standing over my “busker’s suitcase” by Mathieu Margueri (Mal Au Pixel). You can see more Mal Au Pixel photos on their Flickr page,  Mathieu Margueri’s Picasa and Nathalie Aubry’s Flickr. You can also read Nathalie’s report on the festival for Pixelache.

Now Playing

belt–s/he cs[1991]
black mountain transmitter–black goat of the woods[2009 lysergic earwax]
merzbow–rainbow electronics[1990 alchemy]
peter yates–bullitt film[1968]
sam peckinpah–the getaway film[1972]
sam peckinpah–the wild bunch film[1969]
toshio matsumoto–experimental film works[1961-87 ubu.com]

We are happy to announce the first confirmed artist for APPARAT.

Those in love with the art of sounds (and noise ! ) can already count the days until Derek Holzer (US) arrives to Aalborg. HIs main profile is precisely the studies of noise and its art-tech application. Holzer will run a four-days long workshop under the title Neanderthal Electronics where the participants will construct their own personal analog synthesizers and in the end they will collaborate in a public performance. During this workshop both simple-primitive/found objects and modern devices (capacitors, transistors, LEDs, sensors and different audio inputs etc) will be applied in order to achieving the perfect and very personal sound environment.

Beside leading the noise-workshop Holzer will perform himself as well. A solo and improvised performance will be presented by him and a bunch of analog sound equipment.

Please note that pre-registering is required for the workshop. More info on this to come.

Now Playing

bee mask–canzoni dal laboratorio del silenzio cosmico cs[2010 gift tapes]
expo 70–the vanishing world within[2010 sonic meditations]
fred nipi–qanngirpalippuq lp[2009 galerie pache](merci fred!!!)
john fahey–fare forward voyagers (soldier’s choice)[1973 takoma]
lars lundehave hansen–catching fire[2010 con-v]
mika vainio & kouhei matsunaga-split lp[2010 important]
tomoko sauvage + noyade–asper #1 winter 09 split lp[2009 asper](arigato tomoko-chan!!!)
various artists–to scratch your heart: early recordings from istanbul[2010 honest jons]
zaïmph–coast to coast c40[2010 gift tapes]

Cthonian Cell Observation I (Continuous Pressure Wave for Elevator Car), 2010
A Sound Performance by Derek Holzer in the context of the KHM Heavy Matter exhibition at ISEA 2010, Dortmund

Self-made analog modular synthesizer, guitar amplifier, strobe lights

Opening: Thursday 19 August 2010, 19.00-22.00
Performance evening: Monday 23 August 2010, 19.00-22.00
Westfalenforum, Kampstr. 35 – 37, Dortmund, Germany

Drawing on the underworld mythology of heavy metal and noise music, Cthonian Cell Observation I is a three hour long concert for an audience of one. The performance takes place in the narrow confines of an elevator car filled with an overpowering, physical mass of sound pressure and blinding lights. A single person may be admitted to the space at a time, which is barely large enough to accommodate them, the performer and all the equipment necessary to make the performance. Those outside, hearing almost nothing, may guess at what kind of experience the listener inside is undergoing. But each one is unknowably alone once they step through the door.

Now Playing

kevin drumm–necro acoustic 5cd box[2010 picadisk]

Mal au Pixel, Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris • 21h-0h • 3€

Derek Holzer | Circlemakers (Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg) | Jérôme Poret

+ Ars Longa installation by Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg & Jérôme Poret [fr]

Now Playing

alma daaé–wormwood star[2009 mars pyramid]
kevin lynam–tone cloud[2009 mars pyramid]
neun welten–destrunken[2009 prophecy records]
oranssi pazuzu–muukalainen puhuu[2009 violent journey]
paul schrader–cat people film[1982]
vikomt–twilight visions[2009 mars pyramid]
william t. vollmann–you bright and risen angels book[1987]