Two trippy and musical cartoons from Amadee J. Van Beuren
Piano Tuners (1932)
The Tuba Tooter (1932)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The video can't be embedded but follow this link, its so good i'm almost converted
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk
Thursday, January 15, 2009
-1.jpg)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Pianist's Preparation
A clip of Max Wall preparing to play the piano. I discovered this whilst reading a David Toop text about '4.33'.
the clip drifts of into some other stuff that i havn't bothered watching but the first bit is fantastic!
the clip drifts of into some other stuff that i havn't bothered watching but the first bit is fantastic!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Zero Here First
Interactive performance/installation in the Barnes Building with Robbie Thompson. Various objects were miked up including a table of springs and metal things, an open tumble dryer with cans and torches ratteling around inside, a frame with chains attached and various bits on the floor. This ran through a mixing desk along with a keyboard/drum machine and was edited live.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Simon and Garield - A Mix CD Odyssee
Beautiful mix cd's that you can have for free!
find them here...
http://www.simonandgarfield.blogspot.com
find them here...
http://www.simonandgarfield.blogspot.com
TRANSYMUSIC
an artists residence in Romania including one of my favourite contemporary musicians Ergo Phizmiz.
sounds, pictures and words found here...
http://www.ergophizmiz.com/transymusic/
and heres a taste of it.
sounds, pictures and words found here...
http://www.ergophizmiz.com/transymusic/
and heres a taste of it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Aileen Campbell
I saw this performence by Aileen Campbell in Dundee as part of the Kill Your Timid Notion festival at the DCA.
She sang Vivaldi whilst jumping on a trampoline.
by the sea
Another of my favourite places in glasgow, if you go there at nightime the motorway below sounds like the sea. Its amazing! Unfortunately its all blocked off now as they're building flats.
Thomas Brinkmann's clicks and cuts
I put this up ages ago, but tI love it so much i put it up again.
copycatfeed
above: copycatfeed in belfast
copycatfeed is a drawing game, it works like this:
everybody does a quick drawing (possibly on a set theme) and then copies the person to the left of them. Eventually your drawing will come back to you (you may not recognise it by this point) and may even do several cycles around the table depending on how long the game lasts.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Nightingale Floors / Uguisubari
'Every wood has a sound, every house has a song.'
These floors were designed to squeak and chirp in song when walked across. Small specially shaped metal nails were hammered in underneith the floorboards with the structural support resting on a soft layer. As a result the floor moves under pressure causing the nails to rub aginst the dry wood and cause sound. They were installed as early burgelar alarms; even the lightest footed ninja would fail to walk in silence along the uguisabari.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
conet project
has anyone heard of the conet project? has anyone heard the recording?
I copied this text from another website as it gives a good description of what the project is about...
The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
Static. Faint voices. Seven slow, monotonous tones. A pause. Suddenly, you hear music--one of those wind-up songs played by a child's toy. The melody repeats three times. A pause. Suddenly, you hear a female voice counting off the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 in German. A pause. She repeats the numbers. A pause. The children's toy melody returns.
So begins The Conet Project, perhaps the greatest collection of found art ever produced. This is not only a monumental work; it is also a monument, a testament to 50 years of Cold War espionage, a living document of the world's most secret agencies. That most of these agencies are still around today merely enhances the importance of this work.
To explain this collection, I have to explain the concept of numbers stations. Numbers stations transmit coded messages through shortwave radio. These messages are transmitted from places all over the world, yet the basic numbers station message is remarkably uniform. It usually consists of a voice (most often female) reading off a series of numbers. On many occasions, this reading of numbers will be preceded by a song--usually familiar (like the English folk song, "The Lincolnshire Poacher") or distinct (the weird children's toy music I mentioned earlier, which is called "The Swedish Rhapsody"), though there are signals without music and signals that simply transmit Morse code messages. Above all else, one thing remains constant: nearly every transmission begins on the hour, lasts between ten and fifty minutes, and is almost invariably repeated several times over a 24-hour period.
What are these messages? Well, no one has ever come forward to prove that these stations are linked to spy networks, but almost everyone who has ever studied the signals believes that they are. But why would a spy network like the CIA or the KGB or Israel's Mossad or Osama BinLaden's Al-Qaeda--with all their money and resources--bother transmitting messages through something like shortwave radio, a cheap technology that would allow anyone in the world to listen in? There are two reasons. First, shortwave is not only cheap but also common, meaning a spy can easily carry around a good shortwave radio without attracting any attention whatsoever. Second, the messages use what is called a one-time pad, which is generally considered the most secure cipher ever created--provided that the sender and the receiver are the only ones in possession of the key to unlock the message.
Knowing that the tracks on The Conet Project are actual messages sent from a government or group to a spy, and knowing that those messages might contain orders that, at one time, probably instructed that spy to go kill someone or dig up dirt on a politician or just stay where they are, makes for a rather enticing listen, to say the least. But the meaning behind these messages will remain a mystery because there is just no way to ever come across a one-time pad key (they are destroyed after use), and though it is fun to speculate about these sounds, that speculation gets tiring after a while for all but the most die-hard listeners.
However, this historical context--the secret agent messages--is not really the point of this work. This is, first and foremost, a work of art, a work founded on challenging our conceptions of history and documentation. The artists at Irdial who selected the tracks and compiled the work did everything they could to choose tracks that were interesting to listen to; the listening experience, then, was more important than the clarity of the signals. As a result, many of the tracks here are filled with static and other noises floating in and around the sounds of voices and music, obscuring the messages to such an extent that it often takes several listens before you can discern which language the voice is speaking. They did not choose these tracks because they were the only ones available--I've heard plenty of clear recordings of numbers stations on other compilations. No, there was a reason to make the music muddled here. They wanted to recreate the experience, the thrill that must have come to those lonely souls who, over the past few decades, discovered these signals and recorded them.
Shortwave radio has never received the credit it deserves for shaping electronic music. Most early electronic musicians--especially those in Europe, where shortwave radio is more common than in the US--will tell you that their early musical education came from trying to sift through shortwave bands to pick up pirate stations all over the Atlantic. No doubt the act of sifting through walls of static to pick up a faint but hip signal can be seen as the inspiration for at least some of electronic music's obsession with distortion, aberration, and noise. A lot of electronic music, in fact, can be read as an elaborate attempt to give shape and purpose to random noise: to turn static into a signal.
If you think about it, number stations are doubly encased in interference. Not only are the signals themselves hard to pick up, but the messages are impenetrable. The artists behind The Conet Project understood both of these mysteries. By creating a work that is not only historically important (being, really, the primary introduction of numbers stations to the world at large) but also musically relevant, Irdial has created a powerful, evocative work that has, in recent years, inspired artists as varied as Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky) and Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) to tap into some of its power. This is a classic in every single sense of that word.
You can download 150 conet project clip here, it didn't work on my computer but hopefully you'll have better luck.
http://irdial.hyperreal.org/the%20conet%20project/
however here are some links to other blogs where you can listen to clips.
http://thedaytheytriedtokillme.com/post/29237861
http://clamhead.vox.com/library/post/the-conet-project-creepy.html?_c=feed-atom
I copied this text from another website as it gives a good description of what the project is about...
The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
Static. Faint voices. Seven slow, monotonous tones. A pause. Suddenly, you hear music--one of those wind-up songs played by a child's toy. The melody repeats three times. A pause. Suddenly, you hear a female voice counting off the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 in German. A pause. She repeats the numbers. A pause. The children's toy melody returns.
So begins The Conet Project, perhaps the greatest collection of found art ever produced. This is not only a monumental work; it is also a monument, a testament to 50 years of Cold War espionage, a living document of the world's most secret agencies. That most of these agencies are still around today merely enhances the importance of this work.
To explain this collection, I have to explain the concept of numbers stations. Numbers stations transmit coded messages through shortwave radio. These messages are transmitted from places all over the world, yet the basic numbers station message is remarkably uniform. It usually consists of a voice (most often female) reading off a series of numbers. On many occasions, this reading of numbers will be preceded by a song--usually familiar (like the English folk song, "The Lincolnshire Poacher") or distinct (the weird children's toy music I mentioned earlier, which is called "The Swedish Rhapsody"), though there are signals without music and signals that simply transmit Morse code messages. Above all else, one thing remains constant: nearly every transmission begins on the hour, lasts between ten and fifty minutes, and is almost invariably repeated several times over a 24-hour period.
What are these messages? Well, no one has ever come forward to prove that these stations are linked to spy networks, but almost everyone who has ever studied the signals believes that they are. But why would a spy network like the CIA or the KGB or Israel's Mossad or Osama BinLaden's Al-Qaeda--with all their money and resources--bother transmitting messages through something like shortwave radio, a cheap technology that would allow anyone in the world to listen in? There are two reasons. First, shortwave is not only cheap but also common, meaning a spy can easily carry around a good shortwave radio without attracting any attention whatsoever. Second, the messages use what is called a one-time pad, which is generally considered the most secure cipher ever created--provided that the sender and the receiver are the only ones in possession of the key to unlock the message.
Knowing that the tracks on The Conet Project are actual messages sent from a government or group to a spy, and knowing that those messages might contain orders that, at one time, probably instructed that spy to go kill someone or dig up dirt on a politician or just stay where they are, makes for a rather enticing listen, to say the least. But the meaning behind these messages will remain a mystery because there is just no way to ever come across a one-time pad key (they are destroyed after use), and though it is fun to speculate about these sounds, that speculation gets tiring after a while for all but the most die-hard listeners.
However, this historical context--the secret agent messages--is not really the point of this work. This is, first and foremost, a work of art, a work founded on challenging our conceptions of history and documentation. The artists at Irdial who selected the tracks and compiled the work did everything they could to choose tracks that were interesting to listen to; the listening experience, then, was more important than the clarity of the signals. As a result, many of the tracks here are filled with static and other noises floating in and around the sounds of voices and music, obscuring the messages to such an extent that it often takes several listens before you can discern which language the voice is speaking. They did not choose these tracks because they were the only ones available--I've heard plenty of clear recordings of numbers stations on other compilations. No, there was a reason to make the music muddled here. They wanted to recreate the experience, the thrill that must have come to those lonely souls who, over the past few decades, discovered these signals and recorded them.
Shortwave radio has never received the credit it deserves for shaping electronic music. Most early electronic musicians--especially those in Europe, where shortwave radio is more common than in the US--will tell you that their early musical education came from trying to sift through shortwave bands to pick up pirate stations all over the Atlantic. No doubt the act of sifting through walls of static to pick up a faint but hip signal can be seen as the inspiration for at least some of electronic music's obsession with distortion, aberration, and noise. A lot of electronic music, in fact, can be read as an elaborate attempt to give shape and purpose to random noise: to turn static into a signal.
If you think about it, number stations are doubly encased in interference. Not only are the signals themselves hard to pick up, but the messages are impenetrable. The artists behind The Conet Project understood both of these mysteries. By creating a work that is not only historically important (being, really, the primary introduction of numbers stations to the world at large) but also musically relevant, Irdial has created a powerful, evocative work that has, in recent years, inspired artists as varied as Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky) and Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) to tap into some of its power. This is a classic in every single sense of that word.
You can download 150 conet project clip here, it didn't work on my computer but hopefully you'll have better luck.
http://irdial.hyperreal.org/the%20conet%20project/
however here are some links to other blogs where you can listen to clips.
http://thedaytheytriedtokillme.com/post/29237861
http://clamhead.vox.com/library/post/the-conet-project-creepy.html?_c=feed-atom
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Bitmap Biscuits
This stuff is like a trip to the clinic or some kind of laboratry, but i love it!
Ryoji Ikeda is a musician/sound instalation artist from Japan
http://www.ryojiikeda.com/
Carsten Nicolai is an artist from Germany, he also makes music under the name Alva Noto (Alva was Thomas Edison's middle name)
http://www.carstennicolai.com/
http://www.alvanoto.com/
and he also runs the record lable 'Raster-Noton' which Ikeda is also signed to.
http://www.raster-noton.de/
Ryoji Ikeda is a musician/sound instalation artist from Japan
http://www.ryojiikeda.com/
Carsten Nicolai is an artist from Germany, he also makes music under the name Alva Noto (Alva was Thomas Edison's middle name)
http://www.carstennicolai.com/
http://www.alvanoto.com/
and he also runs the record lable 'Raster-Noton' which Ikeda is also signed to.
http://www.raster-noton.de/
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
SCRATCH MY GLITCH UP
above- detourned record covers.below- physically effected records to overwrite the sound.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Texts
Towards an ethic of improvisation - Cornelius Cardew
http://www.ubu.com/papers/cardew_ethics.html
Statements on sound poetry - Bob Cobbing
http://www.ubu.com/papers/cobbing.html
and you can listen to him here...
http://www.ubu.com/sound/cobbing.html
A new musical reality... - Robert P. Morgan
http://www.ubu.com/papers/morgan.html
all from ubuweb and all very good
http://www.ubu.com/papers/cardew_ethics.html
Statements on sound poetry - Bob Cobbing
http://www.ubu.com/papers/cobbing.html
and you can listen to him here...
http://www.ubu.com/sound/cobbing.html
A new musical reality... - Robert P. Morgan
http://www.ubu.com/papers/morgan.html
all from ubuweb and all very good
Roman Signer
He has a very good exhibition in berlin at the moment, this wasn't in it but its my favourite thing anyway.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Have you ever been to an american wedding?
hey! i was 1 meter behind this guy doing the video, sorry Sam, i'm really sorry.
Your Country
Your country raised you your country fed you
And just like any other country It will break you
On front line send you Tax the hell out of you
And just like any other country It will lock you up you!
But unfortunately there'll be no judgement day
It would be kind of fun to see
What they would have to say
When the god they preached
Would actually be there
And all who didn't like The Stooges Would go to fucking hell!
What are all these countries
How did they appear?
Who cut up the cake?
Who brought up all this gear?
Did it have to do anything With its people's will?
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know my dear...
But even all the garbage they pour over our eyes
Does not prevent us from living Most magical of lifes
Gogol Bordello, du machst sinn!
And just like any other country It will break you
On front line send you Tax the hell out of you
And just like any other country It will lock you up you!
But unfortunately there'll be no judgement day
It would be kind of fun to see
What they would have to say
When the god they preached
Would actually be there
And all who didn't like The Stooges Would go to fucking hell!
What are all these countries
How did they appear?
Who cut up the cake?
Who brought up all this gear?
Did it have to do anything With its people's will?
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know my dear...
But even all the garbage they pour over our eyes
Does not prevent us from living Most magical of lifes
Gogol Bordello, du machst sinn!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
No One Is Illegal
http://www.noii.org.uk/no-one-is-illegal-manifesto/
This is a link to the UK version of an organisation called Keine Menschen ist Illegal that began in Germany. They're good, have a look.
This is a link to the UK version of an organisation called Keine Menschen ist Illegal that began in Germany. They're good, have a look.
Gogol Bordello
SUPER TA-RAN-TA-RAN-TA-RAN-TA-RAN SUPER TA-RAN-TA-RAN
SUPER TA-RAN-TA-RAN-TA-RAN-TA-RAN SUPER TA-RAN-TA-RAN
"There were never any good old days...it is today...it is tomorrow...it is a stupid thing we say cursing tomorrow with sorrow."
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
PING-PONG POEM and DR PING-PONGS SOCIAL DANCE
Dr. Ping-Pong’s Social Dance
Proposal
Fill a room with homemade table-tennis tables and bats. The bats and tables double as contact mics which feed sound through a mixer to wall mounted speakers. As such whenever the ball bounces on the table or is struck by a bat it will create a beat that will be played through the system. The mixer will allow a variety of sound textures to be created, making for a diverse and interesting sound-scape, and it will of course be live.
About
A brief outline of the themes that surround ‘Dr. Ping-Pong’s Social Dance.’
A brief outline of the themes that surround ‘Dr. Ping-Pong’s Social Dance.’
Chaos/Order – A la John Cage’s ‘chance compositions’ perhaps, the (dance) music is created by the bouncing and striking of the ball – what could be more chaotic and un-ordered than the amplified sound of a room full of people playing table-tennis? Especially when to add to the madness the sounds will be altered to create a variety of beats, beeps and buzz’s. However with closer attention it is apparent that this is not ‘chance music’ as such. For example the ball is bound by the laws of physics and will create beats in accordance with laws that determine its bounce. Further more the striking of the ball with the bats will be partly determined by a number of possible factors- the length of the players arm, the players skill (natural and learnt), the relation with the opponent, etc. The extent to which these and other factors determine the beats by ‘order’ or by ‘chance’ really depends on your own stance on the free will vs. pre-determined actions debate, I don’t wish to take either side on that.
Communism – It is no coincidence that table tennis is the biggest sport in China and that ‘Dr. Ping-Pong’ is a stereotypical and rather racist name a westerner might give to a Chinese person. China is of course a communist country and ‘Dr. Ping-Pong’s Social Dance’ draws on and critiques Communist ideas. For one the participants, and that is everyone there, make the music themselves, everyone playing a part (Cornelius Cardew could not accuse Dr. Ping-Pong of serving imperialism). Furthermore it is a room of people doing the same thing, all playing table tennis, all with the same standard bat, ball, and table. However, in practise things are a little different. Whereas the (dance) music is made by everyone together, it is done so by the fact that everyone is competing against each other; not really a communist goal! Indeed the irregular positioning of the tables means that all is not equal, some players may be impeded by objects and people. So the location of the individual within the overall system determines their chances, something Chinese farmers might know about!… Cracks in the system perhaps.
Fun – As well as everything else that it may stand for ‘Dr. Ping-Pong’s Social Dance’ is, as the name says, a social event. With emphasis on enjoying the sounds, socialising and having a good time.
Further Note - Dr Ping Pong
The room will have one addition to the speakers, tables, bats and balls. This will be a portrait of Dr. Ping Pong. In the picture, Dr. Ping Pong will appear important but disconnected figure. He will look down on the hall from his portrait as would Mao, Starlin or for that matter Hitler in their times. As a a Dr. he assumes a persona as someone who cares for and looks after his people.
Dada set out to achieve everything and achieved nothing.
Dada set out to achieve everything and achieved everything.
Dada set out to achieve nothing and achieved nothing.
Dada set out to achieve nothing and achieved everything.
Dada may have begun its existence just over 90 years ago but it is not dead, the world is still crazy, in fact it probably always will be. I predict dada will die when the humans do and not a day sooner. On Tuesday we will smuggle whisky in a coffee flask into the Berlin Zoo, when we are drunk enough we will set the animals free. When the animals who have been conditioned to laziness return for an easy meal they will be punished with death for the children they have eaten. If caught our punishments will be far less severe. I'm so glad, I'm so glad, I'm glad I'm glad I'm glad. Our dada is very (intense/lazy) and is very much (awake/asleep). It sets us free although we still live in a cage. My cage is in western Europe so its very comfortable. Dada may have been given a name 90 or so years ago but it is as old as humanity. Humans do a lot of thinking, and we have a tendency and most certainly a history of taking our thoughts very seriously, so seriously in fact that we have a tendency and most certainly a history of inflicting our ideas on others. Anyone who has studied the history of philosophy or politics can see that for every (good/bad) idea put forward their is an equally (good/bad idea that contradicts it...what shall we choose?..war! Let us all join together and howl, gasp, gawk and scream, then we shall kill and eat the quieter members amongst us. Ok i have achieved (everything/nothing) of what i wanted to say.
Dada set out to achieve everything and achieved everything.
Dada set out to achieve nothing and achieved nothing.
Dada set out to achieve nothing and achieved everything.
Dada may have begun its existence just over 90 years ago but it is not dead, the world is still crazy, in fact it probably always will be. I predict dada will die when the humans do and not a day sooner. On Tuesday we will smuggle whisky in a coffee flask into the Berlin Zoo, when we are drunk enough we will set the animals free. When the animals who have been conditioned to laziness return for an easy meal they will be punished with death for the children they have eaten. If caught our punishments will be far less severe. I'm so glad, I'm so glad, I'm glad I'm glad I'm glad. Our dada is very (intense/lazy) and is very much (awake/asleep). It sets us free although we still live in a cage. My cage is in western Europe so its very comfortable. Dada may have been given a name 90 or so years ago but it is as old as humanity. Humans do a lot of thinking, and we have a tendency and most certainly a history of taking our thoughts very seriously, so seriously in fact that we have a tendency and most certainly a history of inflicting our ideas on others. Anyone who has studied the history of philosophy or politics can see that for every (good/bad) idea put forward their is an equally (good/bad idea that contradicts it...what shall we choose?..war! Let us all join together and howl, gasp, gawk and scream, then we shall kill and eat the quieter members amongst us. Ok i have achieved (everything/nothing) of what i wanted to say.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Metal Machine Music
Today on my way to the UdK cafe i heard some really incredible music. It sounded like a Theatre of Eternal Dreams performance with John Cale playing viola. Seeing as the UdK is also a music school i figured there was an excellant performance going on so i followed the sound to find out where. However it lead me to the wood workshop where someone was cutting wood on the bandsaw making the sound.
A similar thing happened to me about a month ago on Kasteinanallee when i heard what i thought was a really good busker playing violin, but when i investigated further it turned out to be a squeaky digger doing roadwork.
A similar thing happened to me about a month ago on Kasteinanallee when i heard what i thought was a really good busker playing violin, but when i investigated further it turned out to be a squeaky digger doing roadwork.
FLOWER CHILDREN CAN'T WATER THEMSELF. THE BIRD WITH THE CUCUMBER WINGS ATE ITSELF IN AN ACT OF VEGETARIANISM.
Golden Disko Ship
a very nice little musician i discovered in berlin, although i must admit the cd is better, i think she is maybe scared to play the more 'messy' music to a crowd so the stuff on the video is a little neat for me. The visuals are really good though!
carefull listening/making sounds happen
The more i pay attention to the 'Manifesto for Everywhere Music' that i wrote some months ago, the more i realise that listening is in a sense composition. Our brain is not designed to listen to all the sounds available, it cannot cope! Instead it filters the sound and focuses on what it feels is relevant. If we really concentrate there are so many sounds around us at all times, we cannot give our full attention to them all so instead the brain skips around them zooming in on different parts while the rest becomes a general ambience. Careful listening is just as (if not more) important as making sounds happen. So if the brian re-composes the sound we hear can we train it? Can we become Mozart in the world of listening? Well i am certain you can, its not exactly a skill that you're gonna make a lot of money from but I just want to listen to good music.
Much minimalist music works like this, the musicians are intending the listener to play an active part in the composition. After one of Le Monte Young's four hour long successive drone pieces that may only change pitch by half an octave through the whole performance the brain gets restless and begins to skip between the different sounds in the room, finding something of its own within the sea of sound. Or even listening to the repetative beats and rhythms minimnal techo or electronic music the brain finds its own way.
adobe couldn't make sense of my Maifest for everywhere music, but its confusion created a rather beautiful drawing out of it that you can see here...
https://createpdf.adobe.com/cgi-pickup.pl/manifesto%20for%20everywhere%20music.pdf?BP=&LOC=en_US&CUS=4b9fd3c3ff64daa14969b270595c667c&CDS=4742CB35-6D64-0890B1
Much minimalist music works like this, the musicians are intending the listener to play an active part in the composition. After one of Le Monte Young's four hour long successive drone pieces that may only change pitch by half an octave through the whole performance the brain gets restless and begins to skip between the different sounds in the room, finding something of its own within the sea of sound. Or even listening to the repetative beats and rhythms minimnal techo or electronic music the brain finds its own way.
adobe couldn't make sense of my Maifest for everywhere music, but its confusion created a rather beautiful drawing out of it that you can see here...
https://createpdf.adobe.com/cgi-pickup.pl/manifesto%20for%20everywhere%20music.pdf?BP=&LOC=en_US&CUS=4b9fd3c3ff64daa14969b270595c667c&CDS=4742CB35-6D64-0890B1
Excert from 'Slapping Pythagoras' by Rob Young
Equal temperament, as modern ears know it, only became enschrined when J.S. Bach completed the keyboard exercises that have come to be known as Das Wohltemperte Klavier (the well tempered claver)... [Das Wohltemperte Klavier] was created between 1722-1742 for piano pupils at the court of Cöthen, Germany, where Bach was director of music. The system equalises the distance between each of the 12 notes in the scale. The effect is to sweeten the scale making it more palatable to the drawing room. These exercises would later become an integeral part of the daily practice routine of composers at the heart of the classical tradition: Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann. A tuning system designed for the children of the ruling european elite has become the fundement of all western music.
-Rob Young-
Equal Temperament is actually out of tune, our ears have become conditioned to think it sounds wrong when it we hear music played on instruments that are not tuned to Bach's system but thats just not true! Don't believe your ears they have been corrupted!
-Rob Young-
Equal Temperament is actually out of tune, our ears have become conditioned to think it sounds wrong when it we hear music played on instruments that are not tuned to Bach's system but thats just not true! Don't believe your ears they have been corrupted!
Tuning the Road
Does anyone else try to find rhythm in the beats they hear when they are in a car and the car drives over grooves, bumbs, stones etc? I'm just wondering because i've been doing that since i can remember. Anyway, heres a link to a small article that should interest anyone who does and hopefully all those who don't to! enjoy!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/14/wjapan114.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/14/wjapan114.xml
Monday, November 19, 2007
A Very Good Poem by Ergo Phizmiz
A very nice poem by Ergo Phizmiz can be found here...
http://www.ubu.com/contemp/phizmiz/concrete.html
http://www.ubu.com/contemp/phizmiz/concrete.html
The Gök is a Cuckoo
whats the english word for a gök? i don't know what is it? its the one thats stealing eggs. Ha Ha! No its true, what do you call it? I have no idea. Come on the bird. Oh your talking about a bird, what does it look like? Its big, its say cuckoooo Oh a cuckoo You call it a cuckoo? Yeh Well...ok... well did you know its stealing eggs? Ha! Ha! No but it is, i dont think its famous for it though Ha! Well just cause i only found out maybe less that a year ago. What does it eat them or something? No, well maybe, i dont know, but it steals other birds eggs and puts its own ones in the nest and so the other bird is looking after it kid and cause its so big it just takes over and eats everything. Oh shit, sorry i did know that. Oh you did? Yeh sorry.
Very Good Art
I met a very nice artist on friday who showed me pictures of the best piece of art i've seen in a long time. He collected hair from a hairdressers and scattered it on the floor of an exhibition, then he walked around during the show hoovering it up, its is even better because the floor was carpeted. His name is Ilia, but i don't know how you spell that. He is Swedish.
Buzz
buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
Saturday, November 17, 2007
To Clarify...
When I make art i dont want to tell people what to think, neither about the art or about anything else. I may wish to set up a dialogue or provoke thoughts, but not to tell you what they should be. That kind of art is at best rude, in fact its really just a kind of imperialism. I'm sick of seeing monuments to the great artists vision. By all means express your thoughts, just don't put them on a pedestool as if we should look at them with marvel and wish we could be so good. Its usually a kind of art that is seperate from life, quite irrelevant and pointless, and it usually is taken too seriously. I guess people make this kind of junk because the market likes that stuff, the myth of the wild man with a vision who achieves grandure through his single-mindedness and inate abilities, so capital is the goal perhaps. That sort of stuff should have been buried in the 60's really, but unfortunately it wasn't.
My new tutor in Berlin gave a presentation of his work the other day. He makes great big concrete sculptures and is very excited about getting them out into the public. But all he explained is how much he loves and is interested by forms, structures and compositions, and how this is what makes him make the work. He failed to mention why exactly these things should go in the public, or why they are relevant to anyone other than himself. He likes to make them as big as possible and greatly applauded his own ambitions with scale, so its not just pointless it gets in the way to! oh but they are grand! What can i learn from this guy?... how best to tell people something that they 'should' know? How to take my own ideas so seriously and think so highly of them that i should constuct enormous monuments to them.
No, it is important that my art does not dwell on my own thoughts too much, of course it will a bit, where else can it come from but none the less it is very important to relinquish control of certain aspects, to accept what is not carve out what isn't, and to create something that is accesible to everyone in their own way rather than mine.
My new tutor in Berlin gave a presentation of his work the other day. He makes great big concrete sculptures and is very excited about getting them out into the public. But all he explained is how much he loves and is interested by forms, structures and compositions, and how this is what makes him make the work. He failed to mention why exactly these things should go in the public, or why they are relevant to anyone other than himself. He likes to make them as big as possible and greatly applauded his own ambitions with scale, so its not just pointless it gets in the way to! oh but they are grand! What can i learn from this guy?... how best to tell people something that they 'should' know? How to take my own ideas so seriously and think so highly of them that i should constuct enormous monuments to them.
No, it is important that my art does not dwell on my own thoughts too much, of course it will a bit, where else can it come from but none the less it is very important to relinquish control of certain aspects, to accept what is not carve out what isn't, and to create something that is accesible to everyone in their own way rather than mine.
ok so for those of you who don't knoe Lee 'Scratch' Perry heres a little insight. Scratch is not from this planet rather he is a visitor here from Jupiter, his home. None the less he is still a jamaican. This video is shot inside the Black Arc, his old studio, that he eventually burnt down after burying all his equipment. He has used tricks such as burying microphones under a tree and banging on the trunk, exhaling weed smoke onto the tapes and filling his studio with geese for their calming influence to create the sounds he needs. He is an interplanetary genius, and we are lucky that he has plans to live for ever.
the presenters accent on this is kind of weird, I think its just one guy doing it but his voice seems to skip between trenchtown and an old fashioned bbc reporter.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Towers, domes, cranes and scaffolding
I think this picture sums up a lot of what i love about Berlin.
Nationalteatern - Bängen Trålar
This is a video of the swedish band I wrote a post about a few weeks ago. The one who made a marxist propoganda musical for kids. Unfortunately I couldn't find any footage of that but this is good.
Rosa Luxemberg's Last Words
This was written in prison the night before her murder, she was shot in the head and her body thrown in the river.
"The leadership has failed. Even so, the leadership can and must be recreated from the masses and out of the masses. The masses are the decisive element, they are the rock on which the final victory of the revolution will be built. The masses were on the heights; they have developed this 'defeat' into one of the historical defeats which are the pride and strength of international socialism. And that is why the future victory will bloom from this 'defeat'.'Order reigns in Berlin!' You stupid henchmen! Your 'order' is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will already 'raise itself with a rattle' and announce with fanfare, to your terror:I was, I am, I shall be!"
Marx and Engels
I live just round the corner from these two and when coming home maybe a little drunk i always make everyone spend a little time with them. There is a good feeling around the place I think.
Les Rallizes Denudes
This band never released an album, all thats available is very rare live recordings. Their most famous show was at the front of Kyoto University when the students took over the building in a protest. There bassist was a member of the extreme left group 'The Red Army' and had to be replaced after hijacking a plane and taking rufuge in North Korea. No one really knows if the abnd still exist, but it is thought that they might do under a different name. They couldn't be more of a cult band basically and they're really incredible.
Scottish Fun
‘Scotland gets it’s brains from the herring said grandfather, and we all nodded with complete incomprehension.’
- Ivor Cutler -
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
'Your Hard' - Half Man Half Biscuit (great lyrics!)
Henry Rollins! Henry Rollins! You're hard. You're hard.
Big Jimmy Nail! Big Jimmy Nail! You're hard as well.
Sainsbury's security! Like I'm dead scared
Oh what a frightening world it can be.
Lenny Henry! Lenny Henry! You're funny. You're funny.
Jenny Eclair! Jenny Eclair! You're dead funny too.
Skinner, Baddiel, Anderson, Brand!
Oh, nurse, soothe my sides
Oh, what a funny old world it can be.
Ok, let's pedestrianise the high street.
Mariella Frostrup does loads of voiceovers but nothing much else yet she seems to get by.
Is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
Is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
If this is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
If anyone wants me, I'll be over there.
Big Jimmy Nail! Big Jimmy Nail! You're hard as well.
Sainsbury's security! Like I'm dead scared
Oh what a frightening world it can be.
Lenny Henry! Lenny Henry! You're funny. You're funny.
Jenny Eclair! Jenny Eclair! You're dead funny too.
Skinner, Baddiel, Anderson, Brand!
Oh, nurse, soothe my sides
Oh, what a funny old world it can be.
Ok, let's pedestrianise the high street.
Mariella Frostrup does loads of voiceovers but nothing much else yet she seems to get by.
Is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
Is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
If this is this New Labour, Mr. Blair?
If anyone wants me, I'll be over there.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
top 100 living geniuses
so it seems there are only 15 women and 17 people from outside of western europe and the USA in our list... hmmmm
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Manu Chao and the Radio Bemba Soundsystem
I went to see this guy. Sorry UK your crowds really are the most boring in the world.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Nationalteatern
Some Swedish friends of mine in Berlin introduced me to this amazing band. They're from Gothenberg and were about in the 70's. They made musicals for children full of leftist propoganda to try and even things up a bit. When you here the translations of their songs they are so fantastic. The enemys are the wicked kings of the west (pretty obvious really). And through the course of the musical i listened to they visit facist greece and liberate it, the same in spain, and in italy. The last song is sung by the wicked western kings who are crying because 'the people are talking to each other and thinking for themselves'. And all is done in the style of a childrens musical, but with great music, storylines, and lyrics.
If anyone who reads this happens to know this band then please tell me more, otherwise if your interested by my description check them out because they are so great. This is their not very big wikipedia page... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalteatern
I spent the evening learning about the politics of sweden and singing swedish socialist party classics from the 70's...fantastic!.
hope you enjoy as much as i do and 'lång levande revolutionen!!!'
If anyone who reads this happens to know this band then please tell me more, otherwise if your interested by my description check them out because they are so great. This is their not very big wikipedia page... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalteatern
I spent the evening learning about the politics of sweden and singing swedish socialist party classics from the 70's...fantastic!.
hope you enjoy as much as i do and 'lång levande revolutionen!!!'
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Smile at least
Alexanderplatz is watching me!
I am watching Alexanderplatz!
I am watching what Alexanderplatz is watching!
I am watching me!
Alexanderplatz is watching me watching me!
Alexanderplatz is watching me watching it!
and so on...
My Perfect Match
I don't know how it got there but I feel an affinity with this match. I to know how it feels to be the only one in the pack with a red top. Was it chance we met?
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Italian Breakfast
At nearby cafe I can buy an 'Italienisches Frühstück' (Italian Breakfast) for only two euros. It consists of one espresso, one small glass of water and one cigerette.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Ergo Phizmiz's Phuj Phactory
Ergo Phizmiz is a musician from the Isle of White who sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. He is a crazy genious and this is a link to an archive of his fantastic radio show 'Phuj Phactory'.
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/ER
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/ER
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The 'Golden Record'
Imagine your an alien listening to the 'Golden Record' that was sent into space on a satallite in 1977 with a stylus and a set of criptic inscriptions demonstrating how to play it.
http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/340
http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/340
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
