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The Yellow Site
Core ideas
The Yellow Mythos
Introduction to the Mythos
Defining the 'Mythos'
The Carcosa Mythos
The Hastur Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos
Mythos Canon
The King In Yellow
The King In Yellow (the book)
The King In Yellow (the fictional play)
The King In Yellow (the entity)
The Yellow Sign
The Pallid Mask
Carcosa
Hastur
Key stories
An Inhabitant of Carcosa
The Repairer of Reputations
The Court of The Dragon
The Demoiselle D'Ys
The Prophet's Paradise
The Whisperer In Darkness
The Return of Hastur
Tekeli-li
Cassilda's Song
The King In Yellow (The Play)
The Yellow Sign (the symbol)
Robert W. Chambers
John Tynes
Thom Ryng
Glynn Owen Barrass
DJ Tyrer
The King In Yellow (Thom Ryng play)
King In Yellow Anthology
Hildred Castaigne
The Crimson King
The Queen In Red
Dr James Roberts
Personae Dramatis
Lake Hali
Yhtill
The Night World
Pallid Mask
Location of Carcosa
Dark Stars
Alternate 1920s
Imperial Dynasty of America
Essay - Tracing the Sign
An essay by Dr James Roberts
Tracing the Sign... Edit
If the play represents a sacred text, then the Sign is paralleled with a religious icon. It is the crucifix to the King's bible. A nice metaphor, but does it work? What 'use' does the Sign have in the stories?
The Sign is, in its initial description to us (in the story of the same name), in the form of a symbol or letter, usually reproduced in yellow or gold, that is "neither Arabic or Chinese, nor... did it belong to any human script." From the attempts artists have made to reproduce the symbol on paper, I am reminded of the Indian 'Om', used as a focus for contemplation and meditation and representing the name of the Deity. It has been adopted by many as a sign of absolute truth, purity and good. In a perverse way, The Yellow Sign brings about a type of introspection, but whilst it might bring understanding, it doesn't bring peace. It has also been compared with the swastika, again of Indian origins, but the hard edged iconic features of this symbol do not, for me at least, conjure up the chaotic swirling 'dance' of The Yellow Sign. Though perhaps the understated menace is the same.
In the story 'The Yellow Sign' the Sign seems to fall into the hands of the narrator quite by chance, a gift from his model, after she has been unable to trace its original owner. The Sign is only 'recovered' in the end by a figure originally identified as the watchman, and then later as The King in Yellow. This only occurs after the two central characters have read the play and recognised the Sign for what it was. Whether the reading of the play is a catalyst that draws in The King or whether he would have come to claim his Sign anyway is immaterial to the two doomed characters, but in the over-all picture it is of interest to us. Perhaps the understanding of the Sign works to focus their attention, unintentionally summoning the watchman/King. This seems to be the idea formed by the narrator in his fevered recollection of the play and how, in the midst of this terrible understanding, he knew that the King would be coming to reclaim the Sign.
This version of the Sign, gold on onyx, seems to be more important to the King than, say, those in 'The Repairer of Reputations'. Castaigne, at least as far as he is aware, has a "silken robe embroided with the Yellow Sign". Castaigne also has a scroll "marked with the Yellow Sign", which he reveals to his cousin, who fails to recognise it altogether: "Oh, that's it, is it?" Indeed, the appearance of the Sign seems not to inspire dread or result in the tragic consequences evident in 'The Yellow Sign', despite Castaignes earlier claim that it was a sign that "no living human being dared disregard." Towards the end of the story Castaigne hands a Sign to a homeless person begging for money. "I had a blank bit of paper in my pocket, on which was traced the Yellow Sign, and I handed it to him. He looked at it stupidly for a moment and then, with an uncertain glance at me, folded it with what seemed to me exaggerated care and placed it in his bosom." Of course, 'traced' might mean that it was traced invisibly by finger, perhaps as some sort of imagined ritual. Does the homeless man see anything? We don't quite know, but we may have our suspicions, as Castaigne seems to. Again, within the context of the story it simply leaves us in the dark. Which, whilst a good story device for installing a sense of dread, doesn't help us understand the Sign any better.
Maybe the Sign is valuable when fashioned into a gold and onyx amulet. Maybe it has some undisclosed power that is of use to the King that he doesn't want to fall into the hands of others. It is perhaps a royal insignia, one which is both used by the King to denote his status and by heralds or followers to denote their allegiance. Or it could be as simple as a secret symbol used worn or shown in order to let fellow conspirators recognise each other.
These last two cases are both valid for groups such as the 'thousand men' on Mr Wildes list (who had "received the Yellow Sign") and the 'Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign', (despite a lack of evidence to link them directly to the King). In neither case would it be desirable for an outsider to get their hands on (or use) the Sign, of course, their own mad schemes coincide with those of the cult (or the King). Of course, perhaps when the Sign is in the hands of those who work towards goals that coincide with the Kings, he does simply turn a blind eye.
Finally, I'd like to ponder on the actual meaning of the Sign. Recognising it seems to give in power, particularly in 'The Yellow Sign'. The tramp given the piece of paper traced with the Sign in 'the Repairer of Reputations' might recognise it (we never quite know), but if he does is it because he knows the play and recognises its power? Or does he perceive something more subtle in the swirls of the Sign? Can he percieve and appreciate its inherent madness? There is something about the Yellow Sign that even we can recognise, three lines twisting out from a central point, swirling around it (like tatters of a robe?), whilst the centre sits fixed... and yet, sometimes, it seems to gaze back at us... To those within the fiction of the stories, what else might the Sign reveal?
To me it suggests a number of things. Not 'chaos', at least not in that clichéd way in which chaos represents everything random and haphazard. This is a directed chaos, a very personal sense of chaos turned towards you and then focussed, as if you were at the wrong end of the telescope, being watched. Madness, in some ways. A build-up of intense, wild and sometimes dangerous energy. True, sometimes a creative energy, but ultimately a maddening self-destructive one. It also brings to mind the idea of a 'downward spiral'. The spinning of the Sign suggests any number of nature's spirals, either unravelling and unleashing it's influence at you, or pulling you in and enveloping you within it's heart.
The Yellow Sign is a chaos that repells or embraces.
Welcome to the fold...
Retrieved from "https://kinginyellow.fandom.com/wiki/Essay_-_Tracing_the_Sign?oldid=5451"
More The Yellow Site
1 Cassilda's Song
2 The King In Yellow
3 The Yellow Sign (the symbol)
The Yellow Site is a FANDOM Books Community.


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Rollr launches GPS tracking device for personal cars
Our Bureau | Updated on April 13, 2018 Published on February 06, 2018
Home-grown connected vehicle solutions provider targets business-to-consumer segment
Home-grown connected vehicle solutions provider Rollr has launched Rollr Mini — a plug-and-play device that sends Live tracking, alerts and car health updates priced at ₹6,499.
It will be available through Amazon and Flipkart and the user can download Rollr App from Play Store and App Store to use the app.
Rollr is a part of auto components giant Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG), via its subsidiary Motherson Invenzen XLab Pvt Ltd and with this launch, SMG has entered into business-to-consumer (B2C) category from business-to-business (B2B) platform earlier.
Commenting on the launch, Laksh Vaaman Sehgal, Vice-Chairman, SMG said, "We believe that Rollr will bring the much-needed ease-of-use and ease-of-ownership to people buying passenger vehicles across categories. In the B2B space, we are confident that large and enterprise fleet owners will derive significant benefits with Rollr's superior and advanced technology."
Rollr devices have been tested with over 100+ vehicles under extreme performance conditions and are designed to provide connected car solutions to passenger and commercial vehicles, the company said.
Maps and navigation solutions provider MapmyIndia also sell similar products in partnerships with various telecom operators and car manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai Motor India and Honda Cars India also have similar apps to provide updates on health of the vehicles.
Rollr will be displaying more of such devices at the Auto Expo.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


John is the author of New York Times Bestseller Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God's Promises, and the Exhilarating Future that Awaits You, No Perfect People Allowed, Soul Revolution and Unshockable Love (Mud and the Masterpiece), all written to help people go from lost to leading. He and his wife, Kathy, planted Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. Gateway started with one small group that grew to a Network of groups reaching their friends and neighbors. Since 1998, Gateway has grown to over 4,500 people, made up mostly of unchurched people who began actively following Christ at Gateway.
John has spoken in 24 countries to over 300,000 church leaders and Christians about reaching a postmodern, post-Christian culture. Before Gateway, John served as an Executive Pastor and missionary in the U.S. and Russia. He and Kathy have been married twenty-three years and currently reside in Austin, Texas, with their two children, Ashley and Justin.


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Thu, 07 Jan, 2021 - 15:41
Bruce Springsteen reflects on working with the same band for decades
E Street Band have been Springsteen's career-long companions
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band perform. Picture: AP
Bruce Springsteen has said you "learn a lot" from working with the same musicians over a long period of time.
The musician, 71, told Apple Music Country his band have seen "things go well" and "things go bad" for him during the time they have been together.
He said they have been together since "our very, very young adulthood".
"So that means you went through every aspect of their lives with them and they went through every aspect of yours," he said.
"They saw you grow up, they saw things go well, things go bad.
"They saw you getting married. You saw them get married, get divorced, have children. You've seen the children grow up."
Springsteen added that "rock and roll is the only business where the people you were in high school with, 50 years later you are working with those exact same people".
"There is no other business in the world that I know of where that's the case," he said.
"The challenge of that is enormous, and I think you learn a lot."
E Street Band have been Springsteen's career-long companions and he worked with the group for his latest album Letter To You.
In October he scored his 12th UK number one album with the record.
Springsteen also told the radio station he is still motivated by wanting to be "great".
He said: "Well, I always said that more than wanting to be rich or famous I wanted to be great.
"That was the thing that motivated me when people looked at me and my band. I wanted to say, 'Well, man, they were one of the great ones'. You know?"
He said he is still as motivated as he was by trying to be great as he was when he was aged 16.
Masked man MF DOOM dies in year of masks


« Louie: The Life and Stand-Up Of Louis C.K.
Can Steve Carell's Departure Reinvigorate The Office?
Now, it's hard to think of any examples of this actually working; that is, of a star leaving a show, only to see that show improve. Most of the obvious examples of cast replacement (Jon Lovitz for Phil Hartman on NewsRadio, Megan Mullally for Jane Lynch on Party Down, the two Darrens on Bewitched, the Tori Era on Saved by the Bell) were done with secondary characters, and even the best of these were only moderate successes.
But Carell is not the only one to suggest that The Office could actually benefit from his departure: TV critic Alan Sepinwall considered the possibility. The reasoning is that the Michael Scott character has grown stale, and that the show could benefit from a shakeup of the status quo, such as introducing a new boss.
Of course, fans of NPI may remember that I've been down on The Office ever since Season Three, and Michael Scott was a big reason. The character has been "unbelievable and cartoonish," and has been a major weakness of the show for some time now. So it's tempting for me to think that eliminating him will improve the show.
Unfortunately, this will not happen. For one, it's worth considering how the show will replace Carell. In all likelihood they will go with someone who is either A) a big enough star to attract attention by joining the cast, or B) someone as close to Carell/Scott as they can find. Maybe both. Strictly in terms of ratings, The Office is one of the few successes NBC has, so there's no reason to think they would mess with the formula.
Even aside from these practical concerns, though, it would be naïve to think that Michael Scott is the only problem with the show. Yes, Carell/Scott has been the most obvious flaw in the show for some time, but that's merely a function of him being the main character. He gets the most jokes, so he also gets the most bad jokes. The fact is that the entire tone of the series is different than it was when it premiered. Dwight, Angela, and even Jim and Pam bear little to no resemblance to the characters they were the show started—they are generic sitcom pieces now. Fixing those problems requires much more than just the introduction of a new character.
Now, Carell's departure certainly makes me happy. For one, it most likely hastens the ratings decline of a show that bottomed out creatively years ago. On a less cynical note, though, I'm always pleased when actors/writers/directors leave something for creative reasons before they've squeezed every last penny from it. Carell thinks his character has run his course, and even though I think he's about four years late to that realization, I'm glad he doesn't just want to stick around for the paycheck.


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May 2019 – upcoming experimental gigs – Maryanne Amacher Focus in London featuring Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Zwischentöne, Bill Dietz and Amy Cimini (30th & 31st)
The last Kammer Klang concert of the current season is slipping its usual moorings, forsaking its usual London home at Café Oto in favour of the ICA, and staging a reconstruction (and UK premiere) of 'GLIA', Maryanne Amacher's work for seven instruments and electronics.
As a fully-formed artist slipping into the realms of avant-garde composition, Amacher was best known for installation work and psychoacoustic ideas… although that's a little dry and reductive. She was interested in exploring the ways in which humans perceive sound (including ways in which a listener can be subtly deceived by its manipulation and displacement), and in particular the perceptions induced by sounds generated within the ear. She'd use particular high-frequency sounds, volumes and sonic displacements to excite unusual tonal responses within the physical structure of the inner ears of her listeners; in effect, she benevolently transformed them into part of the sonic ensemble (or, perhaps more accurately, into instruments who could perceive themselves being played).
This from the archives at the ZKM (Center for Art and Media) in Karlsruhe:
"The work bearing the title 'GLIA' (named after the glial cells in the brain that control the transmission of stimuli between the synapses) was performed once in the Berlin multimedia centre TESLA. This first exhibition was (still) instructed and supervised by Amacher herself in collaboration with the former director of Ensemble Zwischentöne, Peter Ablinger, as well as with current director Bill Dietz.
"In 'GLIA', Amacher imagines the audience as a kind of glial cell representing the interface between the electronic and acoustic-instrumental elements of the work. In a narrower sense, she imagined the "otoacoustic emissions" (the sounds within the ear radiating once again from the electronic devices and instruments as if "by magic") emerging in the audience's ears as precisely this "neural interface". This corresponds to the same approach Amacher had previously intended with her piece for the Kronos Quartet in the 1990s which was never performed (and probably never completed). In fact, the material for this string quartet had been partly newly arranged for 'GLIA'. After the Berlin premier, Amacher returned to Kingston, New York, and took home with her all the material for the performance of this work. In 2009, the Zwischentöne ensemble invited Amacher to return to Berlin to further develop 'GLIA'. Unexpectedly, Amacher tragically died shortly before this planned reencounter."
'GLIA' has been performed at least twice since then (with Zwischentöne performing it twice in 2012, at ZKM and at Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart), but this will be the British premiere; with members of Zwischentöne joining another Swiss New Music ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps and with Bill Dietz returning to direct. The performance will be preceded by 'Ghost Written Scenarios & Unnamed Sensibilities', a discussion between Bill and Amy Cimini, the contemporary music performer and academic historian Amy Cimini whose book 'Listening in the Future Tense' "examines the use of biological and ecological sound sources in late 20th century experimental music circles."
It's no coincidence that this subject overlaps with Amacher's work: Amy was a friend and collaborator, as well as being part of the ongoing Supreme Connections collective which reengages with Amacher's legacy and her back catalogue of music and ideas. Amy's also a defender against over-casual summings-up of her friend's intentions and achievements: "(Listeners are) like: 'O.K., I totally get what this music is about — it's about this crazy inner-ear sensation, she understood that intuitively, end of story. And that's not the story, actually." OK… I stand corrected…)
The concert and discussion will be preceded the previous day with a screening of Charles Atlas' 'Torse' documentary from 1977 – a multiple-camera study of the choreography of Merce Cunningham's 'Torse' dance piece, performed to Amacher's composition Remainder (1976). As with the performance of 'GLIA', there'll be a pre-screening conversation between Bill Dietz and Amy Cimini.
Kammer Klang/Ensemble Contrechamps/Institute of Contemporary Arts presents:
'Maryanne Amacher at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, 30th-31st May 2019'
Screening of 'Torse' (plus pre-screening conversation between Bill Dietz and Amy Cimini) – Thursday 30th May 2019, 6.30pm
'Ghost Written Scenarios & Unnamed Sensibilities' (Bill Dietz and Amy Cimini in conversation) – Friday 31st May 2019, 7.00pm
Maryanne Amacher Focus (featuring Ensemble Contrechamps, members of Ensemble Zwischentöne and Bill Dietz) – Friday 31st May 2019, 8.00pm
All events at Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, St James's, London, SW1Y 5AH, England.
More/ongoing information here, here and here
Tags: Amy Cimini, Bill Dietz, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Zwischentöne, Kammer Klang (event), London (England), Maryanne Amacher, Merce Cunningham
Categories 2005, 2019, chamber music, dance music, dance performances, deep listening, documentaries, electro-acoustic music, electronic, experimental music, film & cinema, films, interactive performances
April/May 2019 – upcoming jazz gigs – a massive Barbican celebration of London jazz from the Total Refreshment Centre (13th April); the Steam Down collective hit Shoreditch (24th April); Warmer Than Blood in London and Cardiff (22nd April, 21st May)
When landlords and developers mark a city building for extra, blander profit – and when they put the squeeze on an existing tenant – they don't only change and narrow the future, they can also asphyxiate the past. I don't mean that they somehow delete what's come before, it's more that they pinch it off and remove its potential for continuance. The meaning that's associated with a building and what goes on inside it, its history, becomes obscured to people who've not had the chance to discover it yet; or to people who might, in the future, grow up nearby never knowing what used to take place there.
For myself, I feel pretty damn ignorant for not having known about Hackney music space Total Refreshment Centre until, ooh, last year. It seems that, in various forms, it harboured and encouraged music for at least half of my lifetime, curating the historical while encouraging the current and never losing touch of the ethos that music should be inherent to and conversant with its community rather than being a little rarified enclave. The fact that sometime, quietly, last summer, the TRC was forced to shut down (presumably to make way for luxury flats or something which can generate a greater ground rent) makes me angry. Fortunately, the place is resilient enough as an idea – effectively, as a movement – not to rely entirely on bricks and mortar. Scheduled gigs have continued (still run by the existing team but moved to other venues), the programs still run; the concept of the place still has legs.
In some respects the people involved with the TRC are making a virtue of their new and more itinerant existence, using it to spread the word a little wider; extending their ongoing work in what 'Clash Music' has called "a means of pursing social engineering, a way to build communities up at a time when the political establishment seem content to break communities apart… Music can be used to re-imagine your surroundings, to transform concrete, glass, and brick into something magical." Still, it must make life a little tougher, a little more challenging, that much more of a forced hack at a time when it's already pretty exhausting.
With that in mind, it's good to see that the TRC gets its own jazz tribute – more accurately, its own self-propelled celebratory showcase – this coming weekend at one of London's more inviolable culture fortresses, the Barbican. There's an opportunity here to carp about centralization, or about how certain establishments are protected while others are not (and for distasteful reasons – race and class also have a role to play here), but let's just sound the obvious note here and move on. Better to bounce back and roll on as the TRC are doing; better to celebrate the recognition and cooperation which such a show also represents.
There are still a few tickets available for what's promising to be one of the events of the London jazz year. Blurb follows:
"Total Refreshment Centre is part and parcel of east London's recent music history. The building's musical journey started as a Caribbean social club and studio and evolved into the musical hub that it is today. On April 13th, the Barbican Centre will host Dreaming The City, celebrating a previously untold story in east London's music history. To mark nearly thirty years of influential music in the building, TRC has teamed up with Boiler Room – the revered global music broadcasting platform – who will broadcast the gig live.
"The concept of the show is a live mixtape exploring three decades of musical excellence that took place inside an Edwardian warehouse in Hackney. The building began life as a confectionary factory and by the 1990s had become Mellow Mix, a Caribbean social club and rehearsal space. In 2012 it began running as Total Refreshment Centre, an influential studio and venue that has played an integral role in the upsurge of new London jazz, which is now gathering worldwide attention. The narrative of 'Dreaming The City' is inspired by the history of this building, made special by the communities that inhabited it over the years. This story, researched by writer Emma Warren, is explored fully in her new book, 'Make Some Space: Tuning Into Total Refreshment Centre (And All Places Like It)'.
"Over thirty musicians from the thriving jazz scene (including Cassie Kinoshi and her Seed Ensemble, drummer-producer Kwake Bass, Jazz Warrior Orphy Robinson, Tom Skinner's Wildflower, folk-crossover artists Rozi Plain, Alabaster DePlume and Joshua Idehen) will team up to perform. Also on the bill – Chelsea Carmichael, Cherise Adams-Burnett, Crispin Spry Robinson, Deschanel Gordon, Donna Thompson, Dylema Amadie, Emma-Jean Thackray, Idris Rahman, James Howard, Joe Bristow, Leon Brichard, Maria Osuchowska, Miguel Gorodi, Mutale Chashi, Noriko Okaku, Oscar Jerome, Patrick Boyle, Rai Wong, Rio Kai, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Shirley Tetteh, Tyrone Isaac-Stuart, Yael Camara Onono, Yohan Kebede and more special secret guests to come. This milestone event will unfold over five chapters, blurring the lines of what jazz is and creating new, exclusive and unexpected collaborations.
"There's a strong link between club culture and live music in today's vibrant music scene – what some have called 'jazz-rave' – and Dreaming The City will offer an energetic journey through time, space and London's rich culture. The evening will start with a celebration of Caribbean sounds, recognising the community that first established the space as a musical hub. Following this, we trace the contemporary lineage of jazz music between inner-city London, West Africa, the Caribbean and continental Europe. Expect a session showcasing household names premiering new outfits, dropping old classics and brand new tunes. The music will reflect the diversity of sounds that have been danced to at TRC, from reggae and dub, to Krautrock via jazz and West African grooves."
…and here's a short film about the state of London jazz (with plenty of TRC-ing) which was released into the wild a few months ago in January…
Back in January I did some praise singing for Steam Down, the south London jazz collective who bring regular African-inspired but London-cooked communal music events to Deptford. For the benefit of those north and east Londoners who for some reason never cross the river, they're playing Shoreditch's Village Underground towards the end of the month.
"Join Steam Down as they take over Village Underground, with members on the decks and some very special guests joining them on stage. Jumping off from the sonic springboard of Afrofuturism, grime and future soul, all fused together with the fearless spontaneity of jazz, Steam Down is an arts collective comprised of Ahnanse, Alex Rita, Brother Portrait, Sawa-Manga, Theon Cross, Nadeem Din-Gabisi, Benjamin Appiah, Dominic Canning and "Nache. The collective congregates mid-weekly for a live performance where healing vibes and compulsive dancing are just as important as the music. Previous sessions have included guest appearances from Kamasi Washington, Sampa The Great, Nubya Garcia, members of Ezra Collective, SEED Ensemble and Sons of Kemet. Every week proves to be a co-creative piece of magic where everyone's participation matters."
There's a new Village Underground interview with Steam Down here, but below is part of what I wrote about them three months ago:
"(An) African-inspired collective ethos… a diverse, voluntary hive mind, their individualities fused and encouraged by common purpose… a simmering pot of phuture soul, West African rhythms and cheerful Afrofuturism, the rapid offset breakbeat-splash and electrophonic edge of grime and broken-beat, and (in particular) spiritual jazz. That said, they're well aware that they should steer clear of romantic oversimplifications about roots. As Ahnanse remarked in an interview with 'The Vinyl Factory' last year, "the roots of what we are creating starts outside of that context, jazz is not the only source of improvised music in the world. It happens in many forms and many cultures, we all come from different spaces and cultures, and it isn't black American culture, none of us were born there, so actually we are bringing all of those other experiences into this… In a society that is so hegemonic and monotonous it's nice to surprise yourself and be surprised, by people that you know well." More than anything else, Steam Down work is inspired by the interlocking of Afro-diasporan culture with week-by-week London life – the information-rich bustle and challenges of a world city made up of people from everywhere, many of them sometimes pushing (or knocking heads) against half-invisible restrictions and oppressions as well as providing broad-mindedness and opportunity."
Also this spring, guitarist/composer Chris Montague revs up his jazz trio Warmer Than Blood (with bass guitarist Ruth Goller and pianist Kit Downes) for a couple of month-apart gigs in London and Cardiff. As I noted when I wrote about them in February, between them they can draw on a massive range of potential influences (including Sephardic music, manouche, punk jazz, Latin folk and Maghrebian sounds, the bouncing imagined world-jazz of the F-IRE Collective, Chris' six-string avant-mapping in Future Currents) but in practise tend to go somewhere else – somewhere more uprooted and peril-flecked. Compared to the broad communality of Steam Down or the TRC community, they're coming from a different place – tenser, more abstract and (if we're being honest) whiter – but it's still a collective communal effort, just shrunk down to a smaller chamber and a slender triangular format.
As I wrote last time, "all three are longtime friends and collaborators, seeking yet another new approach. They seem to have found it with Chris' newest batch of compositions and improvisation-seeding situations, which he suggests consist of "intricate textures, dark pools of harmony, layered melodies, kinetic group improvisation and percussive prepared piano… fractious composed passages can inhabit the same sonic space as spare, ambient melodies, often described as melancholic and uplifting at the same time…" Introverted and ominous, their name-track's a quiet etiolated piano exploration over a minimal pulsing guitar-chord cycle and locked-in bass rumble. The excerpt from a longer piece, FTM, is a gradual evolver in which Chris hovers in menacing sustain/volume-swell textural clouds and momentary dust-devils over ghost-Latin clicks and bass piano thuds (Kit muting the piano at both ends) before the trio expand into what's partly a kind of haunted country music (like a Bill Frisell ensemble scoured to the bone by plains wind), and partly like a salsa band coming to terminal grief in a badlands dustbowl."
Here's a rare recent live recording and an album taster for their imminent debut…
Boiler Room and Total Refreshment Centre present:
BR x Total Refreshment Centre: 'Dreaming The City'
Barbican Hall @ Barbican Arts Centre, Silk Street, City of London, London, EC2Y 8DS, England
Saturday 13th April 2019, 8.00pm – information here and here
Warmer Than Blood:
The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, Dalston, London, N16 8AZ, England – Monday 22nd April 2019, 7.45pm – information here, here and here
The Flute & Tankard, 4 Windsor Place, Cardiff, CF10 3BX, Wales – Tuesday 21st May 2019, 9.00pm – information here
Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3PQ, England
Wednesday 24th April 2019, 7.30pm – information here, here and here
Tags: Ahnanse, Alabaster DePlume, Alex Rita, Benjamin Appiah, Brother Portrait, Calabashed, Cassie Kinoshi, Cassie Kinoshi's Seed, Chelsea Carmichael, Cherise Adams-Burnett, Chris Montague, Crispin Spry Robinson, Deschanel Gordon, Dominic Canning, Donna Thompson, Dylema Amadie, Emma-Jean Thackray, Idris Rahman, James Howard, Jazz Warriors, Joe Bristow, Joshua Idehen, Kit Downes, Kwake Bass, Leon Brichard, Maria Osuchowska, Miguel Gorodi, Mutale Chashi, Nache (Edward Wakili Hick), Nadeem Din Gabisi, Noriko Okaku, Orphy Robinson, Oscar Jerome, Patrick Boyle, Rai Wong, Rio Kai, Rozi Plain, Ruth Goller, Sawa Manga, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Shirley Tetteh, Steam Down, Theon Cross, Tom Skinner, Tom Skinner's Wildflower, Total Refreshment Centre (promoter/venue), Tyrone Isaac-Stuart, Warmer Than Blood, Yahael Camara-Onono, Yohan Kebede
Categories 2019, acoustic music, Afro-funk, Afrobeat, big-band jazz, blues, Caribbean music, chamber jazz, club music, cross-cultural music, crossover, dance music, DIY music, DJ sets, documentaries, drum and bass, dub, dubstep, electro-acoustic music, film & cinema, films, folk music, folk-jazz, free jazz, funk, garage soul, garage soul, grime, hard bop, hip hop, improvisation, instrumental music, interactive performances, jazz, jazz fusion, jazz-funk, kosmische & Krautrock, post-bop, previews, reggae, rhythm'n'blues, slam poetry, soul, soul-jazz, space-jazz, West African music
May 2018 – two rare London showings for Chinese punks Birdstriking (20th & 22nd May) with Radar Men From The Moon, One Unique Signal and The Wolfhounds
I hate punk. No, scratch that. I hate what punk too often turns into – the institution of punk, the ossification of what ought to be immediate, the sense of discovery and an armful of bright options that stales and turns into an array of choking conservative forms; the way it all ages too quickly and turns into the faded favourite shirt you wear out of stubbornness.
It's not supposed to be that way: it should always feel like a shot of energy into the moment, or a flare of wising up. I sometimes feel that it should only be a transient thing, but a transformative transient thing – a kind of liberating wind-tunnel which you hurtle through en route to finding who you are, so that you can be someone whom you'd never otherwise have had the imagination and purpose to become. Stretching out that moment, that process, somehow seems to stop the result. I get bored by most punk, energy or no energy. When it does get a grip on me, it's when it drags me in to witness that firing of possibilities. I always wonder why, and how, it should last any longer.
Chinese punks Birdstriking have been together since 2009; some way off the sixteen active years of Fugazi, let alone the forty-two of UK Subs, but a span which, in terms of the early punk waves, would have practically rendered them elder statesmen. Despite this, they still sound as fresh as if they were in their first flush – a glorious, splintery, shimmery noise like an rotary engine made from flying gobbets of molten silver, topped with a stormtossed thrill of Sino-Anglo vocal. On their rare trips over here they're the subject of documentaries, or are fêted in word-of-mouth samizdat as if they were princes from the East: their shows immediately garlanded as must-see events. It's tempting, I guess, to treat them as something exotic – different from the Western malcontents we're used to – and whenever you hear a thrilling echo of Chinese folk melody ringing through the smog of guitar bash or shaping a vocal line, it's even more tempting to pursue that angle.
It's also tempting to try to cast them as rebels against the suffocating monocultural paternalism of the latterday Chinese state, but that's not easy to make stick. Having had their debut record banned due to a single, fairly unspecifically political song, Birdstriking have shrugged their shoulders, said a few things about anger being for people's younger days, and are now opting for more innocent-sounding themes – sports enthusiasm, the thrill of personal energy, the mixed soothings and pain of family. You could, if you squinted, cast them as apologists for a kind of positive Chinese conformism. I'm guessing that that's not true either. I suspect that a kind of subtlety is at work amongst the noise – discussions in the timbre of arguments, and in the implications of personal joy within a collective . They want to keep on doing what they do, to become something more. It's not in the rhetoric, it's in the sound.
Regardless, in each of the two London gigs they're playing over the coming week, Birdstriking will be interfacing with a different Western counter-cultural mindset. At the Sebright show (where they'll be at the bottom of the bill), the tone's definitely leaning towards the psychedelic, the noise-surfy and the shaggy rebel-academic. Gnod-affiliated Dutch avant-garde music collective Radar Men From The Moon will be deconstructing psychedelia and acid house: part of the group curating the Eindhoven Psych Lab, they're currently touring and touting 'Subversive II' (the last in a triple-run of themed albums). London psychedelic droners One Unique Signal (who also moonlight as the instrumental backing for The Telescopes) will also be joining in, continuing their sixteen-year voyage into noisy minimalist repetition with added layered impulses from space rock, post-rock and kosmische.
At the Windmill – where Birdstriking are headlining – expect a dip into the more stripped, loquacious end of post-punk smarts, since they're being supported by The Wolfhounds. Post-punk veterans from the mid-'80s, currently thirteen years into a resurrection, the Wolfhounds are now grizzled smartarses in their early fifties. Smart enough to embrace their middle-agedness without succumbing to it (meaning that they're in a place where they can sing about self-parody rather than just becoming one), they're also armed with a lean, laser-guided wit and a deceptively sophisticated perspective. Although they'd hate the comparison, they're proof positive of that old bastard P.J O'Rourke's adage about age and guile beating youth, innocence and a bad haircut.
If The Wolfhounds are garage rock, theirs is an omnivorous man-cave of a garage. It'll be rammed with books and time-tested music, and inside it they've honed a pitch-perfect blend of sarcasm and hidden sincerity, and a way of loading their snarling guitar chassis with bursts of soul, a capella political folk and digressions into the digital sound palette which frontman David Callahan mastered during his interim years with Moonshake. Though the songs on their current album 'Untied Kingdom' (one of 2016's finest, sharpest records at the punkier end – perhaps a 'Sandanista!' without the sprawl) echo, and probably intentionally, Brecht, Blake and Shelley they're never pompous or swotty. An equal template, at least in terms of directed smarts, are the wise, rowdy Mekons, whose own forty-one year career evolution is an example of how punk doesn't have to tumble into the pickling jar; proof positive, as The Wolfhounds continue to prove, that those punky impulses don't have to turn into flab and complacency.
One more thing – in case you thought the psychedelic-noise side of things had been left behind at the Sebright Arms, the interim DJ sets at the Windmill come from Sterling "Rosco" Rothwell, the onetime Spacemen 3 and Darkside drummer who's sometimes resurfaced as himself (for 2004's The Psychedelic Ubik) or as a guest performer with various acts from Sky Saxon to Geraint Watkins and Martin Belmont.
Radar Men From The Moon + One Unique Signal + Birdstriking, The Sebright Arms, 33-35 Coate Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9AG, England, Sunday 20th May 2018, 7.30pm – information here and here
Birdstriking + The Wolfhounds + DJ Rosco, The Windmill, 22 Blenheim Gardens, Brixton, London, SW2 5BZ, England, Tuesday 22nd May 2018, 8.00pm – information here and here
Tags: Birdstriking, David Callahan (David Lance Callahan), One Unique Signal, Radar Men From The Moon, Spacemen 3, Sterling "Rosco" Rothwell, The Darkside, The Sebright Arms (venue) - Bethnal Green – London – England, The Telescopes, The Windmill (venue) - Brixton - London - England, The Wolfhounds
Categories 2018, agit-pop, alternative rock, art punk, cross-cultural music, DIY music, DJ sets, documentaries, garage punk, garage rock, political music, post-punk, previews, psychedelic ambient music, psychedelic rock, punk rock, rock
March/April/May 2018 – upcoming Manchester classical-plus gigs from Psappha Ensemble – Boulez, Berio, Takemitsu and a new Tom Harrold piece (22nd March); jazz/rock/punk/street music crossovers with Anna Clyne, Steven Mackey, Fausto Romitelli and special collaborator Mike Walker (20th April); art-gallery interactions with Judd Greenstein, David Fennessy, Michael Gandolfi and others (17th May)
News on spring concerts by Manchester modern classical ensemble Psappha (one of the more gracefully eclectic groups of their kind). Summary (and slightly tweaked press release mashups) follow…
"In a concert conducted by the dynamic young British conductor Jamie Phillips and featuring the young British mezzo-soprano Jessica Gillingwater, Psappha perform a new work from rising-star composer Tom Harrold alongside Pierre Boulez's 'Le Marteau sans maître', Luciano Berio's 'Naturale' and Tōru Takemitsu's 'Towards the Sea'.
"Meaning 'The Hammer Without a Master', Boulez' iconic work is a classic of the twentieth century whose sonority and sense of time and direction were profoundly influenced by music from Asia and Africa: named after a text by surrealist poet René Char, it features mezzo-soprano with six instrumentalists in the unusual combination of alto flute, viola, guitar, vibraphone, xylorimba, and percussion. Berio's 'Naturale' pairs live musicians with recordings of Sicilian street vendors highlighting the contrast between flowing folk melodies and the raw, natural voice of the street singer. Takemitsu's 'Towards the Sea' recalls the ebb and flow of the ocean and was commissioned by the Greenpeace Foundation for their Save the Whale campaign.
"Tom Harrold's new work 'Dark Dance' (supported by the Fidelio Charitable Trust) has been commissioned by Psappha to complement the Boulez. Psappha's Artistic Director Tim Williams says "Tom has more than risen to the challenge… his piece is exhilarating and full of rhythmic energy across its eight-minute span", while Tom himself adds "this is perhaps one of the most unusual pieces I have ever written. I've really taken the opportunity to experiment. It's been a cleansing and enlightening experience for me and I'm enormously grateful to Psappha for commissioning me to write the piece."
Here are two previous examples of Tom's work to provide some pointers: his chamber ensemble piece 'Bone Meal' and his bass-trombone-and-tape duet 'Hard Hit', both of which demonstrate the lively, dancing wit of his writing and sensibilities.
Psappha will continue their 'Demystifying New Music' initiative by screening Barrie Gavin's 2005 biographical film 'Pierre Boulez: Living in the Present' prior to the concert: ticketholders can turn up to this free event at 6.00pm.
In April, Psappha will stage 'A Wonderful Day', exploring the connections between jazz, rock, classical and street music, and teaming up with conductor Stephen Barlow and with "the best jazz guitarist this side of the Atlantic" – Salford's own Mike Walker. Mike (plus his reeds-playing cohort Iain Dixon and drummer Mike Smith) will play alongside Psappha on the premiere of a new Walker ensemble composition 'Autonomy', which "combines classical music with the improvisation and rhythmic drive of jazz". Mike Walker also returns as the soloist on Steven Mackey's classical/rock fusion piece 'Deal', while Psappha play alone for the late Fausto Romitelli's palindromic work 'Amok Koma' (which draws inspiration from German punk rock).
The event as a whole is named after the Anna Clyne piece which completes the programme, in which a small ensemble play a hushed, affectionate supportive structure to the integrated tape of the songs and conversation of a Chicago street musician "whose natural, slow voice conveys a sense of both joy and struggle" (and which, much like the fragment of tramp-sung hymn in Gavin Bryar's 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', gives the work its emotional core and its sense of small, fragile, hopeful humanity persevering against a largely indifferent world).
Here's the previous Psappha-commissioned Walker orchestral piece 'Ropes' (featuring the ensemble's "22 strings" in collaboration with his jazz quintet); plus other recordings of the Romitelli and Clyne pieces.
For May's 'Here and Now' event, the audience is invited to "take a tour of the Whitworth art gallery through music and art. Promoted by music therapist Rachel Swanick as part of the 'Here and Now' wellbeing project this is a unique event where visual art and music sit side by side, sparking your imagination and enticing you to look again, with new eyes… Psappha invites you on a musical adventure through the gallery, stopping off along the way to experience each new work performed live by world-class musicians.
"Played alongside Joshua Frankel's award-winning film, Judd Greenstein's 'Plan of the City' imagines the architecture of New York blasting off into outer space and resettling on Mars! David Fennessy's '5 Hofer Photographs' takes inspiration from Evelyn Hofer's eclectic photos of 1960s Dublin which will be projected as part of the performance, and Michael Gandolfi's 'History of the World in Seven Acts' prompts the viewer/listener to experience the natural ebb and flow between colourful geometric animation and music."
In addition, four new pieces inspired by items in the Whitworth Collection are being contributed by "young, upcoming composers" – David John Roche (a duo piece), Dani Howard, Will Frampton and Bethan Morgan-Williams. Information on these is still scanty, but here are samples of previous compositions by the four (two of them performed by Psappha):
Full dates:
'Boulez – Le Marteau sans maître' – Hallé St Peter's, 40 Blossom Street, Manchester, M4 6BF, England, Thursday 22nd March 2018, 7:30pm – information here and here
'A Wonderful Day' – The Stoller Hall, Chetham's School Of Music, Long Millgate, Manchester, M3 1DA, England, Friday 20th April 2018, 7:30pm – information here and here
'Here And Now' – The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER, Thursday May 17th 2018, 6:30pm – information here and here
Tags: Anna Clyne, Bethan Morgan-Williams, Dani Howard, David Fennessy, David John Roche, duo music, ensemble music, Evelyn Hofer, Fausto Romitelli, Iain Dixon, Jamie Phillips, Jessica Gillingwater, Joshua Frankel, Judd Greenstein, Luciano Berio, Manchester (England), Michael Gandolfi, Mike Smith (drummer), Mike Walker, Pierre Boulez, Psappha, Stephen Barlow, Steven Mackey, Tom Harrold, Toru Takemitsu, Will Frampton
Categories 2018, 20th century classical music, 21st century classical music, acoustic music, chamber music, classical (Western art music), classical fusion, documentaries, films, improvisation, instrumental music, jazz, New Music, orchestral jazz, previews, punk rock
December 2017 – London premiere of the 'Instrument of Change: Street Piano' film (9th December)
Something for anyone, regardless of talent, who can never pass a piano without strumming the keyboard…
Conway Hall presents:
'Instrument of Change: Street Piano'
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1R 4RL, London
Saturday 9th December 2017, 7:00 pm – information here and here
"Music transforms people's lives. Street pianos transform cities. This film is about generating more street pianos across the globe.
"You are invited to the London premiere of 'Instrument of Change: Street Piano', an award-winning documentary film about street pianos made by Maureen Ni Fiann and Tom Rochester. The film has been screened at a variety of film festivals including in South Korea, Glasgow and Los Angeles. The film is the culmination of three years work and the co-directors are delighted that most of the people who feature in it will be at the screening. It's a big "thank you" to all involved, as well as a celebration of street pianos and the people that play them.
"Acoustic pianos in the western world are going to landfill. It's like burning books. This film is about recycling these everyday instruments, diverting them from the dump to an urban community where they can spread their magic" – Maureen Ni Fiann.
"After the film screening there will be a Q&A session with several of those involved, followed by live piano music (all are welcome to play a tune), drinks and a party."
Tags: Conway Hall (promoter/venue), Maureen Ni Fiann, piano music, Tom Rochester
Categories 2017, acoustic music, documentaries, films
October-December 2017 – performance art in London – Erin Markey's 'Boner Killer' show (3rd-14th October) and 'Inside Pussy Riot' (14th November-24th December)
Quick notes on two fiery female-driven events coming up. I'll let them speak for themselves, since those involved are far more voluble than I could be…
Fierce vs The Yard Theatre presents:
"Erin Markey, Boner Killer"
The Yard Theatre, Queen's Yard, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, London, E9 5EN, England
Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 14th October 2017, 8.00pm – information
"We're teaming up with the brilliant minds behind Fierce Festival to bring you an evening of performance that's gonna heat up those dark autumn evenings.
"New York City's hottest cabaret-cum-comedy queen Erin Markey is crossing the Atlantic to bring you 'Boner Killer' landing at The Yard next week. It's going to be weird, wild and wickedly funny. Join us for an evening of outrageous songs and explosive performance. Erin has "laser-beam eyes, a hair-raising singing voice, and an intense, almost predatory sexuality" ('The New Yorker'). She's a "magnetic diva" ('New York Times'). She's one of Brooklyn's 50 Funniest People ('Brooklyn Magazine'). And she wants to tell you some stories.
"'Boner Killer' fuses Erin's signature autobiographical stand-up with her sensual home-made pop. It's an intimate musical conversation between what she thinks she can't have and how she'd have it if she could. See her sacrifice her life to the mike and transform personal humiliations into naked feminist hope."
Les Enfants Terribles & The Tsukanov Family Foundation present:
'Inside Pussy Riot'
Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 4RY, England
Tuesday 14th November to Sunday 24th December 2017 – information
"From Les Enfants Terribles theatre company, the creators of Olivier nominated immersive smash hit 'Alice's Adventures Underground', comes 'Inside Pussy Riot' – a story that needs to be experienced to be understood. Coinciding with the Saatchi Gallery's 'Art Riot: Post Soviet Actionism' exhibition and presented in association with the Tsukanov Family Foundation, Inside Pussy Riot is an immersive experience, about Nadya Tolokonnikova's tribulations as the founder of Pussy Riot, the post punk, feminist art collective who stuck two fingers up at the Russian system and suffered the consequences.
"On 17th August 2012, Nadya was prosecuted for performing thirty-five seconds of a song called Virgin Mary Put Putin Away – a direct attack on the Russian Orthodox Church's unequivocal support for Vladimir Putin – inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. She was convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, where she was faced with solitary confinement and humiliation, including regular forced gynaecological examinations.
"To mark the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, audiences are encouraged to pull on the balaclava and stand up for what they believe in. Stand in the dock as Pussy Riot and live the realities of incarceration through this exhilarating theatre experience. Would you sacrifice everything for the sake of a punk prayer for a freer world?
"The immersive world of 'Inside Pussy Riot' seeks to remind audiences what actually happened and how one's basic human rights and freedom of expression can be taken away at any point. With heightened theatricality, the production exposes the horrors of Pussy Riot's experience, and shows that what happened to them can happen to anyone. We are all Pussy Riot."
Here's their original Kickstarter trailer for the project…
Tags: Erin Markey, Fierce Festival (promoters), Les Enfants Terribles (theatre company), listening to women, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot, queer culture, Saatchi Gallery (venue) - Chelsea - London, The Yard Theatre (venue) - Hackney Wick - London, women of heart and mind
Categories 2017, agit-pop, art punk, cabaret, cover versions, documentaries, grrlpunk, interactive performances, outsider music, performance art, political music, previews, protest songs, punk rock, spoken word, storytelling
May 2017 – preview of 'Composed' performance-anxiety documentary at the 1901 Club (May 2nd)
Any musician who's frozen in concert, or thought that they were going to – or anyone who's interested in the phenomenon – might be interested in this upcoming documentary, previewing in London at the start of May.
"'Composed' invites you into the world of professional classical music, for an exploration of the many causes of and solutions for performance anxiety. This feature documentary brings together dozens of professionals from prestigious orchestras, symphonies, and music schools to discuss their personal journeys, and consider how best to achieve excellence in the face of enormous pressure. Composed finally confirms what so many of us have always secretly wondered – no, it's not just you who has experienced the physical and mental agonies of performance anxiety, and yes, there are many ways to overcome the symptoms and deliver peak auditions and performances.
Hosted by Frances Wilson (who blogs as 'The Cross-Eyed Pianist') with special guest – 'Composed' director John Beder, who will be on site for a meet-and-greet before the film as well as a Q&A directly following the screening."
Bed Rock Productions/1901 Club presents:
'Composed' – special preview screening (followed by Q&A with director John Beder)
1901 Club, 7 Exton Street, Waterloo, London, SE1 8UE, England
Tuesday 2nd May 2017, 6.00pm – information
Tags: Frances Wilson ('The Cross-Eyed Pianist'), John Beder (film director)
Categories 2017, acoustic music, classical (Western art music), documentaries, film & cinema, films, instrumental music
March/April 2017 – upcoming London experimental gigs – Matt Cargill/Sam Edwards at More News from Nowhere (29th March); a Tony Conrad celebration at the Horse Hospital with Neil Campbell & Michael Flower of Vibracathedral Orchestra plus screening of 'Completely in the Present' (5th & 6th April)
Something on the drones'n'noise'n'whistles More News From Nowhere gig at the end of the month…
'More News From Nowhere' #15. 29th March 2017 (image © Daniel Oines)
More News From Nowhere presents:
MNFN #15: Matt Cargill + Sam Edwards + Ashcircle
The Victoria, 186 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London, E17 4QH, England
Wednesday 29th March 2017, 8.00pm – information here, here and here
From MNFN: "We're really excited to announce that we're putting out our first tape – a super-limited run of thirty hand-decorated cassettes featuring Matt Cargill (Sly & The Family Drone)'s blinding solo set from of tape processing and live loops (featuring a surprise banger) from the Rose and Crown last year. On the flip side is multi-instrumental improviser Sam Edwards's amazing performance from the William Morris Gallery at Stowfest last year – it's a nice contrast to Matt's with contemplative, harmonic synth drones and skittering, pulsing percussion. You'll be able to pick one up on the night for a fiver (or a tenner in total on the door for a ticket/tape bundle), or subsequently on Bandcamp.
"Both of them will be playing live on the night with support from Ashcircle (aka MNFN's own Ciaran Mackle, collaborating with South Circular's Tom Macarte)."
In early April, down at the Horse Hospital, there's a two-day celebration of the life and work of the bolshy, challenging art-polymath Tony Conrad, marking the first anniversary of his death. Crash course here:
"Tony Conrad was one of the great American artists of our time, yet to the world at large he remains criminally underappreciated. Since the early 1960s, Conrad's films and compositions have been the stuff of legend for artists and musicians everywhere. His vast, inter-disciplinary repertoire has single-handedly created and influenced major film and compositional movements. He performed in and recorded the soundtrack to Jack Smith's legendary 'Flaming Creatures'; he turned the paradigms of cinema upside down with 'The Flicker', a film composed of only black-and-white frames; his development and practice of just intonation and minimalism through his work with Stockhausen and La Monte Young still has the music establishment scratching their heads; his pivotal role in the formation of The Velvet Underground has directly or indirectly influenced everyone who has picked up a guitar since; as an early adopter of activist public access television he democratized the emerging medium of portable video. In his later years he continued to perform and make work that pushed the boundaries of reason for which he has finally begun to receive worldwide attention."
The celebration consists of one Conrad-inspired gig, and one documentary screening:
Muckle Mouth presents
Neil Campbell & Michael Flower
The Horse HospitalThe Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 1JD, England
Wednesday 5th April 2017, 7.00pm – information here and here
"Neil Campbell and Michael Flower are founding members of legendary Leeds freak-out collective Vibracathedral Orchestra, the "totemic ensemble of contemporary British outsider music"…
"Neil has been active on the lunatic fringe of underground music since at least 1979. In that time, as well as his work with Vibracathedral Orchestra he has performed and recorded widely as solo performer, ad hoc collaborator and core member of groups such as A Band and Astral Social Club. His collaborations are myriad, including work with Richard Youngs, Campbell Kneale, High Wolf, Grumbling Fur, John Clyde-Evans, Filthy Turd, Oren Ambarchi, Ashtray Navigations, Spider Stacy, David Larcher, Blood Stereo, John Olson and Matthew Bower. Writers have described him variously as "a one-man subculture", a "grandfather figure" with "a hallucinogenically inclined pallet." Neil shares his birthday with Grace Jones, Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot and Joey Ramone – look out!
"Michael operates in a similar musical territory which focuses on the droning element of strings, guitars, wind instruments and handheld percussion. Occasional vocal mutterings may remind people of traditional Indian ragas, while other parts of his work hints more at the academic influence of, say, a Henry Flynt or Tony Conrad. Mick has also played with everyone from Chris Corsano (as Flower-Corsano Duo), Pete Nolan's Magik Markers side project Spectre Folk, MV&EE w/The Golden Road and Sunburned Hand Of The Man."
'Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present' – full screening
Thursday 6th April 2017, 7.00pm – information here and here
"Director Tyler Hubby (editor of 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' and 'The Great Invisible') makes his directorial debut with 'Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present', a non-fiction film examining the pioneering life and works of artist, musician, and educator, Tony Conrad….
"Utilizing intimate footage of Conrad and his collaborators shot by the director over the last twenty-two years, as well as Tony's own archive of recordings and films, Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present mirrors Conrad's own playfully radical approach to art making. The non-linear structure allows Conrad to wildly free associate his streams of consciousness, revealing an honest and humane way of navigating a remarkable, creative life.
"Chronicling Conrad's life, work and pervasive influence over the years and through multiple mediums, this highly anticipated film is on tour of some the world's most esteemed museums, galleries and film festivals – the Viennale, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Big Sky Film Festival, The Tate Modern, Washington DC's National Gallery of Art, Brighton CineCity Film Festival, HOME Manchester, CCA Glasgow, among more than fifty others."
"Starring: Tony Conrad, Tony Oursler, Jim O'Rourke, David Grubbs, Marie Losier, John Cale, Moby, Branden Joseph, Jeff Hunt, Charlemagne Palestine, Jay Sanders, Jennifer Walshe."
Tags: Ashcircle, just intonation, Matt Cargill, Michael Flower, More News From Nowhere (event), Muckle Mouth (event/promoter), Neil Campbell, Sam Edwards, Sly & The Family Drone, South Circular, The Horse Hospital (promoter/venue), Tom Macarte, Tony Conrad, Tyler Hubby, Vibracathedral Orchestra
Categories 2017, ambient music, anti-music, crossover, DIY music, documentaries, drone music, electro-acoustic music, electronic, experimental music, experimental/avant-garde rock, festivals, film & cinema, films, freaktronica, improvisation, industrial music, instrumental music, minimalism, New Music, noise, performance art, post-punk, previews, process music, psychedelic ambient music, sound collage, soundscapes
September/October 2016 – film time – Dutch Uncles' Robin Richards performs live score for 'Birdsong: Stories From Pripyat ' in Manchester, Stockport and Salford (30th September, 6th-7th October); Scalarama Glasgow screens Cardiacs' 'Maresnest' concert movie with live solo show from Kavus Torabi (22nd September)
Still from 'Birdsong' (Pripyat Palace of Culture)
In a couple of weeks' time, Robin Richards (bass guitarist and driving force in Stockport art-poppers Dutch Uncles, and cross-disciplinary composer on the not-so-quiet) unveils the latest in his growing series of film collaborations, via three screenings and live score performances in the Manchester area.
"An amusement park in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat was due to be opened on the 1st May 1986, but the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred just a few miles away on 26th April. The park's owners opened the park for a couple of hours the following day for the people of Pripyat before the city was evacuated. Eerie images of the deserted Pripyat Amusement Park now permeate the visual representation of the city's desolation.
"Robin Richards: "Since hearing about the trips young evacuees from Pripyat and neighbouring towns made to my hometown Stockport as part of charity programmes over the last twenty-five years, and reading personal accounts of those affected by the catastrophic nuclear disaster I have wanted to create an art piece depicting the stories, whilst also addressing environmental and scientific dimensions. I am fascinated by the gestural vocabulary of film and its relationship to the formal properties of musical composition. I want to push beyond the notion that music should always be in service to visual narrative, and explore the possibilities of music's power to create and transform meaning."
Still from 'Birdsong' (Pripyat ferris wheel)
"The resulting piece, comprising a forty-minute original film and live score with chamber ensemble will be performed at related venues in North West England in late 2016, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the disaster. A screening of the film with recorded score is programmed as part of an exhibition in Kiev in late October 2016.
"Combining the immediacy and energy of live musical performance with the visual impact of film, 'Birdsong: Stories from Pripyat' aims to revisit a dramatic and devastating historical event using personal and scientific narratives to draw out the tensions and truths at play in our collective, cultural memories of this unfathomable event. This cross-artform project brings together original contemporary classical composition with film to explore an historic event through storytelling, montage and archival footage.
Robin Richards' forty-minute score incorporates first-hand testimonies of evacuees and liquidators from Ukraine and Belarus, while Clara Casian's filmmaking process is underpinned by nuclear research, and incorporates found and archival footage with original material filmed on location in Ukraine. The pair made a four-day research trip to the Chernobyl exclusion zone in May 2016 to meet with local artists, filmmakers and historians, collect original footage and archival material. The narrative arc of the film follows the journey of people with first-hand experience of the disaster, as personal records and testimonies are interwoven with original material. Music enters into a continuous dialogue with film as part of a nuanced artistic process, designed to evoke the experiences of people from Pripyat and their recollections of the evacuation and the cleaning process following the 1986 disaster."
The piece will premiere as the highlight of HOME's Artist Film Weekender in Manchester, followed by a second performance in Stockport's historic art deco cinema The Plaza and a third at the University of Salford. Dates below:
HOME Cinema, The Great Northern Warehouse, 235-253 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN, Friday 30th September 2016, 8.30pm – information
Stockport Plaza, Mersey Square, Stockport SK1 1SP, Thursday 6th October 2016, 7.00pm – information
Peel Hall, Peel Building @ University of Salford, 43 Crescent, Salford, M5 4WT, England, Friday 7th October 2016, 7.00pm – information
Each night also features another showing, performance or event.
The University of Salford performance will also feature a question and answer session with Robin and Clara (also billed as a music-and-film masterclass with Robin, who's an alumnus of the University's Music course, having graduated in 2011 with a first-class honours degree, the Elgar Howarth Composition Shield and the Award for Innovative Audience Engagement).
The Manchester performance will be preceded by the showing of another Robin Richards-scored film, 'Wizard'. Directed by Nick Middleton, this is "a short film about magic and madness", which premiered earlier in the month at The Smalls film festival in Shoreditch, London.
The Stockport performance will be accompanied by 'Celluloid History Songs', by Anglo-African Mancunian singer-songwriter Josephine Oniyama: a "spellbinding… live multimedia performance against a backdrop of historical footage drawn from the North West Film Archive held at Manchester Metropolitan University, and edited by filmmaker Kim May of Asta Films. The specially-commissioned songs were influenced by scenes of Northerners at leisure, taken from the archive's many inspiring images of industrial working-class people, young and old, discovering ways to spend their new leisure time." This work was previously performed at HOME's 2015 launch event, in tandem with Robin's own previous soundtrack engagement (a new score for Pal Fejos's 1928 silent New York romance 'Lonesome').
Update, 22nd September 2016 – Robin has just shared a recording of one of the 'Birdsong' soundtrack pieces. As he describes it, it's "inspired by the liquidators working on the Chernobyl nuclear plant after the disaster. The liquidators were civil and military personnel called upon by the Soviet Union in to clean, burn and bury contaminated areas and materials around the power plant. The first part of this section is based on archival footage of the liquidators cleaning and digging in 1986, with the rhythmic jostling of the strings representing the movement of the workers, and the deep synthesisers representing the overriding radiation. The second part is inspired by the testimonies of four liquidators we interviewed in Borispol during our trip to Ukraine in May this year; their memories of the clean up and the years that followed the disaster."
Scalarama screening of 'Maresnest' (poster stencil image by Abe Peachment)
A little earlier in the month – as part of September's ongoing Scalarama film festival – there'll be a public showing of the Cardiacs' concert film 'Maresnest' in Glasgow.
Organisers Luminous Monsters call 'Maresnest' "the greatest concert movie ever made! Recorded one glorious afternoon at the Salisbury Arts Centre in 1990, 'Maresnest' captures all of the manic intensity and joyous delirium of one of the UK's, nay, the world's finest bands. Theres nothing quite like Cardiacs at full force. 'Maresnest' takes Cardiacs kaleidoscope-prog and ultra-pop impossibility and gives it a fiery hoof up the colon. From the bruising, nigh-industrial intro through the perilous frenzy of To Go Off And Things to the sustained climax of unlikely minor hit Is This The Life?, this is delirious, potent stuff, the sound of wild ideas obsessively woven from flesh and wire and moments."
While this isn't exactly a once-in-a-lifetime showing – the film was disinterred from VHS purgatory to be reissued and released on DVD three years ago – there are three extra selling points. The first is that the event is another of those fundraisers for the much-needed medical rehabilitation of Cardiacs's life-mauled Tim Smith (see plenty of past 'Misfit City' posts for more on this particular story). Another is that the event also features a solo set from the band's onetime guitarist Kavus Torabi (these days better known for Knifeworld, for exuberant radio hosting and for an ongoing role as the post-Daevid Allen frontman for Gong), who'll be performing "songs of extreme loveliness and brilliance."
The last is that Luminous Monsters are quite right about the value of 'Maresnest'. It's one of the great rock concert films, comfortably up on the same level with the likes of 'Stop Making Sense', 'Tourfilm', 'The Last Waltz' and 'Sign 'O' The Times'. Capturing the band live in 1989 – then, as ever, inhabiting a murky cult status which could nonetheless draw thousand-strong crowds – it also caught them at a particularly turbulent time. The one-off seven-piece version of their close and familial lineup, as featured in the film, featured a guesting recent departee plus a new recruit and a pair of longstanding mainstays who'd both soon be gone from the band. Cardiacs shows were already volcanically energetic events, laced with disturbing performance-art overtones in which the band played at being frightened, stubborn children at odds with the perplexing and fascinating world around them. The fact that the aforementioned recent departee was Tim's soon-to-be-ex-wife Sarah, and that the show was teetering on the edge of disaster due to equipment breakdowns and raw nerves, added an extra frisson of tension and imminent madness to this particular concert.
Fortunately, the band rose both to and above the occasion – pulling a powerful, massing set out of this chaotic fuel, and it was all caught on tape. Though 'Maresnest' is laced with and interrupted by additional faux-found footage from backstage (in which, in nightmarish glimpses, the band continue to act out disturbing dysfunctional and childlike personae; like 'Blue Remembered Hills' being wrenched out of shape by David Lynch) it's ultimately about the music – which is ecstatic, churning, and strangely shamanic, tapping into a distorted British sub-mythology of old war films, children's television and everyday ritual, and whipping it up into an ambiguous apotheosis for a delighted crowd.
Luminous Monsters present:
Scalarama 2016: 'Cardiacs – All That Glitters is A Maresnest' + Kavus Torabi (live set)
The Old Hairdressers, 23 Renfield Lane, Glasgow, G2 6PH, Scotland
Thursday 22nd September 2016, 7:30pm – information here, here and here
It's been a good month for Cardiacs-related news: more of that coming along shortly. Meanwhile, for more info on Scalarama's ongoing events around the UK (and at the festival's outpost in Spain), click here.
Tags: Cardiacs, Clara Casian (filmmaker & visual artists), Dutch Uncles, Glasgow (Scotland), Josephine Oniyama, Kavus Torabi, Kim May (filmmaker), Manchester (England), multimedia, Nick Middleton (filmmaker), Robin Richards, Salford (England), Scalarama (event), Stockport (England)
Categories 2016, alternative rock, art punk, art rock, chamber music, classical fusion, crossover, documentaries, experimental/avant-garde rock, films, instrumental music, orchestral music, post-progressive rock, previews, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, rock, sound collage, storytelling
September 2016 – upcoming London gigs from Julián Elvira, rarescale, Katsuya Nonaka and Ute Kanngiesser (1st, 6th, 10th, 11th) – post-classical chamber music, premieres and improvisations for assorted flutes, shakuhachi, blowables, cello, etc. (Plus Katsuya's London film premieres.)
Here's news on four upcoming shows in London during early September, two of which are brought to us by flute-centred ensemble rarescale…
Crasmusicas presents:
Julian Elvira presents 'Blowing'
The Barge House, 46a De Beauvoir Crescent, De Beauvoir Town, London, N1 5RY, England
Thursday 1st September 2016, 7.00pm – information
Spanish musician Julián Elvira is the principal flautist with Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Madrid. He's also the developer of the Pronomos flute – a carefully considered redesign of the existing orchestral instrument, designed to improve its ability to cope with the microtonal and enhanced timbral demands being brought to bear on it by contemporary music. His solo show, 'Blowing', is "a unique performance of improvised music exploring the sonic qualities of different flutes and pipes. The sounds of the traditional instruments are manipulated and transformed, creating a music experience that moves from ancient to ultra modern sonorities."
rarescale: "Falling Out Of Cars"
The Forge, 3-7 Delancey Street, Camden Town, London, NW1 7NL, England
Tuesday 6th September 2016, 7.30pm – information
Direct blurb from the press release:
"In the final concert of its 2016 season, rarescale presents new chamber works for flutes (including low flutes and baroque flute) with piano, guitar and electronics. New works by Steve Kilpatrick, Jonathan Pitkin and Yfat Soul Zisso receive their first performances, and pianist extraordinaire Xenia Pestova presents solo works by Ailis Ni Riain and Ed Bennett. This programme promises a broad range of repertoire, from the simple elegance of Laurence Crane's 'Erki Nool' to the extended techniques of Scott Miller's 'The Frost Performs its Secret Ministry'."
Carla Rees – flutes
David Black – guitar
Xenia Pestova – piano
Michael Oliva & Scott Miller – electronics
Programme includes:
Steve Kilpatrick – 'Falling Out of Cars' (world premiere)
Jonathan Pitkin – 'Multi(poly)phonie's (for quarter-tone alto flute & guitar) (world premiere)
Scott Miller – 'Anterior/Interior' either/and/or The Frost Performs its Secret Ministry
Yfat Soul Zisso – new work (world premiere)
Laurence Crane – 'Erki Nool'
Ailís Ní Ríain – (unspecified work)
Ed Bennett– 'Bright White Lights'
Daniela Fantechi – (unspecified work)
The new Pitkin composition is "a short but wide-ranging piece (which) pushes both instruments in unexpected directions in order to play with conventional expectations of foreground and background, melody and accompaniment, and monody and polyphony." I couldn't find any information on the new Daniela Fantechni piece, and rarescale haven't specified which Ní Ríain item might be on the list, but I've made a few educated guesses below (as well as including an Yfat Soul Zisso flute piece which might point the way towards her new one).
IKLECTIK presents:
Scott Miller & Carla Rees with Julian Elvira & Katsuya Nonaka
IKLECTIK, Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, Waterloo, London, SE1 7LG, England
Saturday 10th September, 6.30pm – information
Scott Miller's 'Anterior Exterior' – see above – is one of the pieces which might be being performed at the Forge show. This particular performance is taken from 'Devices and Desires', the album which he and rarescale partner Carla Rees released in 2012.
This side of their music will be reflected in the week's second rarescale-related gig, down in Lambeth at IKCLECTIK. A combined sponsor's sales pitch and evening of spontaneous creation (put together in association with Kingma System Flutes and Kyma Electronics), the show will provide "a demonstration of contemporary and traditional flutes, electronics improvisation systems and their potential for collaboration and innovation". This will incorporate a "Devices and Desires" set in which Carla and Scott improvise with two special guests.
The first of these guests is Julián Elvira, still around following his solo show earlier in the week. The second guest, Katsuya Nonaka, is a particularly diverse creative character. A traditionally trained player of the shakuhachi flute, he's also a member of The Seppuku Pistols, whose gimmick (playing alleged "Edo era" punk on traditional Japanese instruments while toying with Japanese ultra-nationalist imagery) might make them a broad-batingly provocative art project… or might not.
Outside of such stunts, Katsuya's polymathic approach spills over into his other jobs and occupations – rice farming, translation, skateboarding, cartooning and illustrating, and film directing. He has happily combined three of these – the skating, the shakuhachi and the filmwork – in his short 'Future Is Primitive' documentary investigating his view of the connections between and shared pressures brought to bear on both 'board and bamboo flute (which will be receiving its London premiere the same week, on 9th September at House of Vans, in the tunnels beneath Waterloo station).
Katsuya Nonaka & Ute Kanngiesser
Sunday 11th September, 8.30pm – information
In fact, it's a particularly busy week for Katsuya Nonaka. As well as the previous two events of his that I've mentioned (plus the follow-up screening of 'Future is Primitive' at Dalston's Doomed Gallery on 13th September) he will be playing another IKLECTIC show on the 11th, this time with London-based German improvising cellist and sometime AMM member Ute Kanngiesser, whose musical approach is devoted to "unscripted" music and who specialises in a "layered" approach.
As far as I know this is a first musical meeting for this particular pairing. I'm not sure that there are that many embeddable samples which I can treat you too as a preview; but here's a clip of Ute's eerie prolonged cello harmonics for the curious…
Tags: Ailis ni Riain, AMM, Carla Rees, cello music, Crasmusicas (event/promoter), Daniela Fantechi, David Black, Ed Bennett, flute music, IKLECTIK Art Lab (promoters), Jonathan Pitkin, Julian Elvira, Katsuya Nonaka, London (England), Michael Oliva, music for electronics, piano music, premieres, Pronomos flute, rarescale, Scott Miller, Steve Kilpatrick, The Forge (promoter/venue), The Seppuku Pistols, unusual instrumentation, unusual instruments, Ute Kanngiesser, Xenia Pestova Bennett, Yfat Soul Zisso
Categories 2016, 21st century classical music, acoustic music, chamber music, classical (Western art music), cross-cultural music, documentaries, electro-acoustic music, experimental music, films, improvisation, instrumental music, minimalism, New Music, previews


We all survived our first separate day. I suffered a few injuries, but after that, everything went smoothly. I couldn't be prouder of the girls, who were pretty scared to try this out.
I brought Natalina to the Natural History museum.
Here we are in the butterfly garden which is how I managed to calm her down.
By the end of it, she was happy as a clam.
Dulce and her daddy went to the movies. They did not see Cops. I promise.