Sunday 19 September 2010

SHOWS WITH CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

I'm pleased to announce that this November I'll be doing a string of concerts with the musical master-craftsman Casiotone For the Painfully Alone.

This tour is apparently his swan-song as CFTPA, so it's an honor to be involved. The dates are as follows:

2.11 London - The Luminaire **JUST ADDED**

3.11 Brighton - The Prince Albert

4.11 Bristol - The Cube Cinema

5.11 Manchester - The Deaf Institute

'NEW ACCUMULATION'



This is a collaboration with Sara Magenheimer, a video-loop called 'New Accumulation', recently premiered at the Berkley Museum BAM/PFA L@te series. The footage is a time-lapse documentation of something Sara had made previously- a mesh-like pattern using colorful string drawn between trees.

I thought the time-lapse approach was a neat way of capturing a piece that was more of a process than a product. The style also suggested a sense of surveillance that Sara and I had become interested in during an earlier collaboration, 'Through The Trees, Through the Glass" .

The soundtrack tries to take some of these ideas on board: the first minute (before the string enters) uses a chop-up-collage based on the original audio from the footage (ambient sounds, conversation between Sara and her husband Eben, and low res media 'hiss', in fraction-of-a-second slices).

For the next section, a piece for woodwind sextet and FM synth. The idea was to compose something with an 'additive' process similar to that of the sculpture- with roughly one measure per frame of the footage, the harmonic and timbral 'colors' increasing in density with the addition of more orange strings. An attempt at 'time-lapse' music.

(Thanks to Caroline Weeks on alto flute, and Rupert Noble for the use of his workshop- and all those instruments in it!)

Sunday 11 July 2010

SUMMER

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I'll be playing a few shows in the U.S. this summer:
(check here for addresses, times, etc.)

30 July Providence, R.I. 'Black Acoustic' at White Electric with Micah Blue Smaldone

15 August Kittery, ME Buoy Gallery with Dead Western, Manners

22 August Portland, ME Apohadion with Micah Blue Smaldone and Kurt Weisman

Other things in progress:

A time-lapse video collaboration with musician/video artist SARA MAGENHEIMER

A recording of 'Station Wagon Interior Perspective (Requiem John Fahey)'

Monday 1 March 2010

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SOUNDS NEW CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL CANTERBURY, UK

I'll have performances of two pieces at the Sounds New festival in Canterbury this May - the theme of the Festival is '7'.

The first:
May 7th: 'SIN CYCLE' (World Premier)
THE AURORA ORCHESTRA, NICK COLLON (CONDUCTOR) -7:45 Gulbankian Theatre, Canterbury

I've been commissioned by Sounds New to write a piece 7 minutes, for 7 musicians, about the 7 Deadly Sins. It's going to be on a program with Kurt Weill's '7 Deadly Sins,' as well as Milhaud's 'La Creation du Monde'. The instrumentation I chose out of the Aurora are trumpet, trombone, tuba, saxophone, bass clarinet, banjo, and percussion. In preparation, I've been 'reflecting' on SIN in general, feasting on Kurt Weill (EXCEPT for '7 Deadly Sins'), and figuring out how to write for banjo.

May 13th: STATION WAGON INTERIOR PERSPECTIVE 9:00PM Orange Street, Canterbury.

This evening is presenting new work by members of the CCCU Broadstairs Music Department. I'll be UK premiering the Fahey Requiem (playing with tuba,saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and percussion), and also playing some saxophone on works by Matthew Wright and Andrew Gower.

Other News:
Fairtrade Gallery (26 Montague Place, Brighton) for 'April Alternative' Fest. W/ Mary Hampton
April 10th (drums, clarinet) with Jane Bartholemew supporting VASHTI BUNYAN St George's Church (Brighton)
April 30th (drums) With Euchrid Eucrow supporting Evangelista at the Freebutt (Brighton).