Robert Stillman

Canterbury Eye and Ear

2012-01-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

MACHINE'S SONG OUT

2011-07-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

'MACHINE'S SONG' is officially out now on OIB records, and available in shops, itunes, amazon, and through the OIB webstore.
Click Here to listen, and Here for info

Recent press for 'Machine's Song':

"Composer Robert Stillman's sublime latest transmission sets wordless one-man band pieces conjuring a quaint Americana against mechanical collages...Like drifting off in a saloon bar reverie and waking up beside a locomotive engine.
(★ ★ ★ ★ ) -MOJO

"Stillman takes over-familiar totems of Americana asks you to hear them afresh." THE OBSERVER

"Machine's Song is a creaky, uncanny music that creates an impressionistic
picture of old America" - UNCUT

"Messy results can often arise from mingling the homely familiariarity of tradition with anarchic, free thought of modern composition, but Stillman's latest work is a storming success in this respect" ROCK A ROLLA

"Listening to Robert Stillman's extraordinary Machine's Song is akin to stepping inside some half remembered dreamworld inhabited by fairground organs, player pianos and other antique musical automata." - SHINDIG'S HAPPENING MAGAZINE

"It’s beautiful music that engages both the emotions and the intellect, and seems to exist at least partly in the shadows of memory, which is, perhaps, a bit part of what makes it such a rousing delight." - THE HURST REVIEW

April 5th 2011 at The Tank

2011-07-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

'Station Wagon Interior Perspective (Requiem John Fahey) - Part II
Kenny Warren (tpt) Jeremy Udden (c mel) Dave Noyes (tbn) Ben Stapp (tba) Mike Johnson (dr)
Thanks to 'NY Dave' Sheinkopf for filming

Machine's Song

2011-06-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

New Release!
I'm very glad to announce the upcoming release of the album 'Machine's Song' on One Inch Badge Records. Please click HERE to listen to tracks, and HERE for info about the record.

The official release is next Monday the 11th July (shops, online, amazon/itunes). However, the One Inch Badge Web Store is taking pre-orders NOW. The first 35 orders will receive the CD packaged in a LIMITED EDITION letterpress printed poster, designed and printed by Anna Fewster and Alan Brignull. This is the numbered, original artwork of which the retail-version is a replica. See below for images.

Click HERE to order.

MONO at KOKO

2011-06-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

I'll be supporting MONO + the Holy Ground Orchestra at Koko in London this Tuesday June 7

Uncut Magazine

2011-05-29T01:25:00.000-07:00

Some early critical fanfare for the soon-to-be-released (June 13) 'Machine's Song' album, in John Mulvey's 'Wild Mercury Sound' column for UNCUT Magazine. (Click on image to enlarge)

'Sounds Seen' at Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival

2011-05-08T03:06:00.000-07:00

'New Works for Film 2011' (see post below) will get their UK Premier at the 'Sounds Seen' program of the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival at The Ballroom in Canterbury, Kent on 23rd May. Click HERE for more info

Still from 'Dust', Ben Rowley

The pieces will be performed by the fantastic ensemble Splinter Cell who will also be performing a piece for film by its artistic director Matthew Wright, 'A Stillness Made from Speed.' Also on the program, the Canterbury Christ Church Scratch Ensemble.

New York Shows

2011-03-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

This handbill is for the upcoming New York shows (more info in previous post and below). It is letterpress printed by Anna Fewster. The first 10 people to arrive at each show will be the lucky recipients of one of these limited edition pieces!!

Sunday 3rd April, 8:00PM
Douglas Street Music Collective
259 Douglas Street, Brooklyn
$10 Suggested Donation
With Jeremy Udden's 'Plainville'

Tuesday 5th April, 7:30
Ear (Heart) Music at The Tank
354 West 45th Street (btwn 8th+9th Aves), New York
$10
Pre-book HERE

New Work, New York

2011-02-23T15:18:00.000-08:00

Still from 'Looking Glass Music'

I'm happy to say that I'll be back in New York this April for two concerts:

April 3rd: Brooklyn Douglas Street Music Collective
April 5th: Manhattan "Ear Heart Music' at The Tank

I'll be joined by an ensemble of great musicians: Kenny Warren (trumpet) Jeremey Udden (c melody sax) Sam Sadigursky (bass clarinet) Dave Noyes (trombone) Ben Stapp (tuba), playing new music for short films: Here are the titles:

'Dust' (16mm film by Ben Rowley) 'Looking Glass Music', 'Paint on Glass 01' (animations by Shawn Clarke of Mew Lab) and 'New Accumulation' (time-lapse video loop by Sara Magenheimer)

Still from 'Paint on Glass 01'

Also on the program: 'Sin Cycle for Septet' (a musical meditation on the mortal sins); 'Station Wagon Interior Perspective' (funeral marches and rags for the late John Fahey); 'Machine's Song' (repertoire for 'one-man-band')

SHOWS WITH CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

2010-09-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

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'

2010-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

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!)

SUMMER

2010-07-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

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)'

777777777777777

2010-03-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

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).

UPCOMING

2009-10-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

6 JANUARY 2010 - THE STONE, NEW YORK CITY, 8:00

This will be the US premier of a work for one-man-band, brass, and percussion, a requiem for John Fahey in Waltz, Rag, and Funeral March.

10 OCTOBER 2009 - SOUNDCURIOUS at COACHWERKS

Playing music to 'FISHING IN RANGELEY LAKES'

24 OCTOBER 2009 - RAG N BONE Co., 1A Pelham Street, Brighton.

Playing to films of Émile Cohl.

NEW RELEASE

2009-09-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

MASTER BOX- ARCH001 is a new recording, now for sale.

It is the first recording on the newly minted Archaic Future record label. The commitment of the label is to release music and sound that is musically and materially unique. (There are also digital downloads).

Each MASTER BOX CD comes in a package painstakingly assembled from player piano rolls. The jacket is letterpress printed by Anna Fewster. Inside there is also a type-written essay entitled 'The Mystery and Player Pianos'.

To order/download, go to the ARCHAIC FUTURE RECORDINGS shoppe.

To buy in stores:

IN BRIGHTON, UK @ RESIDENT 28 Kensington Gdns

IN NEW YORK @ OTHER MUSIC on w. 4th street

PORTLAND, MAINE @ TIME LAG RECORD SHOP 578 congress street, 2nd floor

It will be available on i-tunes and Amazon soon!