Album Launch

                More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1665263607077102/

RAINBOW

I'm excited to announce that my new album, 'Rainbow' will be released on Orindal Records 15 January 2016 as clear vinyl LP, CD, and download. Here's the album art by Anna Fewster, with text by Thich Nhat Hanh

For pre-order and more info, click HERE

Here is a music-film by Benjamin Rowley for the first single 'As He Walked Into the Field'

Pictures: Bog Bodies residency at the Model, Sligo

Photos by Colm Condron

Thanks to everyone at the Model for all your help, and for the opportunity to work in your amazing space. 

More info about project at https://bogbodies2015.wordpress.com

Video- Bog Bodies at the Model

BOG BODIES

This month I'm getting ready for a residency at the Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Sligo, Ireland with a new project called BOG BODIES. 

Bog Bodies is a band including me (saxophone, electronics, tape loops) Sean Carpio (drums, guitar, voice, electronics), Anders Holst (guitar, electronics), and Benjamin Rowley (16mm film). 

Over the 10 days at the Model, we're going to be collaboratively developing a new work using music and 16mm film image and sound. We'll be sharing the results in a public performance on 15th July at the Model, as well as in installations and smaller performances around the gallery. 

We've been doing some preparatory work leading up to the residency, much of which we're collecting on a blog: https://bogbodies2015.wordpress.com/

Here's a 'taster' film we just finished using footage and recordings from a workshop we did back in December at Anselm Studio 1, Canterbury Christ Church University:

'Leap of Death' reviews

Here is a good review of 'LEAP OF DEATH' in this month's Uncut Magazine. 

What's more, it was also included in John Mulvey's 154 best records of 2014! (coming in at #71). 

"THE GREAT WORK"

After its premier at Brighton Cinecity Film Festival last month, I'm glad to be able to share 'THE GREAT WORK,' an animated short film by Borbonesa for which I created the title music and sound design.

Here it is, followed by some text I wrote for them about how it was made:



The Great Work from Borbonesa on Vimeo.

The soundtrack for the 7 sequences of 'THE GREAT WORK' were all produced from the same audio source material: an unlabelled cassette tape found in a charity shop in Margate, Kent. The tape features a long personal recording of conversation during a car journey, and on the B side, what sounds like an amateur radio show with excerpts of 'light' music and commentary. The sounds on the tape were sampled (converted to digital files) and edited, processed, and resequenced, and mixed to create the score. 

The title music is entitled 'The Great Work'. It was composed as a woodwind quintet with percussion and recorded using a multi-track ('sound-on-sound') process in which I played all the parts. 

LEAP OF DEATH

The 'LEAP OF DEATH' limited edition bookwork/LP is now available for purchase!

It can be ordered at the LEAP OF DEATH project webpage: www.robertstillman.com/leapofdeath.

You can also see/hear the work in digital form here, and link to a free download of the music.

Please see below for project info.

The film 4 Devils was released in 1928 by Fox Film Corporation. Directed by F.W. Murnau (Sunrise, Nosferatu), the circus-themed melodrama was a full-fledged Hollywood production of the late silent era. After its release, the film disappeared, and remains 'lost' to this day. 

85 years later, composer Robert Stillman, writer/printmaker Anna Fewster, and bookbinder Sarah Bryant conjure 4 Devils back into existence with 'Leap of Death', a limited edition bookwork/LP that resurrects the lost film as 'imaginary fragments' of original music, image, and text. 

Drawing inspiration from existing 4 Devils archive materials such as scripts, production stills, and promotional matter, as well as from Les Quatre Diables, the 1890 Herman Bang novella upon which the film script was based, Stillman, Fewster, and Bryant's work reconstitutes the 4 Devils narrative as an impressionistic 'atmosphere' of black-and-white trace monotype images, letterpress text, and through composed music, inviting an interpretive, non-linear experience of Murnau's story-world. 

The bookwork/LP is available in a limited edition of 50 numbered copies, each consisting of one vinyl LP, six booklets, and three posters, collected in a clothbound enclosure.

Leap Bookwork Movie from Robert Stillman on Vimeo.

Leap of Death Launch

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the LEAP OF DEATH launch event Tuesday night, and to Sounds New, Arts Council England, and Canterbury Christ Church University for supporting the project. 

The Archaic Future Players: James Maddren, Kit Downes, Theon Cross, Magnus Dearness, Nick Malcolm, Robert Stillman

LEAP OF DEATH bookwork/LP

Work on the LEAP OF DEATH bookwork/LP is in full swing in preparation for the launch event on 6th May at Sounds New festival. Here are some images of work in progress from Anna Fewster's twitter and Sarah Bryant's blog: 

'Leap of Death'

Much of my past year has been devoted to a project called 'LEAP OF DEATH'- it's a collaboration with printer Anna Fewster and book artist Sarah Bryant, creating a limited edition bookwork/LP in response to the 'lost' 1928 film '4 Devils'. We've been drawing inspiration from the mysterious, fragmented archival remnants of this film (production stills, promotional material, film scripts, etc.) to create an 'impressionistic reconstruction' of its narrative using original music, imagery, and text. 

On 6th May 2014 we will launch the project as part of the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival. The event will include a performance of 'Leap of Death' by the Archaic Future Players (RS, saxophone; Kit Downes, organ; Nick Malcolm, trumpet; Magnus Dearness, trombone; Theon Cross, tuba; Sean Carpio, drums). The music will be augmented by projections of text and imagery from the bookwork. Before the performance, film scholar Michael Lawrence (Sussex University) will give a short talk. Copies of the bookwork/LP will be on display, and there will be refreshments. 

Click HERE for tickets to the launch event. 

The day before the concert, there will be a printing/bookbinding workshop led by Anna and Sarah at the Sidney Cooper gallery. Click HERE for info and to book a place. 

Winter Light

This week end I'm at the Model art centre in Sligo, Ireland,  participating in a collaborative recording project with artist Mark Garry's as part of his residency there. 

He asked a group of musicians, including  me, Sean Carpio, Eileen Carpio, Karl Him, Nina Hynes, Fabien Leseure, Cillian Murphy Padraig Murphy, Oliver Alcorn, to respond musically to themes in his exhibition, called "A Winter Light". We have been composing and recording in the Model's studio, and will share the work in progress in an open rehearsal Saturday. 

The show is up until April 20th. 

DLWP Performance

I'll be playing a one-man band set (with film projections) this Saturday at the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill as part of their bi-monthly 'Dear Serge' event, which features lots music, performance, art, and DJs...should be a great day out.

more details HERE
 

BROADSTAIRS

A while back I told composer Chris Weisman I'd start playing saxophone again if he wrote me something to play- and he sure did- a suite of 18 pieces called 'Broadstairs', written using his 'Nonmusical Patterns'.

I'll be performing the first half of the suite tomorrow at a Free Range event called 'Singles Night'. Second half soon to follow.

'Leap of Death' workshop

There will be a 'workshop' performance of music from a new project called 'Leap of Death' this Thursday 28th November as part of the Free Range series at Veg Box Cafe, Canterbury.

The concert will be the first for the Archaic Future Players (UK) band featuring Kit Downes (organ), Theon Cross (tuba), Magnus Dearness (trombone), Nick Malcolm (trumpet), Sean Carpio (drums), and Robert Stillman (tenor saxophone).

Details of event at the Free Range website

One-man band site

ALL YOU EVER HOPED TO KNOW ABOUT ONE-MAN BAND AND MORE

In an attempt to capture my past several years experience of one-man band performance I've created a "tell-all" website called 'ONE-MAN BAND'.  

It features an essay, a concert, a talk, some demonstration videos, and a manifesto. 

Click HERE to visit

The site is designed and built by the very talented White Vinyl.

US Tour

 

NORTH EAST USA TOUR: DOUBLE BILL

Robert Stillman and the Archaic Future Players
and
Jeremy Udden Band 

31/5-      Brooklyn, NY     Douglass Street Music Collective (NOTE VENUE CHANGE!)  (w. Eliot Krimsky solo piano)
1/6         Montague, MA    The Book Mill (w. Kurt Weisman)
2/6         Portland, ME      Woodfords Congregational Church  (8PM tickets at Starbird Music or call 207-828-1310)
3/6        Cambridge, MA    The Outpost

Vortex with Ian Nagoski

I'll be playing a one-man band set this Thursday 2nd May at the Vortex (London, UK)

Drummer Sean Carpio will be joining me on drums.

Our set follows what looks to be a very interesting presentation by Ian Nagoski on music he's curated for the Tomkins Sq. compilation "To What Strange Place: The Music Of The Ottoman-American Diaspora 1916-1929.

Mojo Review

MOJO review for 'Station Wagon Interior Perspective'...Vinyl and CD's (and DL's) available from Archaic Future Recordings (UK+Europe) and Apohadion Records (US)