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March 2009

Hello

A very adventurous month has passed and another about to begin, one which should have begun in LA but unfortunately had to be cancelled close to show time. With my flight ticket and work visa still fresh in my satchel, my show won’t be happening since the USA Tax office now makes it virtually impossible for independent artists to work in the USA with their rather draconian and heavy handed laws. Curiously playing the show would have meant losing almost as much as it’s cost to produce since I don’t have an office in the USA, I’m not on tour and don’t have a record label to support me there.

Instead I’ll be at the opening of my new audiovisual installation in Las Palmas as part of the 2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands, in collaboration with filmmaker Olga Mink. A multiple screen with immersive sound work, it addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail, and over its ten minute duration presents a unique sequence of scenes that resonate with an ethereal glory. It’ll also be a fine excuse to dress up smartly and nudge elbows with celebrity artists.

My live collaboration with celebrated pianist Joanna MacGregor was a roaring success at De Le Warr Pavilion in February, where we explored compositions improved around Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Cantatas, Chorals and Keyboard Concertos. Favourably reviewed in the press as ‘beautiful and challenging, a concert that forced the audience to re-assess everything they thought they knew about music and its structure and form,’ an extremely generous response I would argue, but we are keen to take this work across the globe, so watch out in the future for further shows.

Further trips to Italy to continue workshops at Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and Strasbourg to research our ambitious Githead art project for Ososphere 2009 proved that traveling on budget airlines could be a foolish mistake, but that doesn’t stop me setting off in March to Pula, Breda and Derry in the coming weeks. My live show Nature of Being with Olga Mink will be presented at the Breda Film Festival to close this month, before we take it off to EMPAC in NY in April for our wonderful adventure with the onedotzero film festival.

This month I’ll also be participating in the on-going Future of Sound tour, hosted by Martyn Ware resplendent in his finest shiny electro suit, this month, when it lands at Goldsmiths in London, on 24 March. A host of artists at the cutting edge of sound production and manipulation will present and perform their work. Sophie Clements and I will present our Of Air and Ear project from the Royal Opera House in 2008 amongst other things and remains a free-ticketed event so check in quickly if you wish to attend.

Another premiere takes place this month at Deda in Derby where I’ve been Artist in Residence for the last year. On Thursday 26 March we will be presenting the first collaboration between choreographers Claire Cunningham and Jose Agudo and myself in a work created together in summer 2008. 4m2 is against a stunning backdrop by visual artist Sian Stammers and with an original score the piece explores the periphery of memory inspired by real stories, with movement, sound and image.

Recently released was the CD Symbiosis Orchestra : The Perfect Blend... a series of live performances and collaborations between a host of creative individuals. Created in 2005 by Italian sound artist Andrea Gabriele (Pirandèlo, Mou, Lips!) for a festival in Pescara, this size-shifting mixed-media ensemble has been carrying on with its journey in live performance settings enhanced by Claudio Sinatti’s stage designs and visuals and I took part some time ago in Florence to perform, part of which can be heard on this release. Featuring treated vocals by Iris Garrelfs, jazz flutist Geoff Warren, vibes player Stefano Tedesco, Mario Masullo, (electronics) Diego Conti (violin), Roberto di Egidio (trumpet) and Michele Scurti (piano), it’s a union of electronic and acoustic music that offers up a cinematic world to tease and please.

With my major new album, Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges officially out on 17 April 2009 on Bine Music, I have a modest digital release out exclusively on iTunes this month too. Entitled Correspondence (Auguste Orts Film Soundtracks), it’s a series of works that accompanied a gallery showing of film works and papers from the Auguste Orts collective in Belgium, each title using samples and excepts from the films to form a new composition out of the originals. The gallery show itself will soon be touring again so stay tuned and hope that some of you might enjoy this new release.

You will have to soon adjust to calling me Visiting Professor in the School of Art and Performance or simply Professor Scanner more casually if you wish, as I have been welcomed into a national community of practitioners in art, performance, design and media in a currently top secret university project. Though not formally in my imaginary office space as yet I’ll be beginning my role soon amongst some very high profile guest professors and continuing for the foreseeable future. Now, finish your homework!!

Until next time

Robin



::: listen :::
Beirut-March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (Pompeii)
Pan American - White Bird Release (Kranky
Sonic Youth-Sensational Fix (Koenig)
Arvo Part: In Principio (ECM)

::: read :::
John Waller: A Time to Dance, a Time to Die (Icon)
Cathy Lane: Playing with Words (CriSAP)
Christan Bok: Eunoia (Canongate)
Ryan McGinness: Works (Rizzoli)

::: film:::
You, The Living, Roy Andersson, Sweden
Milk, Gus Van Sant, USA
Choke, Clark Gregg, USA
Dog Days, Ulrich Seidl, Germany

Exhibitions

Night Haunts
By Sukhdev Sandhu
Design Mind Unit
Sound Design Scanner

Artangel Interaction invited writer and historian Sukhdev Sandhu to write a nocturnal journal unfolding over the course of 2006. His postings will appear sequentially at this microsite specially designed by Mind Unit. Sandhu's forays see him prospecting in the London night with the people who drive its pulse, from the avian police to security guards, zookeepers and exorcists. Acclaimed artist and musician Scanner has collaborated with Sukhdev and Ian Budden of Mind Unit to compose the sound for the site. If you would like to be kept informed as each episode is posted, join artangel's mailing list by clicking here .

www.nighthaunts.org.uk
www.artangel.org.uk



Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City
Artangel Interaction

NightJam is the latest project in Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expresses how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny. NightJam presents two elusive visual and musical journeys through the city’s ‘quiet’ hours.

NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced and freely downloaded. Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.

www.nightjam.org.uk