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July 2007

Hello

I write this as the UK descends to rapidly sinking under rainfall and severe weather warnings are posted around the country to prepare us all for the onslaught of further adventures. I’m packing my suitcase and off to Beijing for the weekend where I just read there’s a 100% chance of heavy rainfall so I guess I’ll be growing gills and wearing my Speedo swim trunks permanently soon.

Much of June was spent in the sanctuary of rock and roll on tour with my band Githead that developed at tangents into research for Spinal Tap 2. We had a series of European live dates, proceeded by four intensely long days in a studio in London, working out guitar lines and sets for the concerts.  It began in the studio when the resident cat decided to poop around the drum kit, several days in a row; clearly unhappy at the sounds we were producing.  Onward to Europe and lost train tickets, mislaid identity cards, over-priced taxis, and mislaid merchandise didn’t dampen our spirits for the debut show in Paris for the European debut of our Art Pop tour. The weather however did not agree and immediately after our show the venue was filled with dirty rainfall, clearing out the building, evacuating both audience and staff, leaving us waist deep in water.

Madrid was a warmer proposition, with a terrific show at the Moby Dick club, but a severe allergy to the smokers in the venue left me in a dramatic sneezing fit between each song! Broken guitars, new shoes, radio interviews, contemporary art museums, bulky catalogues, surreal Spanish Indian food, sunglasses and shopping centres made for memorable moments. A flight at midnight to Barcelona for a festival show was frustrating as we arrived to find the entire event cancelled due to local council issues, compounded by campus accommodation that left prison cells an attractive alternative.

Somehow in between I managed to finish composing a film soundtrack to a Norwegian movie, Demeter, in collaboration with composer and multi-instrumentalist Max de Wardener, and finished some mixes for a few artists forthcoming later in the year.

July begins for me with a speedy visit to Beijing for the weekend, to attend and perform at The Borderline Festival, a nine day event developed through a wide range of activities centred on the identity of the moving image and predicated on the hybrid nature of the contemporary cultural one.  I’ll be presenting an entirely new adaptation of my Flower Echoes project, using voices and recordings of China. Then it’s off to Rotterdam to work on a documentary about composer Edgar Varèse, and the rest of the month spent in Vienna Austria for a Residency at the MuseumsQuartier. I’ll be creating a work for the TONSPUR. It’s a chance to create a multi-channel sound work for their computer based 8-channel sound structure, which will be played out over the following months in this district.  It’s also a chance to eat rich sweet cakes and walk the cultural streets of this fine city.

Enjoy the summer.

Best wishes

Robin

::: listen :::
The Tuss-Confederation Trough (Rephlex)
Stephen Vitiello: The Smallest of Wings (UTC)
Gang of Four: Return the Gift (V2)
Various: The Fruit of the Original Sin (LTM)

::: read :::
Cursed from Birth:William S Burroughs Jr (Soft Skull)
James Knowlson: Beckett Remembering (Bloomsbury)
Edgar Allen Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher (Penguin)
Stewart Home: Memphis Underground (Snowbooks)

::: film:::
Les Petites Vacances, Olivier Peyon, France
Sketches of Frank Gehry, Sydney Pollack, USA
Los Angeles Plays Itself,  Thom Andersen, USA
Lolita, Stanley Kubrick, USA


Exhibitions

Klusterblock
TONSPUR 21
Artist-in-Residence
Passage
Museumsquartier Vienna Austria
FREE
Daily 10.00-20.00

22 July - 31 October

This sound installation explores an idea of the ensemble voice. Traditional choirs use a series of voices to compliment each other in an elegant formation, but here you listen to the singular voice of the artist in a choral manner. Using breaths and pauses within the piece to echo around this open location, the work suggests a collision between physical space and the human voice.

Klusterblock, a playful amalgam of German/English, suggests the use of the voice as a wall of sound, leaving subtle traces of the human, embedding the walls with harmonies of an imaginary nature.

www.tonspur.at
www.mqw.at


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. A limited edition CD is also being distributed for free through the website. Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.

www.nightjam.org.uk