updates are going to be more infrequent as the trip progresses i have realised, mainly because i am flat out busy all the time it seems!!
when i last wrote i was preparing for the performance at alianza francesa in buenos aires with my good friends alan (anla) courtis, juan jose calarco and alma laprida. however i completely missed out the presentation i gave on wednesday 25th at the cia, where we had a room full to bursting of people who listened attentatively to my history, thoughts and work... thanks to florencia and julia at cia, alan and fabiana for making it happen. i had to leave very quickly afterwards with jj and alma to play for a radio station based in buenos aires, which was kind of fun although i couldn't hear a thing through the guitar amp monitor.
the following night i ran a listening workshop from my buddy fernando perales's house - i had 3 participants, which was actually the perfect number for the exercises we did. we spent some time listening to the street from different positions on the roof of the building, then visited a nearby square where the locals were playing what looked like skittles, then tried to record some small detailed sound in the streets of buenos aires, which at 8pm in the evening is a very difficult thing to do! thanks to fernando for setting it up, and he and his partner rosa for feeding me that evening!
the friday alan and i arrived early in the afternoon to set up for the concert, then he had to go to work for a couple of hours, and alma and juan jose then set up and sound checked. and it turned out we had a 'green room' where we had snacks, juice, water, and most importantly 2 bottles of wine! thanks to leandro of mamba for that - much appreciated! we had a good sized crowd, and played in a new configuration of the 'active crossover' method of working, so we all played solo sets of around 15 minutes, but overlapped - so juanjo played first, followed by alma, then me, with alan closing - with an excellent bit of screaming into a netbook! after this we hit a pizza place and i had my first proper argentinian pizza - delicious, but so think with cheese i thought i was going to have a heart attack while eating it!!!
saturday i was invited to fernando's once again, this time to try asado - which consisted of chorizo and blood sausage as an entree, and then a huge piece of pork and an even bigger piece of beef, with ribs, and roasted potatoes - absolutely amazing, and i could hardly move afterwards!!
and then alan turned up to take me to retiro (the main bus and train station in buenos aires) to meet jj and alma, and then we headed to la plata, a nearby city, to play in the back room of the great store 'mal de muchas'. jose de diego and cristian carracedo kicked off with sub-bass and scraping metal object on turntable action - a very nice 15 miniute set that entranced the audience, then the four of us once again played a solo set with overlaps session, with alma starting with great performative gestures, then alan blasting everyone's eardrums with white noise, then me and juan jose finishing up in his elegant understated way. i felt the energy was much better than the previous night, even though everyone else felt their set was worse...
and then the dreaded day arrived - i had not only to leave argentina, but also had a 50+ hour journey ahead of me... taxi to the shuttle bus, then to the airport in buenos aires, a flight to santiago, chile; a flight to toronto, canada; an 8 hour wait in toronto airport; a flight to vancouver; a 6 hour wait in vancouver; a flight to sydney, australia; a 4 hour wait in sydney airport; a flight to melbourne; a 2 hour wait in melbourne airport; a bus trip of around an hour and a half to castlemaine... then met by jude and krista of punctum, who showed me to where i am staying while here, and then the space i will be working in (icu).
the lost day in the title refers to me crossing the international date line so i actually arrived in australia a day later than i thought i would!
so far here i have explored the route to and from the house to the icu; been visited by eamon sprod (aka tarab); met another collaborator - jacques soddell - who will kindly be supplying the speaker system for the installation also; visited melbourne with eamon, where i met his lovely family, partner emily and daughter helki; played a show at tape projects alongside tarab himself, jesse scott & alice hui-sheng chang and tim catlin - a fantastic sunday afternoon - evening event that was a pleasure to be part of.
thanks eamon for everything!
and also got to catch up briefly with teresa lane, whom i met in tallin, estonia in 2009 when i was artist-in-residence at the polymer factory.
yesterday (7th may) eamon and i headed back to castlemaine - after some delicious indonesian food for lunch/brunch - to record more material in the icu for our performance and installation pieces. the highlight was a point where i was bowing a metal dustpan with a violin bow and eamon was doing the same with the large round base of a metal post, with a thin rod of metal, creating some incredible tones that bounced around and filled the space - thankfully we have both recorded it so will have to hear the results and maybe combine them!
today lizzie pogson, the fourth collaborator for 'active crossover: seedpod', came to castlemaine from trentham and took us to the dredger near maldon: http://www.maldon.org.au/attractions/DD.html which we had to clamber along rusty cables to get to, but was a playground for the three of us for a good couple of hours!! thanks lizzie!
on returning i managed to get my laundry done - i was completely out of underwear!! - and purchase the next travel book - 'the diceman', which looks pretty dark, but will be a good follow on from 'the adventures of sherlock holmes' which i have enjoyed over the last month of plane flights - although towards the end i couldn't help thinking 'surely you can see where this is going, watson.... even i can!'... still, i love the way conan doyle describes both holmes and 19th century london...
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Valporaiso - Santiago - Buenos Aires
during my stay in valporaiso i was hosted by fernando godym and the tsonami collective - thank you all!, stayed with cynthia conrads - thank you cynthi! - and the workshop itself was hosted by the good people of balmaceda cultural centre - a special thanks to paola, plus sympathy as she lost her cat on my last day.
the city is a crazy, tumbledown place - very steep hills and obvious damage from earthquakes and housefires, but also a very welcoming place, with lots of good energy. it was much colder than i imagined it being, but not unbearable.
and the workshop itself went really well. the first day i ran the blindfolded walk and listening exercise, which caused some interesting discussions afterwards - everyone gets something very different from the experience, although always positive.
then fernando had a surprise radio interview for me to attend - thanks!! the presenter, ronald, was super nice though and made me feel very at ease, and had a good number of interesting questions.
thanks also to michel, one of the participants, who was visiting from santiago specifically to participate in the workshop. we had a walk around the city in the afternoon, round the docks and then up and around the hills back to cynthia's place.
the evening of the first workshop was my introduction to the local bars and nightlife - all work and no play, etc... so i got to try pisco, the national tipple of chile, which made for an interesting evening, leading us to end up at 'la mascara', a club that seems to play only music from the 80's from what i remember...
so things went a little more slowly for our second day of the workshop - i gave a demonstration of all the equipment i currently use to record sound, and then we took a walk to an old prison that has been converted into a cultural centre. it was a good place to record small sounds, as it is high in the hills above the city. we spent around an hour exploring the space and then headed back to balmaceda so everyone could play their 'favourite' recording of the day. some very nice sounds were captured by the team!
that afternoon i got to sample another chilean speciality, a dish called chorrillana - perfect for those days when you have been dragged to an 80's nightclub the night before...
the third day of the workshop i introduced the team to 'audacity' - a free composition program that is easy to use. i demonstrated the various editing techniques, some effects, and then let them get to work on thier own pieces. the results were very interesting, in that most of them were referential to the site and it's past.
we spent around an hour setting up the sound system for the concert in the evening and then took a trip over the mountains to a small beach town for a lunch of amazing seafood empanadas and then a nice walk on the beach where we bumped into ronald once again.
back to balmaceda, where i had a nice sized audience for what turned out to be a solo show - i was expecting fernando and a saxophonist to join me. we plunged the room into darkness and then i played a 4 channel piece that i am developing over the year. i also had a surprise up my sleeve - using a violin bow on an old metal pala (like a dustpan with a long handle), i moved around the audience, creating more sound movement and interacting with them and the space more.
i will thank previous collaborators john grzinich and jonathan coleclough, among many others, for leading my work in this direction...
the following day i took the bus with michel back to santiago, where i then met with musician paola lazo - we went for a coffee and chat and then i found that the concert i was to play there started at 6! i dragged all my luggage to the site of 'producta mutante', ervo perez's concert series. the events are run in a large room in a house, and the night was good and varied, with two guys playing droney stuff to begin with, then an improv trio, with me finishing up the night. once again i used a combination of recorded sound and objects, finding some small pieces of terracotta tile in a cup. i started to rattle some around in my hands, and then moved around the room with them - then gave some to audience members, motioning for them to continue to rattle them... i think i gave 6 people handfuls of tiles, all around the house, which sounded really nice and worked well in engaging the audience a little more.
rather than spend the night at ervo's sleeping in a room with two guys from cordoba, i ended up staying at paola's place. this was great as we hadn't had much time to chat and for me to hear her music.
many thanks once again to paola, and to ervo and his housemates for a brief but very nice visit to santiago.
on the monday i flew back to buenos aires to meet up with juan jose calarco for dinner - which ended up being the biggest piece of cow i think i have ever eaten! sorry for the vegetarians reading this, but it was incredible!
and yesterday i spent the day walking around the centro, trying to find replacement boots - my trusty magnums were falling to pieces! - and visit the auditorium that will host 'active crossover: buenos aires' on friday. a good sized space, although it seems i have to play from the stage, which i don't really like doing any more - we'll see what can be done about that... oh, and ended up walking to another city, avellaneda, through a mix-up with directions.
today i will revisit the city airport to reclaim my leatherman that i stupidly left in my backpack when flying to chile and make some preparations for the performance on friday using some sounds i recorded on the roof of the cia, where i'm staying.
the city is a crazy, tumbledown place - very steep hills and obvious damage from earthquakes and housefires, but also a very welcoming place, with lots of good energy. it was much colder than i imagined it being, but not unbearable.
and the workshop itself went really well. the first day i ran the blindfolded walk and listening exercise, which caused some interesting discussions afterwards - everyone gets something very different from the experience, although always positive.
then fernando had a surprise radio interview for me to attend - thanks!! the presenter, ronald, was super nice though and made me feel very at ease, and had a good number of interesting questions.
thanks also to michel, one of the participants, who was visiting from santiago specifically to participate in the workshop. we had a walk around the city in the afternoon, round the docks and then up and around the hills back to cynthia's place.
the evening of the first workshop was my introduction to the local bars and nightlife - all work and no play, etc... so i got to try pisco, the national tipple of chile, which made for an interesting evening, leading us to end up at 'la mascara', a club that seems to play only music from the 80's from what i remember...
so things went a little more slowly for our second day of the workshop - i gave a demonstration of all the equipment i currently use to record sound, and then we took a walk to an old prison that has been converted into a cultural centre. it was a good place to record small sounds, as it is high in the hills above the city. we spent around an hour exploring the space and then headed back to balmaceda so everyone could play their 'favourite' recording of the day. some very nice sounds were captured by the team!
that afternoon i got to sample another chilean speciality, a dish called chorrillana - perfect for those days when you have been dragged to an 80's nightclub the night before...
the third day of the workshop i introduced the team to 'audacity' - a free composition program that is easy to use. i demonstrated the various editing techniques, some effects, and then let them get to work on thier own pieces. the results were very interesting, in that most of them were referential to the site and it's past.
we spent around an hour setting up the sound system for the concert in the evening and then took a trip over the mountains to a small beach town for a lunch of amazing seafood empanadas and then a nice walk on the beach where we bumped into ronald once again.
back to balmaceda, where i had a nice sized audience for what turned out to be a solo show - i was expecting fernando and a saxophonist to join me. we plunged the room into darkness and then i played a 4 channel piece that i am developing over the year. i also had a surprise up my sleeve - using a violin bow on an old metal pala (like a dustpan with a long handle), i moved around the audience, creating more sound movement and interacting with them and the space more.
i will thank previous collaborators john grzinich and jonathan coleclough, among many others, for leading my work in this direction...
the following day i took the bus with michel back to santiago, where i then met with musician paola lazo - we went for a coffee and chat and then i found that the concert i was to play there started at 6! i dragged all my luggage to the site of 'producta mutante', ervo perez's concert series. the events are run in a large room in a house, and the night was good and varied, with two guys playing droney stuff to begin with, then an improv trio, with me finishing up the night. once again i used a combination of recorded sound and objects, finding some small pieces of terracotta tile in a cup. i started to rattle some around in my hands, and then moved around the room with them - then gave some to audience members, motioning for them to continue to rattle them... i think i gave 6 people handfuls of tiles, all around the house, which sounded really nice and worked well in engaging the audience a little more.
rather than spend the night at ervo's sleeping in a room with two guys from cordoba, i ended up staying at paola's place. this was great as we hadn't had much time to chat and for me to hear her music.
many thanks once again to paola, and to ervo and his housemates for a brief but very nice visit to santiago.
on the monday i flew back to buenos aires to meet up with juan jose calarco for dinner - which ended up being the biggest piece of cow i think i have ever eaten! sorry for the vegetarians reading this, but it was incredible!
and yesterday i spent the day walking around the centro, trying to find replacement boots - my trusty magnums were falling to pieces! - and visit the auditorium that will host 'active crossover: buenos aires' on friday. a good sized space, although it seems i have to play from the stage, which i don't really like doing any more - we'll see what can be done about that... oh, and ended up walking to another city, avellaneda, through a mix-up with directions.
today i will revisit the city airport to reclaim my leatherman that i stupidly left in my backpack when flying to chile and make some preparations for the performance on friday using some sounds i recorded on the roof of the cia, where i'm staying.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Buenos Aires - Cordoba - Jujuy - Buenos Aires - Valparaiso...
ok, i'm going to try and keep this one as brief as possible, although it's been two weeks since the last update i think...
the last update was from buenos aires - i think i was there for one night before heading to cordoba on an overnight bus - possibly the best way to travel if your journey is 12 hours or so! so i actually slept pretty well and was met at the bus station by jorge castro, one of the organisers of the santo noise festival i was there to perform at. i was shown to the hostel i would be staying in (sharing a room with 5 20somethings who were all still in bed when i checked in at 11am!) and then taken to la cupula, the site of the festival. i met the group of yound musicians and artists who are now co-running the festival, going on a beer run with them and generally hanging out. i was also given a walking tour of part of the city by gustavo, which was nice - good to see a place rather than just a venue and lodgings!!
the show itself was good - a photo session (that i hope never sees the light of day...) and then 4 acts played - a guy playing guitar and electronics, juan castrillo and bianca (field recordings and nice visuals), axel pulgar (beats/dark electronica) and me. a really respectful and appreciative audience - it was a pleasure to be part of it!
i did actually manage to sleep in the hostel - i heard one roommate come in and go to bed around 3, but slept through all the others coming in - then had to wake up around 7:30 to go and meet juan jose calarco at the bus station. except he wasn't there. he'd got in early and gone straight to juan's place. i met them there and we spent a couple of days hanging out, listening to great music, planning our trip north.
so on 10th april we head to san salvador de jujuy, where juan's dad has a place we could stay. we spend an evening there and then head further north to yala, where juan's dad has another place we could stay. we tried to explore the termas de reyes - some hot springs nearby, but heavy rain stopped us going to far. that night we discovered the cooker wouldn't work, so had to build a barbecue/fire and cook pizza on it! by the time the pizzas were cooked i think we'd have eaten anything! pizza with a strong taste of woodsmoke and some hardly melted cheese on top is an experience you have to have once in your life!! after a second day of trying ot record around yala and getting rained on again, we decided to head even further north, this time to a hostel run by juan's uncle 'cookie'.
it was very beautiful at 'hosteria rural huasadurazno', which is set back off the main road quite a way, with the mountains rising up behind it, and we had the place to ourselves really. however, trekking up towards the mountains, the sky gets very dark and once again we get rain - this time a heavy downpour that doesn't last very long, although long enough to soak juan jose through once again (get a waterproof jacket!!), making his cold worse...
we explore the nearby village of uquia, which is a strange little ghost town that seems to be run by young children, and also spend a day in humahuaca, visiting the touristy places, the nearby hills (almost getting trapped on top of them), the market, many coffee shops and the hills once again.
on our last day in this most northern part of our journey we try to find a 'windmill' that has been spoken about for a few days. we visit a farm very close to uquia, where we climb the hills nearby once again, make some contact mic recordings, get tempted to record some beehives (me) and am advised not to (by juan and juan jose), and then try and record the animals and the farm's pond... which means entering a field that has all manner of animals, including two bulls and one young cow that has long horns and is apparently a little feisty.
so we are happily recording away, and then realise the farmer and his wife, who accompanied us into the field, have left us there. then the young cow decides to see what we're doing - sniffs around juan jose, who manages to escape the attention of it, meaning it then goes for juan. it actuallt started butting him with it's head, forcing him to climb out of the way up a tree! this sounds funny now, but at the time none of us wanted to mess with the cow, so i tried a couple of times to rescue juan's recording gear that was still on one side of the pond, but every time i went for it, the cow would show interest in me!
well, we managed to find the farmer and he got it to leave juan alone by chasing it off with a big stick - then we resumes our search for the windmill, which turned out to be a non-operational watermill. i had tripped while trying to save juan equipment, so my knee was killing me, juan jose was close to passing out with his sickness, so we decided to call an end to the trip and head back to san salvador, where we spent a night, and then juan jose and i got the bus back to buenos aires - a journey that took 22 hours...
back in buenos aires for 2 nights, getting a tattoo based on a design i had my friend alejandro calderon do for me while i was in residence at campos de gutierrez, and now i am in valparaiso to run listening and field recording workshops for the next three days. which means i now need to sign off and get some sleep!
the last update was from buenos aires - i think i was there for one night before heading to cordoba on an overnight bus - possibly the best way to travel if your journey is 12 hours or so! so i actually slept pretty well and was met at the bus station by jorge castro, one of the organisers of the santo noise festival i was there to perform at. i was shown to the hostel i would be staying in (sharing a room with 5 20somethings who were all still in bed when i checked in at 11am!) and then taken to la cupula, the site of the festival. i met the group of yound musicians and artists who are now co-running the festival, going on a beer run with them and generally hanging out. i was also given a walking tour of part of the city by gustavo, which was nice - good to see a place rather than just a venue and lodgings!!
the show itself was good - a photo session (that i hope never sees the light of day...) and then 4 acts played - a guy playing guitar and electronics, juan castrillo and bianca (field recordings and nice visuals), axel pulgar (beats/dark electronica) and me. a really respectful and appreciative audience - it was a pleasure to be part of it!
i did actually manage to sleep in the hostel - i heard one roommate come in and go to bed around 3, but slept through all the others coming in - then had to wake up around 7:30 to go and meet juan jose calarco at the bus station. except he wasn't there. he'd got in early and gone straight to juan's place. i met them there and we spent a couple of days hanging out, listening to great music, planning our trip north.
so on 10th april we head to san salvador de jujuy, where juan's dad has a place we could stay. we spend an evening there and then head further north to yala, where juan's dad has another place we could stay. we tried to explore the termas de reyes - some hot springs nearby, but heavy rain stopped us going to far. that night we discovered the cooker wouldn't work, so had to build a barbecue/fire and cook pizza on it! by the time the pizzas were cooked i think we'd have eaten anything! pizza with a strong taste of woodsmoke and some hardly melted cheese on top is an experience you have to have once in your life!! after a second day of trying ot record around yala and getting rained on again, we decided to head even further north, this time to a hostel run by juan's uncle 'cookie'.
it was very beautiful at 'hosteria rural huasadurazno', which is set back off the main road quite a way, with the mountains rising up behind it, and we had the place to ourselves really. however, trekking up towards the mountains, the sky gets very dark and once again we get rain - this time a heavy downpour that doesn't last very long, although long enough to soak juan jose through once again (get a waterproof jacket!!), making his cold worse...
we explore the nearby village of uquia, which is a strange little ghost town that seems to be run by young children, and also spend a day in humahuaca, visiting the touristy places, the nearby hills (almost getting trapped on top of them), the market, many coffee shops and the hills once again.
on our last day in this most northern part of our journey we try to find a 'windmill' that has been spoken about for a few days. we visit a farm very close to uquia, where we climb the hills nearby once again, make some contact mic recordings, get tempted to record some beehives (me) and am advised not to (by juan and juan jose), and then try and record the animals and the farm's pond... which means entering a field that has all manner of animals, including two bulls and one young cow that has long horns and is apparently a little feisty.
so we are happily recording away, and then realise the farmer and his wife, who accompanied us into the field, have left us there. then the young cow decides to see what we're doing - sniffs around juan jose, who manages to escape the attention of it, meaning it then goes for juan. it actuallt started butting him with it's head, forcing him to climb out of the way up a tree! this sounds funny now, but at the time none of us wanted to mess with the cow, so i tried a couple of times to rescue juan's recording gear that was still on one side of the pond, but every time i went for it, the cow would show interest in me!
well, we managed to find the farmer and he got it to leave juan alone by chasing it off with a big stick - then we resumes our search for the windmill, which turned out to be a non-operational watermill. i had tripped while trying to save juan equipment, so my knee was killing me, juan jose was close to passing out with his sickness, so we decided to call an end to the trip and head back to san salvador, where we spent a night, and then juan jose and i got the bus back to buenos aires - a journey that took 22 hours...
back in buenos aires for 2 nights, getting a tattoo based on a design i had my friend alejandro calderon do for me while i was in residence at campos de gutierrez, and now i am in valparaiso to run listening and field recording workshops for the next three days. which means i now need to sign off and get some sleep!
Friday, 6 April 2012
Medellin - Cartagena - Buenos Aires
this post will be a little brief as i have around 30 minutes before i am taken to the bus station for yet another overnight bus trip - this time to cordoba...
the last few days in colombia were relatively uneventful really. the presentation went very well, although the audience was small. sound enthusiasts miguel isaza and his amigo alejo were present, as was felipe rodriguez whom i met at matik matik in bogota.
actually my spanish painter friend and i got a little worse for wear on the friday night (24th) and didn't end up back at the residency house until around 7am... ouch. saturday was spent just taking it easy as you can imagine - i think i continued to work on my website when i eventually woke up.
sunday mi amiga juliana collected me from campos de gutierrez and took me, along with her sister and friend, to an old family house her grandmother currently lives in which was around an hour's drive away from medellin. the house was absolutely lovely, as was the scenery, after lunch, juliana and i climbed the nearby hills to look out over the valley - breathtaking!
i spent the next few days trying to get a tattoo of a rose design alejandro has done for me, but the only tattooist who came recommended was busy until 9th april... so now i have to find a recommended tattooist here in buenos aires... if anyone reading this has any friends who have been tattooed in argentina and are happy with the results, please let me know!
i then took a trip to cartagena, on the invitation of juliana, who was working there for a few days, doing the make-up for a bikini shoot - i did offer to go earlier and help out but that never happened unfortunately... so we spent a couple of days lounging around in the very hot and humid city, the very hot (and for me dangerous as i got sunburned) beach and the rooftop pool of the building her uncle, juan, lives in.
so because of the sunburn, i did not go out in the sun too much after that but did enjoy the company of juliana and her family, an amazing beach resort i think called tierra bomba and generally just relaxing.
then on my return we ran around collecting my various bags of clothes and equipment, and then as i was checking in online for my flight to buenos aires i found i had inadvertentlybooked for may, not april! so i spent another day and a half in medellin, catching up with admin and again generally relaxing. and managed to rearrange the flight for a more acceptable time of day than 7am, for no extra charge, although it did mean three short flights through the night, so only 2 hours sleep before getting to buenos aires, where i thought i was going to be beaten up by everyone i met just for being british!! this hasn't happened of course, and is not the case - everyone is super friendly here and the city feels like one of the safest i have visited in south america!
i was met by alan courtis, who took me to the residency house i'm staying in while in buenos aires (centro de investigaciones artistas - or cia) and then we wandered around for me to get cash, then for us to get some lunch. i then had to sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon as it had all caught up with me. at 8pm alan, alma laprida and juan jose calarco came to cia and we chatted music, etc. then went for peruvian food, which was fantastic, then to a kind of cool bar with really awful music, followed by a terrible bar with slightly less awful music. it was fun though!
so now i prepare for my overnight trip to a festival where the three artists above are not going now because of various issues, but i go to because i feel a commitment to my agreement to go. a shame as juan jose and i were supposed to perform as a duo and i was really looking forward to that. however i agree with his reasons for not going.
from cordoba i will however be travelling with juan jose to jujuy, which looks stunning and should be a fantastic place to record.
ha ha! not so short after all... ok, more in a week and a half!
the last few days in colombia were relatively uneventful really. the presentation went very well, although the audience was small. sound enthusiasts miguel isaza and his amigo alejo were present, as was felipe rodriguez whom i met at matik matik in bogota.
actually my spanish painter friend and i got a little worse for wear on the friday night (24th) and didn't end up back at the residency house until around 7am... ouch. saturday was spent just taking it easy as you can imagine - i think i continued to work on my website when i eventually woke up.
sunday mi amiga juliana collected me from campos de gutierrez and took me, along with her sister and friend, to an old family house her grandmother currently lives in which was around an hour's drive away from medellin. the house was absolutely lovely, as was the scenery, after lunch, juliana and i climbed the nearby hills to look out over the valley - breathtaking!
i spent the next few days trying to get a tattoo of a rose design alejandro has done for me, but the only tattooist who came recommended was busy until 9th april... so now i have to find a recommended tattooist here in buenos aires... if anyone reading this has any friends who have been tattooed in argentina and are happy with the results, please let me know!
i then took a trip to cartagena, on the invitation of juliana, who was working there for a few days, doing the make-up for a bikini shoot - i did offer to go earlier and help out but that never happened unfortunately... so we spent a couple of days lounging around in the very hot and humid city, the very hot (and for me dangerous as i got sunburned) beach and the rooftop pool of the building her uncle, juan, lives in.
so because of the sunburn, i did not go out in the sun too much after that but did enjoy the company of juliana and her family, an amazing beach resort i think called tierra bomba and generally just relaxing.
then on my return we ran around collecting my various bags of clothes and equipment, and then as i was checking in online for my flight to buenos aires i found i had inadvertentlybooked for may, not april! so i spent another day and a half in medellin, catching up with admin and again generally relaxing. and managed to rearrange the flight for a more acceptable time of day than 7am, for no extra charge, although it did mean three short flights through the night, so only 2 hours sleep before getting to buenos aires, where i thought i was going to be beaten up by everyone i met just for being british!! this hasn't happened of course, and is not the case - everyone is super friendly here and the city feels like one of the safest i have visited in south america!
i was met by alan courtis, who took me to the residency house i'm staying in while in buenos aires (centro de investigaciones artistas - or cia) and then we wandered around for me to get cash, then for us to get some lunch. i then had to sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon as it had all caught up with me. at 8pm alan, alma laprida and juan jose calarco came to cia and we chatted music, etc. then went for peruvian food, which was fantastic, then to a kind of cool bar with really awful music, followed by a terrible bar with slightly less awful music. it was fun though!
so now i prepare for my overnight trip to a festival where the three artists above are not going now because of various issues, but i go to because i feel a commitment to my agreement to go. a shame as juan jose and i were supposed to perform as a duo and i was really looking forward to that. however i agree with his reasons for not going.
from cordoba i will however be travelling with juan jose to jujuy, which looks stunning and should be a fantastic place to record.
ha ha! not so short after all... ok, more in a week and a half!
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Bogota - Medellin
My return to Bogota after a year was slightly marred by the continuing effects of food poisoning... but after meeting up with David, Camilo and Sebastian on Thursday evening for a rehearsal of sorts with the quad speaker system we were to use on Friday, I was ready for the concert.
Then one of the artists involved in the evening's events starting acting as if he was the star of the show - I don't know, maybe he was, but I find overinflated egos unnecessary and distasteful in my line of work as an artist... it's such a small field we inhabit as 'experimental' musicians or sound artists, why assume you're much more important than someone else?
I actually find this behaviour unacceptable in life generally...
To top things off, one of the speakers that was working fine during the rehearsal and the soundcheck before the show started to sound like a bowl of rice krispies when I played a really rather subtle mid-low frequency sound through it! It took the edge off any dynamic I tried to build during my set, which is a shame. the spatialisation of the piece worked well though. Of all the sets, I thought David's was the best - nice textures and tones, good pace and development - well done sir!
Afterwards we hit a burger place - a test for my stomach and one that it passed!! :-)
Saturday I met with someone very special to me from my last visit to Bogota, Ms. Ana Gabriela Jimenez Devia. It was great to see her and catch up. Then a quiet night in watching the first Downey Jr/Law Sherlock Holmes movie, which I actually really enjoyed! Inspired by this, I bought a copy of 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' from a bookshop in La Candelaria to read on the next few flights I'll be taking!
Sunday i was collected by David and Lina to go for tapas and sangria, and then after visiting David's parents - lovely people! - I was dropped at Matik-Matik for Sunday evening's concert with Ana Maria Romano. Ricardo Arias and one of his students joined us and opened the evening, playing sound making objects and processing the sounds - and then Ana and I performed a crossover set, so I began solo, was then joined by Ana, and then she played solo. I have to say, even though i was performing as part of it, the piece was gorgeous! Ana and I have very different approaches to making music, but they worked together really well! I look forward to working with ehr again at some point in the future...
Monday i flew back to Medellin, was collected at the airport by my make up artist friend Juliana and we visited a couple of the pueblos around Medellin. Very nice to see what lies outside the city.
And Tuesday i visited Casa Tres Patios to discuss coming back to Medellin for another residency early next year...
So now, safely back at Campos de Gutierrez, I prepare for a presentation this evening at Plazarte and continue to compose the piece I have created here.
Then one of the artists involved in the evening's events starting acting as if he was the star of the show - I don't know, maybe he was, but I find overinflated egos unnecessary and distasteful in my line of work as an artist... it's such a small field we inhabit as 'experimental' musicians or sound artists, why assume you're much more important than someone else?
I actually find this behaviour unacceptable in life generally...
To top things off, one of the speakers that was working fine during the rehearsal and the soundcheck before the show started to sound like a bowl of rice krispies when I played a really rather subtle mid-low frequency sound through it! It took the edge off any dynamic I tried to build during my set, which is a shame. the spatialisation of the piece worked well though. Of all the sets, I thought David's was the best - nice textures and tones, good pace and development - well done sir!
Afterwards we hit a burger place - a test for my stomach and one that it passed!! :-)
Saturday I met with someone very special to me from my last visit to Bogota, Ms. Ana Gabriela Jimenez Devia. It was great to see her and catch up. Then a quiet night in watching the first Downey Jr/Law Sherlock Holmes movie, which I actually really enjoyed! Inspired by this, I bought a copy of 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' from a bookshop in La Candelaria to read on the next few flights I'll be taking!
Sunday i was collected by David and Lina to go for tapas and sangria, and then after visiting David's parents - lovely people! - I was dropped at Matik-Matik for Sunday evening's concert with Ana Maria Romano. Ricardo Arias and one of his students joined us and opened the evening, playing sound making objects and processing the sounds - and then Ana and I performed a crossover set, so I began solo, was then joined by Ana, and then she played solo. I have to say, even though i was performing as part of it, the piece was gorgeous! Ana and I have very different approaches to making music, but they worked together really well! I look forward to working with ehr again at some point in the future...
Monday i flew back to Medellin, was collected at the airport by my make up artist friend Juliana and we visited a couple of the pueblos around Medellin. Very nice to see what lies outside the city.
And Tuesday i visited Casa Tres Patios to discuss coming back to Medellin for another residency early next year...
So now, safely back at Campos de Gutierrez, I prepare for a presentation this evening at Plazarte and continue to compose the piece I have created here.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Campos de Gutierrez/Medellin - Bogota
after checking where i had got to in my last post, i can continue... so from the 2nd march until the 10th work commenced on a couple of possible new methods of playing sounds in a live context, or maybe an installation. the main idea is nothing new - sound being played through resonant objects - but i also tried to fabricate a directional speaker using a huge beer can that held 8 smaller cans, lots of corrugated cardboard and a dayton sound exciter (a speaker driver that allows you to play sound/music through a solid object or surface).
oh, and also on the 3rd we were invited to the space where we were going to exhibit for a party. this was a fundraiser for a group of artists who needed to raise money to go to costa rica, and it worked! they had quite a crowd and a really great band. needless to say, my britishness came to the fore and i was unable to dance at all, even when drinking heavily! the trouble is colombians are just born dnacers - i was unable to even try as i would have looked like the flailing uncle at a wedding even if i could dance, and those of you who know me know i can't!! ah well, i met some lovely people anyway!
back to the subject - sounds were gathered for a few days at campos de gutierrez, and also continuing experiments with the sound exciters, playing 'wooden' sounds through the body of an old guitar and 'metallic' sounds through another beer can, although this was to be replaced with an oil drum i had spied at plazarte (the exhibition space). the homework paid off - once i got to the space to install on the friday, everything went according to plan. the two objects and the house speaker system were all i needed to play a multi-channel piece on the opening night. i also had plans for a small brass bell and violin bow - more later...
on thursday a young artist called miguel izasa from medellin visited us (well, me) at campos de gutierrez, and for someone so young, he's really focused and knows exactly what he's doing with sound and recording... we spent the afternoon walking up the mountain to the village of santa elena, recording when possible, but mainly chatting about sound/music/art/etc.
saturday came around and things came together on that day, with some of the artists working through the night on their installations. and the main thing was that some grass that an artist called chris wolston had ordered turned up and was installed in one of the open squares in the space. the down side of this was, as the grass was being installed, the door remained open and someone got access to the building and stole my buddy alejandro's computer (with all of his residency work on it) and projector. :-(
an absolute shame and it really couldn't have happened to a nicer guy... after fruitless attempts at tracking down the thieves, and much soul searching, he went ahead with his show, which was great.
also on saturday, david velez from bogota came to perform. he decided to play in a duo with miguel and their performance was pretty great, although affected by loud chatter and the sub-standard speaker system. they were set up by the bar and i asked the bar to be closed during performances but there was no stopping it!
i practically begged the organisers to close the bar for my performance, knowing it was going to be a lot quieter than david and miguel's, and thankfully they did. there was still chatter from other parts of the building, but in the square, the audience were really great, respectful and attentive. it may have helped that i moved around the audience with various objects, crunching a huge dry leaf to being with and bowing the bell i mentioned earlier - i have tried methods like this before but have felt like i was going through the motions, and just replicating actions of friends such as john grzinich and max shentelev, but this time i really felt it was part of the piece and needed the interaction. i even had some guy dancing (expressively of course) throughout, which definitely added an extra dimension!
after the performances, etc. david and i, and luke and elizabeth clark, decided to head back to campos and get some sleep. we stopped on the way back for some food and left all our stuff (computers and all) in the taxi while we ate. i don't even know if i'd do that in bristol!! no sad ending to the story there though, all was good.
and the sunday was pretty much taken up with david and i walking around medellin (centro and poblada) eating and drinking beer! we went back to plazarte and they gave us even more beer! it was a great day!! and fresh trout for tea, bought from one of the neighbours on via santa elena.
monday i went back to plazarte once again to record the guitar and the oil drum resonating with the various sounds i used in the performance, with a view to recomposing the piece to include these, and then was met by a young lady i actually met on the previous friday, who was doing make up for a fashion shoot that was being held in plazarte too. we went to poblado for lunch (a chicken curry for me) and then took the metro to visit the metrocable, when i suddenly felt really faint, had really bad stomach cramps and apparently went completely green! we got off a few stops before our destination and i had to sit for around 15 minutes before i could even face standing up again. juliana suggested i went back to her place to lie down (try to remember, i'm sick here people!) so after another gruelling metro ride back to where she'd parked the car, she then drove us to her place, which is up out fo the city, and also in a high rise - amazing views!
thank you once again juliana for nursing me!
after not much sleep that night through constant visits to the smallest room, i felt a little better by morning. this ebbed and flowed all day, and although i managed to eat a little rice in the evening, still felt pretty rough.
and guess what? i had to fly to bogota on wednesday! so i took as many pills as i could - although feeling much better than on monday, i still knew i was sick - and the climb from campos de gutierrez to via santa elena had never been so hard! but i managed to make it, with alejandro's help, and he also assisted in getting a taxi to the airport.
the journey went without mishap(!) and i think i even slept a little although the journey is only 50 minutes or so.
in bogota i caught a taxi from the airport to the area i'm staying in, la candelaria, which is pretty touristy but also quite nice - and i had to help him find the place! i had to ask at another hostel - in my bad spanish - as he just didn't have a clue! anyway, i'm here now. i took it very easy yesterday, still feeling weak - lack of food mainly, but the altitude doesn't help.
today i took a wander around downtown, passed by some places i recognised from being here last year and ended up at el museo de arte del banco de la republica, which is an amazing building with some good artworks - no sound pieces though and i think some of the rooms would really benefit from it! then headed to the university for 5pm where i met up with david once again and camilo rojas to rehearse for our show tomorrow - and after 4 hours there moving speakers around etc. we did rehearse... it's going to be a good show tomorrow!
oh, and also on the 3rd we were invited to the space where we were going to exhibit for a party. this was a fundraiser for a group of artists who needed to raise money to go to costa rica, and it worked! they had quite a crowd and a really great band. needless to say, my britishness came to the fore and i was unable to dance at all, even when drinking heavily! the trouble is colombians are just born dnacers - i was unable to even try as i would have looked like the flailing uncle at a wedding even if i could dance, and those of you who know me know i can't!! ah well, i met some lovely people anyway!
back to the subject - sounds were gathered for a few days at campos de gutierrez, and also continuing experiments with the sound exciters, playing 'wooden' sounds through the body of an old guitar and 'metallic' sounds through another beer can, although this was to be replaced with an oil drum i had spied at plazarte (the exhibition space). the homework paid off - once i got to the space to install on the friday, everything went according to plan. the two objects and the house speaker system were all i needed to play a multi-channel piece on the opening night. i also had plans for a small brass bell and violin bow - more later...
on thursday a young artist called miguel izasa from medellin visited us (well, me) at campos de gutierrez, and for someone so young, he's really focused and knows exactly what he's doing with sound and recording... we spent the afternoon walking up the mountain to the village of santa elena, recording when possible, but mainly chatting about sound/music/art/etc.
saturday came around and things came together on that day, with some of the artists working through the night on their installations. and the main thing was that some grass that an artist called chris wolston had ordered turned up and was installed in one of the open squares in the space. the down side of this was, as the grass was being installed, the door remained open and someone got access to the building and stole my buddy alejandro's computer (with all of his residency work on it) and projector. :-(
an absolute shame and it really couldn't have happened to a nicer guy... after fruitless attempts at tracking down the thieves, and much soul searching, he went ahead with his show, which was great.
also on saturday, david velez from bogota came to perform. he decided to play in a duo with miguel and their performance was pretty great, although affected by loud chatter and the sub-standard speaker system. they were set up by the bar and i asked the bar to be closed during performances but there was no stopping it!
i practically begged the organisers to close the bar for my performance, knowing it was going to be a lot quieter than david and miguel's, and thankfully they did. there was still chatter from other parts of the building, but in the square, the audience were really great, respectful and attentive. it may have helped that i moved around the audience with various objects, crunching a huge dry leaf to being with and bowing the bell i mentioned earlier - i have tried methods like this before but have felt like i was going through the motions, and just replicating actions of friends such as john grzinich and max shentelev, but this time i really felt it was part of the piece and needed the interaction. i even had some guy dancing (expressively of course) throughout, which definitely added an extra dimension!
after the performances, etc. david and i, and luke and elizabeth clark, decided to head back to campos and get some sleep. we stopped on the way back for some food and left all our stuff (computers and all) in the taxi while we ate. i don't even know if i'd do that in bristol!! no sad ending to the story there though, all was good.
and the sunday was pretty much taken up with david and i walking around medellin (centro and poblada) eating and drinking beer! we went back to plazarte and they gave us even more beer! it was a great day!! and fresh trout for tea, bought from one of the neighbours on via santa elena.
monday i went back to plazarte once again to record the guitar and the oil drum resonating with the various sounds i used in the performance, with a view to recomposing the piece to include these, and then was met by a young lady i actually met on the previous friday, who was doing make up for a fashion shoot that was being held in plazarte too. we went to poblado for lunch (a chicken curry for me) and then took the metro to visit the metrocable, when i suddenly felt really faint, had really bad stomach cramps and apparently went completely green! we got off a few stops before our destination and i had to sit for around 15 minutes before i could even face standing up again. juliana suggested i went back to her place to lie down (try to remember, i'm sick here people!) so after another gruelling metro ride back to where she'd parked the car, she then drove us to her place, which is up out fo the city, and also in a high rise - amazing views!
thank you once again juliana for nursing me!
after not much sleep that night through constant visits to the smallest room, i felt a little better by morning. this ebbed and flowed all day, and although i managed to eat a little rice in the evening, still felt pretty rough.
and guess what? i had to fly to bogota on wednesday! so i took as many pills as i could - although feeling much better than on monday, i still knew i was sick - and the climb from campos de gutierrez to via santa elena had never been so hard! but i managed to make it, with alejandro's help, and he also assisted in getting a taxi to the airport.
the journey went without mishap(!) and i think i even slept a little although the journey is only 50 minutes or so.
in bogota i caught a taxi from the airport to the area i'm staying in, la candelaria, which is pretty touristy but also quite nice - and i had to help him find the place! i had to ask at another hostel - in my bad spanish - as he just didn't have a clue! anyway, i'm here now. i took it very easy yesterday, still feeling weak - lack of food mainly, but the altitude doesn't help.
today i took a wander around downtown, passed by some places i recognised from being here last year and ended up at el museo de arte del banco de la republica, which is an amazing building with some good artworks - no sound pieces though and i think some of the rooms would really benefit from it! then headed to the university for 5pm where i met up with david once again and camilo rojas to rehearse for our show tomorrow - and after 4 hours there moving speakers around etc. we did rehearse... it's going to be a good show tomorrow!
Friday, 2 March 2012
oaxaca - mexico city - medellin
the show at cafe central was a little disappointing to be honest - and i should have known it would be really. i had to play from the stage so had no idea how the piece sounded in the room - low frequencies caused the whole stage to shake so i actually thought i was playing louder than i probably was - lesson learned once again. and half the audience where attentive while the other half chatted away, which i kind of expected but always distracts me... anyway, yadira and the rest of the staff at cafe central were great - really friendly and always ready to get me yet another complementary drink (after performing of course!) and i did get a little bit of cash for my troubles.
after going for more excellent street food with john jairo, gabriela (my hosts), federico and alejandra i headed back to the cafe alone to grab a couple more drinks, made friends with a norwegian guy and two young ladies from tijuana/san diego and we stayed out drinking until 6am! then i got lost trying to find my way back to jj and gabi's place! suddenly, a little drunk and more than a little worried, my spanish actually came back to me and i was able to ask a passer by for help in getting back to the zocalo, where i could navigate from - it turned out i had walked in completely the opposite direction!!
so after getting back around 7am and grabbing 3 hours sleep, my hosts took me for breakfast and then to monte alban, which although is a tourist attraction, is a great way to spend 3 hours walking around!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/oaxaca-monte-alban.htm
another day of hanging out in oaxaca and then i headed back to mexico city by bus - the ride is one of the most beautiful i have done. half the 6 hour journey takes you up over the mountain range north of oaxaca.
so after more exploring of mexico city and meeting with marco morales at muac once more for lunch and to collect some cd's and dvd's of mine that my parents sent me and took 5 weeks to arrive, i meet up with dario bernal-villegas, an improvising drummer based in mexico city, for mezcal, beer and food - an honour to meet you dario!
i got to medellin, colombia yesterday after having to get up @ 4am. then amazingly had just enough mexican pesos to pay for the two nights at the hotel i was in and the taxi to the airport! dead jammy.
the flight took me to san jose in costa rica - that country looks amazing from the air - i may have to go an explore if/when my spanish improves...
then breezed baggage collection and immigration, to then sit in arrivals for over an hour waiting for someone to come get me...
ah well, at least i'm here now. internet access will be severely limited as we all (6 of us at the last count) are sharing a mobile internet dongle - the type you plug into your computer using a usb port.
the other artists seem ok - i have made good friends with a spanish painter whose english is only marginally better than my spanish! i think we'll be teaching each other for the month i'm here!
it turns out i'm the old guy here - everyone else is late 20's to early 30's but they're ok... another sound artist and his wife from uk (luke and elizabeth), an artist called bjork from iceland (not THE bjork...), a guy from the states doing ceramics called chris, a french video artist - oralee (probably spelt that wrong!) - who was actually born and adopted in colombia by french parents and the guy who is co-ordinating the residency, andres. hmm, i thought there were more - maybe i'm forgetting someone...
anyway, the house is incredible - there is a link on my facebook page but it doesn't do the place justice! i'm sitting on the verenda, looking out over trees and fields and i can see medellin in the distance - it's around a 30 minute bus ride into town - i went with alejandro, the spanish artist, yesterday to help him shop for the evening meal - that was an experience!! the driver doesn't take into consideration the standing passengers when negotiating a winding mountain road, believe me!
so today i will be recording, and seeing the space we will be presenting work in on the 10th... updates when i can! :-)
after going for more excellent street food with john jairo, gabriela (my hosts), federico and alejandra i headed back to the cafe alone to grab a couple more drinks, made friends with a norwegian guy and two young ladies from tijuana/san diego and we stayed out drinking until 6am! then i got lost trying to find my way back to jj and gabi's place! suddenly, a little drunk and more than a little worried, my spanish actually came back to me and i was able to ask a passer by for help in getting back to the zocalo, where i could navigate from - it turned out i had walked in completely the opposite direction!!
so after getting back around 7am and grabbing 3 hours sleep, my hosts took me for breakfast and then to monte alban, which although is a tourist attraction, is a great way to spend 3 hours walking around!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/oaxaca-monte-alban.htm
another day of hanging out in oaxaca and then i headed back to mexico city by bus - the ride is one of the most beautiful i have done. half the 6 hour journey takes you up over the mountain range north of oaxaca.
so after more exploring of mexico city and meeting with marco morales at muac once more for lunch and to collect some cd's and dvd's of mine that my parents sent me and took 5 weeks to arrive, i meet up with dario bernal-villegas, an improvising drummer based in mexico city, for mezcal, beer and food - an honour to meet you dario!
i got to medellin, colombia yesterday after having to get up @ 4am. then amazingly had just enough mexican pesos to pay for the two nights at the hotel i was in and the taxi to the airport! dead jammy.
the flight took me to san jose in costa rica - that country looks amazing from the air - i may have to go an explore if/when my spanish improves...
then breezed baggage collection and immigration, to then sit in arrivals for over an hour waiting for someone to come get me...
ah well, at least i'm here now. internet access will be severely limited as we all (6 of us at the last count) are sharing a mobile internet dongle - the type you plug into your computer using a usb port.
the other artists seem ok - i have made good friends with a spanish painter whose english is only marginally better than my spanish! i think we'll be teaching each other for the month i'm here!
it turns out i'm the old guy here - everyone else is late 20's to early 30's but they're ok... another sound artist and his wife from uk (luke and elizabeth), an artist called bjork from iceland (not THE bjork...), a guy from the states doing ceramics called chris, a french video artist - oralee (probably spelt that wrong!) - who was actually born and adopted in colombia by french parents and the guy who is co-ordinating the residency, andres. hmm, i thought there were more - maybe i'm forgetting someone...
anyway, the house is incredible - there is a link on my facebook page but it doesn't do the place justice! i'm sitting on the verenda, looking out over trees and fields and i can see medellin in the distance - it's around a 30 minute bus ride into town - i went with alejandro, the spanish artist, yesterday to help him shop for the evening meal - that was an experience!! the driver doesn't take into consideration the standing passengers when negotiating a winding mountain road, believe me!
so today i will be recording, and seeing the space we will be presenting work in on the 10th... updates when i can! :-)
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