realising i have much more to tell, i have split this post in 2.
managing to get back to castlemaine in the early hours of the morning on saturday 26th may allowed me to do some much needed laundry in the morning,and then go and set up the installation ready to run from 2pm. although the show ran for 4 hours, i only received a couple of visitors that day, but the ones who made it stayed and enjoyed it. eamon also came on the saturday to have a listen and try out some ideas for the performance on the sunday. on the way back to the house i was staying in we stopped in to selvi's curries to get a take away, tried some of the food before buying, and then were invited to eat in the restaurant, which was a huge room with an open fire that was very welcome... for anyone visiting castlemaine, try it out!
the next morning we all met up at the icu at 11am to set up the sound system and sound check for the performance, which was scheduled for 5pm, then packed way as much as we could to run the installation from 2-4pm. this time i had quite a few visitors, and most then stayed for the performances. i started off, with a precomposed piece using various tones and drones captured in the space,and then used various objects, moving around and within the audience. i was then joined by lizzie pogson, who performed with a combination of sounds from the local area and japan. a very pleasant, nicely paced set. next up was tarab, creating vibrations through a plate attached to a wire mesh that makes up one side of the space,and then taking a signal from the mesh using contact mics and playing that back into the room. again nicely paced and a good use of space. tarab was then joined by jacques soddell for the short overlap crossover characteristic of 'active crossover' performances, which worked really well, with jacques playing what was arguably the most musical set of the evening and closing the event perfectly. thanks once again to eamon, lizzie and jacques, as well as the guys of punctum for their support and hosting the event.
over the next few days i was kindly hosted by eamon, emily and helki in melbourne, which gave me a chance to catch up with friends teresa lane, simon hampson and sophie trebilcock, as well as get some tattoo work done by kat scarlet (http://katscarlettattoo.blogspot.com/), reworking one old and one new piece, and then creating a new one for me in return for a food hamper when i'm back in the uk!! i also managed to finally get my second japanese encephalitis vaccine injection and my visa to visit china in july. itall cametogether nicely at the end of my trip, and it was great to see everyone and spend time.
then on the 2nd june i flew to bangkok airport, where i waited for around 11 hours for my friend emma to arrive, then we had to wait a further 6 hours to fly to phnom pen, cambodia. once there we were taken to a nice hotel on the riverside. we spent 2 nights in phnom penh, visiting the killing fields on the first day and arranging our visas to visit vietnam, and explored a little of the city. as many people will be expecting, here comes the food bit - fish amok is awesome in cambodia, as is lok lak. and as with most places, the best food is in the cafes and restaurants that the locals eat in!
from phnom penh we got a bus to siem reap, where we are now. on the first day we visited the main temples, took it easy yesterday,and then did a couple of the remaining ones today. i also recorded the dawn chorus at angkor wat today which was great - i even managed to escape the surprisingly big crowd of people, all of whom had gone to see the sunrise, which because of cloud was not so impressive... then we traveled further out to banteay srey, visiting ta prohm afterwards - this was the best for me, with the trees and the temple becoming as one in places. many tourist groups and a huge restoration centre made it difficult to get around but we managed.
so now we wait until 12am when we get a bus overnight to ho chi min city in vietnam. more later!
Thursday, 7 June 2012
The last two weeks in Australia - part 1
so it seems from the last post that i had not played the show in sydney by the end of it, so i'll start there... i invited kate carr to join me in the performance, so we played in the same style as the active crossover events, with kate starting, playing a solo set of nice musical parts combined with field recordings. i then joined her for a short collaborative section where both of us were unsure who was playing what(!) and then i continued solo. after playing a laptop set combining recordings from the trip so far, i then proceeded too move around the room grinding two pieces of concrete together that i had obtained from some workmen outside of serial space. the grinding sound combined nicely with some metallic tones i left playing and worked well in the room. we had a nice appreciative crowd and the guys of the now now who organised the show were great. and of course it was a pleasure working and hanging out with kate.
heading back to melbourne the next day, i managed to catch up with anthea varigos, who also goes under the name 'chopin's lovechild' and who i have many mutual friends with, as she used to live in bristol. very nice to meet her after all this time as well as her fella and housemate, then had to run to the airport, fly into melbourne (to an airport waaay out of town called avalon), get a very expensive bus back to southern cross station, get a train to castlemaine that was delayed for over an hour because of an attempted suicide on the line, meet jacques soddell at castlemaine train station, take his speakers and connectors to the icu and then try and relax in preparation for setting up the installation over the next few days. thanks once again to jacques for the loan of all the equipment.
for the whole of the week i was in the icu space composing with my recordings and combining them with the compositions supplied by my 3 collaborators (lizzie pogson, jacques soddell and tarab/eamon sprod), working out speaker placement (6 active speakers), and also using my sound exciters once again to play sounds through resonant objects. it was great to have the time to get it all working without too much pressure. during that week i was also fortunate enough to have (a gorgeous african) dinner in melbourne with eamon, camilla hannan and lawrence english, who was in town for a couple of days.
also during that week i met r
heading back to melbourne the next day, i managed to catch up with anthea varigos, who also goes under the name 'chopin's lovechild' and who i have many mutual friends with, as she used to live in bristol. very nice to meet her after all this time as well as her fella and housemate, then had to run to the airport, fly into melbourne (to an airport waaay out of town called avalon), get a very expensive bus back to southern cross station, get a train to castlemaine that was delayed for over an hour because of an attempted suicide on the line, meet jacques soddell at castlemaine train station, take his speakers and connectors to the icu and then try and relax in preparation for setting up the installation over the next few days. thanks once again to jacques for the loan of all the equipment.
for the whole of the week i was in the icu space composing with my recordings and combining them with the compositions supplied by my 3 collaborators (lizzie pogson, jacques soddell and tarab/eamon sprod), working out speaker placement (6 active speakers), and also using my sound exciters once again to play sounds through resonant objects. it was great to have the time to get it all working without too much pressure. during that week i was also fortunate enough to have (a gorgeous african) dinner in melbourne with eamon, camilla hannan and lawrence english, who was in town for a couple of days.
also during that week i met r
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Castlemaine - Brisvegas (Brisbane) - Sydney
just when you thought i'd be updating once a month, here's a quick update from sydney, where i am being hosted by my new friend and great musician kate carr and her partner tanya.
i had to leave the house in castlemaine around 7am on 10th to drop off the keys to the i.c.u. and then catch the train to melbourne, then got the bus to the airport and printed off my boarding pass. then just checking with one of the virgin australia staff found out there was something up with my flight, as i was booked to fly at 12pm and the pass said 3pm! on complainingi found my flight had been cancelledand although put onstandby for the 2pm flight, had to take the 3pm, which got to me brisbane around 5:15pm. a frantic taxi ride got me to the venue i was performing in at around 6pm. thankfully the excellent sound engineer was ready and we got soundchecked super quick. so th show kicked off at 7 and i played at around 7:10, tentatively at first and then hitting my stride and giving the merzbow fans some melody mixed with more gritty textures and tones! i hope they liked it, although i didn't have too many adoring fans worshipping me afterwards...cured pink followed me, with motors affixed to industrial ducts moving around the audience, and then settling into a gently throbbing spacerock section - nice. a short break and then the man himself (merzbow) proceeded to blast everyone with a caustic set of white noise that was actually a processing of a self-made tin pan instrument played most of the time with a pasta scoop! i sat on the floor to soak up the low frequencies, and made sure my earplugs were rammed in, but even with that precaution my left ear was ringing for a while afterwards!
following the show lawrence english, who kindly added me to the bill, masami and i went to eat dinner - salt and pepper tofu, a mushroom hotpot and steamed greens - delicious! we were then joined by andrew, the driving force behind cured pink, and as masami and lawrence are not drinkers, when they decided to call it a night, i headed to 'the brunswick' with andrew and a couple of friends. it seems this is the place to go on a thursday night, and once again karaoke was on the menu. some great performances, including a rendition of ac/dc's 'back in black' from a guy who looked like thursday night karaoke might be the only time he left the house, and amazingly men at work's 'down under'! seemingly without too much irony!! what a night!
i stayed in a lovely room at the judith wright centre, where the event was hosted, so the following day headed into the city centre to have a wander around. i actually ended up at goma museum of modern art and spent quite a bit of time there.
later on i met with lawrence once again for food (mexican, which was pretty good) and then hung around to see the concert he had arranged. a very nice night and met loadsof very nice people, including greg hooper,who i met the following day for a japanese gyoza lunch. yep, talking great food again!!
we then parted company and i headed to the train station to catch my overnight train (which turned out to be a 3 hour bus ride and then a 12 hour train ride) to sydney.
i must have got more sleep than i thought i had, because all yesterday i actually felt quite fresh! kate had her mum visiting so i killed 4 hours by walking around sydney, stumbling over the opera house within the first hour of being there! after a bit more meandering and a spot of breakfast (the most expensive bacon and eggs i think i have ever had) i met up with kate and tanya, had a spot of lunch and headed back down to the harbour to visit the art museum in sydney, mainly as they had marclay's 'the clock' playing. some really great work there, but only catching 15 minutes of the clock i realised i need to go back and see it for a longer period....
amazing thai food (crispy basil pork belly - mmmm...) and then a couple of beers and not surprisingly i slept really well!!
today instead of going back tothe museum, i headed to chinatown for lunch, darwin harbour for a coffee and people watch, and a walk back through an area of outdoor supplies stores looking for a replacement soft shell and not finding anything under $200 australian. i think i'll stick with the one i have...
i had to leave the house in castlemaine around 7am on 10th to drop off the keys to the i.c.u. and then catch the train to melbourne, then got the bus to the airport and printed off my boarding pass. then just checking with one of the virgin australia staff found out there was something up with my flight, as i was booked to fly at 12pm and the pass said 3pm! on complainingi found my flight had been cancelledand although put onstandby for the 2pm flight, had to take the 3pm, which got to me brisbane around 5:15pm. a frantic taxi ride got me to the venue i was performing in at around 6pm. thankfully the excellent sound engineer was ready and we got soundchecked super quick. so th show kicked off at 7 and i played at around 7:10, tentatively at first and then hitting my stride and giving the merzbow fans some melody mixed with more gritty textures and tones! i hope they liked it, although i didn't have too many adoring fans worshipping me afterwards...cured pink followed me, with motors affixed to industrial ducts moving around the audience, and then settling into a gently throbbing spacerock section - nice. a short break and then the man himself (merzbow) proceeded to blast everyone with a caustic set of white noise that was actually a processing of a self-made tin pan instrument played most of the time with a pasta scoop! i sat on the floor to soak up the low frequencies, and made sure my earplugs were rammed in, but even with that precaution my left ear was ringing for a while afterwards!
following the show lawrence english, who kindly added me to the bill, masami and i went to eat dinner - salt and pepper tofu, a mushroom hotpot and steamed greens - delicious! we were then joined by andrew, the driving force behind cured pink, and as masami and lawrence are not drinkers, when they decided to call it a night, i headed to 'the brunswick' with andrew and a couple of friends. it seems this is the place to go on a thursday night, and once again karaoke was on the menu. some great performances, including a rendition of ac/dc's 'back in black' from a guy who looked like thursday night karaoke might be the only time he left the house, and amazingly men at work's 'down under'! seemingly without too much irony!! what a night!
i stayed in a lovely room at the judith wright centre, where the event was hosted, so the following day headed into the city centre to have a wander around. i actually ended up at goma museum of modern art and spent quite a bit of time there.
later on i met with lawrence once again for food (mexican, which was pretty good) and then hung around to see the concert he had arranged. a very nice night and met loadsof very nice people, including greg hooper,who i met the following day for a japanese gyoza lunch. yep, talking great food again!!
we then parted company and i headed to the train station to catch my overnight train (which turned out to be a 3 hour bus ride and then a 12 hour train ride) to sydney.
i must have got more sleep than i thought i had, because all yesterday i actually felt quite fresh! kate had her mum visiting so i killed 4 hours by walking around sydney, stumbling over the opera house within the first hour of being there! after a bit more meandering and a spot of breakfast (the most expensive bacon and eggs i think i have ever had) i met up with kate and tanya, had a spot of lunch and headed back down to the harbour to visit the art museum in sydney, mainly as they had marclay's 'the clock' playing. some really great work there, but only catching 15 minutes of the clock i realised i need to go back and see it for a longer period....
amazing thai food (crispy basil pork belly - mmmm...) and then a couple of beers and not surprisingly i slept really well!!
today instead of going back tothe museum, i headed to chinatown for lunch, darwin harbour for a coffee and people watch, and a walk back through an area of outdoor supplies stores looking for a replacement soft shell and not finding anything under $200 australian. i think i'll stick with the one i have...
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Buenos Aires - La Plata - a 2 day journey + a lost day - Castlemaine
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...
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...
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!
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