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EXPO Call
New call for work for Expo 2006 in Manchester

The call for commission proposals, artistic submissions and papers/research presentations for Sonic Arts Network's 2006 Expo festival is now open at www.sonicartsnetwork.org

Expo is an opportunity to experience the work of the best UK sonic art practitioners, to meet, listen and respond. After the success of last year’s highly eclectic event in Scarborough the focus now shifts to Manchester. Preparation is underway for another packed weekend of sonic art and electronic music from UK artists and a choice selection of international guests. This weekend of performance, exhibition and presentation will take place across a variety of public venues in Manchester including concert halls, gallery spaces, bars, nightclubs and an historic architectural space. The weekend aims to highlight the broadest possible range of approaches and thinking that surround the sonic arts. We welcome submissions of all kinds.

There is no charge for the submission or acceptance of work and entry to the festival will continue to be free to all members of the public. This call is open to all UK based practitioners and all international members of Sonic Arts Network.

For the 2006 festival we are offering a £4000 commission for a new installation to be shown at Cornerhouse between 23 June - 30 July.

Guest artists confirmed for the festival at this stage include Staalplaat Sound System, Joseph Byrd, Spunk and Dreams of Tall Buildings

The 2006 Expo festival will take place between 23-26 June and will be produced in association with the University of Manchester and Cornerhouse.

 

LAST CHANCE: People Like Us
DVD Launch Party Tickets
Thursday 20 October 2005, Everyman Cinema Club, Hampstead, London

This is your last chance to buy tickets for the launch of the People Like Us DVD, 'Story Without End'. The event will feature a live AV performance by People Like Us with film screenings and a DJ set by Rough Trade’s Simon Russell at Hampstead’s Everyman Cinema Club on Thursday 20 October 2005.

People Like Us: ‘Story Without End’ DVD launch at 8pm on Thursday 20 October at the Everyman Cinema Club, Hampstead (diagonally opp Hampstead tube) Tickets £5, available from www.sonicartsnetwork.org


Sonic Postcards at the Hayward Gallery

On Monday 24 October between 2-4pm, families will be invited to the Upper Foyer of the Hayward Gallery to create their own limited edition, fine-art souvenir audio postcard by capturing sound and images from within and around the Hayward Gallery.

The family workshop runs in conjunction with the current exhibition, entitled ‘Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist’s Eye’. On show from 6 October to 11 December, the exhibition is both an exploration of the phenomenon of global tourism and an adventure in itself. It will occupy the entire Hayward Gallery and sites across the South Bank Centre.

The families will have the opportunity to record sounds and gather images in and around the Hayward to use as the basis of their sonic postcards. Sound artist Robert Worby will guide participants through the process of recording and selecting the sonic material whilst visual artist Reza Ben Gajra will assist the families in producing their very own works of art based on selected works from the 'Universal Experience' exhibition to use as CD covers. At the end of the workshop, each family will be able to take home their fine-art souvenir.

Places are strictly limited and booking is essential on 0870 169 1000. Children attend free with a paying adult (who can take advantage of the Hayward Gallery's Half Price Mondays offer!)






 



15 - 29 October
Residual
(AV installation)
St. John’s Crypt, Northgate, Broadstreet, Bristol
Isabel Rocamora, Thomas Koner and Helena Gough present Residual; a site-specific moving image and sonic piece installed in one of Bristol’s hidden medieval remains in the heart of the city centre.
www.dshed.net/residual

20 October
People Like Us DVD Launch Party
(live performance + screenings)
Everyman Cinema, Hampstead, London
Launch Party for People Like Us DVD, Story Without End.  Presented by Sonic Arts Network and Lux, the party features a live performance by PLU and a DJ set by Rough Trade’s Simon Russell plus film screenings. A limited number of tickets are available form the SAN site.
www.sonicartsnetwork.org

21 October
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Composer and Interpreter
(lecture)
Guardian Auditorium, Frieze Art Fair, Regent’s Park, London
Sonic Arts Network Honorary Patron, Karlheinz Stockhausen makes a rare visit to London and delivers his own, unique brand of lecture. Musical examples played by Suzanne Stephens (basset-horn) and Kathinka Pasveer (alto flute).
http://www.friezeartfair.com

22 October
Karlheinz Stockhausen @ Frieze
(concert)
Old Billingsgate Market, London, EC3
A rare chance to experience a performance by legendary composer Karlheinz Stockhausen of his classic 1960s work KONTAKTE and OKTOPHONIE [1990s] in octophonic sound projection, from his monumental 30-hour-long cycle LICHT.
http://www.friezeartfair.com

23 October
Furthernoise Online
(live internet performance)
Online
2TOMS are a French A/V partnership who have worked together for over two years in various multimedia exhibitions and will be performing together remotely from their homes in Paris & Lyon.  John Kannenberg works in both image and sound that blur the boundaries between intention and accident. Incorporating techniques derived from free improvisation, musical composition, field drawing, minimalism, cubism and abstract expressionism.
http://www.furtherstudio.org/live

25 - 28 October
Sold Out
(gallery/performance)
Cremer Street, Shoreditch, London
Net-anarchists C6 present SOLD OUT, a series of lectures, artworks and live events which for four days will take over a shop-front in Cremer Street, Shoreditch, offering a showcase of challenging interactive art.
http://www.c6.org/soldout

October 28-30
Soundings 2005/06
(festival)
Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square, Edinburgh
International festival of sonic art featuring James Paul Sain, Jeff Herriot, Christian Herbst, James Wyness, Diana Simpson, Pete Stollery, Michael Edwards and Robert Dow diffused on a 20-channel multi-speaker array.
http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/soundings/

29 October
Writing on Water
(concert)
QEH, RFH, London
The London Sinfonietta performs the first public performance of a new collaboration between filmmaker Peter Greenaway and composer David Lang. ‘Writing on Water’ explores man’s relationship with the sea through use of Lang's hypnotic score, a libretto of water-filled texts, calligraphy by Brody Neuenschwander and visuals mixed live by Greenaway on multiple screens.
http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk

November 05
Sound
(festival)
Various, Aberdeen
Contemporary music festival in North East Scotland with the aim of presenting an eclectic but broad range of contemporary music to a large and varied public.  Events will include concerts, workshops and electroacoustic installations featuring artists and composers including Evelyn Glennie, Paul Anderson, the Edinburgh Quartet, Haflidi Hallgrimsson, the Hebrides Ensemble, mckenzie medbøe, Naresh Sohal, Pete Stollery and many others.
http://www.sound-scotland.co.uk

Until 13 November
Weather Guitar
(installation)
Ikon Gallery, Birmingam
Simon Blackmore’s installation responds to variations in meteorological conditions. Monitoring changes in light conditions and wind speed and direction, a weather measuring system transmits this information to the guitar via a series of electronic circuits. Small motors, in turn, translate this into mechanical action, the strumming of the strings.
http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk


11-13 November
STFU GLASGOW 05
(festival)
Various, Glasgow
An event organised by members of EM411.com, STFU is a 3 day festival of sounds, spread across 3 venues in Glasgow and will provide a platform for new music from both the UK and Europe. The event aims to showcase artists that are working under the broad umbrella of "alternative electronic" music.
http://www.stfumusic.org/

11 - 12 November
Leeds International Music Technology Education Conference
(conference)
Leeds College of Music, Leeds
The conference features Bob Katz, author of ‘Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science’ and recipient of three Grammy awards, as the Focal Press keynote speaker. Additional keynote speakers include Professor Allan Moore, Head of the Department of Music and Sound Recording at the University of Surrey; and pop producer Tim Speight.
http://research.lcm.ac.uk/research

12 November
Unsafe: Festival of improvised and experimental music
(festival)
Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset
The day's activities will include two free, open, improvisation workshops for both traditional and electronic instruments, impromptu performance around the venue, a pre-concert seminar and original film collaborations. The evening (8 pm onwards) will feature a concert by Evan Parker.
http://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/

17 November
HIT
(club)
Retro Bar, Manchester
Anything goes night of DJs, live performance, can-can dancers, performance artists, sound poetry and visual art.
www.pin-upsmusic.com/hit


     




Freelance Music Workshop Leader Wanted
Stockport Youth service require a multimedia worker specialising in music workshops.

An opportunity has arisen for a temporary Multimedia worker to deliver music workshops to young people in youth centres and schools across the borough of Stockport.

Required from mid-October 2005 running through until January 2006. Must be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Freelance rates of pay.  The successful applicant will be required to undertake a Criminal Records Bureau Check. 

For more information or for a job description please contact Audu Obaje Telephone:  0161 406 8499

Or email: audu.obaje@stockport.gov.uk

Or send CV  to:
Audu Obaje, Sound Factory,
C/o Werneth Young People's Centre,
George Lane,
Bredbury,
Stockport SK6 1DJ


Creative Archive Artists' Placements

Arts Council England and the BBC, on behalf of the Creative Archive License Group, are pleased to announce two placements that are available to established artists working in any art form.

Two individuals will be selected to spend up to four months on placement with the Creative Archive project, starting from January 2006. The successful applicants will have the opportunity to develop their professional career by undertaking research and producing new art works that creatively reuse sound and television materials from the BBC Archives.

The placements offer specialist support and hosting by the BBC. Each of the successful artists will be eligible for a bursary of £10,000 to enable them to undertake this career development opportunity.

For more info see http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/aboutus/project_detail.php?browse=recent&id=359


MusicLeader Network Events
MusicLeader London are launching 2 new FREE music networks - the first for practitioners, tutors & teachers and the second for project managers.

Dates, venues and more details below:

1. Creative Practitioners' Forum, Thursday 27th October, 4-6pm

Cost: FREE
Venue: The Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX

MusicLeader London are launching a new creative networking forum for artists, practitioners, tutors and teachers who work with children and young people in music.

Whether you want to meet other people working in the same field, or want to share ideas and practice this network is for you. The group will be facilitated by Gawain Hewitt, an experienced London-based music leader.

2. Breakfast Club for Project Managers, Tuesday 25th October, 9-10.30am

Cost: FREE
Venue: The Leathermarket, 11-13 Weston Street, London SE1 ONE

This new peer network will provide project managers of youth music sector organisations with opportunities for support, group discussion and networking from peers and invited guests.

For more details about both the new networks, and to register your interest in attending contact MusicLeader London
Tel: 020 7378 1471
Email: london@musicleader.net
http://www.musicleader.net


Sound Cafe Open Call

This is an open call for works of phonography. Selected pieces will be played at the first of a series of sound art events, the Sound Cafe, to be held in Jedburgh Community and Arts Centre's Butterfield Gallery on Saturday 26 November 2020 at 7.30 pm. The gallery will be turned into a coffee house for the evening and the sound will be diffused over a simple system of two stereo pairs plus one sub. Headphones will be set up for binaural recordings. The intention behind this event is to reflect as far as possible the current state of the art and craft of phonography in its diversity. This first sound art event follows on from the successful programme of visual art exhibitions and installations at the Centre. The event will be curated and hosted by James Wyness. Tickets cost £2.50 and can be bought at the door. Doors open 7.30pm. All ages welcome.

Guidelines for submission
  • We welcome pieces of any description though pieces relating to the concept of "Community" are particularly welcome.
  • Please submit all recordings as an audio CD or CDR clearly labelled on both the disc and the case with title, duration and artist.
  • Please specify if your piece is intended for headphone listening only.
  • Pieces can be from 1 to 10 minutes in length, processed or unprocessed, composed or otherwise.
  • In your covering letter please include a short bio and programme notes, including an email address.
  • All submissions will be acknowledged by email in the week following the closing date.
  • No payment can be offered for submissions.
  • Please don't send originals, as material can't be returned. All material will be archived for future events.

The programme will be announced in mid-November.

Closing date 31 October 2020 (postmarked).

 
Please send all submissions to:-
Sound Cafe Open Call
c/o James Wyness
Faraway
Honeyfield Road
Jedburgh
Roxburghshire
TD8 6JN
UK

http://www.jameswyness.org.uk/sound_cafe.htm

Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music and Technology
Call for submissions

Volume 11, Number 3
Issue thematic title: Sustainability in Electroacoustic Music
Date of Publication: December 2006
Publishers: Cambridge University Press
 
Issue co-ordinators: Margaret Schedel (gem@schedel.net) and Andrew May (amay@music.unt.edu). This issue is being prepared in collaboration with the International Computer Music Association (ICMA).

Theme: Sustainability in Electroacoustic Music

The history of the field of electroacoustic music has been one of ceaseless innovation. Each generation has decried the failings of past technologies and turned to the latest equipment and techniques. The rate of change appears to be increasing; at the same time, the degree of nostalgia also appears to be increasing. For the present issue of Organised Sound, we invite consideration of questions relating to growth, continuity, planned obsolescence, environmental change - in short, the sustainability of electroacoustic music.
 
Themes will include:
 
1. Portability: planning ahead for as systems and platforms evolve
2. Conservation: techniques to keep older computer music repertoire in circulation
3. Continuity: recycling of old code and concepts, maintaining development threads
4. Economic strategies: coping with an electronic music industry that requires obsolescence to drive new purchases
5. Software design: combining new functionality with backward compatibility
6. Sustainable performance practice: building bridges between tradition and innovation, developing a tradition of electronic music performance (incorporating traditional performance, as well as incorporating diffusion techniques, novel controller designs, and so forth)
7. Environmental effects: as we upgrade technologies, can we mitigate the harm our art is doing to the environment?
8. Cultural sustainability: after the initial excitement fades, can we maintain interest in new forms of electronic art?
+ Other themes relevant this subject.
 
We invite submissions from composers, performers, artists and researchers working in the realm of digital media and sound. Submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however, those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome.
 
Deadline for submissions is 15 March 2006. Submissions may consist of papers, with optional supporting short compositions or excerpts, audio-visual documentation of performances and/or other aspects related to your submission that can be placed onto a DVD and the CUP website for “Organised Sound”.  Supporting audio and audio-visual material will be presented as part of the journal's annual DVD-ROM which will appear with issue 11/3.

 
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 March 2021
 
SUBMISSION FORMAT
 
Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or from:
 
http://uk.cambridge.org/journals/oso/

Email submissions should be sent to (please see SUBMISSION FORMAT above): os@dmu.ac.uk

Hard copy of articles (only when requested) and other material (e.g., images, sound and audio-visual files, etc.) should be submitted to:
 
         Prof. Leigh Landy
         Organised Sound
         Clephan Building
         De Montfort University
         Leicester LE1 9BH, UK.


UM - Giraffe (refined)
Ascoltare - Fatty Parts For A Good Match
Split LP picture disk

Tripel 004 www.tripelrecords.com

There should be more picture disks in the world. Firstly, they are just simply beautiful things. Secondly, it’s hard not to feel obliged to give a few listens to, before casting judgement on, a project that had probably broken the bank balances and intimate relationships of the small label managers involved. The stakes are high though; the release actually has to be rather good otherwise these wonderful artefacts that promise so much can be a crushing disappointment to the listener.

This one is a split LP released on the Cambridge’s Tripel label. This is their fourth release and the first one I have come across. UM’s side is song based and includes 15 aphoristic offerings. There is a cheap as chips MIDI instrument quality to a lot of the accompanying sound palate topped off with electronic tomato sauce noise flicked all over top. This filthy meal is completed with a flat as road kill, deadpan vocal delivery. My understanding is that these tracks are ‘refined’ versions of material that previously saw the light of day on several UM homemade CDR releases. Well, if you blinked and missed them, panic not because this here slab is the business. Charming and cool whilst refreshingly untrendy and lacking in art-core pose, the UM set rewards repeated listening with a wry smile. If you had a dream last night about Vivian Stanshall, Ian Dury and Syd Barrett in a Blackpool karaoke bar singing along to a skipping CDR packed full of Ceefax muzak, Volcano The Bear releases and BBC ‘Outer Space’ sound effects LPs this will bring total recall. If your sleep was not blessed by such visions eat more cheese before retiring is my advice.

Ascoltare’s side is a long overdue plunderphonic sideswipe at the all too ridiculous world of reality TV cooking. The plethora of cooking shows on our TVs treat the serous subject of food with the same sincerity and intellectual dexterity that teen pop treats love and relationships; they reflect a sugar coated reality that will never exist for the individual but one that the consumer must desire compulsively nonetheless. You too could cook like this if you had more time, money and stupid idle friends to notice or care. Consider the hyperreality of Gary Rhodes for example; I’m sorry but that man just does not eat all that butter.

As the Robert Mapplethorpe revealing the stamen of the phalocentic TV cook, Ascoltare brings out the latent sleazy eroticism of these shows thorough the manipulation of monologues by some of the worst offal. Keith Floyd, Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsey contribute word slops, mount the pillory and invite the peasants to throw their overpriced and unused putrid organics. Can you tell that I liked this side too? It’s noisy, irreverent, hilarious and remarkably well put together. It almost made me want to go back into the studio myself, but not quite.

For the DJs amongst you the Ascoltare side features bonus Gordon Ramsey insults for dropping into your mixes. These include the famous “its grim, its f***king grim” routine and the celebrated ‘20 hard-ons a day’ speech. The piscine theme established by the earlier recordings is somewhat abandoned here in favour of a warm gravy bath under in the grill light of pure obscenity. Buy this record before it fulfils its charity shop destiny. I didn’t write that. It’s in the press release. I rather wish I had though because it made me laugh and its very good advice.

Reviewed by Richard Whitelaw

Afrirampo
Kore Ga Mayaku Da

(tzadik) http://www.afrirampo.com/

Afrirampo were always destined to make a dent on the mullet-coveting Hoxton set and the geeky indie boys.  Two cute and sexy Japanese sisters, often wearing the shortest of skirts, jumping and shouting like petulant teenagers whilst thrashing a guitar and battering a drum kit.  They are however, more than just a cliché or cash-in.  Born out of the Osaka scum/noise scene in 2002, Oni (Guitars/vocals) and Pikachu (Drums/vocals) have more in common with the Boredoms than the irritating 5, 6, 7, 8’s, and have recorded with the likes of Acid Mothers Temple and supported Sonic Youth and Thunderbolt.  They stand out as being fresh, exploring the spaces in between bubble-gum aesthetic and nasty lo-fi noise.

The music and their act is made up of two warring factions – the dark, demonic, primal grunts and feedback against the softly spoken, cuteness and innocent squeals. This battle is ever present in the new release Kore Ga Mayaku Da.  The record begins with a quiet chanting – so quiet you turn up your stereo to hear them.  They then get louder until they are shouting at you.  The music kicks in and they seem like your average proficient guitar group.  This quickly breaks down again into feedback and poodle-noodling, and then again into grating Pokemon style chirping and catcalling.

There’s something of Beefheart about the album, with extended improvised sections coming together with absolute precision and mastery.  Pikachu’s drumming is just as erratic as her alleged sister’s guitar playing. Thundering drum rolls and complicated beats fight for space with lackadaisical banging, similar to a child sitting at a kit for the first time. On much of the album, the two sing together, occasionally in time, more often than not, one of them is making noises in the background.

Afrirampo are not The Shaggs though.  They know exactly what they are doing.  They’re explicitly aware of the role sex plays in all this and the whole thing seems like a dangerously loaded tease, similar in mood to the climatic scenes of the Japanese horror film ‘Audition’.  The name Afrirampo roughly translates as “Naked rock” and it seems to translate to their music too.  On their website, Pikachu comments "Our's real music CuleCule stir japan Drop in River Nake. SOON OVER THERE STIRING. Every body Smile. Every body same. ONI also Supponpon (naked) brain rock sing and guitar! So amazing. "SUPPONPON ROCK AFRIRAMPO!". I don’t think I can say it better than that.

Reviewed by David Rogerson