We are hours away from hoping onboard a metal bird to wing our way to the island of Taiwan.
We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend two months in Tainan, a southern city in Taiwan, in residence at Ting Shuo Hear Say. We have a bunch of projects to explore and experiment with, and we look forwards to sharing these with you in time as they revel themselves to us.
And for added excitement there’s a bunch of show in the middle of the stay. The 7th is tentative, perhaps we go to Hualien, but they have just been impacted by the typhoon. We shall wait and see. The shows will be a combination of playing together as a duo, as solos, or in collaborations with local musicians.
Home again after four weeks on the road. Unpacked, reassembled, and now time for minor maintenance, repairs, and reflection.
It was a first to embark on such an extensive local tour. One that spanned both islands and explored venues from house gigs, chapels, record stores, bars, galleries, and community spaces. There were a bunch of new towns and venues, and a few familiar favourites. This tour also felt like a grand opportunity to get an update on what’s physically happening in other centres, build new, and reconnect with older, networks, and to experience a bunch of active musicians and bands around the motu. 13 shows were booked, two fell through but picked up a improv show in Lyttelton, and a Live-to-Air on Radio One in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, so, luckily, 13 remained. The log offered zero complaints.
Now in this post-tour-state, I am left with my optimism uplifted. There are strong pockets of community interest and activity who seemed to be interested in experiencing fungi-impregnated and log-powered music. Loads of fascinating conversations happen after the shows. I certainly had a brilliant time and feel confident that the many-varying audiences enjoyed the spectacle as well.
Many thanks to: Sam and Glory [especially for the log!], Tonamu and the Kirikiriroa/Hamilton crew, Jeff and AF, Mark and the rest in Heretaunga/Hastings [unfortunately didn’t get to play but seems like a great network and hope to go there soon], Campbell, Sarah, Snails, Porridge Watson, Ben and Hanna, Zac at Common Ground, Matt/George et al in Te Waiharakeke/Blenheim, Matthew Plunkett, Ruben Derrick, Te Atamira, Fi and the crew of Radio One, Mads & Liam of Hōhā, The Crown crew, Jordan/Matt of Murgatroyd and Threes and Sevens Records – Waihōpai/Invercargill. Also, to Radio Control, Ben at IN sessioNZ, Mark Amery at RNZ, and Radio One, for the radio interviews. Extra special thanks to Fergus Nm for the image for the poster. And to all the bands, bedding, and bonding, it was very much appreciated, let’s do it again sometime soon.
There Are No More Four Seasons is the name of a Swedish duo of electronic musician Mattias Petersson and violinist George Kentros. Taking older pieces of music and recomposing them to once again become relevant to our times. Their self-titled debut was named one of the ten best classical recordings of the past decade by DN, and Time Out New York called them a must see concert.
DSLB is the solo project of Chrissie Butler (the shouty bass playing half of the now sleeping duo, mr sterile Assembly). An offshoot from Chrissie’s other band Ditzy Squall, DSLB (Ditzy Squall’s Lunch Box) is a showcase for a love of long endings and the hum things make when you hold them close to your ear. Performed live, DSLB is an improvised mash-up of ancient record players, purring keyboards, kitchen utensils and found objects. Soundtracks for short films and hand drawn comics are also residents in the lunch box. Recordings are released by skirted Records.
Phil Brownlee is a composer and audio artist based in Te Awa Kairangi, working with computer manipulation of environmental sound. Performing ‘Filament’, a live drone event with kitchen recordings drawn out into long threads of sound.
Neil Robert’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s pretty big this year. We’re putting on two fundraiser shows – this one here in Pōneke and one in Whanganui. Come see FOUR sweeeet bands and one alright DJ! Doors at 9pm Displeasure Retaliator Side Eye vegetable.machine.animal DJ Suave
NO stink cunts policy will be strictly enforced.
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Neil Roberts was a punk anarchist who died in an act of explosive defiance, with the Wanganui Computer as the target, on 18 November 1982. Located in the city of Whanganui, the computer was the NZ government’s first digital database of accessible information on citizens, used by police and other surveillance services. His act is seen as a protest against the government’s growing surveillance mechanisms.
Film maker Russel Campbell has written about the events of the act and on some documentation that took place afterward.
I’m waiting now at the airport to return home after an intense week in Auckland. The focus of this intensity is the installing, and then opening, of the sound installation Mundane Utopia at the Audio Foundation. The Audio Foundation is an essential centre for boundary-pushing sounds explorations located in the middle of the Auckland CBD, and holds a massive role in ongoing adventurous sound making within Aotearoa, but also holds a substantial archive of what has come before. I had the opportunity to spend a week in residence there last year and this exhibition is the follow on from that.
I have never really been involved in the gallery installation process, so learning was required on the fly, but we had days to work on it as the install evolved through various arrangements. The final layout feels organic and coherent, and remarkably simple for the amount of effort required. The opening was well attended with a lot of playful interest in the sound project.
The following day was a full performance at the Whammy Backroom. The lineup was U R A Tooth, representing the home team, two drummers duelling like collapsing stars, unrelenting and explosive, plus bass and saxophone for any portion of the eardrum left unbruised. Then my turn for the first post-Java show. A nice touch at the end of my set was a gentle game of ‘have-the-audience-kick-the snare-and-ride-around-the-dance-floor’ while I let the the synth sound disappear. Very homely. And Hōhā, from Ōtepoti/Dunedin, on third to round out the sonically dense evening. Drums, guitar and dual vocals, improvised song-forms, with the last piece being only drums and processed vocals. Superb.
On Saturday afternoon, I had the chance to present Office Ambiance back in the Audio Foundation. A seminar session hosted be MEL (the Musical Electronic Library located at AF), which gave me the chance to talk a bit about the process, thinking, and science behind my project. Some wonderful discussion followed, interesting questions, reflections, and similarities with others’ own creative projects.
And finally, on Saturday evening, I hosted a screening of the independent film Jogja Noise Bombing with a bit of Q&A at the end. I offered some thoughts on my recent opportunity to perform at JNB, as well as answer questions that curious minds wanted to ask.
Many thanks to the Audio Foundation and crew, Jeff, Sam, Tash, and all the others, for their support in making this series of events possible…couldn’t have done it without you all.
Mundane 1: of, relating to, or characteristic of, the world 2: characterised by the practical, transitory, and ordinary – Some mundane online dictionary
Utopia “…we should reinvent utopia, but in what sense? There are two false meanings of utopia. One is this old notion of imagining this ideal society we know will never be realised. The other is the capitalist utopia … of new perverse desire that you are not only allowed but even solicited to realise. The true utopia is when the situation is so without [solution], without the way to resolve it within the coordinates of the possible, that out of the pure urge of survival you have to invent a new space. Utopia is not [a] kind of a free imagination, utopia is a matter of inner most urgency, you are forced to imagine it, it is the only way out, and this is what we need today.” – Slavoj Žižek, Public lecture at Universidad de Buenos Aires
What could utopia sound like? What if the mundane babble of things simply going about their livingness was how it sounded? Not in a state of idealised perfection, but a continuous and dynamic state of balancing. What if we could perceive this?
This installation aims to make audible a little piece of what is already, has been, and will continue to go on for a very long time. Just beyond ‘our’ world is the world of everything else, unfolding in its ordinary, continuous, mundane way. The machine in this exhibition holds the place of a translator. It detects signals of ongoing, other-aliveness and converts into crude signals audible to human anatomy. It is an unsophisticated interpretation. It provides no comprehension, but does enable us to perceive something that is not of us, in a way that may make some sense to us.
And how shall we interact with this. The ‘other’ knows when we are here, we can hear its signal change with interaction: touch, adding water, being neglected and dehydrating, and shining UV as if we pretend to be daylight. A mundane utopia for troubled and damaged times exists already, it’s not waiting for us.
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Opens: Thursday 13 June, 5.30pm, with refreshments by Liberty Breweries Hours: 12 – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday Closes: Saturday 6 July
Public events: Friday 14 June, 8pm @ Whammy Backroom vegetable.machine.animal live in concert Tickets here More info here
Saturday 15 June, 1pm @ Audio Foundation Kieran Monaghan Office Ambience performance and artist talk More info here
Saturday 15 June, 5pm @ Audio Foundation, free Film Screening: Jogja Noise Bombing (Indonesia) More info here
Rāmere (Fri) 24th May | [OFFSITE] Noise at Covenant: Bloodfucker / DSLB / Eveline Breaker / Hexus
Bloodfucker: Sparkle wave pixie demon noise pop
Eveline Breaker: Pixel ambient and bitcrush pop by Lilith Ercolano of Feshh (for the girls)
DSLB: Ditzy Squall’s Lunchbox (DSLB), is the solo project of Chrissie Butler from Mr Sterile Assembly fame, whose “sideways lyrics and staked up patterns” bring a glistening glean to erogenous ears.
Hexus: @lady_stab
Covenant is an occult gallery and boutique located at 2 Adelaide Road, Mount Cook, Wellington, New Zealand
Koha Entry
Special thanks to Creative New Zealand for supporting Pyramid Club’s programme
skirted Records 