Hello
The nights are closing in, it’s getting colder, and winter is coming here! Not a time I especially look forward to, I must say.
At least September kept me busy and warm! A host of releases, deadlines and some travel adventures made for a most memorable month.
I performed down in Bristol for what I realised was my first ever solo show there. I find it remarkable that after treading the boards of venues for so many years now, that I’d yet to perform live there. It was a fantastic night at The Cube Multiplex, alongside Dutch artist Orphax. I improvised an entirely new set, accompanied by film projections, and hope I will return again soon to Bristol!
The following week, I was off to perform live at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, premiering new work with Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg in an improvisation, then the world live premiere of Struktura Revisted. This actually went much better than I could even have anticipated, and hopefully there will be more opportunities to present this in the future.
Travel continues to be rather a challenge at present, as many have discovered, with absurdly long queues at airports, problems with baggage and so on. However, I never quite expected the adventure I would have at Warsaw Chopin Airport. Approaching the security check to enter the airport I was greeted with an intensely serious officer.
“Take off your jeans!!”
“My jeans?” I responded, incredulously
“TAKE OFF YOUR JEANS!!”
Confused, with crowds around me, he pointed at my crotch, barking
“TAKE OFFFFF YOUR JEANS!!!!!”
I reach towards my trousers…
When an old lady behind me pointed to my top. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and cameras were all safely replaced in pockets from fellow travellers!
And no, I wasn’t wearing jeans either, and as to why he needed me to remove my top I also have no idea. I remember the last time I travelled through this same airport I was stopped for carrying “an illegal and dangerous weapon.” Yes, a pair of nail clippers, which are allowed on board all aircraft. I was forced to dispose of them in the bin there, or else I wouldn’t have been allowed to travel!
I’m delighted to announce my participation in this extraordinary new exhibition opening at Somerset House in London this month too. The Horror Show! is a major exhibition celebrating the UK’s greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, examining how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.
Featuring over 200 artworks and culturally significant artefacts from some of the country’s most provocative artists, the exhibition presents an alternative perspective on the last five decades of modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch. Recast as a story of cultural shapeshifting, each section interprets a specific era through the lens of a classic horror archetype with thematically linked contemporaneous and new works.
I feature in the section entitled ‘GHOST,’ which marks the collapse of hyperinflated 1980’s culture into an uncanny temperature change that presided over the 1990s and early 2000s. It traces an unsettling path through to the global financial crisis of 2008, a turning point in time between a century of old and new, at the dawn of a digital age of faceless audiences and invisible cyber wars. So, yes, some very dark and rather unsettling artefacts on show I imagine!
The list of participants is simply overwhelming – check out the website for more details. The Horror Show! runs from 27 Oct 2022 – 19 Feb 2023, and is co-curated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and Claire Catterall, who also conceived the idea.
You might be interested to listen back to a very witty conversation I had with Martyn Ware (The Human League / Heaven 17), where we chatted about our favourite music, my pretending to be a hairdresser, moving home, Jimi Hendrix, our influences and much more, accompanied by much laughter. We’ve been friends for many years now and Martyn is always such a fun fellow to chat with and think you might find this most entertaining.
I’d certainly recommend listening back to many of his other podcasts too, including chats with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Fatboy Slim, Lloyd Cole, Marvin Rev, Steve Coogan, Pete Wylie, Midge Ure, Sandie Shaw, Gary Numan, John Foxx and honestly just so many interesting people! Listen back here.
For now, unless something else crops up, my final live show of the year takes place at Café Oto on Wednesday 5 October, where I shall be performing with my old musical pal Roberto Paci Dalò. We released The Maya Effect back in 2011, which was a live album recorded in Naples at the Vigna S. Martibo in 2009. I’m excited to see what magic will appear in this latest improvisation then!
As for releases, well, this month continues to be busy. Clap. An Anatomy of Applause has just been released. It is a compilation of original works by a group of musicians and composers brought together by Andrea Stillacci and Unsounds in Amsterdam.
The project’s goal is to highlight the radically different forms and meanings that the sound of applause can take according to its context. The principle was to work from original recordings of each artist’s choice, with sources ranging from the thunderous applause celebrating Maria Callas’ last public appearance to the crowds cheering at the fall of the Berlin Wall, and to transform them into musical compositions.
I chose to focus on the sounds of the crowds at the Berlin Wall. I so vividly remember watching this take place in real time on a TV broadcast, as the BBC displayed images of such exhilaration and joy that I had tears in my eyes. I had been to Berlin several times before this and experienced the challenges of such a divided city at first hand.
All of the participants have delved into the dynamics, the grain, the pathos of the applause, in a reversed act of appreciation. It’s out now on digital and a limited-edition double LP, with a free digital download.
Other artists featured are Eraldo Bernocchi, Maurizio Bianchi, Barbara Ellison, Terence Hannum, Ji Youn Kan, Fani Konstantinidou, Yannis Kyriakides, Andy Moor, Moor Mother and Massimo Pupillo. Pick it up here.
My remix for artist Kenneth James Gibson, has just been released. It’s on streaming services but you can also pick it up here directly at Bandcamp. I completely transformed his original track, Small Triumphs and Deep Disappointments, into a darkly immersive cinematic soundscape, which I’m very proud of it indeed.
As I wrote before, my live album La Fenêtre Magique, out on Werra Foxma Records, has been repressed in a strictly limited edition of just 200 copies. It’s now on blood red vampire approved vinyl, and you can pick it up at the ridiculously low price of just £11.99. It’s also now available to listen to on streaming services from 2 October if you fancy adding it to your playlist there too.
The Listening Forest at Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, continues to delight and intrigue audiences. The reception for this show has been incredible and I’m so thrilled to see all the responses from visitors online. The full soundtrack is available here now to enjoy. I also wrote a longer blog post about the work and the making of it too, which you can read here. The soundtrack is on all streaming services now too.
Tickets are now on sale for a very special night in April 2023 too. Some of you may know that I released both my recent studio albums on the DiN label, with An Ascent (2020) and The Homeland of Electricity (2022). Interestingly, DiN also set up the ever-expanding Tone Science series, which currently comprises six releases featuring compositions from more than forty of today’s most innovative electronic musicians working in the area of modular synthesis.
Now, for the first time, DiN is staging an event to showcase the talent of a variety of musicians working in this fascinating genre. The extended-length Tone Science Concert, rather like a mini electronic music festival, will feature sets from some of the most creative and ground-breaking musicians in this field, including myself, plus Ian Boddy, Polypores, Nigel Mullaney and Field Lines Cartographer.
The concert will culminate in a collaborative performance of a composition by American minimalist and drone music pioneer La Monte Young. This should be a fantastic night! Tickets available here.
I’m off to the Semibreve Festival in Braga at the end of the month too, but in a rather unusual capacity. As opposed to performing on stage, I’ve been invited to write a daily diary about the festival. Not in the sense of reviewing the performances or interviewing artists but my personal response to the city, the environment, the atmosphere. It’s a very exciting opportunity and given what a truly amazing festival Semibreve is I am delighted to return to it. And the cakes are delicious there too!
Thanks for your support, as always and have a Happy Halloween!
Best wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
Deathprod: Sow Your Gold In The White Foliated Earth (Smalltown Supersound)
Stereolab: Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5] (Duophonic)
Roland Kayn: Reversioni Comprimati (Bandcamp)
Natasha Barrett: Heterotopia (Persistence of Sound)
::: read :::
Martyn Ware: Electronically Yours Vol.1 (Constable)
Ann Quin: Tripticks (andotherstories)
Doug Aitken: Sleepwalkers – A Future Time Capsule (Princeton)
Loris Greaud: The Unplayed Notes & The Underground Sculpture Park (Hatje Cantz)
::: watch :::
Les Olympiades, Paris 13e: Jacques Audiard
Fall: Scott Mann
Thirteen Lives: Ron Howard
Bodies Bodies Bodies: Halina Reijn
