Hello
August is upon us, and whilst it feels the rest of the world is on fire or flooding in a most frighteningly apocalyptic manner, the UK has remained cloudy and calm, which reminds me of all my family holidays at this time of the year as a child. These would invariably leave us sitting in a caravan playing cards, listening to the radio, whilst the rain poured outside.
July was a good month though. My show with American composer Carl Stone and British sonic collagist Vicki Bennett was a great success at London’s Café Oto. We played to a sold-out crowd, mixing up Handel with Ava Max, Phil Collins with Vivaldi. Believe me, it was quite hilarious at times, especially when it all went wrong. Thankfully, no-one knew what was to be expected, so it was all seen as part of the show! We are hoping to repeat this adventurous collaboration in the future too.
Interestingly, Carl Stone’s new collection is out, Electronic Music from 1972-2022 and features some truly amazing works, including ‘Flint’s’ from 1999, which is a deconstructed version of Aqua’s Barbie Girl, and remarkably good timing with the popular Hollywood film just out at cinemas too. And yes, I’ve seen the film, and was very pleasantly surprised by its subversive nature and its witty dismantling of male power.
I’ve spent July preparing this new series of releases to emerge over the coming months and years. I have around 15 full-length albums, all new material, including collaborations with an array of artists, solo releases, and so on. I’m considering setting up a subscription system for these, so you can buy them cheaper if you commit to a certain period. The artwork is being designed right now, so hopefully more on this next month. Let me know if this might be of interest.
Last year, I worked with my old pal Ben Kelly, designer and architect, on a special project at 180 Studios in London for the Future Shock exhibition. Ben might be familiar to you as the designer for Manchester’s legendary Hacienda and Vivien Westwood and McLaren’s Seditionaries boutique. We created this immersive space with sound and slowly moving objects for the show.
In the original exhibition, curated by Fact and 180 Studios, visitors explored a subterranean space that featured work from artists and collectives working at the cutting edge of digital technology. Now, with the help of one of the artists featured – Aphex Twin collaborator Weirdcore – anyone in the world can enjoy the exhibition thanks to a virtual interpretation of the show.
Using material filmed, scanned and reconstructed from the original exhibition by Weirdcore, this playful, interactive site brings together all 16 works from the show, which featured Ryoichi Kurokawa, Caterina Barbieri, Actual Objects, United Visual Artists, GENER8ION (aka Romain Gavras and Surkin), Gaika, Tundra, NONOTAK and object blue & Natalia Podgórska. Enjoy it from the comfort of your sofa here.
It’s always a pleasure to collaborate with other creatives and it’s been a joy this year to create two new projects with sculptor and filmmaker Salvatore Arancio. The first, Bruno’s House, premiered at the MACTE Museum in Italy this year.
The work elaborates impressions sparked by Arancio’s visit to the Bruno Weber Park, not far from Zurich. The large sculpture park, built between the mid-1960s and early 2000s by Swiss architect and artist Bruno Weber, is inspired by Eastern mythology and European folk tales, and presents itself to visitors as a place out of the ordinary, with sculptures that can be touched, walked through and used, and that collectively stimulate an enjoyable immersive aesthetic experience.
It’s an utterly surreal location and Arancio filmed his visit there, which I then created an original score to. Learn more about it here and watch a clip of the film here.
And now, currently showing at Château-Musée de Tournon-sur-Rhône, France, is Transmission, a new 21-minute-long film with an original soundtrack of mine. It’s an environmental documentary film produced by the artist at the Ceralep factory, which takes the visitor on a fascinating and abstract journey, closer to the machines used to manufacture electrical insulators.
I used many original factory sounds to score this rhythmic and fascinating work. In some ways it’s closer to science fiction, yet fixed in reality. The show runs until 5 November 2023, so hope that some of you might get the chance to visit. Learn more here.
Definitely an album I’d recommend picking up is this new 4CD boxset and digital release Touched by Silence 2. With artwork by the wonderful The Designers Republic in the UK, it features over four hours of unreleased music from the likes of The Future Sound of London, Robert Leiner, Mark Van Hoen, Mick Chillage and many, many more.
I contributed an exclusive track Klagraviomel. All financial proceeds go directly to charity and the box set is very limited so don’t delay. It’s utterly beautiful.
Out now too is iNDEX08, the eighth DiN compilation album and includes two tracks each from the titles DiN71 – 79. The artists on show this time are Polypores, Ian Boddy, d’Voxx, Parallel Worlds, Surface 10, Node, Lyonel Bauchet, Erik Wøllo and myself.
As with the previous seven DiN samplers, label boss Ian Boddy has mixed and cross-faded the 18 tracks into a continuous ambient mix that not only showcases the albums featured on the release but presents an exciting and varied title in its own right.
It’s available at a bargain £7.00. Be aware, if you are an EU or USA buyer, then you can buy directly at the alternative links on Bandcamp, so saving yourself stress and money.
Out on pre-order is the new release from The Allegorist. Hungarian born, Anna Jordan, as she’s known to her friends and family, is an amazing artist who I first discovered playing at Superbooth in Berlin back in 2019. Her work is cinematic and truly epic in nature.
TEKHENU Retold is a retelling of her celebrated fifth studio release, TEKHENU. This almost ritualistic recording is a dark and unsettling yet elegant monster, and now it’s been remixed by some innovative producers, including Subheim, Die Wilde Jagd, Midori Hirano, Desiderii Marginis, Ah! Kosmos. And yes, me. I created a very dubbed out intense rhythmic workout which is a fine way to both test your speakers and work out your abs, at the very same time. More details here.
if you are quick enough, you can also pick up an extremely limited CD edition of Mind Maps 4 on Touched Music. I’ve worked with the label previously on different releases, and we even released my very special picture disc together of my album The Signs of a Signal of a Signal back in 2020. Incidentally, I have about 5 copies of this left and that’s it. Gone forever!
Mind Maps 4 continues the series of mix albums from Yage of seminal UK band, The Future Sound of London. Here he has remixed, rebuilt and collaged together new work using the music of Autechre, Humanoid, FSOL, Pflum, and myself to create this very unique mix. There is no download of it, only on CD. All proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer too which is incredibly positive. Don’t delay and miss out on this very special release. Buy it here.
I just added a new feature I’ve written on the extraordinary American composer Morton Subotnick (b.1933) to my website. I originally wrote it for Electronic Sound Magazine back in 2017, but have now updated it with new details and personal stories. It begins in a very dramatic way:
Half a century ago in 1967 a record was to appear on the musical landscape that would, over time, prove to demonstrate a profound influence on our sonic landscape. Indeed the composer of this groundbreaking work, American musician Morton Subotnick, described it as ‘chamber music of the future,’ and even today Silver Apples of the Moon presents an uncompromising and extraordinary challenge to modern listeners. Comets of hissing, trilling synthetic sound zig-zag their way across abstract volcanic land, as electronic pulses tumble down upon us, sirens squeal in the distance, and blipping cells spiral into concentric rings of psychedelic bliss.
I was also recently fortunate to see a preview of the new documentary on his life and work, which was very illuminating. I believe it’s coming to film festivals soon.
Another of my On 45 mixes is now online. Like the previous mixes it features the music of just one artist. This time it features the music of Martin L Gore (b.1961), better known as a member of popular electronic British beat combo Depeche Mode.
Sadly, because of a copyright claim I’ve had to awkwardly chop out a part of this mix, so it will perhaps sound a little odd at one moment. My apologies, but I’d rather that than no-one ever hear the mix again. This series of audio mixes was originally created for a popular online mix channel but they have now restricted access only to paid subscribers and felt an audience deserved to hear these mixes. Plenty more mixes to follow. Watch and listen back here.
Now, back to the studio, as work is calling!
Thanks as ever for your support
Best wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
Jim O’Rourke: Hands that Bind (Drag City)
AM/PM: The Ends (Dreck)
Angus Maclise: Tapes (Art into Life)
Craven Faults: Standers (Leaf)
::: read :::
Cardoso/Leoplod: Friedel’s Conversations with the Dead (WhiteCrow)
Justin Hopper: Obsolete Spells Victor Neuberg (Strange Attractor Press)
Seeing Loud, Basquiat and Music (Gallimard)
Phill Niblock: Nothing but Working (Walther Konig)
::: watch :::
Subotnick Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer: Robert Fantinatto
Linoleum: Colin West
Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan
Au Hasard Balthazar: Robert Bresson
