Hello
Welcome to the 2025th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 25th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2020s decade. Or, just plain and simple 2025 to your friends.
Esprits de Paris at Centre Pompidou
So, I hope you made it safely into this fresh new year, although it’s only a few hours old. This year looks set to be an exceptionally busy one for me actually, with a host of adventures to come.
Let’s backtrack for a moment. In early December, I spent a week in Paris for the installation and opening of ‘Esprits de Paris’ is at Centre Pompidou, a contemporary art museum that holds one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary art in Europe.
The work was originally produced in 2002 by the Centre Pompidou for the “Sonic Process: A New Geography of Sounds” exhibition, in collaboration with celebrated American artist Mike Kelley (1954-2012), but has now been upgraded and welcomed as part of the permanent collection of the museum, which is such an honour.
The work is an immersive sound and video environment, set in an architectural structure specially designed by the artists. It combines video surveillance, urban wandering, with images captured with a thermal camera in a nightclub, accompanied by a mysterious industrial electronic soundtrack, through which the “ghosts” that haunt technology itself are expressed.
The work will be displayed until March 2025, when the building itself closes for refurbishment for 5 years. The work itself will then travel to other locations in the meanwhile, so stay tuned for future viewing dates. You can pick up the soundtrack for the work here.
After a night of opening speeches, I then gave a two-hour interview with curator Nicolas Ballet in the Pompidou Cinema, which was very entertaining. You will be able to watch the full conversation online soon, as it was filmed. Once I have the link I will share it with you.
Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand
Home briefly, and then I was off to Pattaya Thailand for the Wonderfruit Festival and my second collaboration with the MSCTY collective. The festival runs over a number of days, and is an immersive, eco-friendly, community-minded music and lifestyle festival with an emphasis on sustainability.
For this year we explored a special reworking of a now classic lowkey ambient album, A・I・R (Air In Resort), by Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneer of environmental music. We explored themes in the original compositions, deconstructing it into an almost entirely new work. We are at present considering performing this in Japan too.
The festival was a joy and a lovely chance to catch up with old friends such as Hannah Peel, Plaid, Colin Bender, Howie B, Ed DMX and others. Often, that’s just as important as working too. Connections are everything.
EarSpace Episode 17
EarSpace Episode 17 recently arrived safely for your entertainment. This month I continue to present electronic music from the past, present and the future, with intensely rhythmic new music from Foudre!, Carmen Villain, remixes from Meat Beat Manifesto and a trip into musique concrète with Bernard Parmegiani and Pierre Henry.
You can then calm your nerves with music from Klause Schulze, Rosy Parlane and Taylor Deupree, and hear fresh sounds from Azu Tiwaline, Dave Clarkson, Yaling, David August, and plenty more. Listen back here.
Live Dates in Europe and the UK
Live shows are fast approaching too. For any Dutch folks, I will be in Amsterdam in January, for rehearsals, then two performances with my ensemble, Klang Systematiek. We will be performing the works of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
On Saturday 18 January I will be in coloration with organist Jacob Lekkerkerker and Gareth Davis on bass clarinet, performing ‘Pole.’ Then on the afternoon of Sunday 19 January the entire ensemble will be performing ‘Aus den Sieben Tagen.’
There might also be a lowkey London show in February 2025, but still awaiting confirmation. Other performances are on 22 March in Ipswich, and 11 April with Fennesz in London. I’m also in conversation regarding some possible shows in Canada if that might work out too.
In June this year I’m also taking part in an amazing outdoor performance in Lisbon Portugal, Liquid Sky Open Air, in collaboration with German electronic legends, Air Liquide. We will be performing solo sets and a collaboration, and recording new material together too, which is super exciting, especially since I remember buying their first releases in the early 1990s!
VITIO with Geins’t Nait + L.Petitgand
Somehow I also managed to finish new music for a forthcoming double CD with Geins’t Nait + L.Petitgand, to be released in late 2025. But, before that’s out, our new album VITIO is out on 21 January on Offen Music from Germany. I will be receiving limited copies of the CD so you can pick copies up directly from me, or else from the label themselves.
My album, Contrary Motion, with Nurse with Wound, will be out early this year too, on double vinyl and two different CD editions for the detailed and committed fans. Again, more on that once I have exact details. And I just finished a remix for legendary UK noise artists The New Blockaders, out this year as part of a very special release.
Join the Scanner Fan Club
Bandcamp Supporters will have recently received my Live Actions 2024 album, exclusive to them, featuring unreleased material recorded on tour last year. They also received Exhale (Morphagene Collapse), Bruno’s House soundtracks, The Infra Ordinary Lab, Fly Me to the Moon, as well as every new album release. Please, if you can, join up for the price of a couple of coffees a month, to receive all this exclusive material. And in a time when musicians are receiving almost nothing from streaming services such support is truly appreciated. Join in the fun here.
And to close, a little surprise, that only went live on 31 December, and a special gift for everyone for New Year’s.
The Magician’s Hat, Vol.4
Volume 4 of my series, The Magician’s Hat, this time, offers an insight into my studio work from 2024. Like many other creative people, there’s a significant amount of work that is never experienced, so thought I’d take this opportunity to share a few pieces sitting on the studio hard drive in 2024.
None of them are finished works as such, mere ideas with a sonic playground for experimentation. They range from works exploring different techniques, synthesisers, guitar pedals and software.
Perhaps some of them might be reworked into something else, but for the moment enjoy this little voyeuristic view through the window of the studio. And it’s FREE to everyone, as are the other 3 previous volumes, which are still available. Pick it up here.
There are some much bigger plans ahead this year, which at present I cannot reveal anymore, but I can guarantee they will be most entertaining and ambitious. For now, my lips remain sealed!
As ever, thanks for your support.
Warmest wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
The Ghostwriters: Remote Dreaming (Dark Entries)
Joanna Brouk: Hearing Music (Numero Group)
Roland Kayn: Simultan (Die Schachtel)
Meredith Young-Sowers: Agartha (Important Records)
::: read :::
Chasomose (Centre Pompidou)
Moon’s Milk: Images By Jhonn Balance (Strange Attractor Press)
Anthony Burgess: The Complete Enderby (Vintage)
George Melley: Life and Work of Scottie Wilson (Thames & Hudson)
::: watch :::
The Stone Tape: Peter Sasdy
Carol: Todd Haynes
El Diario: Emma Bertrán & Alba Gil
Béla Tarr: A Curzon Collection
