Hello
Don’t the months just seem to slip past, ever faster?
January was absorbed by many things, not least the launch of Alchemeia, my new album out on Alltagsmusik. I have been rather overwhelmed by the number of enthusiastic responses to what I felt was a very modest new album. Half the limited-edition CD sold out in the first week, and the post office became temporarily my second home!
“Radiophonica, crazy, delightful, spooky”
Moonbuilding Weekly gave it the Album of the Week Award, accompanied by a lovely review and very amusing interview:
“Opener ‘Chimaera’ is the sort of thing you’d expect to hear over the title sequence of a snowy Scandinoir series…‘Hollia’, a track that is a proper piece of radiophonica and exactly what you’d imagine Scanner dialing into the 1960s would sound like…‘Gang Train’, a kind of space funk ‘Theme From Shaft’. It’s as crazy and delightful as that sounds and here Scanner borrows the same quirky humour on the theremin-y wobbles and insistent Bontempi drum machine-like rhythm of ‘Sestinea’, a spooky, corridor-stalker of tune.”
As I said the interview is very entertaining, where I talk about my history of releasing music over the last 85 years, spending Christmas with Paris Hilton, modular artwork, and my skin-care routine. And I’m not kidding here!
The Making of Alchemeia
I just wrote a very detailed feature on the making of the album, to explore how it was created, and what role lampshades, chains and a Berlin air-conditioning system came to play in the making of the album. It also includes a Spotify playlist of much of the music that inspired me in the making of it. Read the article here. Buy the album here.
With live shows still to be confirmed for 2024, it’s a good chance to look back. Last year I played a few shows that I was especially happy with. I now have documentation of some of these online.
One of these is now available to watch in a short edit of the full show. It features a live improvisation with the amazing bass clarinettist Gareth Davis, live at A4 in Bratislava in May 2023. We had no rehearsal, just a soundcheck to balance levels. What you hear is the result of us just listening to one another.
Gareth frequently performs with various ensembles ((Arditti Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart), and improvisers and electronic artists (Elliott Sharp, Merzbow), and is the lead figure behind our Klang Systematiek ensemble. If you missed it a few months ago, we performed Terry Riley’s seminal In C at Dox+ in Prague.
Live at Electronic Sound Magazine Studios
Then just over a year ago, I was invited over to the studios for British magazine Electronic Sound, as part of their performance series. Guests were encouraged to perform an exclusive live set for the cameras, and such shows hosted on their website, at a modest cost to view.
Well, now, they are slowly opening them up to the world and my show is now freely available for everyone to view. I arrived at the studio with a small table-top set up of equipment, so I could improvise around a few themes I had in mind. Watch it back in full here.
Joys of the Bandcamp Fan Club (again)
My Bandcamp Fans all received a copy of this live show as part of their subscription at the end of 2023, and it’s never too late to join up either. For the price of two artisan cups of coffee a month you have access to far too much music, and al ofl it exclusive to Fans only!! At the time of writing there are close to 50 exclusive releases, available nowhere else in the world. Join up here and become part of the elite crew!
And I’m now hosting one on my personal favourite shows in recent years, recorded live at Machina Bristronica at Document, Bristol. This was an entirely freely improvised live modular synth set, using a modest little set up of equipment.
I had only the first couple of minutes prepared in my head, processing piano samples, but the remainder of the set just flowed from there, without my quite knowing where it was to lead. Watch it back in full here.
Sound Art with Leson7 in New York City
The sound art gallery LeSon 7 in New York City proved to be a grand success in January too. Despite the storms, rain and snow, their first visit to the city was very encouraging and brought a whole new audience to the gallery.
The exhibition was selected by Time Out New York as one of their top ten things to do for the weekend. The exhibition presented 29 works, with five featured as new to the gallery. Visitors apparently stayed for hours listening, and I received some wonderful messages from folks that made the trip.
All the works were presented on high quality audio-players to be listened to on headphones – where the listener starts and stops the playback, as opposed to presenting the works on loop. There was also a space reserved for listening to the works on loudspeakers for just one or two people at a time. Here’s looking forward to the next iteration of the gallery somewhere else in the world one day soon then!
Current and future CD releases
Last remaining copies of my recordings with Geins’t Nait and L.Petitgand are available over at Bandcamp on limited digital digipak CDs. One of these has just single figures left now, so don’t delay if you want a copy. There is OLA and Et il y’avait available.
The second release for Alltagsmusic has gone off to press and copies should be arriving back in the next week. This is due out in March. After that the first of the collaborative albums will be released in the summer and there’s some very entertaining music to follow on that side label too. Stay tuned.
Radio Joys with EarSpace
Episode 6 of my EarSpace radio show will be broadcast on Slack City Radio on 1 February, and you listen back to all the previous episodes on Totally Radio. Last month’s episode offered up choice cuts from the catalogue of kranky records, film music from Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, industrial vibes from Throbbing Gristle, fragile ambience from Tujiko Noriko and Cat Tyson Hughes, and some classic 1990s electronica from Global Communication and Black Dog Communications. Listen back here.
So, back to the studio with more sonic adventures to focus on.
As ever, thanks for your support.
Warmest wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
Ben Frost: Scope Neglect (Mute)
Devo: Art Devo 1973-1977 (Futurismo)
David Jackman: Sekihi Oidori (Siren)
Het Pandorra Ensemble: III (Lasers Edge)
::: read :::
Radio Cologne Sound (Wolke Verlag)
Blixa Bargeld: Europe Crosswise: A Litany (Contra Mundum Press)
M. John Harrison: The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz)
Bernd Herzogenrath: A Sound Word Almanac (Bloomsbury)
::: watch :::
The Holdovers: Alexander Payne
Fallen Leaves: Aki Kaurismäki
In a World: Lake Bell
Influencer: Kurtis David Harder
