Hello
One year older now than I was when I last wrote my newsletter, and another step towards retirement. Well, not really, as like most creative people, the very thought of stopping doing what I’m doing is just not a concept to consider. My birthday was wonderful, secreted in the darkness of the cinema with Wes Anderson and Tom Cruise.
Professor Scanner Returns to Ravenna
I’m freshly returned from Ravenna where I wore my Professor Scanner cloak to run a Sound Design workshop for a week at Malagola. This is now my third year there sharing my knowledge and skills and it was another wonderful experience. My students, a mixture of those with experience and others who had never used music software before, took to the tasks admirably and produced fantastic work.
Whilst there, the new Pope was announced too and I was excited to witness all the bells ringing out over Italy in celebration, as I was advised would happen. There we all were with our recorders at hand, ready to capture this unique moment, but, rather disappointingly, they made the announcement at 19.15, after everyone had gone home, and that seem to include the bellringers too, which was a pity.
The next year is now busy with meetings, studio sessions and exploring over 5000+ hours of spoken word archives for this new museum project in London. I’m loathe to say too much about it until the press department announces it, but suffice it to say it’s a new permanent installation using 40 speakers in an incredible space that will open to the public, for free, in summer 2026. More on this soon!
Remember last month that I wrote about the Savvy Awards in Amsterdam? Well, their website has been updated to include all the winners, so you might find it entertaining to marvel at who the other award winners were. The list is astonishing, with Anton Corbijn, Depeche Mode, Devon Turnbull, Gary Hustwit, Operator, Timotheé Chalamet and many more. So, it’s even more of an honour to find myself nudged in there. Read the full list here.
Robert Burns and the Sonic Power of Language
It was a joy to make another trip up to Salford again recently to record a new episode of The Verb for BBC Radio 4. The show focuses on poetry and the power of language, and as a former English Literature student, this is the perfect territory for me.
This time I shared airtime and made new friends with the Scottish Makar Peter Mackay, Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison, and Indian dancer and poet Tishani Doshi. Rather amusingly, I spoke about the strangely mysterious and baffling world of album titles from Autechre, Aphex Twin and other electronic music artists, as well as presented a new work of my own that accompanies a reading from Peter Mackay, in both Gaelic and English, written in response to ‘O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast’ by Robert Burns.
My fellow guests explored Dante’s Inferno, and stand-out lines from poems, and as always there’s laughter and joy to be found in the conversations we share. This happy photo captures Ian proudly wearing his ‘Fláneur Électronique’ badge that I gifted him (and can be yours if you pop over to my Bandcamp account)
I hope you will enjoy the broadcast! Listen back here. Or download it for keeps here.
My Bandcamp Fans all received a high-quality download of this new commission recently, and it’s never too late to join up. For the price of less than two cups of coffee a month you’ll have access to an exclusive world of sounds.
Electronic Music from the Past, Present and Future
As regular as clockwork, EarSpace also took to the airwaves last month, and in episode 23, I presented music fromthe past, present and future of electronic music. This time I go back to the early 90s with Autocreation and Anthony Manning, Cabaret Voltaire in the 80s and all the way back to the 70s with The Future and Jean Michel Jarre.
Then it’s right up to date with new music from Skee Mask, Olivia Block, Beatrice Dillon, Andrea, Ben Chatwin, and Pentagrams of Discord. And yes, much, more more. Tune in here, and as ever, you can listen back to all the previous episodes too.
Contrary Motion, my new album with the legendary Nurse with Wound, continues to receive some great reviews. My favourite has to be this one at Igloo magazine, which takes each of the track titles, which were taken from homeopathic remedies, and focuses on the conditions they deal with.
Homeopathic Succussion with Contrary Motion
It’s a most original and unusual way of approaching a record, and is really fascinating. The opening paragraph in itself gives you an idea of what to expect.
“Two great collaborators join together for the first time in a new collaboration. Call it an alchemical fusion in a marriage of true minds. Robin Rimbaud & Steven Stapleton have both collaborated with a ton of other artists and musicians. Now they meet together in musical mixing to create a homeopathic succussion. Here their combined powers reach a higher level of vibrational force through the energetic power of material dilution. Compare it to the Korsakovian method where the vessel in which the musical preparations are manufactured is first emptied, then refilled with a suitable electronic solvent, the volume and EQ of the of surrealist soundwaves adhering to the walls of the studio-vessel gets periodically scraped, stirred, and adjusted. After the contents have settled a new batch of material gets decanted from the material so conjoined.”
Read the full inventive and detailed review here. I also made an interview for Loop Music Magazine in Chile, exploring some of the themes of the album, which you can read in full here.
The ‘Failure’ of Live Improvisation, sometimes
Earlier this year I was in Plymouth to speak to students about a professional career in the music business, though at times I feel so far away from this it’s surreal. However, it was a successful venture and as part of this I made a short live improvised performance on my modular synth set up.
Watch it back in full here. To be honest as the time I felt it to be an utter failure, unfocused and messy, but listening back to it today I found there to be certainly some interesting passages. I hope you might also find something rewarding in it.
Unrealtime in Real Time in London
An unusual live event is coming up in London on Saturday 7 June. Taking place at The Old Church in Stoke Newington, I wil be joining Lauren Hayes, Dan Hayhurst, Nick Roth, Dan Herbert and Panos Ghikas in a day of workshops, conversation and improvisation.
We will all be using Unrealtime, a new software for digital music improvisation. This means I’ll be using my laptop for a solo live performance for the first time in about a decade. I tend to focus on hardware technology these days, so it’s going to be interesting to see how this software works out.
Beginning mid-afternoon, you can have hands-on opportunities to use the software, then listen to a presentation about it, followed by a series of live performances with different artists, myself included.
The entire event is hosted by the ever-inspiring Iklectik who, despite losing their key location, continue to present and support innovation and ideas. We will also be using their signature surround sound system.
Tickets are available here, and I’m super excited to discover the sonic possibilities ahead
Liquid Sky Open Air in Lisbon
Then I will be in Lisbon Portugal at the end of June, at the invitation of the legendary German group Air Liquide. The event itself takes place outdoors and features TokTok, Andrea Cichecki, Mijk van Dijk and Irakli. Air Liquide and I are planning to collaborate and record together whilst there too, so more on that, once it happens! Tickets are available here.
Jumping forward to the end of the year I will be performing in Milan on 1st December, for my first show there in many, many years. This gig will take place as part of the Inner Space programme, in a series of incredible shows from Nicolá Jaar, Kode 9, Terry Riley, Lucy Railton, Forest Swords, Wolfgang Voigt and many more.
For my night, I’ll be sharing the stage with Polygonia, aka Lindsey Wang. Find out more tickets and book tickets here.
So, until next month, thanks for reading and your continued support.
Warmest wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
Costin Miereanu: Poly-Art Recordings 1976-1982 (Metaphon)
Sleepdial: Lightplay (West Mineral)
Beatrice Dillon: Basho (Portraits GRM)
Big Flame: Peel Sessions 84-86 (Precious Recordings)
::: read :::
Linder: Danger Came Smiling (Hayward)
Jamie Taylor: Studio Electrophonique (Manchester Uni Press)
Do Ho Suh: The Genesis Exhibition (Tate)
Dylan Thomas: The Poems (Dent)
::: watch :::
Den stygge stesøsteren: Emilie Blichfeldt
La nuit se traîne: Michiel Blanchart
Final Destination: Bloodlines: Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein
The Phoenician Scheme: Wes Anderson
