Hello
Autumn is upon us and I’ve got lots of news to share with you this month.
Regular readers of this newsletter will now be familiar with the continuing tale of my failing body. Adventures in the last month included a nasty abscess in my mouth and the necessity for root canal treatment this month. Hopefully, by the time of my next newsletter, I’ll be fully healed then!
September was a deceptively quiet month on the surface, with just two live performances, but it’s actually been exceptionally busy.
EarSpace debut radio show
A personal highlight was the premiere of my new radio show, EarSpace, on Slack City Radio. Apart from a rather innocent amateur radio show that I had infrequently on a school friend’s pirate radio station as a teenager, this is really something I have dreamt about since I was a child!
I introduce each piece of music, offering context and often sharing more personal stories, such as how I first met Richard James/Aphex Twin whilst playing rounders against rebellious London pop group East 17!
EarSpace explores the inner and outer workings of electronic music, moving backwards and forward in time, joining the dots between introspective glacial ambience and deliriously fever pitch dreams. It will hopefully inspire, intrigue, educate and entertain in equal measure. I received some rather wonderful messages from listeners after the first broadcast, so am excited to present the second episode this month too.
The first show featured music from the likes of Steve Roden, Brian Eno, Laurie Spiegel, Carl Stone, Polypores, Félicia Atkinson, Mark Fell and many more. You can always listen back to episodes on Totally Radio. Keep an eye on the schedule on the Slack City website.
Creating New Music with Radiowaves
Continuing the theme of radiowaves, I released Radio Rainfall at the beginning of September. This work was composed a few years ago for a special radio broadcast on the seminal Kunstradio show in Vienna, Austria.
It was composed entirely live using a Eurorack modular synth system, utilising live radio signals from the Befaker ARRadio module and processing them through the system, in particular an Intellijel Rainmaker, so the simplest live sources were then looped, altered and changed in a very organic fashion.
When making this I had in mind the work of David Tudor and John Cage, and their use of radio signals in their work. There was a genuine sense of magic as this piece simply appeared in real time, with little preparation or structure. Pick it up here.
And radio is most definitely a theme this month. I just uploaded an excerpt from my recent live show in London at IKLECTIK. I played a 50-minute set, largely improvised, whilst using live radio broadcasts. At certain points, I was astounded at how some of the classical radio stations I picked up were almost perfectly in tune with everything I played!
Back to Le Fresnoy
It was a joy to return to Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France at the end of the September, for the opening of Panorama 25, their annual exhibition. I was invited back to show my artwork In-Between, which I originally created there in 2011.
It’s a work that tries to find the beating heart of the building itself. When the architect Bernard Tschumi designed Le Fresnoy, a post-graduate art and audiovisual research centre in France, he conceived of a building without a centre, a new structure wrapped around another already existing development.
What now exists is a sense of the in-between, a place between past and present, beginning and closing conversations between different times and places. My work presents audio recorded in the building accompanied by a video animation. Whereas last time it was embedded in the floor of the building itself, now it’s installed on the roof of the building, outdoors. You can hear all the mysterious sounds that reside in Le Fresnoy, from the drone of the air conditioning, the hum of electricity, the ductwork for heating and ventilation, as well as the movement of bodies within.
I released a CD of the soundtrack which is available at my Bandcamp account, so you can experience the intense sonic environment. It’s a real honour to play a small part in the success of Le Fresnoy and the exhibition.
This year the exhibition is curated by Chris Dercon, Belgian art historian, curator, and museum director, who told me he’d been an admirer of my work for my years, since early projects on Bavarian radio in the 1900s. I had to smile when he called me an ‘enigma’ 🙂 Panorama 25 runs until 7 January 2024, and features some amazing work from the students of the building too!
If Books Could Talk
My rather intimate new work, If Books Could Talk, was premiered in Lincoln at the end of September. Apparently, they had never had such a successful event in the University department, so that was very rewarding to hear. If Books Could Talk was a live collaboration with the medievalist scholar Dr Hollie Morgan. We had the pleasure of working with some of the medieval charters in the County Archives in Lincoln itself, and medieval manuscripts in the Cathedral Library, housed in Exchequergate.
The entire work has been made available for free online on my Bandcamp account. There will also apparently be video documentation of the performance itself, which I will share too, as soon as I know more myself. Download it HERE.
I also performed live at Machina Bristronica down in Bristol, which was a massively ambitious event, with 11 hours of live music, alongside talks, panels, educational sessions, DIY workshops, and so much more, all focused around modular synthesis.
I took along a portable rig of equipment that offered me huge flexibility, so I could compete as best as possible with the bar set up beside the live stage, never a good option for performers! The performance was recorded so hopefully it will also see the light of day one day soon, for all of you that missed it. And I have to say, it was one of the best shows I’ve played in ages!
ET IL Y AVAIT
And now, back to new music and releases. On 4 December the third of my collaborations with enigmatic (and impossible to pronounce) French artists Geins’t Naït and Laurent Petitgand will be released on the Ici d’ailleurs label.
Geins’t Naït and have been musical activists for over 30 years, but come from very different backgrounds. Geins’t Naït is the creator of industrial collages in a similar vein to the early work of Einsturzende Neubauten or Throbbing Gristle, while Petitgand is best known for his many contributions to the films of Wim Wenders.
ET IL Y AVAIT is a vast development on our previous two releases, OLA (2023) and GN/Scanner (2020). In collaboration with L. Petitgand, this new album is a vast landscape of cinematic textures and industrial mechanics. I should have limited copies to sell directly through my Bandcamp account, but I will learn more next month too.
Modular Aventures with Tone Science Live
I am also super excited about this new release out on 6th October on DiN, Tone Science Module No.8 Tone Science Live. It is a double CD of the entire Tone Science Live concert held at the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool on 22 April with sets by Ian Boddy, Polypores, Field Lines Cartographer, Nigel Mullaney & myself.
It was such a special night, and at the close of the event we united in a special drone work that united all our singular voices into one epic performance!
The Tone Science sub-label, from DiN records, was set up to explore the world of modular synth music. The first seven volumes on the Tone Science sub-label featured 63 musicians (9 on each album) with varying backgrounds and styles, showcasing the wonderful richness and variety inherent in the world of modular synthesis. The next logical step was to transfer this concept to a live performance, and hence the inaugural Tone Science Live concert, which took place at the Capstone Theatre.
So, now the entire evening show is presented as a limited-edition double CD in a 6-panel Digipak with accompanying 8-page booklet. A must-have album for followers of the Tone Science series. At 151 minutes long, it’s most definitely an immersive listen. Pick it up here.
You are the Fabric
Another special live release is also just out now on Werra Foxma Records in Scotland. ‘you are the fabric is out on digital and a limited CD box edition, capturing the mood of WFR London on Saturday 10 June 2023, at London’s Water Rats venue. Apparently, it’s where Bob Dylan played his debut show, as well as British Britpop favourites Oasis.
“For 8 magical hours, the venue belonged to Werra Foxma Records, its artists, and its loyal fans. For electronic music lovers who made the trip to the nation’s capital from far and wide (including fans from mainland Europe), they were not to be disappointed.
The genre hopping was intentional. Arena-sized house from Obscenity State. Glitch-laden Drum n Bass from Cholly. Plaintive IDM from BUNKR, weathered electro from Concretism, and emotive, haunting sound sculptures from the event headliner, Scanner.”
I have an exclusive live nine-minute track featured on this very special release. The limited box edition comes with a black and white customised ribbon, and an 8-page booklet of images and photos from the night. Pick it up here.
Live shows in York and Italy
I’m off to York this month to perform live at the prestigious Rymer Auditorium, for a very special show on 13 October. It will be a completely improvised live show using modular equipment, so once again I won’t have any expectation of what will follow. And I honestly don’t think I have ever performed live in York before, so this is a very unique occasion. It’s taken almost 30 years to travel for a show 3 hours away, so don’t miss this opportunity.
Then, on 20 October, I’m premiering a new performance piece, Harry Smith at 100, at MA/IN Festival in Potenza Italy. It will celebrate 100 years of the work of this influential animator, artist, writer and general eccentric in so many ways. I made this preview some months if you are curious to know what to expect.
Thanks as always for your support
Best wishes
Professor Scanner
::: listen :::
The Avant Garde Series (DG)
Polypores: Multizonal Mindscramble (DiN)
David Sylvian: Do You Know Me Now (samadhisound)
Roland Kayn: Decares (Bandcamp)
::: read :::
Matthew Hollis: The Waste Land (Faber)
Gordon Matta-Clark: An Archival Sourcebook (California Uni)
Raymond Queneau: Exercises in Style (Calder)
Pauline Boty Pop Artist and Woman (Wolverhampton Art Gallery)
::: watch :::
Corner Office: Joachim Back
Postal: Tyler Falbo
Stand By For Failure Negativland: Ryan Worsley
Baghdad: Jay & Mark Duplass
In-Between
Panorama 25
Le Fresnoy
Tourcoing France
22 January – 07 January 2024
Audio Visual installation in large group show, exploring the sounds of the building itself. In-Between explores an experience that utilises all the mysterious sounds that reside in Le Fresnoy, from the drone of the air conditioning, the hum of electricity, the ductwork for heating and ventilation, as well as the movement of bodies within.
Listening Forest
Crystal Bridges Museum
Bentonville Arkansas USA
30 August – 31 December 2023
“Crystal Bridges’ North Forest is coming to life once again with a brand-new outdoor, nighttime experience. It’s time to listen in.”
Listening Forest, created by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, uses light, sound, and technology to create an interactive walk through the woods. This site-specific exhibition brings together eight immersive installations, each one activated by you. Interactive technology combines with light, sound, nature, a customized soundtrack by electronic musician Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), and Lozano-Hemmer’s artistic mind to highlight each individual’s unique characteristics and to forge connections between strangers.
Pick up the complete soundtrack here
