John Cage & Terry Fox - High Fidelity

Link: Edition RZ

A beautiful gatefold sleeve for a John Cage and Terry Fox project.

(Further releases from the experimental Edition RZ label are also worth seeking out - particularly the minimal artwork created by Ott + Stein.)

Various Production feat. MC Vex - 'Drink It' video by Voyeur

I'm sure there are those really technical people that are less impressed, but I'm in awe of the abstract animations that crop up on Vimeo as unofficial music promos. This may have something to do with my own disastrous attempts to get to grips with Autodesk's 3D Studio Max. Anyway I can now really appreciate the patience that goes into these projects and, when the end result is as compelling and as odd as this one created by Voyeur for the mysterious Various Production, I'm glad that someone else makes the effort.

If you like this kind of esoteric eye candy, perhaps seek out Form + Format's audio generative's motion piece that's set to the Shlohmo remix of Robot Koch's 'Gorom Sen'.

Off The Page

Link: Sound and Music

Date: Friday 11 - Sunday 13 February 2011

Venue: The Playhouse, Whitstable

Produced by: Sound and Music and The Wire

In February 2011, Sound and Music and The Wire present Off the Page, the UK’s first ever literary festival devoted to music criticism. Taking place at the Playhouse Theatre, Whitstable, on the South coast, this weekend-long event will feature a host of internationally-renowned critics, authors, musicians and artists discussing the current state of underground and experimental music in a programme of talks, presentations, panel discussions and workshops.

Schedule:

Friday 11 February, 7pm – 10.30pm
Doors open at 7pm
Presentation: Robert Wyatt on his favourite music
Short films hosted by BFI and introduced by Jonny Trunk: Tristram Cary on film

Saturday 12 February, 10am – 10.30pm
Talk: Ken Hollings on the post-Cageian universe
Talk: Rob Young and Matthew Herbert on the impact of musique concrète on contemporary sonic culture
Talk: Steve Beresford and John Kieffer in conversation
Talk: Kodwo Eshun on his favourite music writing
Talk: Dave Tompkins on the history of the vocoder, from its use in the Second World War to its role in the era of Auto Tune
Talk: Teal Triggs on Fanzines
Presentation: Christian Marclay
Short films hosted by Lux: Cage On Cable

Sunday 13 February: 11am – 5pm
Writing tips from The Wire (limited capacity)
Panel discussion: Salome Voegelin, David Toop, Daniela Cascella on the philosophy of listening
In conversation: Green Gartside with Mark Fisher discussing politics and cultural theory in pop culture and music
Performance lecture: Claudia Molitor, Jennifer Walshe, Sarah Nicholls on music notation

ADVANCE TICKETS ONLY

Tickets are available from Ticketweb:

Early bird weekend pass: £25 + bkg fee
Weekend pass: £30 + bkg fee
Friday pass: £12.50 + bkg fee
Saturday pass: £15 + bkg fee
Sunday pass: £12.50 + bkg fee

Book now

Please note: the Playhouse Theatre Whitstable has restricted wheelchair access

The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl

Great reference spotted by Dave. (Cheers!)

The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl features work by 41 artists from around the world, from the 1960s to the present, who use vinyl records as subject or medium. The exhibition includes sound work, sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video and performance.

Artists in the exhibition include Laurie Anderson (1947 USA), Felipe Barbosa (1978 Brazil), David Byrne (1952 Scotland), Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller (1957 & 1960 Canada)*, William Cordova (1971 Peru), Moyra Davey (1958 Canada), Kevin Ei-ichi deForest (1962 Canada), Jeroen Diepenmaat (1978 Netherlands), Sean Duffy (1966 USA), Yukio Fujimoto (1950 Japan), Jack Goldstein (1945 Canada), Rodney Graham (1949 Canada)*, Harrison Haynes (1973 USA)*, Gregor Hildebrandt (1974 Germany), Satch Hoyt (1957 UK), Jasper Johns (1930 USA), Taiyo Kimura (1970 Japan), Tim Lee (1975 Korea), Ralph Lemon (1952 USA), Christian Marclay (1955 USA), David McConnell (1975 USA), Mingering Mike (1950 USA), Dave Muller (1964 USA), Ujino Muneteru (1964 Japan), Vik Muniz and Carlos da Silva Assunção Filho aka Cafi (1961 & 1950 Brazil)*, Patrick Douthit aka 9th Wonder (1975 USA)*, DJ Rekha (1971 UK)*, Robin Rhode (1976 South Africa), Dario Robleto (1972 USA), Ed Ruscha (1937 USA), Malick Sidibé (1935 Mali), Xaviera Simmons (1974 USA), Mark Soo (1977 Singapore), Meredyth Sparks (1972 USA), Su-Mei Tse (1973 Luxembourg), Fatimah Tuggar (1967 Nigeria), Alice Wagner (1974 Peru), Carrie Mae Weems (1953 USA), and Lyota Yagi (1980 Japan).

The accompanying Cover to Cover installation features 10 artists and musicians who each curated a crate of 20 albums that tell a story through the cover visuals. Visitors will peruse the crates and with headphones listen to records on record players.

Niklas Roy & Jari Suominen - Laser Cut Phono Record

"We used a vector program to draw the record. With different line colours, we could modulate the laser’s intensity. We also experimented with different depths of the groove within one loop (track 6). Track 2 was something like a random noise experiment where the needle would jump in a different way over the grooves, each time the track is played. So every track has a different idea."

(Excellent use of Youtube as an interactive device too.)

Frank Bretschneider - EXP

From the Raster-Noton label [although maybe more relevant to the previous project]:

EXP is a music-visual work based on the idea that fine art should attain the abstract purity of music. an attempt to assimilate the qualities found in music – including movement, rhythm, tempo, mood, intensity and compositional structure – within visual phenomena. the music for the project was composed of specifi c generated and selected waveforms, feedbacks, impulses, clicks, the sound of mechanics, electricity, magnetism, light and other radiation. in addition and since the animation is mainly driven by sound frequency and intensity, the sonic quality of these sounds makes it possible to obtain an optimal effect on the graphics motion. in combination with several other ways of controlling the animation – from midi programming to applying motion curves – the visualization represents an exact reproduction of the audible occurrences. as a consequence the computed images often attain anunexpected beauty, from simple geometrical patterns to extraordinarily complex forms.