WNO Project Electroclassic

For all of you who have listened to Tapes and Ashes or the Gimlet-Eyed Mariners there is a new twist in the my sonic world. Composer Jessica Curry (http://www.jessicacurry.co.uk/), My brother Jo (http://www.jofairfax.co.uk/ who creates films and light installation as well as the public art he is known for and myself have become a dream team.

We have been selected for the research residency (see below) with the Welsh National Opera. This is terrific news and another foot on the electronic ladder that started all those years ago in the early 1970's as a callow 19 year I studied electronic music in London with my grandfather Ernest Berk. Working with Revox tape recorders, ossilators and modulaters. sticking tapes together creating massive loops and playing tapes backwards. to know working with Korg Kaosillators, Logic on the Laptop and more recently various synths on the ipad. This is tremendously exciting and working in the above team and with the opportunity to work alongside the musicians in the WNO, yes excitement is coursing every vein. Roll on the New year.

Earlier this year, WNO///3 undertook research into music copyright and intellectual property issues with funding awarded by Arts Council of England’s Digital Content Development programme. A lot of questions were asked and a lot of answers weren’t necessarily found, largely because the territory is complex when it comes to classical music, and the approaches to dealing with the issues to date often contradictory and frequently restrictive for those artists wishing to evolve new ways of combining digital art with live performance without either risking their shirts, or a law suit.

The idea behind Project Electroclassic is breathtakingly simple, but cuts to the heart of the matter; it’s to go back to basics and asks what might be possible – by asking musicians and artists engaged in the field to try out something new in a risk-free environment. Project Electroclassic will bring together digital sonic artists, composers with a classical music training and WNO musicians to test drive and maybe even breach the boundaries. The selected artists will join musicians from WNO’s Orchestra in scheduled sessions in March through to April. They will be asked to develop creative pieces from audio samples, possibly a live performance, or a piece of sonic art, or a digital media installation; all the work will be broadcast on WNO///3. WNO///3 will also host a performance featuring visual artists and musicians as part of a series of events, including Electrostatic at the Colston Hall, Bristol, in May 2011.

But most important of all, the residency will focus on open debate of the complexity of music copyright and intellectual property. A short symposium (including live performance) is planned, which will illustrate the key findings of artist, composer and musician alike.

West Bay Bronze Fossils

For the project below I will be carving a number of wooden fossils that will be cast into bronze, instead of carving fossils such as ammonites, belemnites etc, I have decided to carve images from the main industries of West Bay such as; rope making, fishing and boatbuilding as well as a 'brittlestar' and maybe a 'shark's tooth'. There is a feeling amongst the locals I have spoken too that the 'fossil theme' may have been overdone.

I have also brought in the poet Paul Hyland to write the verse for the paving and the stonecarver Nick Durnan to carve the central motif and the edging work. Their participation on the job will guarantee great quality and bring another dimension to the scheme.

West Bay

West Bay project is going well. This is a general overview of the plan, there are a few subtle changes but on the whole this is the gist.

Pottering

No image, a disgrace, pottering at hurstone studio these past few days, making a few camera obscuras in preparation to meetings in saltfleetby and Newark next week. Tinkering with my old bicycle from my youth, took it apart and have cleaned and oiled it, pumped up the tyres and today had my first solo ride on it for probably 15 years. Oh dear how unfit and how large are the littliest hills, I am moving to East Anglia or Holland it this is to be pursued!

Music, more tinkering with the Ipad in Reacatable app and Moog mode all very exciting some great sounds achieved and a pointer for further Gimlet-Eyed Mariners work and solo stuff under the Lepus non de plume. Also have wired up and Old Marshall valve amp and some old speakers to create and right old din in the studio today, guitar through a zoom box....oh boy more fun. And hot off the press looks like a record deal is happening for the Gimlets with the 'Slightly Off Kilter' label in Brighton. So maybe a cd out for the christmas rush!

No images but news of the old creative drive still working or tinkering.

Neroche Book Cover

The Neroche Book Cover. My photograph taken from Culmstock Beacon. A bit of jiggery pockery in photoshop. All it needs now is my Fat Pen Font and that's it. Book should be published by february 2011.

Golden Section Bowl

Back making again. A leaving present for Tanya James. Tanya has been the editor of the Neroche book of which I am the picture editor and we have had such fun creating the book and working together on the project. She has become a good friend. So a bowl with holes.

Crisis in the studio!!!

It's the 12th of september, it's 12.30 pm and I go to the studio to put prices onto the work before the private view at 4.00 pm. The doors to my studio will not open , I force them to and I find broken glass, fallen shelving and a fine mess. Wiveliscombe Carnival is in full flow and all people who could help me tidy are there, listening to music, eating fine food and generally having a good time. I have clearing up to do! Slowly piece by piece I remove the detritus. John Bone comes by and saves my bacon by implementing a propping system so I can move it without the rest falling and creating total havoc. Sara pops up for a second to lay a table cloth in her finery, but trooper that she is, gets stuck in and helps put heavy timber into the land rover. She has to go, she is judging the carnival floats. I manage to get the studio clear and clean just as they first people arrive. The private view itself is great, everyone very complimentary about the new work, sales, good discussions. By 8.00 I am ready for a drink and a flop.