Wu Fei on Radio Heart


Composer, vocalist and guzheng player Wu Fei was a guest on Radio Heart yesterday. It was a real treat — she brought in a ton of live recordings for the show, both solo and in collaboration with musicians such as Fred Frith, Carla Kilhstedt, Billy Martin, to name a few. During the interview, she talked about her background and training. For years, she studied in more traditional music conservatories in Beijing and Texas, before going to Mills for graduate school. This was a formative experience for her, as she moved towards improv and more experimental forms. She also sang a 10 minute excerpt from the Peony Pavilion, a 16th century Chinese opera. The Peony Pavilion is an example of Kunqu, the oldest type of opera in China, and a form she’s currently studying in Beijing. I think Wu Fei’s take on the guzheng is totally unique and worth checking out, I can’t recommend this show more!

Read the full playlist here.

Listen to the show here.

Enumclaw - Opening Of The Dawn


Via Arthur Magazine

Conrad Schnitzler Day

Videos by Conrad Schnitzler, from the YouTube page for his official videos.







Peruvian Sound Art Special with Maria Chavez & Pauchi Sasaki


Maria Chavez and Pauchi Sasaki at the EVR Storefront Studio

Yesterday, on Radio Heart, avant-turnablist Maria Chavez and musician Pauchi Sasaki shared their collection of recordings from sound artists based in Peru. It was a fantastic and an extremely informative show – not only did they play works spanning the past 50 years, they also discussed performance spaces, residency programs, festivals and more devoted to new music and sound art in Peru.

Read the full playlist here.

Listen to the show here.

Pauchi also sent over links to the various spaces and artists discussed or played on the show, see below.

sonoteca:
http://centro.fundaciontelefonica.org.pe/sonoteca/sonoteca.html

Inventar la voz:
http://www.myspace.com/inventarlavozperu

La Casa Ida:
http://www.lacasaida.org

Aloardi:
http://www.aloardi.net

Cesar Bolaños:
http://www.myspace.com/cesarbolanosperu

Thank you Maria and Pauchi!

Double Feature: Nite Jewel and Xeno and Oaklander -- Live on Radio Heart


Yesterday I broadcast on Radio Heart back-to-back live recordings from Los Angeles-based Nite Jewel, from their Feb. 3rd gig at the Wierd Records party at Home Sweet Home, and Xeno and Oaklander, from the closing party for Tova Carlin’s exhibition at Chinatown art space 179 Canal.

Read the full playlist here.

Listen to the show here.

Matrix Metals - Flamingo Breeze, Part 4

New music video for a track off of Flamingo Breeze by Matrix Metals, which I posted to the blog awhile ago. Olde English Spelling Bee remastered and reissued the release on vinyl, which you can pick up here.

MATRIX METALS “FLAMINGO BREEZE, PART 4” from OESB // FUTURE SOUND on Vimeo.


Video by Ivan Gaytan

Listen to Raw Thrills on Radio Heart


Last Sunday Zak Mering aka Raw Thrills guested on Radio Heart. He played the newest EP by his other project with Tyler Thacker, Greatest Hits, and a bunch of his own solo recordings, under both the Raw Thrills and Insted moniker.

Read the full playlist here.

Listen to the show here.

Vangelis & Neuronium (In London 1982)

Florescent Light Music by Kyle Clyde

A local artist, Kyle Clyde, sent over these videos of her performances in which she uses the feedback from florescent lights to create music. It reminded me a bit of a Michael Vorfeld video I posted to Rhizome on Monday. Both look awesome (and dangerous!).


Glass Candy/The Gossip Live June 23, 2002


I posted two videos from a show at my old apartment in Berkeley to YouTube. Virgil Porter and Steve Touchton recorded these. Virgil did a public access show called Burn My Eye in San Francisco. I think this footage was supposed to go into an episode, but I don’t think it ever made it into any of them. He did make a VHS of the footage though, which he gave to me at some point, and it’s been sitting in my dad’s basement in California for awhile now. The last time I went back, I brought the tape with me to New York with the intention of uploading it. My roommate at the time, Russell, was just out here and I told him I’d put these videos up, so I finally did. Sorry about the audio, it’s really low, I tried to boost it up.

The original line up was Glass Candy, Numbers and The Gossip — but there isn’t any video of Numbers’ set. Poster above – Russell and I didn’t want to put the Gossip on there because we were worried about too many people showing up (it happened anyway!). I’ve included some of my own photos as well.












Early Pencil Tests (Outtakes) - Bruce Bickford


Via Moon River

Sketch Klubb Radio


Houston-based comic gang Sketch Klubb took over Radio Heart last week, playing The Other Half, The Flying Lizards, Marvin Gaye, and even Beavis and Butthead. Pictures below courtesy of Sketch Klubber Russell Etchen, to listen to a stream of the show, click here.



Fumio Miyashita of the Far East Family Band on the Boffomundo Show, 1979

I’ve been listening to the Far East Family Band‘s release Nipponjin a lot recently. (Produced by Klaus Schulze!) I just discovered this awesome footage of a solo performance by frontman Fumio Miyashita on cable access in the late 70s, below.



Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners

I’m planning to attend “Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners“ tonight, part of the Performa biennial. For the event, composer Luciano Chessa reconstructed “intonarumori“ or instruments originally devised by noted Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo in 1913. During the evening, a number of musicians will perform original compositions using the instruments. You can view a quick teaser video below.

I discovered Luciano Chessa’s work through a podcast my friend Rick Bahto recorded for Old First Church Concerts last year, which includes Louganis, Quadri da una citta phantasma, and additional commentary. You can listen to the full podcast here.

Rangers - Deerfield Village

RANGERS – “DEERFIELD VILLAGE” from OESB // FUTURE SOUND on Vimeo.


Here’s a brand new music video for “Deerfield Village” by San Francisco’s Rangers (aka Joe Knight). Catchy catchy! This song will appear on the upcoming release “Suburban Tours” out on Olde English Spelling Bee/Future Sound Recordings.

Ed Tannenbaum Day

Three clips from work by Ed Tannenbaum.



Sade Sade on Radio Heart

Sade Sade, aka Gabriel Mindel Saloman, played on Radio Heart this past Sunday, it was a blast! Zefrey Throwell took some photos during the show, below. To listen to a stream of the broadcast, click here.

Also, Sade Sade is playing tonight (10/12) at West Nile with Chuck Bettis (of Brown Wing Overdrive), along with Chaw Mank (Members of Mouthus and Sightings) and Slasher Risk.




Music, Language, Thought III

The third session of Music, Language, Thought series will be held at NYU tomorrow. Details below.


Poster design by David Rager

Friday, October 2

Session I: 12 – 3p.m.

“Border Trouble: or, Ballad Mediality and ‘World Literature’”
Maureen McLane (English, New York University)

In this paper, Maureen N. McLane will explore how ballads, as both texts and tunes, have long crossed, troubled, yet also sustained multiple borders—historical, national, medial. A reckoning with balladry’s transmedial status, and with the long history of ballad scholarship in English, suggests many openings for further theoretical reflection: not least about the underexplored relations between recent discussion of “World Literature” and of “World Music.” Some specific topics: the ambiguous status of Scotland and of Scottish balladry since the 18th century; the place of Herder in recent theorizations of World Literature; “The Twa Sisters” as case study for investigations into locality and globality.

“Who Invented Music and Language?”
David Samuels (Music, New York University)

In some recent work on language evolution, music has re-emerged as a practice notable for its explanatory power. Yet this work also recycles dichotomous models that link language to the rational and music to the emotional. In this paper I attempt to come to an understanding of a possible music-language link that moves away from syntax and cognition and toward socialization and playfulness.

Session II: 4 – 7p.m.

“Overlooking the Ephemeral”
Carolyn Abbate (Music, University of Pennsylvania)

The talk centers on latency and ephemerality: why ephemeral phenomena are difficult to interpret, and the ways in which their traces can be recovered from recording media that accidentally preserved them; the specific examples are drawn from German silent film.

“Jurisgenerative Grammar (_For Alto_)”
Fred Moten (English, Duke University)

Silver Center of Arts and Science
100 Washington Square East
Department of Music, Room 220, 2nd Floor
Enter at Washington Place Doors
Admission free and open to the public

“Music, Language, Thought” is a new interdisciplinary event series organized by graduate students within New York University’s Music and Comparative Literature Departments. Broadly speaking, the series focuses on the relationship between music and language, and our speakers will examine its theoretical ramifications for politics, aesthetics and historiography. The project stems from ongoing conversation and collaboration between graduate students within these two departments, and will continue on an annual basis.

Sponsored by the FAS Department of Music and the Department of Comparative Literature

Organized by Michael Gallope, Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, Magali Armillas-Tiseyra, Amy Cimini and Ceci Moss

New Release - |||||


|||||, above

After purchasing two thousand tapes from a guy off craig’s list, my friend George Chen now runs a cassette label with Steve Santa Maria called Two Thousand Tapes. I put out a 40 minute tape on the label, titled |||||, while visiting California in August. It’s their fifth release so far.

Listen to the first side below, you can get the tapes through Zum (George’s primary label) or through me.

Listen to mi or and the pedestals + side a


Construction process in Steve’s backyard

Mi Or and the Pedestals at NY Eye and Ear II


Image above by Andrew Chee of RxRF on East Village Radio.

I played NY Eye and Ear Fest II this past summer (in the video art/drone room), and recorded my set on a mini disc. It’s a long track (1hr and 10 minutes) and it’s quite rugged. Much grittier than I remembered it, but hey. Enjoy.

Listen to mi or and the pedestals + NY Eye and Ear II July 10

Ga'an Live at Silent Barn on Radio Heart

I broadcast a live recording of Ga’an from their show at Silent Barn last Friday on Radio Heart this afternoon. Based out of Chicago, Ga’an play driving Magma-inspired prog with ethereal, chanting female vocals. Click the below link to listen to a stream of the recording.

GA’AN LIVE AT SILENT BARN ON RADIO HEART AUGUST 9, 2009

Vincent Collins


I posted Collins 1976 animation Fantasy today to Rhizome (above), but I thought I would follow that up here with a few more of his shorts. They’re pretty awesome.





Matrix Metals - Flamingo Breeze



I’ve been listening to this project by Sam M. over and over. Perfect summer jam.

Download Matrix Metals – Flamingo Breeze

Lubomyr Melnyk Live in Toronto 1985

In the early ’70s Melnyk developed a unique approach to the piano called Continuous Music, a physical and mental technique that allowed Melnyk to play an incredible amount of notes at an incredible speed. In fact he holds two world records, one as the fastest pianist in the world, sustaining speeds of over 19.5 notes per second in each hand, simultaneously! And two, for the most number of notes played in one hour! In 60 minutes, Melnyk sustained an average speed of over 13 notes per second in each hand, yielding a total of 93,650 INDIVIDUAL notes. Holy shit!! But don’t be mislead, this is not some Yngwie bullshit, where songs and composition are sacrificed for mere shredding. No, there is a method to Melnyk’s madness, and the result says all that needs to be said. Continuous Music as you might have surmised, involves generating an extremely rapid flow of notes, with the pedal sustained non stop, patterns, broken chords, the sound is dense and dizzying, like glimpsing the inner workings of some tiny lifeform and watching atoms and molecules spin and swirl. The result of so many notes, played so quickly and so close together, with the overtones drifting and bleeding into each other, is some of the most breathtaking music we’ve ever heard. It’s almost like a waterfall of piano notes, a frothy cascade of tinkling sparkling melody, or a laying beneath a perfectly black night sky, watching a million fireflies dance and flit, a sky full of tiny little streaks of light.

– From a review of the album “Wave Lox” by Aquarius Records




(Originally from the Unseen Worlds Records blog)

Ear to Ear Documentation

I contributed two mix CDs to the exhibition Ear to Ear organized by Jeff Khonsary last year. The first mix compiled all my favorite songs from 1996 (the height of my riot grrrl days) and the second was a selection of “ice music” – music that was either made with ice or sounds like music made with ice. My old fanzine from middle school/high school Suburbia was also on view. Here are some photos:

Black Pus - Flower Devour

Black Pus were AMAZING last night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. I didn’t take any photos, but here’s a music video by Dave Fischer below.

No Fun: Infinite Sound and Image at the New Museum May 16th at 3pm


Makino Takashi, The Seasons, 2008 (Still)

Come to the New Museum tomorrow at 3pm for No Fun 2009: Infinite Sound and Image. I had a hand in getting this together, really pumped about it. The event is organized in collaboration with this year’s No Fun Festival, and is part of Rhizome’s New Silent Series at the New Museum. Full details below.

No Fun: Infinite Sound and Image

Saturday, May 16th, at 3pm
at the New Museum
$8 General/ $6 Members

BUY TICKETS HERE


In its sixth year, the No Fun Festival has emerged as one of the most unique and vital festivals for experimental music worldwide. Curated by No Fun organizer and label head Carlos Giffoni, this special screening will present moving image work by a selection of artists performing in the 2009 Festival. Jim O’Rourke and filmmaker Makino Takashi collaborate on The Seasons, a dense abstract film that fluctuates in tandem with O’Rourke’s dramatic and resonant score. Robert Beatty (of Hair Police and Three Legged Race) will provide a live soundtrack to artist Takeshi Murata’s hypnotic videos and animations. Experimental filmmaker and sound artist Sarah Lipstate (of Noveller) presents Interior Variations, a collage of 16 mm hand-painted film, black-and-white super 8mm, and found footage, which will be accompanied by a new Noveller composition titled Telecine. Dominick Fernow/Prurient will screen spins the worlds wheel again, a short film inspired by his 180-page hardcover book of collages, Rose Pillar published by Heartworm Press,which deals directly with mortality within the family structure. Sound artist/composer C. Spencer Yeh (of Burning Star Core), known for his arrangements that draw on both aural and physical experience, will premiere a new work using voice as its central component. Megan Ellis and Carlos Giffoni will also showcase a new piece, created specifically for this show, which will pair minimalist visuals with an evolving electronic sound score.

Do an art project with the Dead Kennedy's "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables"


Alternative Tentacles need to get rid of 1200 copies of the Dead Kennedy’s “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” because they can’t sell them. I am sure there is someone out there who can reuse them – if you are that someone, email George at press[at]alternativetentacles.com

Scores to Matsumoto Toshio's Films

I’ve been in Oberhausen all this week for the International Short Film Festival. This year the festival organized a series of screenings dedicated to Matsumoto Toshio’s work, which has been a real treat. I’ve only ever seen his work on Ubu, and I reposted some of those videos to A Million Keys a few months back. I love the scores used in his films. I was particularly struck by Yosuke Inagaki’s compositions for Connection and Shift, which were screened in the first program (posted below). I asked Matsumoto about Inagaki during the Q&A session, and he responded that he was a graduate student who studied with him. He mentioned that he was a video artist but did not go into much detail. I’d be interested in knowing more, if anyone reading this could provide some insight into Inagaki’s work.


Connection (1981)


Shift (1982)

The scores by Toshio Ichiyanagi were also fantastic. I saw these today:


Atman (1975)


Everything Visible Is Empty (1975)

Swine Flu

Now seems like an opportune time to post this up – “Swine Flu” from my old band (from high school!) Boxleitner.

Listen to Boxleitner + swineflu

Enjoy!

Also, special bonus:

Listen to Boxleitner + outtake

I distributed this on Soulseek and Napster as a “Boxleitner” track.

More tracks here, on my buddy BJ’s blog Pukekos.


That’s us above, posing with vegetables in Olympia 1999