Nicolas Collins Speaker Oscillator

Nicolas Collins (author of Handmade Electronic Music) was in Dublin. He gave a lecture on Thursday 110413 and he facilitated a workshop on Saturday 130413 at the Science Gallery.







 

Wildlife Documentaries - Golden Thread 250211

Two 'wildlife documentaries' by Nicholas Keogh will be shown as part of the group exhibition 'Disconnected' in the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast this Friday. I helped with recording sound and other miscellaneous tech things.

One is called, 'A Film About Blue Bottles', the other is 'A Film About Slaters'. The full run time of both together is under 10 minutes.

From Brussels with Love...

I went for a nice long weekend to Brussels last month - had a really god time walking my legs off and taking photos of all the street art, stencils and architecture my camera could hold.

I managed to catch a short performance by Tape That (part of the N collective) which was soothing and amusing. If I can find it I'll scan and post their set list/programme later.

They play recordings they've made and perform very short bursts of sound. I had the pleasure of chatting with them a little. i asked how they decided their recordings were the correct length - they stated that they were a little like the mini-tiles one might get when shopping for carpet - just enough to get the point across. Concise.

I visited the Museum of Musical Instruments too. The building is quite special - the exterior being covered in art-deco flourishes, the interior had several floors of instruments from various countries and cultures.

Before going in I was a little wary, fearing large rooms with silent instruments being preserved and not played. This was and wasn't the case.

Most of the instruments were in glass boxes or behind red ropes, but the solution was that every visitor was given earphones which played sounds of the (selected) instruments when you stood in front of them. All of this was transmitted wirelessly - a very ambitious and generally successful way to deal with the issue of people coming to see and hear the instruments. Well worth a day of your time if you are interested in sound and musical instruments. The collection is huge and the grouping of instruments by family makes it easy to see connections and variations as the instruments have developed over time.

I wished for more sounds though - several instruments were so alien I couldn't imagine what they sounded like and wasn't offered a sample which was a little frustrating, but I guess I just wasn't imagining hard enough.

Thankfully there was electronic signal interferance from some transmissions which I enjoyed. Sadly several of the interactive pieces in the basement were not functioning - I hope to go back and play with them in the future (I also hope that some day I'll get to play their selection of early electronic sound devices).

Back in Belfast....

Back in Northern Ireland a week and all is well. The family are healthy and I'm not too busy to be vexed, and busy enough not to be bored either.My niece and I enjoying some pallet drumming...

The gallery opening performance with Nicky Keogh at the Gloden Thread Gallery was quite a success, albeit with some technical difficulties. We were set-up and ready to play for the opening at six o' clock and there were plenty of people in attendence. We played several short improvisations at low volume throughout the evening and "Knocked it up a notch" at the end (around eight o' clock).Some of the audio toys used and abused for the improvisation in the Golden Thread...

Unfortunately the Calor Gas Soundsystem's amp over heated and the last part was cut short. The minidisc recorder we used to record the performances also refused to update it's TOC and so most of the audio documentation was lost. Thankfully I had a spare cassette recorder and I captured a little of the noise from the end of the evening.

I finally attended Bop Yestrum and saw Indian Jewelery at the Pavilion Bar on Saturday night. This was an excellent way to prepare for the show there on Sunday.

The Show with Birds of Delay and Toymonger was a mixed bag. The attendence was low but the sounds were solid (thick, brutal, sharp, fuzz-filled, painful to listen to, occasionaly amusing, sometimes boring ((yes, I know it's supposed to challenge me to indulge in deep listening)). The soundcheck was short thanks to an unexpected private function for a bunch of golfers, but enough to test if equipment was working.

Barry (bew), Peter, and Chris...

As planned there were three parts to the 45 minute show. I started with an electro-acoustic improvisation using stylophone, cymbals, bells, microphone, loop cassette, feedback, and effects.

Chris Allen on bass.

Next I was joined by my colleague from S'Gottabomb, Chris Allen, who played bass and my younger brother, Peter, who played saxophone whilst I played clarinet to realise "Horn Joy", a tune from my unpublished "Harsh Missed EP".Peter Cullen on saxophone.

To finish I played/mangled a selection of my most recent tunes/remixes produced in Brno. Tracklist:
bew - musicbox bug 2 - a demo tune
bew - Crane Crash H&W 2 - a special edit made especially for this gig.
bew - Kookie Loop Dirt Step
Sunosis - Leap (bew remix)
bew - Adam Pharoh
+ lots of my samples.