[microsound] audiOh! News [january 06]

[Janek Schaefer <janek@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Welcome back to life on the other side of daddyhood...

Scarlett is still such a calm baby... I just can't work out how this happened... she loves sleep... so far she is happy to let me work away while she stares at a few black and white LP covers I have laid out for her eyes to enjoy.. she has also been enjoying my Donna Summer christmas CD.. jiggles along on my knees... The morning she was born I just opened the blinds and thought - hey, it's just another day and off we go... so life is just busier than ever obviously... and in due course I plan to become what I have termed a ManMum.... she also passed her first hearing test with flying colours.... so she will be able to enjoy the first event of the new year......


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BBC World Service interview
21st to 27th jan
Mark Coles from 'The Ticket' invited me to come in and discuss my new album Migration and other recent projects including the Aliens exhibition, my Hidden Name CD with Stephan Mathieu and my In the last hour performance composition.

The show begins transmission this saturday night [21st Jan] from 8pm GMT... it airs to up to 40 million people in many different formats... and is repeated throughout the week.

The easiest way for you to tune in is to go to their website and listen online with Real Audio from the fantastic BBC 'listen again' service which you can find here for 7 days:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/the_ticket.shtml

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Cambridge University architecture workshop
26th and 27th Jan
I've been invited by Alex Haw's unit to run a 2 day workshop with the 3rd year architecture students exploring the boundaries of the gallery space in architectural thinking. I am reversing their roles by turning them into contemporary artists for 30 hours.


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Songs for Europe
29th Jan in Amsterdam
I am performing my Songs for Europe duo with Philip Jeck at the new Muziekgebouw concert hall.
Part of the 1000Volt concert series along with Hildegard Westerkamp and Alison Isadora.
The concerts start at 3pm - bring a friend [I may have a mini guest list ?]
more info at: http://www.muziekgebouw.nl/uk/voorstelling.asp?PageID=2&EventID=8116


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Wow 7"
http://www.audioh.com/releases/wow.html

Several copies of my revolutionary off-centre 7" release [2000] were recently unearthed from the Diskono cellars.
These have been repackaged in 12" matt black sleeves with an optical print inner sleeve in a signed edition of just 10. These archive copies are now up for sale at the audiOh! Kiosk.
The project also involved loads of Physical Remixes of the object with many crazy results. These results have been offline for a few years, so I am undertaking to get them back online shortly...

"We encourage you to physically remix this record yourself, along with all your other records, if you think it would improve them". its deadpan hint, that all this is playful rather than pretentious is a wry reminder, like "Wow" itself, that music, for all its ineffability, is at base just a specialised branch of physics." The Wire 2000


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In the last hour report
http://www.audiOh.com/projects/inthelasthour.html

The last project that I did before the birth of Scarlett was a 'performance composition' at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November. It was an installation concert for town hall organ, vinyl, field recordings and sound reactive light that transformed the ornate and decaying town hall.

This turned out to be what I consider to be my best ever concert composition to date. The audience were lying down on cushions as the sound was played to them from above and around them.. and I have to say they were a fantastic audience - so absorbed and silent. I used the sounds of ten instruments, many of them played by me and recomposed... I even invited my 15 year old neighbour to contribute his held clarinet tones that I've been hearing over the fence. The concert was the fulfillment of all my ambitions for a live sound experience... It is dedicated to Scarlett and is a tribute to the freedom that I have enjoyed before passing it on to her.

I managed to make a magical recording of it all with a mix of room microphones and mixing desk. This will be released in the summer on the wonderful Australian label ::Room40:: run by Lawrence English.
http://www.room40.org/

The Wire magazine described the concert as one of the highlights of the 2 week festival.
Another review commented "We really were all left quite speechless!"


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Vacant Space
http://www.audioh.com/projects/vacantspace.html

My Sonic Arts Network installation commission will be premiering at the ICA in London later this year.

I am currently working with the video artist David Tinapple from New York: http://www.davidtinapple.com/ on the sound reactive video projections... Having collected over 50,000 360degree images of empty spaces from EHouse I have my work cut out in selecting what to use.... http://www.ehouse.co.uk/

My other collaborator Chris Watson has been collecting sounds for me on his globe trotting trips while working for David Attenborough etc.... and I just discovered this interesting radio programme he presented called 'A SMALL SLICE OF TRANQUILLITY' from 2003 that is an interesting listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/tranquillity.shtml

If you would be interested in booking this project for later this year and next year then please do contact me now.


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Top Tips

>
Interesting opportunity for all composers/musicians in the UK:
http://www.spnm.org.uk/?page=activities/callForWorks.html
Deadline 27th Jan...

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Ever wanted to send big files to your friends - well I just discovered this fantastic free service
http://www.yousendit.com/

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Finally I'd like to recommend the work of musician and artist Erik Bunger from Sweden.
I recently visited his web site and found two projects in particular that were very interesting.

'Aliens' is a video projection of Woody Allen talking in many different translation languages sourced from DVD menu options.
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'Variations on a theme by Casey & Finch' is a live instrumental ensemble performance recreating a skipping CD composition...

have a looky at : http://www.erikbunger.com/




so that's it for the next few weeks of fun...
I hope the next year brings you much joy.

all the best
Janek

audiOh! Room
http://www.audiOh.com