Category: audio art

sketches and finished works

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nuit blanche coming up–live and installation

nuit blanche is fast approaching and i am busily navigating the web interface for the cell phone piece that i am presenting (see the nuit blanche website for details).  also that evening i will be performing (solo+, 9pm) at the music gallery where a whole slew of some of toronto’s best improvisers and sound experiementers will be performing throughout the night, including ima ensemble members ben grossman (7pm), and andrew downing (10pm).  the whole evening will be mixed in 12 speaker surround by new adventures in sound arts AD darren copeland.  really, its the best way ever to start your evening.

see you there!

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live in berlin aug 4

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i’m in berlin right now. spent the day sightseeing, although that is the worst word for it.

its a city so full of history. i’m staying in mitte, right near the wall in east berlin. 2 min walk from here is an old guard tower. i have been so overwhelmed with history. its been a very emotional day. i can see why the war is still so alive in the collective memory of the german people.

but, on another note, i too will be contributing a bit to the culture of berlin. i make my laptop debut on aug 4 as part of the daskleinefieldrecordings festival, mangling sound i recorded on my latest trip to kolkata and also plundering my own archives of music and phonographic sound in a live improvised set.

deets:

@ wendel (one of the best places in berlin for organic beer!), Schlesische Strasse 42, U-bahn Schlesisches Tor, Kreuzberg (of course).

21:30 doors, 5 Euro.

peace.

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nuit blanche

i’ve started working on the (scotiabank) nuit blanche cell phone pieces.  its really a lot  of fun and a great challenge to try and make pieces that actually work that are 45s or under….

here’s one.

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where you are

hi

so the nuit blanche project is to create a series of audio art pieces (20) out of sound recorded on the streets of kolkata.  you will dial a number (on your cell phone) as you walk the streets of nuit blanche and listen to the audio soundtrack in one ear, and the spontaneous soundtrack of nuit blanche in the other.  it is a ritual to open your ears to the sound of the night around you, and to listen to what is happening as something beautiful, art.

lately i have been a lot more interested in attention and focus and the results of being in this way.  the rewards are tremendous on so many levels….

i’m still looking for a service provider….!

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nuit blanche

wow. (i’m saying that a lot these days. guess that’s a good sign). i just found that my submission to the open call to toronto’s nuit blanche (which i have to change the title of), has made the cut! i have been chosen as one of the 5 commissions per zone. what a great thing, mostly because nuit blanche is one of the most amazing things that toronto does. last year’s event was totally magical. i am so pleased to be chosen. wow. (i’m saying that a lot these days).

more details to follow once i get some sleep.

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back

i’m back.  even though i landed about a week ago.  keeping up and getting back into the groove is taking up a certain amount of time.

lots of great news on the work front, including a new myspace page to highlight composition and sound design work, shows with arabic singer maryem tollar, getting accepted to the 2nd round of the fresh ground commissioning selection process, and beginning the process of scoring a TV doc (more news later).

i have also been working on making some short films based on my experiences in india and created from lo res footage i shot there.  the preliminary work is proving to be very inspiring and i am really looking forward to the process of creating video works and scoring.

waiting on a few grants to see what i will be concentrating on next.

happy new year.

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tumbani

met sound artist bhudaditya chattopadhyay last night.  very interesting fellow, doing great work here in kolkata.  we talked a lot about audio restoration, soundscape work, and, of course, gear.  particularly interesting was hearing the stories of strange collectors and collections.  there is a lot of wonderful music here that is being lost, archived haphazardly and outright thrown away.  the same issues are at play in egypt, where my friend alfred gamil is trying to revive the song repertoire of the early 20th century.  a large collection of cylinders and shellacs were given to the french government a number of years ago, and my naive questions about appropriation and such issues were dismissed by a wave of his hand.  he says that archive was the best thing that happened to egyptian music—everything is being stored in climate controlled conditions under high security, but open for all.  i wonder what is happening in canada. 

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other minds

in searching around the internet archive, i found the other minds archive, chock full of lectures, performances and other audio from the amazing other minds festival. right now i’m listening to steve reich’s group perform 4 organs, my name is, piano phase, and phase patterns. fantastic.

check it out, as well as the other recordings (cage and feldman in conversation, evelyn glennie in concert, an interview with brian eno….).

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online

just found out the interview project for the soundLAB project is online here.  the sound pieces will be launched oct 20 here.  and of course i forgot to mention that the piece i created for deepwireless 2006 is available for listening here.