Category: projects

project discussion and writings

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international / Peggy Baker / Lippok

wow, has it been a month?

work continues on the new peggy baker dance project.  the choreography is amazing, and the whole project is really growing into something amazing (read peggy’s journal entry for April 27 here).  the final project will be about an hour long—quite a bit of music/sound and i am having a great time working with peggy and the dancers.  there will also be a duet choreographed by new york city’s own doug varone as part of the program.  i’m very honoured to be creating music for so many great people.

i am thrilled to have been invited to ISEA this year as part of the juried exhibition with a new video work, based on the performance project shruti which i have written about here before.  we are hoping to also arrange a performance of the project as well, and this will be the first time i have made a fixed video work expressly based on the shruti project.

i have also been invited to the re-new festival in copenhagen, and the ex-is festival in seoul to do AV performances, but funding being what it is i am unable to attend.  if you find yourself in these neighborhoods, do give them your patronage.

robert lippok, my friend and cohort, has agreed to record some text for a new audio piece that i am calling the bodhi tree.  he did a fantastic job, and his voice and delivery is spot on and exactly what i had hoped for.  stay tuned for further info on that project.  we are hoping to record this june here in toronto…there are some happy glitches that may not be able to be worked around though.  we’ll see how it goes.

all this and more!  coming this summer to a screen in front of you.

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montreal/toronto shruti mini tour

getting a quick coffee @ caffe art java in montreal, the day after my shruti performance @ concordia university’s annual electroacoustic music festival.  wednesday night saw me @ the night bazaar concert series in toronto.  despite a very large snowstorm, we had a respectable turnout for a 3 set evening of improvised music on a school night.

some notes about montreal:

a) the coffee is awesome.  come here and drink it.  thanks ben for hipping me to it via patrick.

b) the music at this festival is also awesome.  i haven’t spent enough time doing concentrated EA listening, and hearing it in a big room with great speakers, and other people is especially great.  there is a great lineup here, check the website and get hip to some of these people if you haven’t already!  thanks very much to eldad tsabary and max and julian stein for putting me up, putting up with me, and inviting me to the festival.

pics to follow….cheers from the sexiest city in canada.

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homewreckers and peggy baker

that post title didn’t sound quite right.

i am just finishing work on a new video for german dj trio homewreckers (that’s a still from the video there).  they asked me to do something for “the other side of town”, a track from their new CD, american ruhr.  more info later on where and when you might be able to see it.  a great quote from kodwo eshun on the result: a dialogue for a frame and an edge.

the first of a few scores this year for canada’s national treasure, dancer peggy baker is complete.  earthling will premiere @ the PUSH festival in vancouver, january 22 and 23rd are the performance dates.  more info here if you are in the vancouver area.  i will be making more music and video for peggy later this year for a new full length work.  stay tuned.

work continues on a couple of solo CDs!  slow going but i am really enjoying the minutiae of crafting the sound for these releases.

if you happen to be reading this before january 28th, come down to the tranzac in toronto, where i will be doing my first toronto performance of shruti, the field recording based audio performance i have done in germany, newfoundland, and banff.  each one is different….this performance has been programmed as part of david sait’s and michael keith’s night bazaar series.

…..reading this over i see that the holiday is over.  more to come.

the other side of town video still

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2008/2009

it has been some time since my last post, and things are starting to wrap up here @ old monkey studios.

its been pretty memorable, really (see the post before this one). but there is no point going over a list of what happened, that’s what this blog is for.

i will say that 2009 promises to be full of great projects:

*a new solo CD is in the works, as well as documentation/recording projects with ensemble polaris, evergreen club gamelan maza meze (yes!) and more.

*i will be starting the creative process with the unbelieveable peggy baker, creating audio and video for an upcoming 1/2 hour dance work.  possible CD release is being considered as well.

*robert lippok and i are in the planning stages for some canadian concerts and possibly a CD recording

*work continues on audio and video pieces that will be influenced by the drumming and recording i did in kolkata this past fall

*who the heck knows what else?  that should keep me relatively busy i should think….

all the best to you and yours.

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back in toronto

well, kolkata was more hectic than i had imagined.  all my well meant intentions to keep up blog posts failed in the light of puja dhakis, pollution, sweets, and arguments about shah rukh khan.  there are worse ways to spend a month i think.

lots of video footage, lots of audio has been collected and will be processed over the winter, perhaps into something new.

in the meantime, you can check out the promo video for “when the gods came down to earth”, below.  its pretty impressive, if i do say so myself—i did not get the chance to see it personally as i was in banff at the time.  the music for this video is one of the later pieces—in all there is about 35 minutes of sound.  further info on the project is available on the website.

until next time…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEyQZ6rHAYM]

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shruti: live performance streaming online now

the radio performance i did at the banff centre is now streaming online:

Shruti uses field recordings and video collected in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India as a starting point for a audio performance that explores the urban landscape of this great metropolis, filtered through the eyes and ears of someone intimately connected to but ultimately outside of it.  Part soundscape, part improvisation, Shruti uses a wide range of tools from the laptop to the harmonium to present an emotional and personal portrait of urban culture and personal experience.

paste this link into your mp3 player:

http://207.188.64.196:8100/listen.m3u
(update: the stream is now offline)

(in itunes, it is under the “advanced” tab.  other players, well, you’re going to have to check online for info.)

many thanks go to naomi potter and pandora syperek, the curators of the radio exhibition, and susan kennard, the banff new media institute director.

the audio stream will go from 10pm tonight (wednesday, sept. 17) until friday morning.  please tune in, and pass this on!

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audio performance/music video

things in banff are going well.  time to look ahead a little bit.

sept 20 you’ll find me @ dundas square as part of the new music marathon.  i will be part of darren copeland’s audio art curation/installation 3 sided square.  the marathon runs from 2pm-10pm, and just about anyone who is anyone in the new music community will be there either performing or generally rocking out.  you’ll hear everything from stockhausen to cage, to glass to original music from the toronto new music scene.  info here and here.

i have been asked by the berlin/bochum dj trio the homewreckers to make a music video for their upcoming CD release, which drops october 10.  the video will be done before xmas and you will be able to find it on youtube and other locations.  check out their online spaces for more information.

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radio performance @ banff centre and online

i will be doing a live radio broadcast/performance next friday @ the banff centre.  luckily, you can tune in online here:  http://www.radio90.fm/

my performance begins at 6:15 alberta time (see here to help you calculate your local time for those of you tuning in via internet).  i am as always very excited to perform this work, especially because i never know what it will be.  expect to hear field recordings from kolkata, folk music, street sounds, a track or 2 from my CD quell, and perhaps some music i have been working on here.  the banff centre has a long and illustrious association with radio art, and i am very pleased to be included on the list of great sound artists who have performed radio in the past.

tune in.