Tra i vari cofanetti antologici che celebrano i quarant'anni di attività in campo discografico del brand Virgin, Losing Our Virginity-The First Four Years 1973-1977 è quello che ne ritrae il fulminante esordio: tre cd compilati da Jason Day nel solco dello storico V, con i nomi più cari - Faust, Gong, Robert Wyatt, Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Kevin Coyne, Ivor Cutler, Captain Beefheart, Egg e Hatfield and the North - ma anche Clearlight, White Noise, Mallard e Wigwam, oltre ovviamente a Oldfield, Bedford e Newman.

http://www.udiscovermusic.com/virgin-40-the-early-years

Alleluia Cassiber!

In 1982 Cassiber (phonetically: ‘a message smuggled out of prison’) crashed like a locomotive into the Deutsche Neue Welle. Founded by Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and Chris Cutler, Cassiber managed to fuse materials and attitudes drawn from experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics, improvisation, close structure and musique concrete with an energetic and complex form of studio (and then concert) composition that was unique in its combination of diverse experimental approaches to form with a risky, emotional and expressive mode of execution. Through a deep connection between instrumentation, form and topicality, their musical evolution tracked and anticipated the political and technological changes of their time. Thus, in the course of their 10 years of intermittent touring and 4 records they evolved significantly through the high stakes energy of the earlier releases into their later, more complex and composed, studio works (by which time they had become a trio: Goebbels, Anders, Cutler) when they also had early access to the first generation of polyphonic samplers. Highly radical, their music opened up song form by abandoning, extending or crashing sideways into it - building structure from a combination of noise, libido, high musicality and - unique for the time - a great deal of cultural debris.

This box collects it all (the majority of it out-of-print for some time now) alongside a lot of unreleased material and a full concert DVD. The 4 historic releases have been carefully re-mastered by Bob Drake and there are, in addition, two extra CDs, one that collects the Cassix, Duck and Cover and Ground Zero projects (also re-mastered) and one of unreleased studio and live material, and a DVD (about 2 hours) of live and studio footage - including a mini documentary made during the recording of A Face We All Know. It comes in the usual sturdy box with a fat booklet of documents, interviews, information, photographs, pictures, itineraries and miscellaneous memorabilia.

http://www.rermegacorp.com

Sono a Piacenza domani sera per un concerto al Conservatorio Nicolini, con inizio alle 21.00: Keith & Julie Tippett.

http://www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/keith-tippett-biography.htm
http://www.mindyourownmusic.co.uk/julie-tippetts.htm

Marco Dalpane presenta anche a Trento il suo programma di immagini e musiche zappiane trascritte e interpretate al pianoforte: Frank Zappa, un eroe americano. "Ho trascritto le sue musiche, canzoni e brani strumentali, per il più classico degli strumenti, il pianoforte. Sono rimasto molto fedele agli originali, e ho cercato di far suonare il mio strumento al meglio."

Un bel saggio di bravura è Peaches en Regalia. Al Circolino di Piazza Venezia questa sera, alle ore 21.30.

http://www.marcodalpane.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXpGzzVpLPM

Due importanti libri in francese usciti le scorse settimane forniscono diretto accesso all'universo Magma attraverso le parole dei protagonisti: una lunga intervista di Christian Vander raccolta da Christophe Rossi e il racconto biografico con cronache e immagini, assai preziose, di Klaus Blasquiz.

Christian Vander, à vie, à mort et après (Naïve, 2013)
Dans le long entretien accordé à Christophe Rossi, Christian Vander se dévoile et s’attarde tout autant sur l’histoire de Magma et sa fascination pour John Coltrane que sur sa quête spirituelle.
Depuis plus de quarante ans, Magma traverse le paysage musical français hors des modes et des courants. Mais Magma est d’abord et avant tout la chose de Christian Vander, le leader charismatique, fondateur, compositeur, batteur et parfois chanteur qui propose un croisement de chant choral, avant-garde, rock et jazz avec des paroles chantées dans une langue imaginaire aux consonances germaniques, le kobaïen. Ayant baigné dans le jazz depuis l’enfance, Christian Vander s’est toujours attaché à proposer une musique au spectre large, dominée par l’esprit de John Coltrane mais où planent également les ombres de Carl Orff ou de Stravinsky. Christian Vander accueillera au sein de Magma nombre de musiciens qui feront l’histoire du jazz et du rock français comme Jannick Top, Bernard Paganotti, Claude Engel, Didier Lockwood, François Cahen, Teddy Lasry… Au cours de sa carrière, il proposera également d’autres aventures musicales sous un autre format, telle la formation Offering consacrée principalement à un travail sur les voix et les percussions, ou encore l’Alien Quartet.

Klaus Blasquiz, Au cœur du Magma (Le mot et le reste, 2013)
Magma apparaît sur la scène française en 1969 à l’initiative de son charismatique leader Christian Vander. Comme le dit Philippe Paringaux en 1970 dans Rock&Folk, la musique de Magma «ne peut être comparée à rien de ce qui se fait jusqu’à présent». Ce croisement avant-gardiste de rock, jazz et chant choral dans une langue imaginée par Vander lui-même, le kobaïen, garde quarante ans plus tard sa singularité et confère à ce groupe, qui accueillit pas moins de 150 musiciens, une aura mystique qui rassemble toujours les fans. Klaus Blasquiz, premier chanteur officiel de cette formation qui fut à l’origine d’un style musical baptisé zeuhl, raconte Magma. Témoin privilégié de la création du groupe, de la construction des premiers albums, des concerts, des réussites et des déceptions, il propose au lecteur une plongée dans cette odyssée qu’est Magma et livre son expérience musicale et humaine: «Les heures passées, des jours durant, à découvrir et goûter la musique et la poésie de Christian Vander, de sa propre bouche et du bout de ses doigts, ont été pour moi des moments incomparables, pendant plus d’une décennie».
Le récit de l’auteur est accompagné de nombreuses photos inédites.

http://www.naive.fr/oeuvre/christian-vander
https://www.facebook.com/naive.livres
http://kosmikmu.blogspot.it/2013/07/un-livre-dentretien-la-rentree-chez.html
http://lemotetlereste.com/mr/attitudes/aucoeurdumagma
http://kosmikmu.blogspot.it/2013/09/sortie-du-livre-de-klaus-blasquiz-le-14.html

Presentato tra i materiali promozionali in occasione dei concerti in Giappone pochi giorni fa - ed esaurito in poche ore - il cdr dal vivo di you me & us (Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler e Yumi Hara Cawkwell) è nuovamente disponibile direttamente presso la pianista e cantante: yumicity@hotmail.com. Contiene estratti dai concerti del trio a Londra la primavera scorsa, il 21 aprile al club The Grosvenor e il 2 maggio al club The Others.

https://www.facebook.com/yumi.cawkwell
https://www.facebook.com/daevidchrisyumi

Se n'è andato all'età di ottantasei anni Bernard Parmegiani, nume tutelare della musica elettroacustica e acusmatica, studioso e incessante indagatore della natura del suono e della sua creazione, collaboratore di Pierre Schaeffer sul finire degli anni cinquanta e da allora tra i responsabili in Francia del Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Gran parte della sua opera - poco accademica, che ha avuto agganci con il jazz e il rock, trovando sbocchi nel cinema, nel teatro, nella danza, in varie forme di arte elettronica, e anche in aeroporti! - è raccolta in un cofanetto di dodici cd pubblicato nel 1988 da Ina-Grm, L’œuvre musicale.

http://www.parmegiani.fr
http://www.inagrm.com/deces-bernard-parmegiani
http://www.inagrm.com/sites/default/files/mini-sites/parmegiani/co/Bernard_Parmegiani.html
http://bit.ly/1h7p4zb

Raro come l'uccello più raro al mondo, nell'opinione di Miles Mellough di Birds With Broken Wings: "Robert Wyatt's peerless music is clear, emotionally charged and always on the verge of breaking, bringing depth and soul to songs that if recorded by a lesser artist, would sound terse and tired. Mixing simple, but effective, sometimes ghostly and ethereal keyboard melodies that are filled with copious atmosphere, along with poignant lyrics that reference both his personal and often highly charged political viewpoints, the results are uniformly haunting and reflective -- generally restless, often clever and always brilliant. Wyatt's is a music that never ceases to be anything but art of the the highest order. And that in short is Robert Wyatt, and it's the reason why he's revered by so many. He's the most rarest of birds in today's world of music and without a doubt, an international treasure."

http://birdswithbrokenwings2.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-rarest-of-birds.html

Torna in questi giorni alla luce il film sperimentale di Laura Mulvey e Peter Wollen Riddles of the Sphinx, lettura psicanalitica e femminista dei temi della maternità, del patriarcato e della differenza sessuale attraverso il mito di Edipo e della Sfinge, uscito nel 1977 con musiche di Mike Ratledge. La riedizione è a cura del British Film Institute, con molti materiali aggiuntivi e informativi, in doppio formato DVD e Blu-ray Disc ad alta definizione. Una versione in bassa qualità è su YouTube.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/blu-rays-dvds/riddles-sphinx
http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6b44ca05
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c471.shtml
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/567526/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9u5md4QjF0

Sonic Shuffle è l'ingegnosa applicazione ideata da Domenico Sciajno per consegnare alla fantasia e alla creatività dell'utilizzatore finale la possibilità di agire/interagire a piacere con l'omonima partitura grafica e un'orchestra di 48 musicisti infinitamente riconfigurabile: Franz Hautzinger, Chris Brown, Toshimaru Nakamura, Phill Niblock, Gunter Müller, Oren Ambarchi, Lionel Marchetti, Kim Cascone, Asmus Tietchens, Vladislav Delay, Alvin Curran, Michael J. Schumacher, Elliott Sharp, Philippe Petit, Lukas Ligeti, Yannis Kyriakides, Tim Hodgkinson, Anne La Berge, Tom Recchion, Thomas Lehn, Axel Dörner sono tra questi, e anche il compianto Laurent Dailleau, cui il lavoro è dedicato. Il tutto tramite una carta da gioco sonora - prodotta in questa versione v.01 in soli cinquanta esemplari da Bowindo Recordings - che dialoga con dispositivi Mac o Windows tramite porta USB.

Note, manualetto di istruzioni, fondamenti teorici e suggerimenti pratici si trovano presso www.sonicshuffle.net

Dice Sciajno: “I transformed my Sonic Shuffle score into a software application, an interface that actually allows any user to act as the ‘conductor’ of the original score to perform and control it in real time by composing and orchestrating the recordings from all the artists who interpreted its parts. So, the software application (the score) and the recordings (the performed parts) are stored and distributed on a digital media support, so that it does not result in a fixed and defined composition. In fact, due to the way I conceived the score and therefore the application, the organization of the recordings is subjected to a probabilistic and aleatoric process. The diversity of organization and distribution of the parts in every performance will strongly impact the shape and the character of the composition, which will be different every time. On top of that, the application allows the user to introduce sound recordings of his or her choice, revealing the Opera Aperta (Open Artwork) potential of this work.”

http://www.sciajno.net
http://www.sonicshuffle.net
http://www.bowindorecordings.com

Massimo Giuntoli porta questa sera a Trento il suo recital Pie Glue! sui poeti della Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Norman Mailer, Denise Levertov e Michael McClure. I testi sono tratti dalle storiche antologie Jukebox all'idrogeno e Poesia degli ultimi americani curate da Fernanda Pivano. Con Giuntoli (pianoforte, tastiera, voce) c'è Clara Zucchetti (vibrafono, tastiera, percussioni, voce). All'Auditorium Studentato San Bartolameo, con inizio alle ore 21.00.

https://www.facebook.com/PieGlue
http://www.trentinojazz.com/styled-2/index.html

Goat Hopper documenta l'unico, breve incontro tenutosi nel 2008 presso i Delta Recording Studios a Chartham, vicino Canterbury, tra Hugh Hopper e il trio locale Honey Ride Me A Goat (Jonny Shoults, Motney Slim e Michael Pike): altri appuntamenti erano in programma, ma poi la salute di Hopper non lo permise. Il cd pubblicato in questi giorni da Voiceprint/Floating World riporta due singoli brani, Can of Worms e Delta Skelter, e l'intera sessione improvvisata - quarantacinque minuti circa - che li ha generati: "The original recording has also been included on this CD release in its entirety as a 'warts and all' record of this event and as a testiment to Hugh's good nature and unmistakable, wonderful fuzz bass". In anteprima presso Bandcamp.

http://www.hugh-hopper.com
https://www.facebook.com/honeyridemeagoat
http://honeyridemeagoat.bandcamp.com/album/goat-hopper
http://www.floatingworldrecords.co.uk/albums/honey-ride-me-a-goat2

For Mother's Sake è il testo autobiografico che raccoglie le memorie e i racconti di Jimmy Carl Black, rimasto incompiuto alla sua scomparsa cinque anni fa e ora preparato per la pubblicazione da Monika Black e Julian Smith. Lo si ottiene ordinandolo a Inkanish Publications tramite CreateSpace.

For Mother’s Sake is the true-life account of a boy growing up on the Texas/Mexico border during the 1940s, of his discovery of sex, drink, rock ‘n’ roll and love in the 50s, and of California in the 1960s and a remarkable journey through a decade of radical social and political change. Along with Frank Zappa, he was a founder member of the Mothers of Invention, one of the most influential ‘rock’ bands in the history of 20th century music. Jimmy recalls these times with a clarity that is remarkable, considering the backdrop. Jimmy’s desires are laid bare as he discovers what free love, drugs and “freakiness” are all about.
Cast back into obscurity by Frank Zappa, Jimmy goes on to recall time spent in the wilderness, brief returns to stardom and, on moving to Europe, a return to center stage with the Grandmothers. But not for long as the unexpected happens! Left stranded and alone in Europe, Jimmy forms new musical partnerships and stays on the road, a troubadour to the end. By this time, Jimmy has finally acquired mythical “ol’ timer” status, particularly in Europe, where he was much loved and where he had, along the way, finally met the love of his life. He considered himself a “fortunate guy”.
Jimmy left an incomplete manuscript when he died. From 1995, the existing text has been supplemented with reminiscences and statements drawn from Jimmy’s own website bio and from the many interviews he gave during this time. But this is his book and these are his words. Indeed, the book ends with extracts from his last written interview, given in August of 2008, less than 3 months before he died. It is a poignant ending to a remarkable story.

https://www.createspace.com/4495126
https://www.createspace.com/pub/community/give.review.do?id=1135588&rewrite=true
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimmy-carl-black-mn0000851533

Uno speciale dedicato a Captain Beefheart viene trasmesso stasera dall'olandese Radio6, dalle 20.30 alle 23.00. Lo presenta Co de Kloet, proponendo brani di sue interviste al Capitano e a Gary Lucas, e l'integrale del concerto The World of Captain Beefheart tenuto da Lucas e la Metropole Orkest ad Amsterdam lo scorso 17 febbraio.

http://www.beefheart.com/special-beefheart-night-on-dutch-radio
www.radio6.nl/colive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq62q1xuQz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_6DNQRYW_s

Tra i materiali prodotti in proprio dall'associazione culturale Waschaecht a Wels (Austria) allo scopo di documentare, pur episodicamente, le edizioni del festival Music Unlimited - in genere appoggiandosi al lavoro dello staff di PanRec guidato da Pavel Borodin per quanto riguarda la parte video, o avvalendosi delle immagini di Peter Gannushkin - si segnalano due recenti aggiunte: una sobria antologia in DVD dell'edizione dello scorso anno e una ripresa integrale, consegnata a un graziosissimo mini-DVD, del concerto in duo tenuto da Phil Minton e Dieb13 (cioè Dieter Kovacic) il 7 novembre 2009.

http://waschaecht.at
http://www.musicunlimited.at
http://www.panrec.com
https://www.facebook.com/shkin
http://waschaecht.at/contentmedia/pdf/mu2012_web.pdf
http://waschaecht.at/contentmedia/pdf/Unlimited09_web.pdf

Prende il via oggi la ventunesima edizione del London Jazz Festival, con una miriade di concerti ed eventi da qui al 24 novembre dislocati un po' ovunque a Londra, in teatri, sale, club e luoghi anche all'aperto. Sede di numerose iniziative saranno ovviamente anche il Vortex Jazz Club e il Cafe Oto: al Vortex passeranno tra gli altri i Township Comets con le musiche di Dudu Pukwana, Alexander Hawkins in duo con Louis Moholo-Moholo, Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, John Russell con Quaqua, Philip Catherine e John Etheridge. Tra le cose in programma al Cafe Oto spicca la proiezione del film di Helen Petts su Lol Coxhill, Solo Soprano, prodotto pochi mesi fa per il festival Full of Noises a Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria. A presentarlo con lei domani pomeriggio, ripresi da Jazz on 3, ci saranno Steve Beresford e Mick Audsley, responsabile quest'ultimo del documento video del 1972 ampiamente citato dall'autrice nella stesura finale dell'opera.

Solo Soprano is an exploration of the nature of creativity, artistic integrity, improvisation and ageing - through an intimate portrait of free improvising soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill, who died last year. Specialising in the solo improvisation but also known for his work with soul singer Rufus Thomas, progressive rocker Kevin Ayers, the Damned, and film directors Sally Potter and Derek Jarman - Lol Coxhill was a leading member of the international free improvisation scene. He was a much loved personality  as well as a great musician. The film features a 30 minute solo from the 2009 Freedom of the City Festival in London, intercut with archive footage from a documentary made in 1972 by leading feature film editor Mick Audsley, Petts' more intimate recordings of other Coxhill solo improvisations and footage of his personal archive of music, instruments, toys and ephemera. Final sound mixed by Dave Hunt.

http://www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk
http://www.helenpetts.com
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/project-space-solo-soprano-lol-coxhill-helen-petts.shtm
http://www.soundandmusic.org/thesampler/event/2013/11/solo-soprano-portrait-lol-coxhill
http://www.fonfestival.org/Helen_Petts.html

A Lindsay Cooper ha dedicato poche sere fa una puntata speciale il programma Battiti, su RadioTre: il podcast della trasmissione si recupera in http://www.radio.rai.it/podcast/A42722602.mp3. Un bel ritratto è anche su MusicaJazz di questo mese: http://musicajazz.it/in-edicola. Da leggere senz'altro è lo scritto di Maggie Nicols pubblicato presso il Women's Liberation Music Archive. E così ricorda Sally Potter: "I first met Lindsay Cooper in 1979, when she was already a musical phenomenon, playing the bassoon in the avant-rock group Henry Cow. Lindsay often spoke of the bassoon as the instrument closest to the human voice. She made it speak to us in new ways, exploring its growling depths and soaring, mournful heights with dexterity and technical inventiveness. She used a foot pedal to generate multiple loops, becoming a one-woman bassoon orchestra in her legendary solo improvisations. Lindsay’s off-stage charm and humour transmuted into a charismatic stage presence, at times light and playful, at others dark and intense. She was a composer and band leader who also nurtured the gift of collaboration. She was an idealist with strong political convictions, but her work was never didactic. She believed in the transcendental power of pure sound. We worked together in several groups – FIG, The Marx Bros, The Film Music Orchestra and Oh Moscow. She wrote the score for The Gold Diggers and we went on to co-write many songs. Long hours in recording studios at her side taught me many invaluable lessons. Lindsay died of pneumonia following a heroic 27 year struggle with MS. Thank God her music lives on."

Radiotre Suite Jazz trasmette questa sera il concerto di Ned Rothenberg registrato a Padova nella Sala dei Giganti, a Palazzo Liviano, lo scorso 9 marzo: inizio alle 22.50.

http://www.nedrothenberg.com

Ampie porzioni dei concerti visti a Wels (Austria) al festival Music Unlimited - quest'anno condotto con la guida artistica di Okkyung Lee - sono alla pagina YouTube di wotan667.

http://www.musicunlimited.at
http://www.youtube.com/user/wotan667

Il nuovo album di Viv Corringham è il resoconto di un'affascinante esplorazione sonora condotta lungo strade e stradine a Porto, Minneapolis, Hong Kong, Londra e New York, luoghi visitati con occasionali compagni e poi ripercorsi in solitudine rintracciando parole, suoni rivelatori e ricordi: Walking, su Innova Recordings.

"These works were all composed between 2009 and 2013. Most are part of my ongoing project Shadow-walks in which I request to be taken on a special walk with an individual, a walk that has been repeated many times and has meaning for the person. We walk together and I record the conversations and environmental sounds. I then repeat the walk alone, attempting to sense my previous companion’s traces on the now solitary walk and to make the memory of shared time and experience audible through singing. These compositions integrate singing, narration and the sounds of the place."

http://vivcorringham.org
http://www.innova.mu/sites/www.innova.mu/files/liner-notes/872.htm
http://www.innova.mu/sites/www.innova.mu/files/album/files/872digi1.pdf

Ken Hyder interviene al programma Soundwave (BBC Radio Six International) e ricorda com'era suonare in Germania Est ai tempi della cortina di ferro:
http://www.mixcloud.com/Radio_Six_International/john-cavanaghs-soundwave-programme-number-460-2nd-4th-november-2013-with-ken-hyder

www.kenhyder.co.uk

Flora Eginton di Glasstire ha seguito il concerto dei Konk Pack - Tim Hodgkinson, Thomas Lehn, Roger Turner - a Houston (Texas) qualche giorno fa e ne è uscita con i timpani rifatti: "British/German electro-acoustic trio Konk Pack wowed audiences with their dynamic performance at Houston’s Spring Street Studios Tuesday night. Playing their second set first and their first set last, but not until after the encore, Konk Pack tinkered with our eardrums until they were rebuilt - better - stronger - more complex. Seamlessly oscillating between sensory overload and quietude, Konk Pack challenged the audience to reassess traditional preconceived notions of music, art and performance".

http://glasstire.com/2013/10/21/2-houston-konk-pack-elaine-bradford
http://www.namelesssound.org/events/2013_10_15_konkpack.html
http://www.myspace.com/konkpack
http://www.thomaslehn.de
http://timhodgkinson.co.uk
http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mturner.html

Si rinnova oggi a Wels (Austria) l'appuntamento con il festival Music Unlimited, tre giorni ricchi di concerti, eventi, installazioni artistiche e spunti di riflessione intitolati quest'anno al 'rumore più bello al mondo', così come inteso dalla curatrice del programma, la violoncellista coreana Okkyung Lee: “For me, noise is the most personal, most individual way of making music” Okkyung Lee states in the course of an interview, specifying her understanding of noise not as a continuous surge of volume or the process of playing with din but as a general idea of sound and sough, an idea of “music that can't be written down or notated.” It's this non-academic approach towards music that makes noise so attractive for the academically trained cellist. “Everybody can produce noise but it's the way they produce it that makes the big difference.”

http://www.musicunlimited.at
https://www.facebook.com/festivalmusicunlimitedwels
http://okkyung.wordpress.com

Prosegue fino a fine novembre nel Regno Unito la serie di concerti di improvvisazione guidata promossi da Vicky Bennett - agguerrita artista britannica specialista del collage multimediale, nota ai più come People Like Us - ideati attorno alla partitura visiva Notations da lei stessa creata manipolando centinaia di frammenti di film pre-esistenti. Tra quanti hanno accettato la sfida ci sono Rhodri Davies, Philip Jeck, Jaap Blonk, Steve Noble, Wobbly e Mark Sanders. Informazioni, partitura e traccia delle più recenti performance si trovano in http://peoplelikeus.org.

Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been an influential figure in the field of audio visual collage, through her innovative sampling, appropriating and cutting up of found footage and archives. Using collage as her main form of expression, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that communicate a humorous and dark view on life in equal measures. People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use. In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive. People Like Us have previously shown work at, amongst others, Tate Modern, The Barbican, Centro de Cultura Digital, Maxxi and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. She has an ongoing sound art radio show 'Do or DIY' on WFMU. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb. Vicki recently completed a new solo set Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another), a film for live improvising artists/musicians Notations which tours the UK with TUSK/Sound & Music, a film with 7 artist soundtracks Gesture Piece, films for Animate Projects/Channel 4, and a new CD called Don't Think Right, It's All Twice.

http://peoplelikeus.org
http://peoplelikeus.org/2013/notations

Nuova formazione (David Thomas, Keith Moliné, Darryl Boon, Gagarin e Steve Mehlman), due nuovi cicli di canzoni (Dr Faustroll in the Big Easy e Visions of the Moon), e un concerto che a ogni minuto sfiora lo psicodramma: la danza moderna dei Pere Ubu a Verona sabato scorso, un blues in 3/4 sull'orlo del collasso. Da brivido.

https://www.facebook.com/official.ubu
http://www.youtube.com/user/photocronista

Sonata Islands Kommandoh rivisita alcune tra le pagine più briose e spumeggianti dell'avant-pop giapponese di fine anni ottanta omaggiandone gli alfieri - Kiyohiko Semba, Jun Togawa, Phew, After Dinner, Wha Ha Ha e Mishio Ogawa su tutti - con garbo, sorriso e fine competenza filologica. E per il debutto qualche sera fa a Trento Sarah Stride, Emilio Galante, Giovanni Venosta, Alberto Turra, William Nicastro e Sergio Quagliarella hanno scelto una mise OSS che è essa stessa una citazione. Titolo programmatico: Nippon Eldorado Kabarett. Un piccolo saggio di bravura è su YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/photocronista.

Annunciato più volte - e più volte rinviato - è ora pronto Where Roads Cross, doppio dvd prodotto in tiratura limitata contenente due documenti video solo in parte già noti dei Faust: il lungo concerto retrospettivo filmato a Lione nel 2006 durante il festival Les Nuits Sonores e il documentario biografico Ist FAUST schön? pazientemente realizzato da Julien Perrin tra il 2007 e il 2008. Informazioni: www.facebook.com/Faustwhereroadscross

Pochi giorni fa Londra ha potuto finalmente conoscere dal vivo il celebre lavoro zappiano 200 Motels, a quarantadue anni di distanza dall'esecuzione alla Royal Albert Hall - all'ultimo impedita - prevista nel 1971. Cronache dell'evento, inserito nel programma annuale The Rest is Noise tuttora in corso presso il Southbank Centre londinese, si rintracciano ovunque su quotidiani e siti web: "One of the music events of the year Frank Zappa's legendary 1971 work 200 Motels is performed live in concert for the first ever time in the UK. This colossal piece, one of the most ambitious that Zappa ever wrote, is performed by the full forces of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, London Voices and a large cast of rock musicians, singers and actors. Banned from live performance at the time of its composition, and a cult classic on film and on record ever since."

http://united-mutations.blogspot.it/2013/11/october-2013-200-motels-in-london.html
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/30/200-motels-frank-zappa-review
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/classical-review-200-motels-royal-festival-hall-london-8912881.html
http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/frank-zappas-200-motels-royal-festival-hall

Prima di adottare la sigla Residents - nel 1974, alla pubblicazione del loro primo album - i Nostri facevano i pendolari da San Mateo a San Francisco, coltivavano amicizie segretamente influenti, sognavano di girare un grandioso lungometraggio nella sede di una stamperia in disuso (Vileness Fats) e intanto per le prime autoproduzioni si facevano chiamare The Delta Nudes. La storia è stata raccontata per sommi capi l'anno scorso in un sito web ad hoc, povero di materiali d'archivio di pregio e però ricco di allusioni a documenti ahimè perduti, o irreperibili. I file proposti allora come mp3 di bassa qualità audio sono ora raccolti, parrebbe migliorati, in un cd dal titolo Greatest Hiss: "Blame me for this one - scrive l'autore delle note, Big Brother - last year I came up with the "brilliant" idea for the ERA B4-74 web site. As a product idea I assembled some of the old poorly recorded music from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I made a download mp3 collection. Of course there was actually little interest in the B4-74 web site, or its many products, other than some kind of perverse attraction in the old recordings. So here is that collection of old stuff, only cleaned up and lossless. Additionally there is music that has never been heard outside of the archive collection. Perhaps with good reason. Tapes that hiss are no longer considered an obstacle. So here it is. A collection - no, an expanded collection - of music from a time when there was no thought of record companies, touring Europe, or selling refrigerators for a living. Welcome to the world of The Delta Nudes."

http://ralphlet.bandcamp.com
http://residents.com/historical4/erab474/index.html

Sfiora anche l'Italia l'attuale tour europeo dei Pere Ubu, dal titolo Visions of the Moon: i concerti sono questa sera a Torino (Spazio 211) e domani a Verona (Interzona). Con David Thomas ci sono Keith Moliné, Graham Dowdall (che si fa chiamare Gagarin), Darryl Boon e Steve Mehlman. In scaletta molti nuovi brani, alcuni probabilmente destinati al prossimo album, Beep Fiction.

http://ubuprojex.net