Tracce sul web del recente passaggio in Italia di Evan Parker: a Roma al Circolo Dal Verme, in quartetto con Marco Colonna, Roberto Bellatalla e Fabrizio Spera; al Pisa Jazz 2016, con uno strepitoso concerto acustico in solo; e a Battiti, nella notte di Radio3, protagonista della puntata di sabato scorso.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI0X-eH7zQvcz9vzMOXBLmQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofJfwA0TFZcoiFFTun9BuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPO_2TMyVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBFq7XdulYg
http://tinyurl.com/hnwah4m

Lo annuncia Martin Archer tra le prossime uscite per la sua etichetta, Discus Music: "Very pleased to announce that Discus 56CD will be a release of The Nine Dances Of Patrick O'Gonogon, composed by Keith Tippett and performed by the Keith Tippett Octet.  This major new work was commissioned by Richard Wiltshire and beautifully recorded at Real World Studio, and is based on themes from Irish folk music. It's a very attractive and creative work and of course it's very pleasing to include Keith in the stable of Discus artists at last."
L'album entrerà a breve nelle sue ultime fasi di produzione, e sarà pronto prevedibilmente a settembre: lo si può sostenere e prenotare già ora tramite Kickstarter.

http://discus-music.co.uk
https://vimeo.com/88006988

Tocca anche l'Italia il nuovo giro dal vivo - denominato Coed Jail! - dei Pere Ubu con il (temporaneo) ritorno in formazione dello storico chitarrista Tom Herman. I concerti fanno seguito alla recente pubblicazione di due corposi volumi retrospettivi, Elitism For The People, 1975-1978 e Architecture Of Language, 1979-1982, da Thomas ritenuti per molti versi definitivi, e li promuovono. E tuttavia: "This isn't a reunion. It isn't a greatest hits tour."
Domani a Padova, poi Roma e Bologna: www.ubuprojex.com/coedjail.html

Pere Ubu launch 'Coed Jail!,' a tour drawing on the music from the two recent box set releases, Architecture Of Language, 1979-1982 and Elitism For The People, 1975-1978. Guitarist Tom Herman plays in the band for the third time since 1975. The rest of the line-up is David Thomas, Robert Wheeler, Michele Temple and Steve Mehlman. Wheeler and Temple have been in Pere Ubu since 1994, Mehlman since 1995. "We don't promote chaos, we preserve it," Thomas explained. "Now more than ever - just like Nixon said - you need the sort of utterly gratuitous mess that only men of conviction can provide."
Early in 1977, after refining the doctrine of Datapanik, Thomas came downstairs in the house he shared with junk conceptualist / designer Johnny Dromette. There, in the living room, in the midst of a life-size reproduction of a Hollywood TV game show set that he'd constructed overnight, Johnny, exhausted, pronounced in portentous tones, "Coed Jail!"
Herman, Ubu guitarist from 1975 to 1979 and 1995 to 2002, chose the songs for the tour, four from each of the first five albums and the collection of early singles. He coined the Ubu Rule that became known as the Herman Doctrine, "The best guitar part is the one that requires you to move your fingers the least."

http://www.ubuprojex.com
http://www.ubuprojex.com/elitism.html
http://www.ubuprojex.com/language.html

Sorpresa pasquale! Roger Dean tira fuori da chissà quale suo cassetto un rullino di foto con gli scatti che fece ai Wilde Flowers nel 1965 - su invito di Robert Wyatt - poco prima che il gruppo adottasse nel nome quella 'e' così graziosamente suggerita da Kevin Ayers. L'album completo è su FB.

https://www.facebook.com/Roger-Dean-Official-Page-267978434150
http://tinyurl.com/j7pwamq

Babau!

(Paolo Poli, 1929-2016)

In questi giorni a far chiarezza - anzi, trasparenza - su Third dei Soft Machine e altre loro storie non è il prof. Pardo: tutt'altro, è l'olandese Music On Vinyl. Solo per le prime mille copie, però!

http://www.musiconvinyl.com/news/soft-machine#.VuqEg-LhDSe
http://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/soft-machine/third#.VuqEq-LhDSc

Altre musiche in salotto: Alliance, di Robert Wyatt (da Old Rottenhat, 1985), arrangiata ed eseguita in casa da Giovanni Venosta.

http://tinyurl.com/zq3vrqa

Carnation... Dark Glasses... Mustache... Nel salottino di casa Glenn Firester e Karen Mantler rileggono amabilmente Masquerade in 3 Parts, un brano di Steve Swallow del 1993 (da Go Together, in duo con Carla Bley). Un idillio!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjXTQd8glY0

Immersioni prolungate in chiare acque canterburiane propongono The Winstons - Lino Gitto, Enrico Gabrielli e Roberto Dell'Era, più qualche ospite - con l'omonimo album di debutto prodotto in diverse versioni per AMS Records, specialista del progressive rock all'italiana. Brani, riff, sonorità e scelte strumentali dipingono quasi dal vero scenari di profondità e di superficie esplorati in origine soprattutto da Egg, Caravan e Soft Machine. Nella sezione ringraziamenti non destano meraviglia i nomi di Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper e Daevid Allen (però manca Kevin Ayers, chissà perché), dato l'insistente rivolgersi del trio alle mappe del Primo Volume. Gli approdi si avvistano tramite Bandcamp.

https://thewinstons.bandcamp.com/album/the-winstons
https://www.facebook.com/The-Winstons-936895146382917
http://www.ams-records.it

Tra i giovani talenti cui negli anni più recenti Mike e Kate Westbrook han dato insegnamenti, fiducia e spazio via via crescenti all'interno dei propri progetti - A Bigger Show, Paintbox Jane, Glad Day tra gli altri - spiccano la sassofonista Roz Harding, la cantante e violinista Martine Waltier, l'estroverso polistrumentista Billy Bottle. Quest'ultimo in particolare ha già una vivace produzione a proprio nome, segnata dalle frequentazioni e gli incontri con la giovane scena artistica della provincia inglese e la vecchia guardia canterburiana - da Dave Sinclair a Robert Wyatt a Jimmy Hastings - così come da vari altri interessi personali, tra cui la poesia, l'animazione teatrale, il circo. Uno dei suoi lavori più compiuti può esser considerato l'album consegnato alle stampe un paio d'anni fa, Unrecorded Beam, costruito con levità piuttosto rara presso l'etichetta che se n'è fatta garante (la Leo Records di Feigin) su un impianto letterario di peso desunto da Henry David Thoreau. Da sentire è anche il toccante omaggio a uno dei suoi idoli di sempre, Kevin Ayers: You Can't Shine If You Don't Burn.

http://www.billybottle.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BillyBottle
http://billybottle.bandcamp.com

Compie oggi ottant'anni Mike Westbrook, un lieto anniversario che lo coglie nel pieno del fervore creativo assieme all'inseparabile Kate e del vivace susseguirsi di eventi artistici e concertistici: tra questi, un doppio album (A Bigger Show) capace finalmente di risvegliare l'attenzione internazionale dopo anni di colpevole distrazione; una lunga intermittente serie di rappresentazioni ovunque - e presto anche a Londra - con l'euforica The Uncommon Orchestra, forte di ben 22 elementi; la rilettura integrale per quartetto - Quartetto Westbrooko, con Chris Biscoe e Marcus Vergette - del ciclo di canzoni hollywoodiane di Friedrich Hollaender Love or Infatuation inizialmente concepito per il solo duo con Kate; l'avvio poche settimane fa di un nuovo progetto di teatro musicale per piccolo ensemble - Company Westbrook, un po' nella scia di Platterback e Art Wolf - con materiale originale già del tutto definito (Paintbox Jane) in pieno flirt con Matisse, Satie, il jazz cabaret e Brigitte Bardot. Auguri Mike, evviva!

E così invita lo Smith's Academy Informer: "21st March. The spring equinox. Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685). Birth of Mike Westbrook (1936). It’s enough to get you to believe in astrology! 1936 was an eventful year. On 21st March Hitler was militarising the Rhine lands and Russian composer Alexander Glazunov died. While Bing Crosby was counting pennies from heaven, Shostakovich fell out of favour with Stalin, Prokofiev composed not only Romeo & Juliet but also Peter & The Wolf, Robert Johnson was standing at the crossroads, Count Basie was working long and hard in Kansas City plying his impeccably swinging take on the blues, and the teenage Charlie Parker was working on his chops, practising up to 15 hours a day. Cut to 2016. Another eventful year in politics and music. And Westbrook's output is as vibrant and vital as it's ever been. Mike has active bands large and small. His back catalogue continues to expand and excite and, luckily for us, there’s no sign of a let up in his energy levels or creativity. Let us all raise a glass to Mike and wish him a very happy birthday."

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk

Il magnifico quartetto di 4 Blokes (Ogun, 2014) guidato da Louis Moholo-Moholo - con Jason Yarde, Alexander Hawkins e John Edwards - chiama Shabaka Hutchings per qualche partita a cinque: per esempio stasera al Bergamo Jazz, al Teatro Donizetti.

http://tinyurl.com/zscnbmr

In questi giorni, e fino al 22 marzo, Jonathan Coe incontra alcuni suoi lettori in Italia a Firenze, Bari, Roma, Milano e Torino. L'occasione è la pubblicazione per Feltrinelli del suo Number 11 (Numero undici), nella traduzione di Maria Giulia Castagnone. Il romanzo è stato scelto da Mike Gayle e Blake Woodham come 'libro del mese' nel programma The Brum Radio Book Club, che nella puntata di debutto, lo scorso 29 gennaio, ha proposto anche alcune musiche di Coe.

https://twitter.com/jonathancoe
https://twitter.com/hashtag/NumeroUndici 
https://www.mixcloud.com/BrumRadio/the-brum-radio-book-club-29012016

E con il collage sonoro si è voluta cimentare anche Elaine Di Falco, tentata dai temi suggeriti dal festival parigino Transitions Sonores, aperto quest'anno ai contributi sonori di quasi duecento partecipanti esterni. Un esempio è Misophonia Phase 1, su SoundCloud: "With the exception of the water and bird sounds, I've focused on the sounds I seem to have an aversion to - hence the title. This is the sonic environment I live in, the daily sounds of my world. In this piece I hope to capture the constant inundating flow and claustrophobic feeling I get from them."

https://soundcloud.com/elaine-difalco/misophonia-phase-1
http://www-artweb.univ-paris8.fr/?Festival-Transitions-sonores
http://www.soundandmusic.org/resources/opportunities/2016/call-works-sound-transitions-festival

Deve molto all'esempio dei Residents - ma tra le sue più grandi passioni figurano anche Varèse, Zappa, Rowe e Wyatt - il musicista improbabile Alain De Filippis, che nella sua opera ha esplorato i tratti poetici paradossali e contraddittori della giustapposizione sonora e del collage. A sei anni dalla scomparsa la francese InPolySons pubblica il suo primo documento in vinile, Musicien Improbable. In catalogo offre anche un'antica audiocassetta, De Mémoire d'Os (1987), realizzata all'epoca dei suoi studi su suoni, ambienti e animali preistorici.

Alain De Filippis creations inevitably overstep the partitions of art practices. Self-made musician, he worked for theater, investigated new sound effect technics, new soundscapes and concerts-intallations. His first published composition has been recorded for a series of mini-cd (Le Cinéma pour l'Oreille, Metamkine 1993) and was called Ton Dieu ne s'appelle-t-il pas égo?  He worked with Serge Boulier & la Cie Bouffou Théâtre for Tête d'Affriche (1996) and Petites Musiques de Bruits (1999) (a CD has been released on Ground Fault Recordings, in 2001). He revered Robert Wyatt and he created Heli Plop for a CD-Book at Æncrages & Co edition, re-issued in the compilation CD MW pour Robert Wyatt at InPolySons. On his way on experimental music, he met the guitarist Keith Rowe. The webzine City Vox indicated: "sound designer and decorator, activities and tags that mask most of the essential: a fascinating and poetic little inner music that guides achievments and findings of Alain De Filippis". His references? Varèse, Zappa, The Residents (without them, he would never dare)...

http://inpolysons.free.fr/en/filippis-lp.html
http://inpolysons.free.fr/en/filippis-k7.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3p8lBGgz54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWUgt-2M7pU

Fuori dai festival e dalle sale di proiezione il film di Don Hardy Theory of Obscurity sulla vita e le opere dei Residents cerca di raggiungere il pubblico dell'home-video con le edizioni in dvd e blu-ray prodotte e distribuite dalla newyorkese Film Movement. I fan nordamericani del gruppo avranno occasione di vederlo anche in coincidenza con i concerti in programma nei mesi di aprile e maggio 2016. Informazioni, rassegna stampa e brevi estratti sono raccolti in http://residentsmovie.com

"In our culture today everything is a download, a ringtone, or a reality show singing contest. It’s all very easy and very forgettable. The Residents have never made music for the masses; in fact many of their most recognizable compositions are satires of popular culture. They’ve followed their muse for decades and thousands of fans have hung on for the ride. Along the way they’ve also inspired many people to be weird, take chances and find their own voice. Hopefully our film will do the same by introducing The Residents to a whole new generation."

http://www.residents.com

Anarchy Must Be Organised è il titolo dello special radiofonico messo in onda sabato scorso dalla BBC Radio 4 per festeggiare assieme a Neil Innes - e con vari contributi di Legs Larry Smith, Rodney Slater, Vernon Dudley, Sam Spoons, Roger Ruskin Spear, Terry Gilliam, Adrian Edmondson e Stephen Fry tra gli altri - cinquant'anni dall'esordio dell'ineguagliabile Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Given the subject matter, “anarchy must be organised” could not be a more appropriate title. 50 years ago, every Tuesday night, a troop of Absurd Young Men from different art schools in London gathered in a pub called The Hoop and Toy. There could be up to 14 or 15 of them, all carrying second hand bashed up musical instruments. After a pint or two, they would march around the corner to the Royal College of Art canteen. There, they would take out their trumpets, trombones, triangles, ukuleles, banjos and clarinets and make an appalling row. They played “novelty foxtrots” from the 1920s and 1930s. This was the embryonic Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

It was a complicated birth. The naming of the band came from pieces of paper in a hat. I don’t recall how many folded over scribbles there were, but three emerged as clear winners: “Bonzo the Dog” (a jolly, mischievous little canine character painted by George E Studdy in the 1920s); “Dada” (the shocking anti-art movement founded during the World War One); and the somewhat frivolous suggestion of “Band”. “Dada” was swiftly changed to “Doo Dah”. The unspeakably tedious task of attempting to define anti-art movements to a wider public soon became akin to stuffing a whale into an egg. Not long after, violent semi-controlled theatrical explosions augmented the repertoire.

Then there were nine. The band started played in pubs and passing the hat round. One man’s cacophony is another man’s drinking music. Eager crowds flocked and people regularly jostled one another – not necessarily to listen to us – but to drown their sorrows. Landlords actually paid us to turn up!

So what did the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band achieve? What price did they pay for their fame and notoriety? Soon there were only seven – and then six – and the “Doo Dah” was dropped altogether. Did being silly and fun loving cost them an arm and a legacy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072zn42

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4H5lBBPD7lFX0fCSChySk8D/neil-innes-on-the-bonzo-dog-doo-dah-band

Dave Stewart rende omaggio allo scomparso Keith Emerson, un suo eroe di gioventù, ricordando l'epoca (circa 1967) in cui andava a seguirne le prodezze in concerto al Marquee Club con il gruppo The Nice, per poi provare ad emularne le gesta: "Keith did things with the Hammond organ that made our jaws drop. When he wasn’t actually playing the thing, he would climb on it, leap over it, stick knives in it, whip it, lie underneath it, turn it on and off, flail his arms up and down the keys, crash the reverb spring, bash its innards with a drum stick and generally behave like a lunatic. Although at an age when such displays of mayhem were bound to make a big impression, we couldn’t help but notice that Keith’s playing was pretty special, too. His ability to compose and improvise, working jazz and classical elements into a powerful rock style, and his instinct for creating stunning original sounds set him apart from any keyboard player I had heard before. In fact, in his blending of the physical and the cerebral, he reminded me of another favourite musician, Jimi Hendrix. Keith did for rock keyboards what Jimi Hendrix did for the guitar - I don’t think you can pay someone a much higher compliment than that! In my humble way I went on to play a bit of keyboards myself, and of course the first serious instrument I got was a Hammond L100, just like Keith’s. We’ll draw a veil over the injuries I sustained trying to emulate my hero - cuts to the hands from attempted windmill keyboard sweeps, near-concussion and severely bruised pride when a trailing leg caught on the music stand during a failed leap over the organ, the endless bashed fingers and lifelong backaches caused by lifting this heavy instrument up flights of stairs into gigs. But what the hell… it was worth it. I’m proud to have been influenced by such a great musician as Keith Emerson, the man who single-handedly (well, double-handedly actually) put keyboards in the spotlight."

Di Emerson con The Nice scrive anche Richard Williams al suo blog The Blue Moment: http://thebluemoment.com/keith-emerson-1944-2016

A un anno esatto dalla dipartita dell'amato Daevid Allen si tiene oggi il secondo Gong Global Party, con l'invito all'ascolto simultaneo di musiche Gong ovunque nel mondo: "It will be a year since our beloved Dada Allien hopped in his flying teapot and returned home to the Planet Gong. Last year's Global Party was a glorious success, with Gongsters worldwide getting on the cosmic vibe, and creating an energetic matrix which lit the whole planet and send cosmic vibes beaming from our hearts and minds. We all felt that connection and it was pure beauty. Let's celebrate our unity, join hands & hearts around the globe and once more play Gong simultaneously all over the planet and raise that vibration!"

Ricordi e considerazioni sul piano affettivo - ma anche a proposito di lascito umano e artistico, di idee e progetti rimasti incompiuti o irrealizzati - esprime Jonny Greene di Planet Gong: "Today, Sunday March 13th marks a year since daevid allen died. It's been a full revolution around the Sun and however much further round the Galaxy our Universe has travelled since he 'stepped off' the planet - it is already a huge distance ago. I do miss him, or to be more precise I miss the possibility that he might bustle into the GAS office (you could hear him coming up the stairs), often with a female companion and always with a head full of plans and agendas and tasks to acomplish, most of them impossibly unfeasible - but hey we would give many a go. Despite 100s of visits over dozens of years daevid didn't always relish coming to the GAS HQ - by the end we knew each other too well and simultaneously not at all, as it is with close friends - it was where his plans might crash headlong into practical 'realities'. To achieve all he dreamt daevid needed far more philanthropists than he was ever able to attract - the more conventional route via record companies he didn't handle so well. It's said that people aren't forgotten until everyone who knew them has also 'left the building'. That maybe so, all who met or saw daevid will certainly hold his memory for many years yet - although if you have left a body of work such as daevid's the world's rememberance of you is bound to continue far longer and reach much further."

Ciao Daevid!

Un post di Svenn Sivertssen al blog Robert Wyatt and Stuff ricorda brevemente Ivor Cutler nel decimo anniversario della sua morte. Lo ricorda anche Nick Morgan, nell'interpretare Washing Line (in un pozzo) e condividendone gli esiti su YT. Per riascoltare l'immortale Good Morning! How Are You? Shut Up! bisognerà invece ricorrere a Ludo (1967), una delle più meritorie - e più sbrigative - produzioni del celebrato George Martin scomparso appena qualche giorno fa.

http://www.ivorcutler.org/index.php
http://www.issue.demon.co.uk/poetry/cutler
http://tinyurl.com/zc8gobk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludo_(Ivor_Cutler_album)
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/07/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries

Dal dire al fare. Oltre all'opera di volontariato come interprete nella babele linguistica dei campi di profughi e migranti a Calais e Dunkirk, Caroline Kraabel promuove in questi giorni un'azione di solidarietà mirata a portare musica musicisti e strumenti direttamente in quei luoghi, The Calais Music Caravan: "We’ll be raising funds to enable 16 London-based musicians from the world of jazz and improvised music to travel to the refugee camps in and near Calais and Dunkirk, to play music for and with the people who live there, and to deliver donations of musical instruments. Our contacts working and living in the refugee camps confirm that this would be a very useful and welcome intervention."
L'azione può essere sostenuta pubblicamente tramite JustGiving.

Dell'iniziativa fa parte anche il concerto di domani sera al londinese Cafe Oto, con l'intervento di John Edwards, Sue Lynch, Hannah Marshall, Neil Metcalfe, Cath Roberts, Mark Sanders, Alex Ward, Veryan Weston e molti molti altri. Tra le musiche in programma c'è anche la primissima presentazione di Last, brano per voce registrata e orchestra di improvvisatori che si avvale del cantato di Robert Wyatt: "All of us are migrants or the descendants of migrants - people who moved to find something and to get away from something (the two ideas are just a switch of perspective apart). A while ago I wrote a song about some aspects of being a migrant, in order to make of it a longer piece for pre-recorded voice and improvising orchestra; Robert Wyatt agreed to record this short but very heartfelt song, which appears several times in various ways through the piece. Tonight’s performance will include a first version of Last, played by these most exceptional of improvising musicians and directed by myself."

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/calais-music-caravan-benefit-show
https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/CalaisMusicCaravan?utm_id=2

Del doppio cd dei Wilde Flowers recentemente compilato da Floating World scrive Tom Pinnock sul numero di questo mese di Uncut: una versione dell'articolo è al sito online della rivista, dove è riportato anche uno scambio di battute con Robert Wyatt.

"In hindsight, the level of talent involved in The Wilde Flowers never seemed to be their problem – indeed, on the evidence of these two discs, they appeared to suffer from a surfeit of ideas, members and avenues that they wished to explore, leaving their identity perhaps a little too fluid for the casual listeners of the mid-’60s. As they neared the end of their existence, London’s countercultural underground exploded, the UFO Club opened and teenagers were suddenly content to sit and listen to melancholic, expansive music – only then would many of the Flowers find their own audiences. Yet, over 50 years on, these seeds of the Canterbury Scene are worthy of rediscovery."

http://tinyurl.com/jlbjylh
http://www.floatingworldrecords.co.uk/albums/the-wilde-flowers2

Non suonavano insieme da una dozzina d'anni, Howard Riley e Keith Tippett. Tornano a farlo stasera a Londra, al Pizza Express di Soho, ospiti dello Steinway Festival. Dice Riley di questo progetto a quattro mani, esordito nel 1981: "We just sit down and, literally, improvise. It's not planned. We don't discuss it. It just happens. It's a sort of spiritual thing, almost. It's very free in the real sense of the word, and we always enjoy playing together. Keith is very open to musical ideas, that's important, in that situation where you're thrown back on your own resources. We have a vocabulary that happens to come from playing with each other, from listening hard and years of experience of playing with different people … and it does work very well. You've got to trust each other and just get down there and play. It's always worked when we start playing. There's always slight anxiety when playing, but not with me and Keith."

Jazz Club Soho
10 Dean Street, Soho
London W1D 3RW
0845 6027 017
http://tinyurl.com/h3tobg9

https://www.discogs.com/it/search/?q=howard+riley+keith+tippett&type=all
http://www.londonjazznews.com/2016/02/previewinterview-howard-riley-and-keith.html

Diamanda Galás è da domani a Bologna per la presentazione del film Schrei X - realizzato con il regista Davide Sepe attorno a uno dei suoi più importanti progetti degli ultimi anni, iniziato come lavoro radiofonico nel 1994 e via via proseguito con diversi sviluppi - e per la prima data in Europa del suo nuovo recital Death Will Come And Have Your Eyes.

Piercing, guttural screams of pain, crescendos of raw human sound, visceral primeval calls and episodes of silence form the extended aria of pain that is Schrei 27, a new film created by Diamanda Galás and Davide Pepe. Initially commissioned as a radio work in 1994 (and subsequently performed live), Schrei 27 presents the viewer with an unrelenting portrait of a body suffering torture within the restricted confines of a medical facility. Comprising several short chapters of a ‘confession’ induced by chemical and mechanical manipulation of the brain, administered by doctors, this original work features Diamanda Galás and Salvatore Bevilacqua as a person who is taken to a mental hospital after arrest for treason. Galás selected Italian filmmaker Davide Pepe five years ago to collaborate on this project that would take her original compositions for Schrei 27 as the basis for a film combining powerful visuals with additional and updated vocal and sound recording and mixing. ‘Sound remains the crucial element; the film takes us inside Diamanda’s voice, releasing feelings and emotions that have resulted in the development of visuals,’ says Pepe. ‘We wanted to translate this vision of fear and monstrous anxiety in a place where the contained have no rights, and where there is no escape.’ Galás adds, ‘As the incarcerated know, there is no correct answer to any question asked by an interrogator. The object of this kind of torture is complete demoralisation – and the erasure of all that the captive has ever known – including the fact that he was ever a human being.’

http://www.auditoriumanzoni.it/diamanda-galas
http://www.auditoriumanzoni.it/schrei-27-2010
http://diamandagalas.com/projects/schrei-27-2

E un sostegno finanziario chiede anche Laurent Goldstein per la realizzazione del suo film su Christian Vander e Magma To Life, Death and Beyond-The Music of Magma, in particolare per la documentazione dei concerti statunitensi attualmente in corso. Alcuni trailer sono su YT: http://tinyurl.com/gtxy8cb

https://www.facebook.com/TheMusicofMagma

Cerca sostegno finanziario per la realizzazione della prossima edizione, e di quelle delle successive annate, il festival Rock in Opposition France Event. Lo fa con un appello senza mezzi termini ("C’est l’avenir du Rock in Opposition qui est en jeu") diffuso tramite Ulule: "Depuis 2007, l’organisation du Rock in Opposition (R.I.O.) est une gageure, un défi complexe. Nous y parvenons grâce  à la mobilisation de nos partenaires publics et à un public fidèle. Mais l’équilibre financier du festival reste fragile. De fait, les recettes de l’édition 2015 ont été plus faibles que prévues et nous devons les renforcer en 2016 pour équilibrer son budget et espérer en pérenniser les prochaines éditions."

http://fr.ulule.com/rock-in-opposition
http://www.rocktime.org/rio/index.php/en

Kate e Mike Westbrook tornano al delizioso club artistico londinese Vout-O-Reenee's con un programma di canzoni nuove, alcune meno nuove, molte anzi antiche e dimenticate, e una composizione però nuovissima (dovrebbe intitolarsi Jane by Dufy, o forse Paintbox Jane), addirittura in prima esecuzione, scritta per il compleanno di una cara amica. E poiché a giorni è anche il compleanno di Mike - il suo ottantesimo! - si dà stasera simbolicamente il via a un anno di festeggiamenti e di concerti, di incontri e tante altre occasioni liete. Ottima la compagnia: Chris Biscoe, Martine Waltier, Billy Bottle, Marcus Vergette e Tim Goodwin. Cheers!

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk
http://vout-o-reenees.com/events/the-westbrook-company-premiere
https://www.facebook.com/VoutOReenees

Storie di Gentle Giant (e altre avventure) raccontate da Phil Shulman ai figli Elliott e Damon: tre podcast audio realizzati nel 2008, ora disponibili su YT e The Bending Space.

http://thebendingspace.co.uk/damon-shulman

Brindisi in rosso per Graeme Blevins, Pete Whyman, Tim Holmes e Chris Caldwell: lo offre l'etichetta Basho Records per i trent'anni di attività del Delta Saxophone Quartet, con il pianista Gwilym Simcock a suggerire pregiati assaggi da varie annate King Crimson (Starless and Bible Black, Beat, Thrak). Crimson!

http://www.deltasax.com
https://vimeo.com/153270102

Ci manca da un anno, Mike King. Indimenticato.

Noted Canterbury scholar, producer, engineer and label man, Mike King was first known for the great book on Robert Wyatt called Wrong Movements. Mr. King made many friends amongst Canterbury scene, always had good stories to tell about these folks and ended up with a treasure chest of tapes from his/our heroes. He worked on several releases for the Cuneiform, Ogun and Voiceprint labels through the years. He started the Reel Recordings label in the past decade and released more than twenty treasures from: Kevin Ayers, Elton Dean, Harry Miller, Mike Osborne, Ray Russell, Lol Coxhill, Gerry Fitzgerald, Don Rendell, Steve Miller, Soft Machine, Soft Heap and Gary & Pam Windo. All of his releases came from tape sources (as in reel-to-reel recordings), hence the name of his label. It turned out that Mike King had found his calling since he was a sonic wizard in the studio, getting the music to sound better than whatever its source was. Mr. King put Reel Recordings to rest a couple of years back when his last release, Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers, failed to get the recognition it deserved. He continued to work for other labels, cleaning up the acetate for Robert Wyatt's 1968 disc for Cuneiform and working hard on the ongoing Hugh Hopper Rarities series for Gonzo. Mike King put his heart & soul into each and every release he worked on. He's greatly missed (Bruce Lee Gallanter).

http://cuneiformrecord.blogspot.com/2015/03/rip-mike-king.html
https://www.discogs.com/it/artist/1215734-Michael-King-9
https://www.discogs.com/it/label/129330-Reel-Recordings

The real hero is always a hero by mistake. 

(Umberto Eco, 1932-2016)

E proprio per la serie My hero, sul britannico The Guardian sabato scorso, pubblica il suo ricordo di Eco Jonathan Coe, così concludendo: "My own surname may be an anagram of Eco’s but sadly our relationship never got any closer than that. For me he remains the model of a European intellectual, making complex ideas accessible, casting the kind of sceptical eye over culture and politics that can only come from having a vast, panoramic historical sense. Many of us have a fantasy of reconciling the magnetic readability of genre fiction with the more ambiguous virtues of great literature: Eco was one of the very few who made it a reality."

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/27/my-hero-umberto-eco-jonthan-coe