Importanti iniziative a sostegno di Keith Tippett si tengono a Londra oggi, a Manchester e a Bristol la prossima settimana. Intervengono tra gli altri i Soft Machine guidati da John Etheridge, Paul Dunmall, Jim Dvorak, Gary Husband, Geoff Eales e a Bristol anche uno speciale Appreciation Ensemble alle prese con diverse partiture originali del Nostro.

The respected Bristol born composer, pianist and band leader Keith Tippett is currently recovering from two heart attacks coupled with a chest infection and pneumonia. The good news is that he is now out of hospital and is recuperating at home. As result of illness Keith has cancelled all engagements for this year and it will be some time before he will be well enough to perform or appear in public. On hearing this worrying news the jazz community have arranged a number of benefit gigs to raise money to help Keith & Julie and family through this difficult period. There are benefit concerts planned in London, Birmingham and Manchester: musicians taking part include Keith's friends, old band colleagues, ex-students or just players who feel their careers have been inspired by Keith's incredible music and want to show their support. The influence that Keith Tippett's music has had and his contribution to the history of British Jazz and European Improvised music can not be overstated and these gigs are meant to be an opportunity for us all to show our appreciation and help Keith at a time when he is unable to work and earn any money.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/23038694008
http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/benefit-for-keith-tippett
https://www.facebook.com/fringejazzbristol

Nel cuore di uno dei periodi più fertili e creativi per Carla Bley, a cavallo tra gli anni Settanta e Ottanta, nacque uno dei suoi album più divertenti in assoluto, anche se a prendersene formalmente la titolarità fu il batterista dei Pink Floyd, amico e sostenitore e in quel caso anche produttore associato: Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, uscito nel 1981 ma registrato in verità due anni prima. Con Bley e Mason presero parte al progetto Michael Mantler, Gary Windo, Terry Adams, Gary Valente, Howard Johnson, Chris Spedding, Steve Swallow, vari altri membri della Band di allora impegnati perlopiù come coristi (ad esempio nelle irresistibili Can't Get My Motor to Start e Boo to You Too), Karen Kraft (indimenticabile in Hot River) e uno splendido Robert Wyatt, costantemente in primissimo piano. L'album tornerà presto in circolazione all'interno di un piccolo box (Unattended Luggage) assieme ad altri due titoli del Mason solista, Profiles e White of the Eye.

https://www.floydianslip.com/news/nick-mason-box-set
https://www.floydianslip.com/pink-floyd/albums/album.php

Aymeric Leroy ricostruisce in video una Gloria Gloom d'annata (1972) anche perché stanotte baci la Luna Fragola il più bel Saturno di tutto il 2018: "From Matching Mole's Queen Elizabeth Hall concert in September 1972, with what I believe is the only recorded performance of Gloria Gloom with the definitive lyrics. Of course no footage of the concert exists so this is illustrated with other footage which only approximately synchronises with the audio, although I am quite proud of the snare drum hit at the beginning!"

https://www.facebook.com/100013972129086/videos/430305250778542

Negli archivi della fotografa Gertrud Vogler (1936-2018) qualcuno ha ritrovato alcuni scatti fatti a Maggie Nicols, Lindsay Cooper e Joëlle Léandre nei primi anni Ottanta, uno dei quali poi utilizzato per la copertina dell'album Live at the Bastille (Sync Pulse, 1982). Li si vede su FB: https://tinyurl.com/y7r2td6v

http://www.buero-dlb.ch/de/archiv/journalismus/zum-tod-der-fotografin-bildredaktorin-und-goldschmiedin-gertrud-vogler

C'era anche la voce emozionata di Petter Herbertsson - uno dei Testbild! - nel coro del pubblico durante l'esecuzione di Anno Mirabilis al concerto del Lindsay Cooper Songbook qualche sera fa al Cafe Oto londinese. Tramite Bandcamp c'è occasione di risentirla, e in modo più articolato, nella bella versione del brano che Petter ha or ora accordato all'altro suo progetto, Sternpost.

https://bcnvt.bandcamp.com/track/anno-mirabilis
https://bcnvt.se/2018/06/23/the-lindsay-cooper-songbook-cafe-oto-16-6

E una ricognizione del mondo zappiano è a suo modo anche il secondo libro del super esperto Andrew Greenaway, noto a ogni appassionato per essere il curatore del sito web The Idiot Bastard e, in epoca pre-Internet, colonna portante di T'Mershi Duween: si intitola Frank Talk: The Inside Stories of Zappa’s Other People e raccoglie commenti e opinioni (e pochi pettegolezzi) tratti da una quarantina di interviste con famigliari, musicisti, amici e stretti collaboratori di Zappa. Lo pubblica la britannica Wymer.

Following his highly successful previous book, Zappa The Hard Way, Frank Zappa specialist Andrew Greenaway’s second tome on the influential cult artist is something completely different! Frank Talk: The Inside Stories of Zappa’s Other People is compiled from over 40 interviews Greenaway has conducted during the past three decades, with the people who knew and worked with the legendary composer and musician. From Zappa's own family (including his eldest son, Dweezil), through to members of the Mothers of Invention (Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada & Don Preston), his major discoveries (like Steve Vai, Warren Cuccurullo & Terry Bozzio) and the musicians who played in his last touring band (such as Ike Willis, Scott Thunes and Mike Keneally). Frank Talk gives an extraordinary insight into this musical genius that is piled on in layers. With Greenaway’s recognised knowledge of Zappa this book will undoubtedly complement his previous title and be every bit as revered.

https://www.wymeruk.co.uk/webshop/books/rock/frank-zappa/frank-talk-andrew-greenaway

A una mappatura zappiana addirittura interattiva ha lavorato tempo fa con grande impegno (e buon esito) Cameron Piko, realizzando uno strumento utile a orientarsi per quanto possibile attraverso i principali snodi della famigerata continuità concettuale proclamata dallo stesso Zappa attraverso sessantatré suoi album: The Crux of The Biscuit: Aural Conceptual Continuity in the Music of Frank Zappa.

Alla medesima idea, ma operando con strumento affatto diverso, si è ispirato di recente Marc With A C, producendo per Consequence of Sound una serie di sei podcast, con l'intervento di alcuni ospiti, dedicati all'intera (o quasi) opera discografica di Zappa: https://consequenceofsound.net/artist/frank-zappa

L'annunciato atlante di luoghi e itinerari zappiani - The Zappa Tour Atlas, di Mick Zeuner - pare non sarà pronto prima dell'estate 2019. A far da apripista provvede allora Cordelia Records con un'altra delle sue, e non poteva trovar titolo più azzeccato: Mappa Zappa.

http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Mappa-Zappa/release/12097167

http://www.idiotbastard.com/MappaZappa.htm

Presso ReR Megacorp si chiudono oggi i termini per prenotare la speciale edizione aumentata del Peter Blegvad Bandbox, e contestualmente si aprono quelli per richiedere l'altrettanto speciale edizione del nuovo album di Bob Drake, L'isola dei lupi, illustrato ancora una volta dallo straordinario Joe Mruk. Un singolo ne anticipa l'uscita, prevista per settembre, con due brani già disponibili presso Bandcamp.

Altri titoli in evidenza nell'aggiornamento di metà anno proposto da ReR sono quelli di Jon Rose e Chris Abrahams (Peggy), Vito Rua con The Metaphysical Angels (When Better isn’t Quite Good Enough), Mikolas Chadima & The Ex Extempore Members (The City/Velkomesto), un box di otto cd con il meglio di Alan Jenkins (The Experimental Surf Music), e poi Sun Ra, Iannis Xenakis, Harry Bertoia, i ripescaggi di un Musci/Venosta (Messages and Portraits) e dell'esordio degli (ec) Nudes (Vanishing Point).

https://tinyurl.com/ReRjune2018

Tra quanti hanno seguito il concerto del Lindsay Cooper Songbook l'altra sera a Londra - purtroppo era assente Dagmar Krause - c'erano Petter Herbertsson, Gary Franklin e Gus Iyouvid, che hanno riportato qualche personale impressione:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manofsteal/sets/72157692307324510
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkePORmQYmWjpUOHjvosgLg
https://bcnvt.se/the-lindsay-cooper-songbook-cafe-oto-16-6

Debutta dal vivo domani all'Ashburton Arts Centre per il Dartmoor Resonance Music Festival nel Devon (Regno Unito) il nuovo lavoro di Kate Westbrook Granite, fresco di stampa per l'etichetta autogestita dai Westbrook e disponibile nei prossimi giorni in cd e formato digitale. Saranno con lei Roz Harding, Jesse Molins, Matthew North, Billie Bottle, Coach York e naturalmente Mike Westbrook. In sintonia con i temi del festival, quest'anno in una speciale edizione da anniversario, sono in programma anche Erme Estuary e Tamar River, due noti brani di Mike proposti in nuove versioni adattate per questo settetto.

Dartmoor Resonance Music Festival, 16th–24th June 2018. A musical evocation and journey through time marking the 20th anniversary of The Dartmoor Society. The Dartmoor Society is holding a 9-day midsummer music festival, using a wide variety of venues, events and partners, to celebrate the remarkable diversity of composers and performers of sacred and secular music, from prehistory to the present day, all inspired by Dartmoor. This rich cultural thread, which has not been explored collectively before, will contribute significantly to a sense of place, both old and new, reaching out to communities on Dartmoor, in Britain and beyond.

http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook/granite.shtml

https://www.discogs.com/Kate-Westbrook-Granite/release/12135775
https://www.dartmoorsociety.com/dartmoor_resonance_music_festival

Proseguono a spron battuto le pubblicazioni della rinnovata Cadillac Records, ora sotto la guida di Mike Gavin: la ristampa di due importanti lavori di Johnny “Mbizo” Dyani (1945-1986) del periodo svedese, Rejoice e Together, già riuniti in doppio cd quattro anni fa, e una tripletta per Stan Tracey, Solo:Trio, For Heaven's Sake in quartetto e Alone & Together With​.​.​. ​Live At Wigmore Hall, 1974 per metà in duo con Mike Osborne.

https://cadillac77.bandcamp.com
https://johnnymbizodyani.bandcamp.com
https://stantracey.bandcamp.com
https://thenewstantraceyquartet.bandcamp.com
https://stantraceymikeosborne.bandcamp.com

I giorni della mitica maison de sons di Pierre Henry (1927-2017) al 32 di rue de Toul a Parigi - casa d'artista per antonomasia, sede di ogni attività del compositore fin dal 1971 e divenuta via via essa stessa fonte sonora, luogo di concerti e deposito vivente di apparecchiature, nastri, oggetti, strumenti e documenti - potrebbero essere contati, causa una banale operazione immobiliare. E il suo abbattimento potrebbe compiersi prima di aver trovato un'altra sede atta ad ospitare l'incalcolabile patrimonio lasciato dal Nostro, catalogato finora soltanto in minima parte. Questo il timore delle fedeli custodi Isabelle Warnier e Bernadette Mangin, per decenni rispettivamente compagna e assistente del compositore, e con loro di molti appassionati di musica e cultura, a fronte di blandissimi segnali lanciati dagli enti parigini preposti e una raccolta di firme che in un anno ha raccolto solo diecimila adesioni.

Ne scrissero a suo tempo Olivier Lamm e Sarah Bastin: "In the middle of a quiet street in Paris’s 12th arrondissement, halfway between Daumesnil and the Michel Bizot metro station, the former home/workshop/studio of Pierre Henry lies tucked away, almost concealed from view, beneath a whirlwind of thick ivy. For 46 years, Pierre Henry did everything here – lived, composed, sculpted, copied, pasted, organized, disorganized and even gave concerts. The house is still occupied, rustling gently with deceptively intense activity. Isabelle Warnier, his assistant and partner since 1967, is in the studio with Bernadette Mangin, his right hand and “living memory”. They are busying themselves, as best they can, preparing the next step, whatever that may be. First and foremost, there is work to do to save the premises and to preserve the documents, something no institution has stepped up to do. The building is not owned by Pierre Henry and is in a fragile state. Renovating it and turning it into a museum would cost a fortune. There are resources and documents that are incredible and one-of-a-kind. The composer had kept a trace of everything over the course of his 70-year career, the music and its inspiration as well as as activities with movie directors and playwrights. Isabelle Warnier says, with a melancholic tone: “We think, reasonably, that in its current state, this house will not be preserved and we will need to find a solution for the materials to be properly stored, in an active manner, to help keep Pierre’s music alive. We met people from l’INA, l’IMEC and the National Library, huge structures which could be capable of this, but with the slowness typical of these mammoth institutions."

https://www.francemusique.fr/la-maison-de-pierre-henry-sera-detruite
http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/dans-la-maison-de-pierre-henry

Victime d'un projet immobilier la maison de Pierre Henry, l'immense compositeur de musique électroacoustique disparu le 5 juillet 2017 est désormais en sursis. Cette maison inouie est devenue au fil du temps l'instrument même du compositeur. Pierre Henry l'avait dit: depuis ses débuts de compositeur, il aimait vivre dans son atelier, avec ses consoles et sa collection de sons. Dans cette maison qui lui servait aussi de studio et de salle de concert, tout, des sols aux plafonds, était dédié à la musique. Cette maison unique en son genre, fait parti de notre patrimoine et mérite qu'on la sauve. Help us save french composer Pierre Henry's house from destruction!

https://secure.avaaz.org/fr/petition/Ministre_de_la_Culture_Francaise_Francoise_Nyssen_Anne_Hidalgo_Maire_Paris_Sauver_la_maison_de_Pierre_Henry/?pv=13

Mike Westbrook ricorda Jon Hiseman con un toccante scritto pubblicato presso lo Smith's Academy Notice Board, che così conclude: "Like all those who enjoyed his friendship, learned from his wise counsel and benefitted from his great skill and artistry we are devastated that he should have been taken so suddenly when he was at full stretch and at the height of his powers. Almost the last word he said to me when we spoke just before his operation, and I ventured to suggest that he might need to slow down, was ‘Why?’. We have lost a guiding star."

http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/smithsboard/index.shtml#Jon

Debutta questa sera al Cafe Oto londinese il Lindsay Cooper Songbook, precedendo di qualche settimana la partecipazione al festival Zappanale a Bad Doberan (Germania). Del gruppo fanno parte, come è noto, Yumi Hara, Chlöe Herington, Dagmar Krause, Tim Hodgkinson, John Greaves e Chris Cutler. Il programma odierno si avvale anche delle esibizioni di Greaves e Herington in solo, di un momento riservato al trio The Watts (Yumi con Hodgkinson e Cutler) e delle preparazioni sonore di Marina Organ. L'inizio è per le 19.30.

Lindsay Cooper (1951-2013) brought the bassoon and the compositional techniques of 20th century art music into the world of '70s experimental rock. She was a musical polyglot, equally fluent in classical, rock, jazz, and free improvisation and the author of many film and theatre soundtracks. She was a member of the groups Comus, Henry Cow, National Health, David Thomas and the Pedestrians and the Mike Westbrook Orchestra. She co-founded News from Babel and the Feminist Improvising Group and led her own projects Music for Films and Oh Moscow. She lived for many years with multiple sclerosis, which eventually forced her to retire from performing in the 1990s.

Yumi Hara formed Half The Sky in 2015 to perform Lindsay Cooper’s songs in Japan. The original group was entirely Japanese, with the exception of original drummer and lyricist Chris Cutler. This group - with small personnel changes - was later invited to Europe, when it was joined by the songs’ original singer Dagmar Krause. For these new European concerts the line-up adds two more members of Henry Cow, for whom much of this material was written, and we call ourselves Lindsay Cooper Songbook. As was true of the original bands Henry Cow and News From Babel - the new line-up retains an equal gender split.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/lindsay-cooper-songbook

Alessandro Achilli racconta Robert Wyatt domani sera a Villa Pignatelli di Riviera di Chiaia nel cuore della sezione letteratura del Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. In ottima compagnia, preceduto da Maria Attanasio e Umberto Fiori. L'inizio è alle ore 19.00.

https://www.napoliteatrofestival.it/spettacolo/qui-16-giugno
http://poesia.blog.rainews.it/2018/06/qui
https://www.napoliteatrofestival.it.pdf

Due giorni di concerti per festeggiare venticinque anni di attività: la viennese Klanggalerie guidata da Walter Robotka si autocelebra da domani presso il Replugged con un programma ricco di sorprese e novità, Klang 25. La performance più attesa è naturalmente quella degli storici amici residentsiani Renaldo & The Loaf, qui alla loro primissima esibizione in pubblico. Chissà che non sia anche l'ultima, come qualcuno già dice...

http://klanggalerie.com/events
http://www.klanggalerie.com/kg/kg25/kg25.html
https://www.facebook.com/events/1727368317281606

Playing the Band

(Jon Hiseman, 1944-2018)

E a proposito di creatività del batterista c'è tra i tanti anche il lampante esempio di uno storico e autentico fuoriclasse, Sven-Åke Johansson: lo ha descritto in tempi recentissimi Antoine Prum, producendo per la sua Ni Vu Ni Connu il film Blue for a Moment, proiettato l'anno scorso in diverse sale cinematografiche e ora disponibile anche in dvd.

Blue for a Moment retraces the artistic career of the Berlin-based Swedish jazz musician, avant-garde composer, poet and visual artist Sven-Åke Johansson, one of the most singular and exciting figures in European improvised music.
Johansson (born 1943 in Mariestad) moved to Berlin in the late 1960s, where he has since been active in a variety of music and artistic contexts. His first performances took place in the context of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab on Hallesches Ufer, where young musicians and art students eagerly explored the boundaries between genres. In the 1970s and ’80s, he was a regular figure on the West Berlin Free Jazz scene that formed around the FMP/SÅJ label. Johansson has been cultivating longstanding musical friendships with Alexander von Schlippenbach and Rüdiger Carl, and “developed his own concept of noise music with which he became a forerunner of the Echtzeitmusik scene that emerged in the eastern part of Berlin after 1990 in the nexus between squats, free improvisation, punk and New Music” (Wolfgang Müller). In his performances and compositions, Johansson explores the musical relics of 1950s and ’60s modernism, often with the help of “cheap” materials such as cardboard or foam. The Austrian composer Peter Ablinger has termed this practice musica povera, in reference to Arte povera, which elevated everyday objects to art and promoted the use of unconventional or “poor” materials.
Influenced by the Fluxus movement and its experimental and anti-conformist approach, Johansson started deconstructing his own practice as a free-jazz drummer very early on. By transposing the libertarian principle of free music into other artistic fields and switching effortlessly between the roles of performer, artist, poet and composer, he undermined established genres and media and turned the jazz drummer into a Gesamtkunstwerk.

http://www.sven-akejohansson.com/blue-for-a-moment-dvd
http://ni-vu-ni-connu.net/film/blue-for-a-moment

Il lavoro creativo del batterista e il suo ruolo nelle interazioni tra musicisti è il soggetto dell'imponente studio compiuto da Bill Bruford sulla scorta di precedenti scritti - nessuno però di simile taglio accademico - e della propria diretta esperienza, oltre a quella di molti illustri colleghi: Uncharted - Creativity and the Expert Drummer, pubblicato nella serie Tracking Pop dalla University of Michigan Press.

Bill Bruford’s Uncharted explores the creativity involved in the way drummers make things work, make things matter, and make sense of both. The book draws on interviews with nine top drummers - including Peter Erskine, Chad Wackerman and Dylan Howe - and Bruford’s own experience. What do expert drummers do? Why do they do it? Is there anything creative about it? If so, how might that creativity inform their practice and that of others in related artistic spheres? Applying ideas from cultural psychology to findings from original research into the creative behaviors of a specific subset of popular music instrumentalists, Bruford demonstrates the ways in which expert drummers experience creativity in performance and offers fresh insights into in-the-moment interactional processes in music.

https://billbruford.com/books

https://burningshed.com/bill-bruford_uncharted_book
https://www.press.umich.edu/9562155/uncharted

La straordinaria stagione di Musiche (1987-1997) è stata ricordata in uno speciale di Battiti andato in onda domenica scorsa, in tempo quasi esatto a celebrare il trentennale della nascita della rivista, con il titolo Canzoni eterodosse. Da ascoltare anche in podcast, magari rileggendo l'insuperato scritto commemorativo di Gian Paolo Ragnoli Alla ricerca di Nomansland.

https://tinyurl.com/canzonieterodosse
https://www.nazioneindiana.com/2009/04/11/musiche-maestre
http://cartescoperterecensionietesti.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html

Il concerto di Fred Frith ieri sera a Roma, invitato dal festival Villa Aperta VIII: Calling for a New Renaissance a dialogare con le creazioni visive di Gao Xingjian nella splendida ambientazione di Villa Medici, è ora negli archivi di Arte Concert: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/082090-004-A/fred-frith-gao-xingjian-au-festival-villa-aperta-2018

Invité d’honneur par l’Académie de France à Rome au Festival Villa Aperta, Calling for a new Renaissance, Gao Xingjian lance aujourd’hui cet appel à ce lieu historique, la Villa Médicis. La combinaison entre les créations visuelles de Gao Xingjian et les compositions de Fred Frith crée une ambiance unique.

Gao Xingjian, Prix Nobel de littérature en 2000 est romancier, dramaturge, poète, metteur en scène, peintre, cinéaste. Né en Chine en 1940, il vit à Paris depuis 1988 et a eu la nationalité française en 1997. Traduit dans quarante langues, et surtout connu pour son roman La Montagne de l’âme, il a également publié des ouvrages de réflexion sur l’art et la littérature. Ses pièces de théâtre ont été jouées dans le monde entier, et de grandes expositions de ses peintures lui sont régulièrement consacrées en France, Espagne, Belgique, Suède, Allemagne, Suisse, aux Etats-Unis, Portugal, à Taiwan et Singapour. Cet artiste total souligne que le temps est venu de se débarrasser du carcan des idéologies et de se tourner vers le futur. Gao Xingjian revendique un art non utilitaire au-delà des intérêts politiques et de la loi du marché. Une renaissance des arts et lettres.

Multi-instrumentaliste, compositeur et improvisateur Fred Frith se produit sur toutes les scènes du monde depuis presque 50 ans, il a débuté sa carrière avec le collectif rock Henry Cow qu’il a cofondé avec Tim Hodgkinson en 1968. Fred Frith est renommé pour ses compositions à la guitare électrique mais aussi pour les musiques écrites pour le cinéma, la danse et le théâtre. Cet artiste a joué au sein de groupes comme Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet and Cosa Brava, et il est resté attaché aux racines du rock et de la folk music, tout en expérimentant de nouvelles directions musicales. Son actualité mène à penser qu’il pourrait avoir le don d’ubiquité : projet éducatif à l’Université Austral de Chile à Valdivia, performances de Barcelone à Varsovie, ou au Louisiana Art Museum du Danemark, il compose également une pièce musicale qui sera créée à San Francisco en mars 2019 et prépare la sortie de 4 albums…

https://www.villamedici.it/villa-aperta-viii-calling-for-a-new-renaissance-7-9-giugno-2018

Marina Organ e Yumi Hara preparano il terreno per l'imminente debutto del Lindsay Cooper Songbook al Cafe Oto londinese con una speciale puntata del programma radiofonico The Other Rock Show presso Resonance FM: brani da Work Resumed on the Tower, The Golddiggers, Letters Home, Western Culture, Logos e Kew.Rhone. oltre a due diverse versioni, entrambe inedite, di Slice e l'invito a impararsi ben bene Anno Mirabilis per poterlo cantare in coro la sera del concerto.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/lindsay-cooper-songbook
https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/the-other-rock-show

Un importante documento dell'attività recente degli AMM nella ricomposta formazione a tre - Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury e Keith Rowe - è pronto per Matchless Recordings in forma di libro e tre cd audio: An Unintended Legacy. All'attenzione ci sono i concerti tenuti a Londra, Parigi e Trondheim a cavallo tra il 2015 e il 2016, riportati integralmente; il libro, dedicato a Lou Gare, contiene in una settantina di pagine saggi e vari scritti di Prévost, Rowe, Gare appunto, Paige Mitchell, Allen Fisher, Harry Gilonis e Seymour Wright.

https://matchlessrecordings.com/music/amm-unintended-legacy
https://www.discogs.com/AMM-An-Unintended-Legacy/release/12084332

Shelley Hirsch e Joke Lanz presero parte nel 2015 all'edizione londinese del festival di arti varie Next, con sede a Bratislava, con una briosa performance presso il Cafe Oto. Era l'11 novembre, e in cartellone c'erano anche Rashad Becker, Jonas Gruska e Urbanfailure. La registrazione è ora disponibile come file audio nella sezione Otoroku del club con il titolo 11.11.15. Peter Urpeth ha ulteriormente documentato l'evento pubblicando alcuni estratti video e una bella intervista a Shelley tenuta quella sera: è il quarto episodio della sua serie The Free Improv Pod.

New York improvising vocalist, composer, and performance artist Shelley Hirsch met the Swiss turntables and electronic musician Joke Lanz (Sudden Infant) at a festival in Biel, Switzerland, where they were both performing solo. Shelley was struck by his performance and Joke admitted that he has “loved her work since the early ’80s.” Booked to play Oto as part of Next festival, the pair explored consciousness, both immediate and memory based, and drew on personal experience to create a three act improvisation which reinterprets the strange and the known.

https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/shop/111115-shelley-hirsch-joke-lanz
https://thefreeimprovpod.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/fip4-shelley-hirsch
https://soundcloud.com/freeimprovpod/the-free-improv-pod-4-shelley-hirsch

Uno scritto di Kate Westbrook, Tracks of Desire, inaugura il nuovo strumento informativo ideato dai Westbrook, lo Smith’s Academy Notice Board, collocato all'interno del sito web ufficiale e inteso ad ospitare analisi e approfondimenti di vario respiro su aspetti e temi di rilievo. Va a sostituire il glorioso Smith’s Academy Informer fondato trentatré anni fa da John e Margery Styles - e successivamente affidato alle cure di Martin King - le cui pubblicazioni hanno oltrepassato il centinaio di capitoli. Tutto cangia, il ciel s'abbella!

For over 30 years the Smith’s Academy Informer, founded by John and Margery Styles has chronicled the activities of the Westbrook Band. Originally a printed, quarterly newsletter circulated by post, latterly published online more sporadically, the SAI has kept track of tours, recordings and new projects. Now that the relaying of up-to-date information is provided by the Social Media and the Diary and Latest News pages on the website, the Informer is free to concentrate on its other function, that of providing a space for reportage and background information. Re-invented as the Smith’s Academy Notice Board, it will in future set out to give a platform to comment, analysis and in-depth writing on relevant topics. The Notice Board will be published on the website and each new publication will be notified by email. Back issues of SAI will continue to be available on the website.

http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/smithsboard/index.shtml
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/sai

Quale primo atto da compiere nel suo rinnovato studiolo domestico Andy Partridge - o Angry Porridge, come a volte ama chiamarsi sui social - aveva in mente un omaggio ai propri anni d'infanzia. Eccolo qui, un extended play in vinile con versioni mono e stereo di Apples & Oranges (Pink Floyd) e Humanoid Boogie (The Bonzo Dog Band). Ne esistono soltanto 1396 esemplari, e li ha in custodia Burning Shed.

When it came to making initial recordings in his newly upgraded studio at the end of 2017/start of 2018, it was to favoured tunes of half a century ago to which Mr. Partridge returned, specifically: Syd Barrett’s Apples & Oranges (originally the A side of the third Pink Floyd single issued in November 1967) & Neil Innes’ Humanoid Boogie (originally the Side Two opener from The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse, the second album by The Bonzo Dog Band released in November 1968). Andy was one of those few who bought & loved the Floyd single & its equally fab B side Paintbox – it was their first not to chart in the UK, while The Bonzos, having featured in Magical Mystery Tour, went on to a regular, much watched TV slot on Do Not Adjust Your Set which was broadcast in 1968/69, making the album a ‘must buy’ when it appeared.
Meanwhile in 2018, with the songs recorded & pleased with the result, the next question became how best to release them & a 4 track (both songs in Stereo & Mono, naturally) 10” vinyl EP format in a picture sleeve with neither song identified as an A side became the format of choice.

http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_ApplesAndOranges.html
https://burningshed.com/store/ape/artists-ape/andy-partridge
https://burningshed.com/andy-partridge_apples-and-oranges_humanoid-boogie_vinyl

Una collaborazione a distanza tra Dave Newhouse, Bret Hart e Carla Diratz, nata con premesse affatto diverse - circoscritta inizialmente a un brano destinato al progetto post-Muffins Manna/Mirage del solo Newhouse - è poi cresciuta con convinzione e ora sfociata in concerti e una prima prova discografica, Diratz, salutati da ottime recensioni. Con i buoni auspici anche di Robert Wyatt!

http://www.mannamirage.com/diratz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWSKeDK134s
https://canterburyscenecom.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/diratz-album-review
http://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com/2017/12/diratz.html

In alternativa alle fanfare del 2 giugno giunge appropriata la citazione (strumentale) de Il barbiere, degli Stormy Six, proposta in concerto dal Mezz Gacano's Self-Standing Ovation Boskàuz Ensemble. Che qui, come già in Kinderheim, ha ospite Tommaso Leddi. Capirsi senza parlare.

https://www.facebook.com/Mezkis/videos/802799483244823

Saranno presto venticinque anni anche dalla scomparsa del grande Derek Jarman (1942-1994), e ad anticiparne le celebrazioni, producendo per la prima volta in Blu-ray alcuni suoi indimenticabili capolavori, provvede il British Film Institute. Un primo gruppo di opere è raccolto in Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986, con In the Shadow of the Sun, Sebastiane, Jubilee, The Tempest, The Angelic Conversation e Caravaggio: vi si ritrovano le musiche di Throbbing Gristle e Coil, di Brian Eno e Simon Fisher-Turner, l'esordio della strepitosa Tilda Swinton, un cameo di Lol Coxhill nei panni di un vecchio prete, una messe di materiali aggiuntivi tra cui schizzi, trame provvisorie, sessioni inedite di registrazione, scene segrete delle scorribande londinesi di Genesis P-Orridge con William Burroughs a inizio anni Ottanta, riflessioni ex post di alcuni protagonisti, un libretto zeppo di note e un prezioso set di cartoline con i costumi creati da Christopher Hobbs.

24 years have gone by since his death at just 52, but the legacy of the iconoclastic filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942-1994) lives on, and his ground-breaking and highly influential work has lost none of its relevance or impact. The first of two deluxe box sets brings together a selection of his feature films on Blu-ray for the first time. Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986 contains In the Shadow of the Sun, Sebastiane, Jubilee, The Tempest, The Angelic Conversation and Caravaggio and is packed with an incredible 30 extras and accompanied by an 80-page book.
Jarman’s multi-faceted work is inspirational in its fearlessness, yet remains touchingly personal. The dynamism of these features evokes comparison with the bold romanticism of directors like Ken Russell (an early champion) and Michael Powell, as well as artists Paul Nash and John Piper. But Jarman was also a subversive force in film. Beginning with his psychedelic debut feature, In the Shadow of the Sun (1972-1974), then came the provocative Jubilee (1978), the evocative Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest (1979) and The Angelic Conversation (1985), in which he invoked Elizabethan occultist Dr John Dee and explored alchemical imagery, a subject in which he was well versed. In Sebastiane (1976) and Caravaggio (1986) he revived key gay and homo-erotic figures from the past – with edgy and unmistakable style.
Derek Jarman’s first six feature films have all been newly scanned at 2K from original film elements and are presented in this lavish box set alongside an exciting array of new and archival extras drawn from Jarman’s archive of workbooks and papers held in BFI Special Collections. Newly interviewed exclusively for this box set are some of the people who worked on these films; punk legend Jordan, producer and filmmaker Don Boyd, production designer Christopher Hobbs and artist filmmaker John Scarlett-Davis.

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/jarman-volume-1-1972-1986-blu-ray.html
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0418746