CCA Music Events

Seeds of Thought

06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hosted by the 'Seeds of Thought' group and featuring guests. A fun, relaxed evening of spoken word, acoustic music, dramatic sketches and open mic for those who want to share in the fun and easy-going spirit of the evening. A diverse range of acts from traditional African 'Mbira' music, spoken word, electronica, visual presentations and featuring exciting live poetry and music talent from Glasgow and beyond.

Line up...

Moyo Chirandu brothers playing Mbira (music of the ancestors), the kompressors, the ex-men

Spoken word from:

Tawona Sithole, Laura Hainey, Dave Findlay, Stewart Kunaka, Tiff Griffin, Kalonde Kasengele

And many more...

Also featuring visual poetry/art from Heather Robertson and much more...

Approximately Infinite Universe: Gig

19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

2008 CMN Tour curated and produced by NO-FI and [NO.SIGNAL] supported by The Wire magazine

APPROXIMATELY INFINITE UNIVERSE

A CARAVAN OF RAW SOUND MAGIC FROM FINLAND AND THE US

KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT & AXOLOTL
ES & FURSAXA
ISLAJA, BLEVIN BLECTUM & SAMARA LUBELSKI
DREAM TRIANGLE (TOMUTONTTU & SKATERS)

19 – 27 September 2008
Glasgow | Aberdeen | Sheffield | Birmingham | Newcastle | Manchester | Bristol | London

Two of the UK’s busiest leftfield promoters, NO-FI and [NO.SIGNAL] join forces this September to present APPROXIMATELY INFINITE UNIVERSE - A CARAVAN OF RAW SOUND MAGIC FROM FINLAND AND THE US, an eight-date tour opening at CCA, supported by CMN and media sponsored by The Wire Magazine, which will travel the length of the UK.

Featuring special commissions and unique collaborations from some of the most innovative and exciting acts of Finland’s underground with the haunting ISLAJA, the beautifully disorientating KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT, the epiphanies of ES and the genius collages of TOMUNTONTTU (Jan Anderzén) – most represented by the influential and exploratory label FONAL. Each will musically entangle themselves amongst an uncompromising host of Americans, including the home-recorded acid folk of FURSAXA; freak goddess SAMARA LUBELSKI (Hall Of Fame, Tower recordings, MV&EE), the ‘Terry Riley-fused with Kate Bush’ impossibility of AXOLOTL, the ‘coal-powered spacecraft from some steampunk parallel universe’ that is BLEVIN BLECTUM and the occult trance duo SKATERS.

Each performance will be a unique and brand new collaboration, each of the Finnish acts inviting a US counterpart to collaborate on a performance, highlighting the parallels in strands of the recent evolving trend of ‘weird/avant folk/noise’ between the US under the layer communities and Finland’s northern circles.

The performances will be made of material composed in the months leading up to the tour and worked in 2 days rehearsal. The concerts will take the form of two acts with the 4 groupings rotating during each act.

NO-FI and [NO.SIGNAL] - in conjunction with the artists themselves - designed this approach as a way of taking the aforementioned trans-Atlantic influence exchange, trapping it in a vacuum and making it feedback on itself in order create a whole family of brand new musical beasts.

Selected dates on this tour will feature an exclusive screenings curated by FONAL-founder Sami Sanpakkila and a selection of commissioned work which will take place before live performances.

The concerts will be recorded and later released as digital only compilations.

Tennent's Mutual Season

20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The Tennent's Mutual announces Season One Warm-Up shows with James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem), Frightened Rabbit, Findo Gask, Isosceles, Kid Canaveral, Belle & Sebastian DJs and more.
Plus: Los Campesinos!, Times New Viking and No Age confirmed for Season One.

The Tennent's Mutual is delighted to announce that dance-floor insurgent James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) will play two exclusive DJ sets as part of its Season One Warm-Up shows: at CCA on 20 September and at Edinburgh Caves on 21 September.

Murphy will be joined by the likes of alt-rock marvels Frightened Rabbit, electro buccaneers Findo Gask, jawboned new-wavers Isosceles, indie pop tearaways Kid Canaveral and an estimable brace of Belle & Sebastian DJs, for September’s east and west coast warm-up parties (full listings overleaf).

All of the aforementioned artists were voted for, and requested by, members of The Tennent’s Mutual: that is, music fans who signed up at www.tennentsmutual.com to have their say in spending this year’s seed fund of 150 thousand pounds, on a series of Scottish live events in 2008. All ticket income generated from these gigs will be reinvested to increase the fund for 2009. This sum will be fortified by an annual donation from Tennent’s Lager.

The Glasgow / Edinburgh warm-ups precede The Tennent’s Mutual: Season One live programme, which will run throughout Scotland in October / November 2008: full details of artists, locations and venues will be revealed shortly.

Elaine Forbes of Tennent’s Lager said: “We’re thrilled to be kick-starting The Tennent’s Mutual’s first-ever series of gigs with two warm-up shows that celebrate the quality and diversity of music that our members have requested. We can’t wait to unveil the full programme in the coming weeks.”

As with the warm-up dates, all bills in the Season One programme will be headlined and shaped by artists elected by members of The Tennent’s Mutual, via this year’s Final Top 40 and the Unsigned Chart; and will be further embellished by a clutch of aural affiliates and exceptional acts who reached the peripheries of the various Top 40s, which ran from April – July 2008.

With this in mind, and as a suggestion of what’s to come, The Tennent’s Mutual is pleased to divulge a Season One sneak preview in the shape of day-glo indie literati Los Campesinos!, who’ll appear alongside DIY leviathans Times New Viking and punk alchemists No Age at Glasgow School of Art on October 18th.
Tickets for The Tennent’s Mutual: Season One Warm-Up parties (James Murphy et al), and tickets for Los Campesinos! / Times New Viking / New Age will be available from August 19th. Members of The Tennent's Mutual are currently voting on ticket prices for these shows: they’ll be published at; and on-sale from; www.tennentsmutual.com.

As with all of The Tennent’s Mutual live events, tickets will be completely free from booking fees, and each individual purchase comes with automatic membership and voting rights: i.e. upon buying a ticket for any event, the buyer is afforded a voting point and can hence influence the next round of gigs – the artists, locations, ticket prices, and much more – which are set to run in 2009. Tickets are solely available via www.tennentsmutual.com
Launched by Tennent’s Lager in April 2008, The Tennent’s Mutual is transforming Scotland’s live music landscape, by switching influence from the hands of the industry, into the heart of the music community. By encouraging music lovers to invest its annual music budget, The Tennent’s Mutual is empowering Scotland’s gigging enthusiasts to own and control a new music agenda: for music fans, by music fans. It’s at www.tennentsmutual.com

Tennent’s donated a start-up fund of £150k for 2008, with a view to enabling members to devise and programme a series of live shows in Scotland in October / November this year. So far TTM Founder Members, (who signed up by June 30th), have voted on where to programme the gigs, what type of gigs to programme, the introduction of an unsigned platform, and indeed what established and breaking acts they’d like to see featured in this year’s live bill. Votes on ticket prices and feedback on unsigned talent will follow in the coming weeks.

Music fans who’ve yet to join in are welcome to do so any time: they’ll be granted Associate Member status, which means they can participate in all aspects of The Tennent’s Mutual’s online dialogue: music rating, forum debating and so on, but they cannot vote. Full membership / voting rights can be attained by purchasing a ticket to any of The Tennent’s Mutual 2008 live shows.

All ticket income generated from the 2008 gigs will be reinvested to increase next year’s fund for The Tennent’s Mutual. This ensuing sum will be further fortified by an annual donation from Tennent’s Lager’s music budget.

Other activity has included a series of exclusive online films / live web-chats with Chuck D, Lightspeed Champion and Malcolm Middleton, while industry specialists on board to offer counsel to members of The Tennent’s Mutual include Rolling Stones svengali Andrew Loog Oldham, Chemikal Underground’s Stewart Henderson, The Fence Collective’s Johnny Lynch and Babyshambles’ Drew McConnell

The Fallen Angels Club presents Eliza Gilkyson

01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

About Eliza Gilkyson

One of those rare performers who makes you feel that you're the only person in the room. Her poignant songs pull no punches and have deservedly led to Grammy nominations, her friends and collaborators include Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris Dement, and Patty Griffin, her admirers include the finest musicians and broadcasters in the world. Songwriting runs through the Gilkyson family; father Terry wrote 'The Bear Necessities (Jungle Book)' , 'Mariane' and 'Memories Are Made of This', brother Tony is also hugely regarded.

Her most recent CD is Paradise Hotel which has already made DJ Top Ten lists all over the US and Europe. Winner of Folk Alliance and Austin Music Awards.

Masterfully structured, startlingly intimate songs in a beautifully lived in voice"

- Boston Globe

"Gilkyson's signature as an artist is her courage. She lays it all bare, in song and on stage."

- Austin American Statesman

CALQ Residency: Martine H. Crispo

01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Speaking about her CALQ residency, Martine Crispo said:

"For the past 20 years, I have worked as a sound artist presenting live radiophonic performances and sound installations. More recently, my work has drawn on the spontaneous compositions created by extracting the sounds, words and melodies of children's toys and home-made, electronic objects. My attraction to these objects goes beyond the quirky, glitchy sounds and rhythms they create. Quite simply, I love to touch, manipulate and reconstruct them.

"During my residency at CCA in Glascow, I hope to create a playground of operable 'playthings' where the public can fool around with sound. The playground will fuse the irresistible impulse to fiddle with buttons, switches and knobs with the improvisation of electronic sounds at once lo-fi and familiar, yet unnatural and unexpected."

Symposia

31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

SYMPOSiA are a new-music group, based in Glasgow, created in 2002 from a pool of young, professional, musicians. They only perform music written in the last 10 years and have premiered some 50 works, many of which have been written specifically for the group, by composers including Gareth Williams, Drew Hammond, Simon Van der Walt, Colin Broom, Oliver Searle, Matthew Rogers, Diana Simpson, John Gormley, Marc Yeats and Gordon McPherson. SYMPOSiA have performed in various venues around Glasgow and at the West End festival, PLUG at the RSAMD and Sound Festival, in Aberdeen.

Symposia will perform music created by John De Simone and Oliver Searle, for an amplified ensemble of flute, sax, trombone, violin, accordion and tape.

CALQ Residency: Call for Submissions

03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

CCA is into its fourth year of its exchange programme with the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres in Quebec (CALQ). Each year one Scottish and one Quebecois artist engage in a three-month exchange. The exchange will focus on contemporary music (instrumental, electroacoustic and electronic music), sound installation, audio art and media arts sectors, in which the candidates work primarily with new technologies.

CCA wishes, through this collaboration with Quebec's foremost supporter of artistic creation, to foster the career development of Scottish artists and enable them to take advantage of the numerous benefits that CALQ offers. CCA also wishes to further broaden longstanding relationships between Scotland and Québec.

The objectives of the exchange are to:

support and stimulate artists by making available to them the means to carry out and disseminate their works;
foster refresher stints among artists by making accessible to them a new, stimulating cultural environment;
facilitate exchanges of artistic or literary viewpoints and contribute to the establishment of durable ties between Québec and Scottish artists.

Terms

The grant awarded is in the amount of $7 500 (Canadian dollars).
The grant enables the recipient to cover the cost of personal insurance, travel, living expenses and the cost of carrying out their projects (such as studio fees).
Housing in Montréal is made available free of charge to Scottish artists by CALQ.
Candidates do not have to submit a detailed budget to support their applications.

Length of stay
Three months, between May and August 2009.

Location
Accommodation is provided courtesy of CALQ. The 85-m2 studio-apartment is a loft located in Montréal's Latin Quarter, near rue Saint-Denis. It is fully furnished. PRIM will provide all studio, technical and administrative support during the residency. PRIM is a community based technical resource centre dedicated to the development and the creation of new media works and is open to the whole of the artistic and cultural community. PRIM is open to any creator, individual, independent or professional artist, wishing to use its resources for artistic or research purposes or community based projects.

Selection process:
All proposals will be considered by CCA. Short listing of work for inclusion will be on the basis of suitability to the artistic parameters of CCA. A shortlist will be sent to CALQ for final selection January 2009.

General criteria:

Time spent must be on development of the artist's own, original work
The focus is on the contemporary artist whose emphasis is on the use of new technologies
Artists must conform to CCA’s Health & Safety rules and regulations Equal Opportunities will be employed in the selection of projects in line with CCA’s policies

To submit a proposal:
We would like a brief (maximum 2 sides) description of the work you would like to investigate. Include the conceptual basis, content, art forms used, and how much time you would need. Please include your CV and list of artist’s experience and any supporting material or documentation on video or DVD.

Send proposals to:
CALQ Residency
CCA
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow
G2 3JD

Deadline for proposals:
Monday 5 January 2009

Enquiries: kerri@cca-glasgow.com

Art Internship Opportunity

03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

CCA is offering a six-month arts internship commencing in January 2009.

The successful applicant would help contribute to the day to day running of the venue. It could also involve shadowing members of the staff, assisting with CCA events and exhibitions or carrying out specific projects on your own.

You must be available to work at least 1-2 days per week. Interviews for this Internship will be held in December.

To apply please email louise@cca-glasgow.com for an application form and complete and return to Louise Shelley by noon, Friday November 21 2008.

Arts Internship Role Description:
This role is designed to offer an intern insight and experience in art management and administration.

Duties of the Role
In addition to assisting and work-shadowing for events, the role may include assisting with:

general office duties such as opening and distributing daily mail, daily collection, stamping and postage of mail at end of day, receiving and distributing other deliveries
the display and distribution of publicity material and weekly press coverage
mailing out and delivering of flyers and other promotional material
sourcing and updating databases and mailing lists
the preparation and event management duties of CCA events
sourcing and arranging best value travel and accommodation arrangements for artists
attending regular CCA team meetings
any other reasonable duties as requested by the Office and Programme Assistant

Hours Worked
This is a volunteer role for 7 to 14 hours per week over 2 days. A regular weekly pattern to be agreed with the Office and Programme assistant.

Position in the Organisation
Reports to the Office and Programme assistant.

SalaryThis is an unpaid role. Complimentary passes to some CCA events may be provided.

Person Specification

Desirable:

Experience of working in an office environment
Experience of working with people

Essential:

An interest in the arts and arts administration
Knowledge of and experience working with Microsoft office.
A flexible approach to work
A helpful and positive disposition
Ability to work in a team and independently.
Time management skills
An understanding and commitment to equal opportunities

Please download the job description and application form on the left hand side.

Applications should be emailed to Louise Shelley, louise@cca-glasgow.com, by noon, Friday November 21 2008.

For further information, please contact louise@cca-glasgow.com or on 0141 352 4900.

Szajrol szajra (World music from Hungary)

08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Szájról szájra (Hearsay) are three outstanding young singers from Hungary who showcase Hungarian world music. All three members of the group have had individual success and together they have taken Hungary by storm playing at numerous events including the world famous Sziget Festival in Budapest. Now they bring their unique blend of Hungarian folk song to the UK.

Ági Szalóki is one of the most talented and celebrated representatives of a new generation of folk singers that burst onto the scene at the end of the 1990s. For several years she was the singer with besh o droM, an immensely popular world music band playing all over Hungary and Europe and with Ökrös, famous for the virtuoso interpretation of authentic Hungarian folk music. She has toured around the globe with these two bands from the Montreal Jazz Festival to the Barbican Centre in London and the Theatre de la Ville in Paris. Her voice can be heard on more than 25 albums. Since 2005 she has been pursuing her solo career with her own bands. Of her three solo albums released so far two have won Fonogram Album of the year awards, for Hungarian Jazz in 2006 and Albums for Children in 2007. Ági’s singing style, characterised by subtle sensitivity, childlike honesty and inventiveness, has attracted the attention of the greatest Hungarian jazz musicians. Using her folk singing technique she has improvised at Jazz concerts at home and abroad together with Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Tony Lakatos, Kálmán Oláh and Mihály Dresch.

Ágnes Herczku ‘Throughout ten years of amateur jazz ballet, one year of folk dance and two years of modern dance studies I could only toy with the idea that one day I would become a professional dancer… The further I advanced in my studies, the further I seemed to get away from the stage. So it took me by surprise when I was accepted by the Honve Ensemble. Besides dancing, singing mostly played a role of secondary importance in my life’.

Szilvia Bognár She was simply led towards her singing career by a series of encounters, significant events and experiences. She started singing as a member of Vasi Népdalstúdió, then with Boglya Ensemble. She was still young when she began singing with the newly formed Anima Sound System, while at the same time she toured through the country as a member of Vándor Vokál (Wandering Vocal) performing polyphonic songs of different ethnicities. The four years spent working together with Makám propagating the amalgam of different musical styles and folk music also opened exciting musical perspectives for her.

See more: www.szalokiagi.hu

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Guests: Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday)

14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Introduced by Brian Morton, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with guests Birgit Ulher (tpt) and Clayton Thomas (bs) present Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) in association with Goethe-Institut Glasgow and CCA.

Sound cinema changed forever the relationship between sound and image and this encounter between GIO and guests Birgit Ulher and Clayton Thomas both looks back to silent documentary images while lending a contemporary ear to the listening forum of improvised music. This collaboration paves the way for another extraordinary synaesthetic performance with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, Scotland's most sincere new music ensemble.

Menschem am Sonntag/People on Sunday
Germany 1927. Dir. Robert Siodmak
with German and English intertitles.

Shot entirely on original locations in late 20s Berlin, this is the tale of five young Berliners spending a typical summer Sunday in the metropolis and in the surrounding countryside. Billed as a 'film without actors', each of the on-screen participants effectively played themselves and returned to their day jobs once production had concluded.

People on Sunday is the early collaboration of five young Berlin based filmmakers - Robert and Curt Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Edgar G Ulmer, Eugen Schuefftan and Fred Zinneman - who would all go on to great international success. Produced with little financial assistance it made film history as the avant garde precursor of poetic realism.

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
GIO is a network of listening made band-like by a playful consistency in their approach to large group free improvisation: an orchestra that is hospitable, monstrous, of undefined edges and truly defies categorisation. To listen to them becomes an ethical priority in the face of mute repetition; enjoy.
www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com

Clayton Thomas
Australian-born bassist Clayton Thomas, now based in Berlin, works in the broad spectrum of improvised and experimental music. He is also the founder of the NOW festival of improvised music and the leader o fthe 30 piece electro-acoustic ensemble The Splinter Orchestra.
www.myspace.com/doubleclayton

Birgit Ulher
Hamburg-based trumpeter Birgit Ulher has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music since the early eighties, establishing a distinguished grammar of intimate sounds beyond the open trumpet sound. Influenced by her training as a visual artist, she performs solo, with dancers, working ensembles, and one-off collaborations with musicians from around the world.
www.birgit-ulher.de

Scottish Ensemble: Get Close to the Music

16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"He jams with a Norwegian 'noise' band, and makes Bartok sound as ugly as he can. But violinist Pekka Kuusisto may be the best thing to happen to classical music in years." – Erica Jeal, The Guardian

Join the Scottish Ensemble and soloist, Pekka Kuusisto in this open rehearsal for a rare insight into the creation of a performance. The rehearsal is in preparation for a concert which will focus on exploring musical boundaries inspired by the folk traditions and musical landscape of Pekka’s native Finland, and its close neighbours, Estonia and Hungary.

Horse Box Orchestra

22 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Sarah Kenchington will present a series of mechanical orchestra performances which take place inside a portable horse box.

The performances will include appearances from invited guest performers or will act as live accompaniment to film screenings.

The Horse Box Orchestra will also be performing during other events associated with Open Field

Chris Corsano / Heather Leigh Murray duo and guests

22 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Chris Corsano / Heather Leigh Murray duo
Super-rare pairing of two of the finest living American improvisers, both currently based in Scotland. Chris Corsano is one of the most exciting drummers in the Western World, demonstrated consistently through his solo work as well as with an ever expanding list of collaborators including Jandek, Paul Flaherty, Six Organs of Admittance, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Matt Valentine, Nels Cline, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Jim O'Rourke, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Mick Flower, and C. Spencer Yeh. He has recently been touring and recording with Bjork.

Heather Leigh Murray is well known for her work in a anumber of trailblazing groups such as Charalambides, Sorces and Taurpis Tula. Her solo work centres around liberated pedal steel and hauntingly personal free vocal expression. She is another renowned collaborator having recently worked with the likes of Jandek and Dream Aktion Unit.

Blood Stereo
Brighton based duo of Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay, Decaer Pinga, Ceylon Mange) and Karen Constance (Polly Shang Kuan band, Decaer Pinga, Ceylon Mange, Smack Music 7). These two sonic voyagers merge electronics, tapes and sound poetry/vocals into weird and wonderful sound shapes. A must for fans of earhole confusion and primitive expression!

Ashtray Navigations
Leeds duo of Phil Todd and Mel Delaney returning to Glasgow for the first time since August 2007. Ashtray Navigations have been a positive force in the UK underground since nineteen oatcake. Legend says that if each of their releases were placed end to end, they would reach beyond the moon. Expect ecstatic psychedelic free-ness and outsider guitar heroics of the highest order.

Joshua Burkett

Live Music by Muscles of Joy with new animation by Katy Dove and Be My Eyes and I'll Be Your Ears: A Blind Date with Vernon & Burns

28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Muscles of Joy are Anne-Marie Copestake, Ariki Portoeus, Charlotte Prodger, Jenny O’Boyle, Katy Dove, Leigh Ferguson, Sophie Macpherson and Victoria Morton. They have been jamming together for over a year and gradually these improvised sessions have become songs.

Their set tonight includes a live soundtrack for a new animated film by Katy Dove - Welcome (2008) 7 mins. Welcome contains a mixture of animation and footage filmed at the caravans in Balfron, where Katy is in residence.

We all get lost in the dark sometimes. Vernon & Burns shed some light on the matter in a theatrical radio play that displays a distinct lack of vision. Taking as a starting point the dilemma of how to reconcile the visually theatrical with the sonic dimension of radio, they will explore the concept of audio descriptions for the visually impaired with a performance which shouldn't work on the radio, producing an off kilter audio vérité variety show. This collision between hörspiel and horseplay, fact and fiction, and indeed Vernon and Burns will produce something we'll call vaudioville.

Vernon & Burns are a duo of sound makers who create radio plays, records and performances through an innovative mix of samples, field recordings, storytelling and music. Their eclectic live act encompasses everything from ventriloquism and magic to music hall and slapstick.

They have performed across Europe and have produced radio programmes and sound works for the BBC, VPRO, Resonance FM, WFMU, and The Audible Picture Show. Their debut LP “The Tune the Old Cow Died of” was released on Gagarin records with a follow up due very soon.

“They splice real life audio recordings into small plays…… small, fascinating journeys.” Vital Weekly

Cultural Exchange

28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Market stall performance by Neil Walker, accompanied by the Horse Box Orchestra.

Horse Box Orchestra

29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Kill Your Timid Notion

06 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A step across the border between sound & vision...

Kill Your Timid Notion is one of Europe's leading festivals of sound and image hosted in Dundee since 2003. This year we tour the festival to venues across the UK. Come and be inspired, enriched and confounded.

Featuring performances, screenings and events from Ken Jacobs, Keith Rowe, Bruce McClure, Paul Sharits…

Your eyes see what, 10 or 15 images a second? That’s 10Hz. Your ears can hear 15,000 Hz. Surely there must be something interesting in this incongruity?

KYTN is all about exploring the many different ways we navigate the borders, disparities and similarities between what we hear and what we see. It involves some of the great experimental artists, musicians and filmmakers of our time, and some of the not too distant future. It features film being developed as it’s projected, visual harmonics, jerry rigged 16mm projectors, movement without motion, and much more besides...

For full details of the programme, visit www.arika.org.uk

FILM PROGRAMME
Our film programmes navigate the multiple ways in which filmmakers and artists have addressed the dilemmas and possibilities of sound and image, from optical printing and syneasthesia, to complex discontinuities between what we see and what we hear. It’s not all just fancy theory: mostly it’s just incredible films, new ways of looking…

Location, Location, Location
Experience a sense of being in the world, in a specific space and time. Including Jeanne Liotta’s recordings of the ionosphere and Walter Ruttman’s radical 35mm precursor to musique concrète.

Word Associations
Discontinuity between narration, text and image. Including Manual Saiz’s employment of John Malkovich’s Spanish dubbing double and Peter Rose’s absurdly hilarious concrete poetry subtitling chaos.

About Face
Human subjects are the focus for sound and image construction. Including masterpieces of experimental film: Paul Sharits’ deeply empathetic interpretation of epilepsy and Peter Kubelka’s Webern inspired abstract portrait of Arnulf Rainer.

Sight and Synch
Sound and image slipping out of synch and into discord, including a very special version of Hollis Frampton’s masterful (nostalgia), with a live narration by Michael Snow at the London screening.

PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
Here’s the programme, we hope it’s unlike much you’ve seen before. Above all it’s an experience, especially for those who want to explore film beyond narrative cinema, sound beyond tunes and who want to be inspired, enriched or confounded by a night out...

Ken Jacobs & Eric La Casa
Ken Jacobs is the father of film-as-performance and one of the USA’s leading visual artists. His pulsing and intensely detailed Nervous Magic Lantern performances create flickering and abstract 3D tricks of the eye, which he calls ‘movement without motion’. It’s a celestial spectacle grounded by sound artist Eric La Casa’s manipulated recordings of everyday locations: lift shafts, ventilation ducts, car parks.

Andrew Lampert’s quasi-theatrical multiple-projector pieces deliver a kind of maverick dose of controlled chaos and play with the relationship between performers, art and audiences. Prepare to have your expectations confounded, to feel a little uneasy maybe, to laugh.

Bruce McClure turns projectors into instruments; he doesn’t project film, he misuses it. His bastardised 16mm projectors transform B&W loops into a thrumming riot of perceptual phenomenon in colour, motion and sound. Noise music for the eyes.

Paul Sharits’ incredible Shutter Interface is an expanded cinema piece which creates a series of machinegun bursts of chromatic relationships and visual harmonics in an overwhelming montage, intended as "a 3D metaphor of the space of the brain in an epileptic state, brought under control and harmonized."

Using eight projectors, Metamkine manipulate and combine beams of multiple images, glimpses of old films, abstract images, often developed, solarised and burnt as they pass through the projector, in the midst of an electro-acoustic sound field of tape loops, analogue synthesizers and amplified objects. What’s not to love?

Kjell Bjørgeengen, Keith Rowe & Philipp Waschmann create an immersive environment in which sound is looped through oscillators, violin, a radio, guitar pick-ups and specially constructed video amps to create dense flickering images and colours that strobe and confuse the eye. Not for the faint-hearted.

In Greg Pope’s Light Trap film loops are abraded with sandpaper and manhandled by gem polishing drills as they pass through projectors in each corner of the room. Out of a dark haze, shafts of lights emerge, as the emulsion is scratched from the surface of the film. Simultaneously, out of the black silence, noise and audible scratches bloom into a bright drone. It’s not really an installation, or like a normal performance, it’s just an experience of real beauty.

Credits:
We are Arika. We create some of the leading experimental music and film events in the UK. We’re touring KYTN because the people who put the most interesting stuff on in your city told us it’d go down real well there. Don’t let them down now!

A Contemporary Music Network tour produced by Arika and Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Media Partner: The Wire

For more info, clips, sound and images take a look at www.arika.org.uk

Horse Box Orchestra

06 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Autoconstruccion - the album

08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Now available for download, Abraham Cruzvillegas' Autoconstruccion album will be online here for a month and will then be available from the archive section.

"In order to make an exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, I spent the summer of 2008 in residency at Cove Park, Kilcreggan, making improvised sculptures with materials found in that context: wool, sheep shit, chicken wire, discarded furniture, cardboard, stones, grass and my own hair... They are unplanned assemblages, made to test new dialogues between odd and contradictory objects and prime matter. All those works are inspired by my parents' house in Mexico City, as it is an improvised and almost useless place made without budget, plans or even ideas: chaotic, ugly and definitely unfinished.

"During the same period, I wrote some lyrics about that house. They were written after a hybrid combination of inspiring sources, such as romantic popular music, folk music, boleros, dub, rock and roll, salsa, reggae, Brazilian music, corridos, punk, ska, cumbia, trova Yucateca, funk, protest music, nortenas, hip-hop, commercial pop from everywhere, etc. I invited musicians from Glasgow to create the music for the lyrics; which we recorded at the CCA with 18 eclectic bands; electronic, post punk, pop, noise, a choir...

"I played the music in the streets and squares of Glasgow with a sound system constructed as a mobile sculpture, in collaboration with John O'Hara, in a bike-recycling workshop in Bridgeton, which is part of The Common Wheel Project. This cart was made with parts from used, discarded or old bikes and diverse furniture pieces; pipes, sticks, carpets, wood, ropes and wires. The sound system refers directly to those riding the streets of Kingston in Jamaica during the seventies and eighties, the Sonidero tradition of Mexico City or New York, but also to the DJ and MC practices around the world. For all of them, the amplification (which means loud and deep) element is central and common in their many different manners of playing and sharing music in public places or spaces.

"Along with the sculptures made at Cove Park, the sound system - playing the music - was on display at the CCA from 26 September to 7 November 2008." Abraham Cruzvillegas

Track List

Mr Xitle: The Parsonage
I love my hole: Phantom Band
The girl next door: Heath Patrol
Walking and walking: Molly and Me
Succulent: Gummy Stumps
Tortillas: Foxface
Rock: Eilidh MacAskil
Sniffing glue: Triple School
Razzia: Cheer
Love song: Skeleton Bob
Aprons: Big Heat
Ramps: Remember Remember
With or without you: Fox Gut Daata
Meche Carreno: Administrative Assistants
Concrete Mix (For an Acid House): Yoko, Oh No!
The Route of Enmity: vaRs of Eitchi
Heart of Glass: Nalle
La cama de piedras: Tattie Toes

Tattie Toes with guests 7 Hertz and Scottish Toy Orkestra

10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Tattie Toes: sometimes simple, sometimes complex mix of vocals, bass, drums, violin (and other instruments) conspiring to make a unique sound that is emotional and uplifting.

www.myspace.com/tattietoes

7 Hertz: Leeds four piece - violin, violin, double bass, clarinet. Haunting quiet music that plays chamber music, various folk traditions and improv with a punk spirit.

www.myspace.com/the7hertzband

Scottish Toy Orkestra: 5 local musicians play a mesmerizing blend of toy and rough and ready instruments.

www.myspace.com/scottishtoyorkestra

Photo by Martin Clark