Goodbye Blue Monday: Blogger blog (2006-2009)

326 posts later...

A time comes in the life of every blog where it must move aside to make space for something more pleasing to the eye. It is then, that I must announce this is the last post in the life of my beloved Blogger blog. It has been a platform for my many academic excursions, artistic dalliances and emotional rants - what a ride.

Now those things skirt over to Wordpress: http://tristanlouthrobins.wordpress.com/

Staub - A record of tones and artifacts

red_robin: staub

1. The Dancing Meadow (5:42)
2. Electricity (4:34)
3. Night Air (5:32)
4. Isar (3:22)
5. Flanko 2 (2:07)

Download/Stream at red_robin's Last.fm album page:*

http://www.last.fm/music/red_robin/Staub

* In lieu of my server currently offline.

Liner notes:

This record's title is derived from the German word 'staub', which translates in English to 'dust'. The compositions on this record are intended to reveal the 'artifacts' of the technologies and instruments in operation. These 'artifacts' are revealed and made audible through intentional and non-intentional methods.

As some of us lament the disappearing of audio formats with such 'artifacts' (see audio tape, vinyl) we are faced with the uncertain future of 'perfect', non-physical, hyper-compressed audio formats/technologies that embody no such character or personality. Staub showcases these imperfections.

I like to regard Staub as an encapsulation of my current interests in composition and approaches to various forms of technology.

The Singing Meadow
rr: oscillator, noise generator, earthed jack

Electricity
rr: electric slide guitar, turntable & run-out groove

Night Air
rr: turntable & run-out grooves

Isar
rr: synthesiser

Flanko Two
rr: electric guitar

Recorded at home (Unley, South Australia) on 19/2, 28/2 and 1/3/2009.

A handful of shows in April and another thing

April is shaping up as a busy month with a handful of shows - two performance at the Gallery Delacatessen here in Adelaide and an appearance in Melbourne with my good friend Jason Sweeney. More details soon, keep an eye on the blog.

I'm also working on a new release at the moment, something new with growls and hisses, a bit of melody too.

Panaoptique Electrical play EMU on Wednesday night

Mr Sweeney and TLR

Many thanks to our fellow artists, Austen Benjamin Trio and Klumpes Ahmed for their lovely music on Wednesday evening. Salutations to the warm receptive crowd and lots of love to Lauren for her mobile phone images.

Klumpes Ahmed, Austen Benjamin Trio, Panoptique Electrical (w/TLR) play EMU

The EMU Concert Space is hosting its first concert of 2009 with performances by Klumpes Ahmed, Austen Benjamin Trio and Panoptique Electrical. I will be performing alongside Panoptique Electrical as its alter-ego Jason Sweeney kindly asked me to.

When: Wednesday February 18th (doors 8pm)
Where: EMU Concert Space, Level 5 Shultz Building, University of Adelaide
Cost: $10

Website still down - naughty dream.hosting

It would seem my provider moved my account to new servers without notifying me.

Not entirely happy at the moment.

Though it should be fixed in the next couple of days.

Website down - server crash

My website (www.tyndallassembly.com/tristanlouthrobins) is currently down at present due to server issues. I don’t know exactly what the issue is at this stage, but my hosting provider is onto it and will hopefully have everything working again by week’s end.

Which reminds me, it’s about time the site was updated.

'Julius' - short video

The means of production for a track called 'Julius' from the Tiefurt album. The track and the means of production are a homage to the great Rolf Julius of Berlin.

The heat in Adelaide town...

...is turning my house into a place where a sound, studious mind cannot dwell. The kilowatts and black baloons of air conditioned respite temper only so much. I open a teapot to transfuse some sound into it, it coughs hot air up into my face. I place it back on the mantle piece to stew, something palatable has come on the television.

O great Sun King, give this weather to Perth! They have it too easy, what with ocean breezes from the seas of the sub-continent.

An oblique view of Sumi_: done

Still from documentation. After one-and-a-half years of re-thinking, re-conceptualising and re-everything...

It's finished.

Tastier stuff to follow later.

Leonard!

More studio views

Recording iterations for Infuser



Menage a T


Lauren

HC Gilje's Wind-up birds

(Via http://hcgilje.wordpress.com)


wind-up bird(s) from hc gilje on Vimeo.

This is seriously one of the most beautiful (yet simple) sound art works I have come across recently. Mechanical tappers realised using networked Arduinos and wooden resonators, actual woodpeckers started communicating with them after awhile! Read about it here: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/wind-up-birds

HC Gilje's work always impresses me, I'm a big fan of the blog: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com

Accumulation

It's quite terrifying how much text I've compiled/research/written for my Masters research. It's all becoming all too apparent as I slash, burn and revegitate this tome.

Two similar views of the studio

Things I admire #1: Lambchop

(Since we are all in a period of coming down and picking up again after the holiday season I thought it would be a good opportunity to offer up some posts which diverge somewhat from the usual content.)

I love Lambchop - I'm not big on the meat variant or the puppet, but rather a band led by Kurt Wagner from Nashville. Formally a weird acid-country-folk trio Posterchild, they later became Lambchop in the 90's recruiting a turnstile roster of musicians, with regulars settling in to provide a backing to Wagner's strange beautiful songs and husky vocals. From 1994 to 2000 they released a string of critically praised albums ranging from avante-alt. country (I Hope You're Sitting Down (1994), How I Quit Smoking (1996), chamber pop and soul (What Another Man Spills (1998), Nixon (2000)) and the droney and murky (Thriller (1997)). Since 2000 to the present, their music has become more consistent and understated - from the ambient twitchiness of Is A Woman (2002), the string laden double release Aw C'mon/No You C'mon (2004), the mortal revalations that haunt Damaged (2006) and the lovely most recent OH (ohio) (2008).

I've now been listening to Lambchop compulsively for the past three months. That's weird, because usually if I thrash an artist or band to death over the period I'll get tired of them and won't listen to them for the rest of the year. So why the exception of Lambchop? One explanation is that I reconnected with their music whilst I was overseas last year in Germany, their latest album providing a hushed backing to the romantic connotes of travel - be it sitting on a balcony on a rainy evening or watching the landscape blur from a train window. I hadn't been that engaged with them prior to this - in fact the only album I possesed was a copy of Is A Woman which I liked to throw into the background to colour the room whilst I was writing or something. Occassionally, a few tracks would pique my interest again, discovering them on compilation discs with music magazines or a stray download - I recall everytime being charmed to the degree that I would listen to a given track incessantly until I got distrated by something else. I think it obviously sank in whilst I was travelling though - the songs of OH (ohio) got into my blood, stuck in my head, twitched my synapses and got me humming on the way to buy a carton of milk. This effect is kind of like a revalation when you realise you've finally made sense of something or figured something out, realised you've fallen in love, you get resonated and can't vibrating (three months and counting.)

Now I own their entire back catalouge - bootlegs, b-sides, pratically everything. I'm attempting to convert friends, family whilst transcribing some songs to fit my vox. I highly reccomend these guys. Start with How I Quit Smoking, then Nixon, Is A Woman, Damaged and OH (ohio), then work backwards. I will happily direct you (discreetly) to the bootlegs if your interest permits.

Let us compare some grooves

I derive my sounds from all manner of sources, but I have a particular taste for vinyl run out grooves. I did a spectral analysis (via Audacity) of five discs (3 vinyl/2 shellac) from different eras/formats. The results are interesting, especially for those after some analog glitch and dusty noise.

Tiefurt: now streaming at last.fm

http://www.last.fm/music/red_robin

Currently available to stream via last.fm, a download release is coming soon.

redrobin :: tiefurt - issued 1st January 2009

Tiefurt
Slow Light / In Transit
Julius
Overground
1988
Kottbusser Tor
Meadow (distant lights)
Taunus (intermission)
Strange Light / By Elbe River
Surface Tension
Memorials
A Lasting Impression

All tracks by redrobin (aka: Tristan Louth-Robins)

Tiefurt
Recorded in Tiefurt, Germany (Sep 08). Mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08)
redrobin: minidisc field recording, synthesiser.

Slow Light / In Transit
Recorded & mixed in Weimar (Sep 08), Germany & Unley, South Australia (Oct 08)
redrobin: ipod touch, max/msp.

Julius
Recorded in Berlin, Germany (Oct 08). Arranged* & mixed in Unley, South Australia. (Nov 08)
redrobin: minidisc field recordings, loudspeakers & resonant objects.
* arranged as site specific installation, subsequently recorded.

Overground
Recorded & mixed in Unley, South Australia (November 08)
redrobin: feedback system & tape recall, max/msp.

1988
Recorded and mixed in Munich, Germany & Unley, South Australia (Oct 08)
redrobin: TR-808 emulator, pocket synthesiser.

Kottbusser Tor
Recorded in Kreuzberg, Germany and Unley, South Australia (Oct 08), mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08.)
redrobin: TR-808 emulator, minidisc & mobile phone field recordings.

Meadow (Distant Lights)
Recorded in Berlin, Germany (Oct 08). Additional recording and mixing in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings, broken synthetic piano.
lauren playfair: mobile phone field recording.

Taunus
Recorded in Taunus Mountains (near Kronberg) (Sep 08), mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings.

Strange Light / By Elbe River
Recorded & mixed in Dresden (Oct 08), Germany & Unley, South Australia (Nov 08)
redrobin: ipod touch, max/msp, manual feedback system & tape recall.

Surface Tension
Recorded & mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: turntable, max/msp, manual feedback system & tape recall.

Memorials
Recorded & mixed in Weimar, Germany (Sep 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings & max/msp.

A Lasting Impression
Recorded & mixed in Weimar, Germany (Sep 08).
redrobin: synthesiser and notebook.
lauren playfair: mobile phone field recordings.

Salutations and thanks to Robin Minard, Rolf Julius, Phillipp Jacks, Asadeh Shayader, Adam Cooksley and my beautiful companion Lauren Playfair.

New year