Tristan Louth-Robins' Old Blog

Goodbye Blue Monday: Blogger blog (2006-2009)

2009-03-04T20:43:00.005+11:00

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

2009-03-03T20:59:00.003+11:00

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

2009-02-24T19:12:00.003+11:00

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

2009-02-20T22:07:00.006+11:00

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

2009-02-09T11:12:00.002+11:00

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

2009-02-07T09:22:00.003+11:00

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

2009-02-04T13:42:00.000+11:00

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

2009-02-02T01:45:00.003+11:00

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...

2009-01-29T20:00:00.004+11:00

...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

2009-01-29T19:56:00.002+11:00

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!

2009-01-27T22:58:00.002+11:00

More studio views

2009-01-25T13:07:00.002+11:00

Recording iterations for Infuser

Menage a T

Lauren

HC Gilje's Wind-up birds

2009-01-21T19:27:00.003+11:00

(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

2009-01-20T23:25:00.002+11:00

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

2009-01-17T15:09:00.003+11:00

Things I admire #1: Lambchop

2009-01-12T21:19:00.003+11:00

(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

2009-01-03T17:31:00.005+11:00

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

2009-01-02T00:13:00.004+11:00

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

2009-01-01T13:06:00.001+11:00

Enlaced - now streaming at last.fm

2008-12-27T23:39:00.000+11:00

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

Enlaced - 'limited edition' single

2008-12-27T12:36:00.006+11:00

I put together a composition for family members this Christmas - a nice bit of vinyl ambience entitled "Enlaced". It was backed with an excerpt of a long improvisation, "Hansa Variations".

Now you can have it! Complete with your choice of exciting artwork colour tones! If you decide to renege on the 'white' option, the colour versions are Photoshop .psd files allowing you to customise your own artwork however you like - change the colour, warp the image, add images, whatever. Providing you have Photoshop of course.

These files will be available for download until the 10th January 2009.

Download audio (128 kps, 15.4 MB): here
Download artwork White (jpg, 230 KB): here
Download artwork Yellow (psd, 1.3MB): here
Download artwork Orange (psd, 1.3MB): here
Download artwork Hot Pink (psd, 1.3MB): here

Liner notes:
redrobin: ENLACED
Issued 27th December 2008

1. Enlaced (10:36)
2. Hansa Variations (5:37)

(to be read and discarded or copied and pasted into notes in your iTunes or similar media player)

Information:

"Enlaced" recorded on the 24th of December 2008
redrobin: single vinyl record, turntable, mixer & laptop.

"Hansa Variations" recorded sometime in November 2008.
redrobin: three vinyl records, turntable, mixer & laptop.

Both tracks recorded at home, Unley, South Australia in the midst of clement weather systems.

Harold Pinter (1930-2008)

2008-12-26T14:21:00.002+11:00

British writer, poet, playwright and actor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/25/harold-pinter-dies

I first came across Pinter's work sometime during 2005. It got stuck on me and never left. His work in all its formats channelled life experiences and observations into stories, poems, essays and plays that resonated with the fragility of the human condition (love, death, conflict) and the world around us. Pinter was passionate, raging, fiercely political and quintessentially human.

Now he's gone and there's a void.

Death May Be Ageing (April 2005)

Death may be ageing
But he still has clout

But death disarms you
With his limpid light

And he's so crafty
That you don't know at all

Where he awaits you
To seduce your will
And to strip you naked
As you dress to kill

But death permits you
To arrange your hours

While he sucks the honey
From your lovely flowers

The Gifting!

2008-12-24T16:24:00.002+11:00

Tiefurt's taking too long to finish, so I made a nice little single for family on top of the obligatory Kris Kringle.

A fistfull of 10

2008-12-22T21:36:00.002+11:00

My top ten albums for 2008 are as follows:

10.David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
A highly unexpected offering from dome head and Byrne nearly thirty years after their first collaboration My Life in The Bush of Ghosts. The early sampling techniques, exotica and one chord grooves which typified that first release couldn't be further away from this collection of pop songs about exploding cars, global warming and big nurses. The cover art and package design is the most clever and thoughtful I've seen all year.

Case In Point: Strange Overtones

09.Jenny Lewis - Acid Tounge
The girl with the most sultry voice on Earth makes a debut album that feels pretty inconsistent at first but eventually gets under the skin with all its sweetness and gristle. Its a good mish-mash of soul, folk and (alt)country with some pretty awesome songwriting.

Case In Point: See Fernando

08.Panoptique Electrical - Let The Darkness At You
My second travelling companion (Lauren was first and foremost) accompanying me on a recent European sojourn was the first release by Adelaide-ite and good chum Panoptique Electric, otherwise known as Jason Sweeney. Moody moody electronic droney music that's perfect for in-transit train rides through the gloomy Hinterland.

Case In Point: The Photographer

07.Sound Unbound - Various Artists
2008 was the year I got converted to the remix - its philosophy, aesthetics, politics and application. Paul.D.Miller's (aka DJ Spooky's) compendium of essays from all kinds of people was an ambitious (if somewhat over-reaching and strained) attempt at summing up digital music in the 21st Century, however the accompanying CD sold the deal for me. It mixes up everything (Allen Ginsburg, Duchamp, Xenakis, Cage, Sonic Youth, etc.) into one post-modernist broth, which is as entertaining as it is an interesting exercise in re-contextualisation and reappropriation.

Case In Point: THE WHOLE THING

06.Beck - Modern Guilt
Beck is Beck and Beck probably wont ever be as good as Beck was in 1996, though this is his most coherent album in years. Wish he would cheer up a bit though.

Case In Point: Chemtrails

05.Philip Jeck - Sand
I got into using a turntable this year because of a Philip Jeck gig I saw in Adelaide earlier this year. Whilst I'm now making an attempt to distance myself (or more appropriately: avoid plagurising) his style of layering vinyl textures and creating hypontic loops, Jeck's untouchable - he's got an amazing amount of control, restraint and discipline to his technique. He's also created some of the most beautiful stuff I've heard this year.

Case In Point: Unveiled

04.Calexico - Carried To Dust
Whilst Calexico won't ever top 2003's Feast of Wire this comes close that masterpiece of tex-mex/rock/dub/latino mash-up. Their show that we saw in Berlin back in October was wonderful, replete with an encore of 'Crystal Frontier' in the crowd.

Case In Point: Red Blooms

03.Portishead - Third
Enough said.

Case In Point: The Rip

02.M83 - Saturdays = Youth
I've followed M83 for awhile with their teenage-y post-rave soundtracks. This sounds straight out of Donnie Darko, and it's all fucking brilliant.

Case In Point: Kim & Jessie

01.Lambchop - (OH) ohio
My most adored band (alongside The National) released a beautiful album this year. The band's been stripped back to seven members from the fifteen that played on 06's Damaged and it's given the album a less lush and more immidiate feel than anything they've done since 1997's Thriller.

Case In Point: I'm Thinking Of Number Between 1 and 2

Quiet at last

2008-12-21T09:44:00.006+11:00

What a peaceful couple of days it's been! The last two weeks preceding this balm of a weekend have been hectic, stressful and mind-numbingly boring in periods of downtime. My 'real-job''s to blame for this, though for the sake of avoiding a rant that topic stops here. There's been so much on my mind art-wise as well.

The EAF (Experimental Art Foundation) show for next year Private Invocations has been readied for the 2009 program following some editing and refinement to the original proposal and solidifying the roster of contributing visual artists. The incoming EAF director (replacing the long serving Melentie Pandalovski in April 09) seems like an ideal candidate for the role.

The new release Tiefurt has inevitably been held up as well, after listening to the track sequence in various scenarios (at home, ipod, good speakers/bad speakers) I'm still having some quibbles over the quality of the sound in parts and whether I should pare down the extensive sleevenotes which will accompany the album.

It's been a refeshing (albeit guilty) coule of weeks away from the thesis and general research as well, the Xmas break from work will allow for some time on these things.

My various tinkerings in the early hours have been productive and revelatory in some cases. I've become converted and a bit obsessive over the creative and compositional potential of wireless interfacing via my iPod Touch using OSC controllers (Open Sound Control), which has been evident in a couple of posts documenting the Touch OSC application. I'm currently exploring the Sonic Life application which uses Conway's Game of Life algorithm, which is useful for triggering toggles in Max/MSP. I've been promising video documentation of these activities for a while, so I hope to post something soon.

Oh yes, the Xmas single will be recorded in the next couple of days and posted here for download forthwith.