[30.1.07] Rock, stone, pebble, etc.

Over the past month or so I've taught myself how to 'play' rocks, stones and pebbles. Inspired by the activities of the acoustic shaman Akio Suzuki, I've found that these materials can create some very interesting sonic results when the right discipline and focus of listening is applied in conjunction with a resonant space. I've made some audio recordings over the past couple of weeks, but my server is giving me grief - hopefully the situation will be rectified in the next couple of days, with some description of my playing techniques. Stay posted.

[21.1.07] Making Sound Work: Sound art workshop

On the weekend I checked out Jason Sweeney's "Making Sound Work" sound art workshop at Headquarters Studio in Richmond, invited by Jason to drop by and talk about sound art and myself for a bit.

The workshop attracted just under a dozen participants from broad artistic backgrounds, including two guys who came all the way from Melbourne for the event! The workshop kicked off on Saturday, and I dropped by on Sunday afternoon to see how things were coming along. The sessions involved participants creating works (as individuals or small groups) with whatever materials were around, this included vintage synths, guitars, tape machines, record players, samplers, effects pedals and microphones. The works performed were more or less improvised, with a compositional and performative structure worked out beforehand (which included loose instructions by Jason.) The results were varied though mostly enjoyable with plenty of creativity, spontaneity and invention from the participants. In fact, some of the best works I heard were from the participants who were either unfamiliar or had some trepidation about using a particular instrument or device. As a result, there was refreshingly little ego in sight.

I talked briefly about how sound art is regarded as an artistic practice, giving examples of my own work as well as commenting on some the performances I had heard that afternoon. I mentioned that the predominant nature of the works (which were conceptual and process driven) had a strong tie to the aesthetic of sound art, and how the absence of a formal language (i.e. musical) dictated the works in terms of being inter-mediatory, spontaneous and in some cases, specific to particular space or object. I also mentioned how pleasing it was to not see a single laptop in sight!

I did contribute one work later in the afternoon - walking very slowly from one end of the gallery space to the other using an egg-shaker to articulate the resonances of each room.

Jason's Website

Here are some pictures I took:

[16.1.07] Re-directing

Inspired by the blogging of my friends Seb and Lauren, I have decided to set-up an alternate blog which will contain posts not commonly associated with The Soniferous Garden. This move comes about after receiving some emails from disgruntled readers who would rather not read one of my recipes or fan-boy lists, which is fair enough I think.

Therefore, The Soniferous Garden will only contain posts which are related (in one way or another) to my practice, The Soniferous Amphx will be my personal blog, containing musings, photos, said recipes and lists, and anything else that seems extranneous.

Enjoy.

[16.1.07] Bowie @ 60: 25 fav songs

Rampaging journalistic pundits seem to be compiling list after list on Bowie at the moment as the lovely old codger has just turned sixty. I've decided to get in on the filthy action and compile a list of my 25 favourite Bowie songs. You may find some unfamiliar and alarming selections here. After all there are two songs each from his peroxide yuppie phase (Let's Dance) and the start of his WTF phase (Tonight).. but who doesn't go for pop trash now and again?

• 01. Fashion - Scary Monsters (1980): contains third greatest guitar solo of all time.
  
• 02. Always Crashing In The Same Car - Low (1977): contains fifth greatest guitar solo of all time.
  
• 03. China Girl - Let's Dance (1983): contains twelth best middle-8 of all time.
  
• 04. Art Decade - Low (1977): nice bubbly synth and synthestic strings.
  
• 05. "Heroes" - "Heroes" (1978): Eno's wall of sound that builds up.
  
• 06. Golden Years - Station To Station (1976): funky, chunky and melodica.
  
• 07. Sunday - Heathen (2002): glitchy, Scott Walker-ish, then those drums kick in at the end.
  
• 08. The Man Who Sold The World (1971): GREATEST guitar riff of all time.
  
• 09. Sound And Vision - Low (1977): Blue, blue electric blue...
  
• 10. Loving The Alien - Tonight (1984): great song, but has the most OTT video of Dav's career.
  
• 11. Seven Years In Tibet - Earthling (1997): goodness, what a beastly wall of guitar!
  
• 12. The Heart's Filthy Lesson - 1.Outside (1995): goodness, what a beastly NIN omage!
  
• 13. Space Oddity - Space Oddity (1969): lovely and quaint, 400 years ahead of it's time.
  
• 14. I'm Afraid Of Americans - Earthling (1997): angular.
  
• 15. New Killer Star - Reality (2003): those chord changes.
  
• 16. Bring Me The Disco King - Reality (2003): a jazz number with origins in Weimar, Berio, Mingus and Neptune.
  
• 17. Buddha Of Suburbia - Buddha Of Suburbia (1994): nice ditty.
  
• 18. Ziggy Stardust - ZS And The Spiders From Mars (1972): oh, you know.
  
• 19. Blue Jean - Tonight (1984): pure pop smut, veritable sonic pornograhy.
  
• 20. Let's Dance - Let's Dance (1983): pure pop gold.
  
• 21. Ashes To Ashes - Scary Monsters (1980): [insert superlatives]
  
• 22. Look Back In Anger - Lodger (1979): nice atmospherics.
  
• 23. V2-Schnieder - "Heroes" (1978): horn(y).
  
• 24. Young Americans - Young Americans (1975): oh matron it swings.
  
• 25. Rebel Rebel - Diamond Dogs (1974): another decent riff.
  

[16.1.07] BEAP 07 Abstract Submission - Feedback appreciated

Since leaving my post at Adelaide University as a failed post-graduate, I've been struggling to regain some confidence in my writing. Therefore, with the Bienniale of Electronic Art in Perth (BEAP) coming up in Setember this year, I thought I would submit an abstract on the CADE conference theme of 'stillness'. My abstract is a point of departure for examining sound and stillness, titled: 'Auditory Stillness as Phenomena.'

My writing skills are still rusty as you may notice, and hopefully it all doesn't seem too convoluted.

It can be read here, any feedback would be kindly appreciated.

[15.1.07] Sounds From Level Four article

Samara Mitchell has written a piece about the Shoot Collective for the upcoming issue of Realtime. You can read the section on Sounds From Level Four here.

[15.1.07] External website 'finished'

Right, time for a strong drink. The external website pages have been finished after much delay! You can browse them by clicking the links above, or if you're feeling lazy then just click here . However, being the mild dyslexic that I am, there may be some errors on the page - so if you stumble upon any please be gentle. Also, I've been having some problems uploading audio samples, and at present only the clip for Graupel is up.

[1.1.07] Resolutions

It is a new year, thus resolutions are to be fulfilled. Firstly, the external website has nearly been refurbished, I would have finished it off in the last couple of days but socialising, drinking and R+R have been wooing me of late. Secondly, I will start writing again since I have some confidence back at long last. Thirdly, I find a job in a bookstore after leaving my position at ANAT in two weeks time. Fourthly, I'm getting a haircut eventually...

...the latter resolution might help me with job prospects outside of the arts.

[18.12.06] Hidden Village/Impulse at COMA

After a ten hour slog at work I needed some mental reprieve so I went to go and check out my friends Hidden Village (Seb Tomczak and Lauren Sutter), who were playing the Wheatsheaf Hotel as part of COMA's Hipnote concert series. Being regular performers at the Tyndall Assembly concerts this year, I was already familiar with the aesthetic of their work and kept abreast of new piece via Seb's Little-Scale blog. A range of technologies are employed - Gameboys, Atari consoles, lasers, water, effects pedals, solar panels, desklamps and Xmas lights (fittingly.) Five works were performed, To Stare At The Sun (for Gameboy), Untitled (for Gameboy), Toriton Plus (water and lasers), Duet for Desklamps (lamps and solar panels) and Untitled (for xmas lights and Atari). There were a couple of technical problems during a couple of the pieces, but this is easily forgiven considering there's so much equipment involved. These minor glitches were irrespective of their overall performance though, as I've always admired the way Seb and Lauren can pull it off without visibly freaking out. The night also featured a slot by Impulse, an improvisation group of musicians and dancers, including Hillary from the Zepher Quartet and one-man-band Adam Page. It was a lot of fun, though it maybe went on a bit too long. Then again, I can be a picky bastard when I'm tired.

[8-12.12.06] Tpot and Edie go to Melbourne for four days

I just came back last week from a short adventure in Melbourne (my first visit in over three years) - a city of heat, humidity, sudden drops in temperature and smoke.

FRIDAY:
From a spit roast to a paddock...
Edie and I flew out last Friday afternoon, escaping the heat of Adelaide on a slow roast of 38 degrees. We landed in the cow paddock more affectionately known as Avalon Airport, the Melbourne based home of the dodgy budget airline Jestar - but more that later. We were greeted by my mum, her partner Frank and my bro Sean, then driven 60km on the freeway into Northcote where we would stay for the next four days in my brother's sharehouse.


The city centre blanketed in smoke, viewed from an overpass in Northcote.

Sharehouses
There is a very clear difference between the sharehouses I am accustomed to living in and 'proper' sharehouses. My sharehouses have always been pure flukes of cheap rent and clean living, which also seems like a contradiction of terms. Proper sharehouses comprise of a week old pile of dishes, numerous ashtrays, fourteen boxes outside full of stubbies and disturbed animals (human and dog variety.)

Northcote and bushfires
Northcote is a beaten up little hamlet about 15km out of the city centre, most of the original buildings still line the main road along with webs of ancient power lines and the persistent rumble of trams. Bushfires burning in the east of Victoria had sent masses of smoke all over the place before our arrival and the thick haze still lingered giving the place a very eiree and ominous feel.

Guitar, banjo-mando and saw
We settled in nicely upstairs in the loft of the house, had some dinner and played a bit of music with Sean and Kat (his girlfriend) into the night. I was playing Kat's old Epiphone acoustic guitar which has a beautiful dark tone to it, Kat played a turn-of-the-century banjo mandolin, and Sean played his saws - an incredible sound when played properly.


Kat on banjo-mando and bro Sean on saw

SATURDAY:
Anticipated heat, smoke haze and interaction
It seems that the previous days weather in Adelaide had caught up with us by the morning as E and I set out for a possible route into the city centre. After getting lost a couple of times we eventually found a reliable looking tramline to take us in. Along the way I noticed how people speak to each other on Melbourne's public transport, in that they actually talk to each other unlike the growing trend in Adelaide to don fuck-off sunglasses and panic whenever anybody asks how you are.

Haze, confusion and consumer hell
Shelter and reprieve from the heat came in the form of air-conditioned department stores, where the omnipresent racket of Xmas muzak kept us from lingering too long and turning into those horrible people who come to Melbourne for the sole purpose of shopping - like a wandering tribe of blinged up fascists hoarding a village 24-7. We actually did check out a nice little teapot shop sans bling and fascism and bought a couple of inexpensive items for brewing purposes.

Markets and laughter
We used the air-conditioned vessel of department stores to make our way up to the Queens street markets, where we had a light lunch. Strangers caught onto the fact we were dazed tourists affected by heat; pointing and laughing at our incapability to buy a kilo of grapes and take their light humour with a straight face.

Stencil graffiti
One of the reasons I was so excited to be in Melbourne is because of my interest in graffiti culture - specifically stencil graffiti, which has had a resurgence in populartity in recent years. I remember coming across the trend the last time I was in Lismore mid-last year. Stencil graffiti is an interesting medium - capable of communicating various agendas; specifically political and the absurd, and the creative process of preparing a stencil before going guerilla in public spaces is intriguing to me.




Yarra and Hicks
We then went down to Federation Square and rested in the shade for a while by the Yarra river. We overheard a demonstration commemorating the fifth anniversary of the detention of David Hicks. The Shadow Attorney General was there and gave a good speech, nice to see that the 'opposition' is trying at least to be some form of opposition.

Fitzroy and lost in a wandering car with no muffler
Later that night, we went out to a birthday party in Fitzroy with Sean and Kat. Perhaps Kat anticipated this would not be our kind of party and gave me her car keys if E and I wanted to leave early. We were out of there in under half an hour. Maybe I'm just getting too old and socially conservative, but a party which has disaffected youth dressed like bad punks, smoking filthy bongs and playing dig naked in a wading pool doesn't seem to appeal to me anymore. We hopped in Kat's car as I tried to remember the way back to the house, and within thirty seconds we were on the Eastern Freeway panicking. We left the road 3km later to find ourselves in a conservation park somewhere running perilously low on fuel. We decided to turn around and find some streetlights, going on Edie's advice finding a buried street directory and navigating our way back. A spooky scenic route at 1am in an hour and a half trip. Finally bed...

SUNDAY:
A sensible morning
E and I decided to get ourselves lost again taking the long way to the main street which runs through Northcote. Again, the heat was punishing as we hung out desperately for the promised cool change to come through. We had an indulgent breakfast in a lovely cafe called Alphabet City - the kind of homely cafe that just simply doesn't bother to exist in Adelaide. Afterwards, we decided to check out the stores which lined the street, with friendly vendors specialising in the areas of antiques, groovy rags and scented soaps.


My ever-present obsession with all things Eno continues and one of the second hand shops on High St.

Bad hip hop and a moody Tpot
Later in the afternoon we headed into the city for a gathering commemorating Human Rights Day behind the Flinders Street Train Station. The sentiment of the overall event was pleasing, but bad agressive hip hop just soured the whole atmosphere for me and we decided to bail an hour in.


An post-orgasmic Tpot next to a series of upturned bells along the Yarra.

Dinner, chai and the American Astronaut
Around 6pm we rushed to grab some organic veggies for a lamb roast that my brother was preparing for dinner. We came to a fruit and veg place that had just closed and pleaded like hyperactive mimes with the owner to let us buy some potatoes and carrots. She greeted us with a cretinous glare and made several throat slashing gestures at us. All lighthearted gallows humour, amusing me but scaring the shit out of Edie. Later that night my brother put on a prized bootleg of a film called 'The American Astronaut' - a superb absurdist space/western/musical, like a cross between Ed Wood and Andy Warhol. My favorite moment was towards the end of the film where they land on Venus (the home of women) and we hear a recitation of the highly original torch song, 'The Girl With The Vagina Made of Glass.'

MONDAY/TUESDAY
More grafitti, Belgian waffles and The French Revolution
A late start as the cool change that came through the previous afternoon which allowed E and I sleep less fitfully. We took the train in and (on the advice of Kat) found Degraves street off Flinders Street Station and found veritable amphx of colourful and tasteful graffiti sponsored and commisioned by the city council(!!!). By the way I apologise to some of you who may have a problem with the term 'uber c**t'. A late breakfast beckoned, and we found ourselves guided to a rouge hole in the wall by the seductive aroma of waffles. Here we met a friendly accommodating mad Belgian who declared his love for U2 and produced an original book from the 19th Century on the French Revolution, wherein he pointed out his supposed 'dad' in several of the illustrations. We had explained we were visiting from Adelaide and he asked if we had permit visas and the right currency to pay for our meal (he was obviously joking.) We parted company after about half and hour where our gracious host complimented that I have a lovely sister. It's hopefully the last time that Edie and I encounter such incest intrigue, though over the course of our relationship we have begun to look a little more like each other. I have smaller breasts though.




Graffiti off Degraves Avenue in the city centre, and a series of banknotes in the mad Belgian's waffle eatery.

ACMI, Illusions, postcards
It was then onto ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) to drop off some support materials for the Shoot Collective's Sounds From Level Four, a work I collaborated with them on as a sound designer for the Adelaide Fringe this year. E and I checked out the Eyes Lies and Illusions - an exhibition full of tricks for the eye and the mind. The exhibits, some up to 400 years old, explored idea pertaining to perception, spatiality and motion. These included beautiful Byzantine lithographs illuminated by backlights, optical illusions, light installation and computer interface works. My friend Michael Yuen's work, Swarm was also on display, a collaboration with visual artist Craig Walsh. After some lunch, we then checked out the ACMI bookstore, refraining from buying expensive books I bought some postcards instead.


Attracted to bright and shiny things hanging from the ceiling.

MGV and departure
The afternoon was spent checking out a small section of the MGV (due to time constraints), then dinner back at my brother's place before heading back to the cow paddock to catch our flight back to Adelaide.


Edie and myself in a lopsided wave.

Jetstar
The Jetstar flight was running late due to the weather and we weren't told what was going on. By the time we knew we had missed the Adelaide Airport curfew we had to put up in a hotel in Geelong for the night. After checking into our room at about 2am, Edie and I only got about two hours sleep before we had to catch our early morning flight. Fueled on a heady mix of caffeine, fatigue and contempt for budget airlines, we got back to the house, managing to get a couple of hours sleep before having to go the work. Oh well.

Despite this inconvenience though, a pleasant trip.