Adam Beckett


Kitsch in Synch

Two weeks ago, I caught the “Heavy Light” video program at Deitch, organized by Takeshi Murata.

Part of the screening included a number of films (on 16mm!) by ’70s experimental animator Adam Beckett. Apparently the evening marked the New York debut of Canyon Cinema’s recent restoration of his prints. I hadn’t heard of Beckett’s work before the event, but my friend Nate Boyce talked him up quite a bit.

According to Nate, Beckett has remained a somewhat obscure figure, largely due to the fact that he passed away early in his career, in 1979 at the age of 27. His animations were meticulously hand drawn, like Dear Janice which featured layers of seemingly hundreds of intricate rotating patterns and shapes.


Dear Janice

I was surprised to discover that Beckett’s piece Heavy Light was also an animation. The undulating red, green, and blue waves recalled the Vasulka’s work from the early 1970s, and almost everyone I spoke to afterwards thought it was an analog video piece. According to Canyon Cinema, Beckett used 13 drawings and a technique he developed for the optical camera to produce the effect. The score, written by composer Carl Stone, was a successful part of the work. It further dramatized the movement of the light and contributed to a feeling of momentum.


Heavy Light

The Facet Eye (2006) by Daniel Segerberg

From Artist’s Statement:
A construction out of old windows.The inside of the windows is covered with roofing-felt with hundreds of small holes from which light comes through. Each hole is an upside down projection of the outside surrounding. The many small projections are caught by thin fine-meshed textile stretched on frames along the inside walls; a facet eyed camera obscura or like hundreds of “real-time-videos”. Outside, the darkened windows gives a clear reflection of the surrounding, but the different angels of each window distort the image.

Outside View

Inside View

"In Bits" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Dave Harper and I curated “In Bits”, a project screening on BAM’s sign in Brooklyn. See below for video documentation of Joe Merrell’s piece “Green Language.”


Crooked – Joe Merrell “The Green Language,” 2006 from dave harper on Vimeo.

New Mi Or and the Pedestals CDR

I just released a new Mi Or and the Pedestals CDR. 8 tracks and 36 minutes long. See below for two tracks and pictures of the release.

Listen to mi or and the pedestals + 00--

Listen to mi or and the pedestals + 00--

Faryal Maroof also redesigned my myspace page. Check the background for one of her photographs. Thanks Faryal!

Lydia Moyer- Mountain Loop (remix) at East Village Radio July 2008

For the month of July, I screened Mountain Loop (remix) by video artist Lydia Moyer at East Village Radio. See below for documentation. Mountain Loop (remix) is a response to the prevalence of strip mining in the Appalachian region of Virginia, an environmentally damaging practice in which mountains are leveled in order to access and remove resources. In the video, spectral blue lights overlay flickering silhouettes of mountains and surrounding clouds, suggesting their imminent destruction.

Viva Flexipop, indeed

Every single one of the Flexipop compilations, as well as Shockwaves, A Tribute to Some Bizarre, and New Wave Complex, are now available for download:

http://vivaflexipop.blogspot.com/

These releases first surfaced in the early 2000’s through file sharing programs such as Soulseek and were compiled by an anonymous network of record collectors. The compilations were quite instrumental in introducing me to this genre of music, and they’re so rich in content, it’s mindboggling. Enjoy!

Wierd Records Special on EVR 7/22

The special for Wierd Records Tuesday night went really well. Pieter brought in a big stack of CD-Rs containing unreleased material from minimal electronic/noise/cold wave artists from all over the world, which was interspersed by in studio commentary from the Wierd cohort— Led Er Est, Blacklist, Martial Canterel, Further Reductions, and Xeno and Oaklander.

I uploaded the show in its entirety below:

Listen to Ceci Moss + Radio Heart - 07-22-08

The new Led Er Est track “the Unkept Area” is worth checking out. I also heard Envenomist for the first time — orchestral horror-movie style drone from the Midwest. Pieter brought in the new Demons stuff too, which was kind of a departure, in a good way. They’ve added vocals (albeit buried under layers of distortion) and the pace is much faster…

((wave (2002) by Maria Dumlao

Artist’s Statement:

Mostly recorded from the source of the image, the sound in this piece is often the sound of air as it is violently disturbed either by nature or by jet and airplanes slicing through the firmament, which share a similar sound frequency as the waves. There is uncertainty when sound is “real” sound or if it is added and mixed: as in the fading in and fading out of each sound, the blending of sounds, the sudden volume cuts, the loops, and the silence. There is not much manipulation in the image of ((wave other than setting the camera upside down and the occasional delay and the desaturation of color. By the simple act of turning the camera, there is a further sense of disorientation and dislocation with the image, similar to the effects of the manipulation of sound.

Videos by Julia Hechtman

i heart photograph posted photographs from artist Julia Hechtman a few weeks back. After reading about Hechtman, I checked out her site and discovered her video work. The pieces below, Before the Fall and the Vanishing, both use basic video techniques to suggest a human desire to command natural forces.


The Vanishing, 2008


Before the Fall, 2007

Electronics in the World of Tomorrow (1968) by Erkki Kurenniemi


I came across this video today via Ed Halter’s delicious feed. Until now, I hadn’t heard of Erkki Kurenniemi. Clearly, I have some catching up to do.

Touched Echo (2007) by Markus Kison


touched echo – intervention in public space from MaUdK on Vimeo.

Touched Echo Project Description (from Markus Kison’s site.)

Every year millions of tourists visit BrĂĽhlsche Terrasse (BrĂĽhl’s Terrace) built on top of the Dresden city walls. At this historic place near the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) visitors enjoy the view across the river Elbe to the other part of the Old Town, called “Dresden Neustadt”. Markus Kison’s project “touched echo” intervenes here by telling a story about this place. The intervention – at first calm and invisible – consists in taking people out of the present into the past: into the night of 13th February 1945. That was the night, when Dresden’s Old Town was almost entirely destroyed by the allies’ air raid. The tourists (as far as the are willing to participate) are supposed to adopt a mentally as well as physically contemplative position. An icon on the balustrade will be the only hint given to describe the interaction. According to this instruction one is supposed to lay one’s elbows onto the balustrade, close one’s ears and look at the Old Town. In this position the motors of B-25 bombers resound and cannonade across the sky above one’s head; followed by explosions in the distance.


Instructions Attached to Railing

The sound is generated from four sound conductors, which are integrated in the railing. It is transmitted from the swinging balustrade through the arm directly into into the inner ear (bone conduction) and cannot be heard by anyone else. Visitors suddenly get an idea of what it must have felt like that night; they travel back in time to this situation. Everyone by dealing with this terrifying event becomes a kind of “memorial” of it. In their role as a performer they put themselves into the place of the people who shut their ears away from the noise of the explosions. (Translation by Cornelia Schupp)

MEDIEVAL WEAPONRY by Always

Always aka Alex Vivian posted a new music video. Alex is amazing! I think this is his first music video to date:

Bus Show at Secret Project Robot

I co-organized this Bus show Saturday at Secret Project Robot with John Benson, Ned Meiners and Nick Lesley. I’ve talked about Benson’s bus on the blog before. Here’s a really neat documentary on it from XLR8R. It was so much fun! Below are a few pics from the show, more on my flickr.


Lizzy BBQing on the sidewalk


Mazing Vids


Modern Creatures


rua minx + mi or and the pedestals + j.morrison


rua minx + mi or and the pedestals + j.morrison


rua minx + mi or and the pedestals + j.morrison

Pod Blotz & M.V. Carbon on EVR

Andrew Chee of RxRF (rad experimental/noise radio show which airs after mine) took these shots of Pod Blotz and M.V. Carbon on Radio Heart last Tuesday.

Here’s an mp3 of their performance as well:

Listen to Radio Heart with Ceci Moss + Pod Blotz & M.V. Carbon EVR 5/20


From the outside


Carbon, Suzy’s film screening in the background


Suzy/pod blotz & I chatting during set up


The wicked theremin!


Carbon on keyboard


More theremin- film in background


Another shot of Carbon on keyboard

Speaker Synths by Lesley Flanigan

I went to ITP’s Spring MFA Show last week and came across this awesome project by artist Lesley Flanigan. Titled “Speaker Synths,” each wooden speaker produces feedback according to the position and direction of a suspended contact mic. For performance, Flanigan layers her own voice over live manipulation and pre-recorded samples of the instruments. She demo-ed the synths every half hour during ITP’s show and they were LOUD. See below for two mp3s I took off her site.

Listen to Lesley Flanigan + Feeding

Listen to Lesley Flanigan +

Fun at No Fun


Tony Conrad and M.V. Carbon


Thurston Moore and Nancy Garcia


Skaters


Emeralds


Emeralds


Demons


Religious Knives


Cluster


Lee Ranaldo: Blind Piece #2

Weirding Module on EVR 5/7


Weirding Module played on Radio Heart last night, followed by a DJ set by Alex and Michael. The complete show is worth checking out in its entirety, but I also edited down Weirding Module’s performance into a single mp3 file, available below.

Listen to Weirding Module + weirding module live on evr 5/7

Big thanks to Michael and Alex.

Interview with Tara Burke/Fursaxa

Over the past few years, West Philadelphia avant folk chanteuse Tara Burke has released multiple cassettes and CD-Rs on her own label Sylph, as well as a slew of other labels such as Jewelled Antler, Ecstatic Peace, and ATP Recordings, and toured under the name Fursaxa. I only recently discovered her work, and I’ve been listening to it non-stop. Her music- comprised of layered vocals, farfisa organ, flute, minimal percussion and acoustic guitar or mandolin- is atmospheric and mesmerizing. I was interested in hearing more about her approach, so I interviewed Tara over email.

Listen to Fursaxa + Tyranny

When and how did you start recording as Fursaxa? Where did you get the name?
I was playing with the band UN at the time and wanted to start doing my own recordings, and my roommate lent me his four track. I remember the first free day I had, I spent hours in my room recording and really enjoyed it. I got the name from Norse mythology. The name means “iron cutlass” and she was the god Thor’s lover. Oh no- that’s Jarnsaxa! Fursaxa is what my phone number spelled out in an old house I lived in in Philadelphia.

Your work has a distinctive stream of consciousness quality to it- I’m wondering if you can explain your songwriting process. Do you normally improvise? Do you write lyrics? Is it just intuitive? Where do you begin?
I usually begin by recording a track or two, and then listen back and hear what other instruments should be recorded. Sometimes this doesn’t happen though and I have one or two tracks that just lie dormant for many months until I finally figure out how to complete the song. The initial tracks are almost always instruments, and then I add some sort of vocals, sometimes writing lyrics, sometimes not.

You’ve played with many other musicians over the years- and were a member of UN. Your music seems to come from such a personal place, how does that experience differ from your past collaborations?
Yes, my music is coming from a personal place and I think it probably has something to do with the way I record. I always record in my own home and am surrounded by familiar objects and feel comfortable with my surroundings. Also, my music is an outlet for me, so certain events in my life are probably reflected in whatever I am recording at the time.

Your performances have a meditative quality to them. How do you set up that kind of interaction with the audience? Do you ever find it difficult, as one person, to translate your music to performance?
I still get nervous whenever I perform solo, so I think I am trying to get myself into a meditative state whenever I am on stage. And if it also has the same effect on the audience, than all the better. I think my live performances are much different than my recordings. That’s why I’ve released so many live CDRs over the years. It is difficult for me to be 4 people in 1, so I try and play 1 or 2 of the same instruments that I use in the recorded song, but not everything. Quite often when I practice I will try to play a recorded song and it sort of turns into something else. I guess what I am trying to say is that I start with a basic structure and make it more freeform, almost improvised.

Could you describe the general direction for your latest release Kobold Moon? It also features art work by Alain Valet- how did that collaboration come to be?
Well, I have been wanting to start my own label for a couple of years now, and I wanted the first Sylph release to be a Fursaxa record. I would have liked to have done LP records, but couldn’t really afford to do that, so I decided to do CDs. I am really into unique and beautiful album artwork, and wanted to release a product that combines music with art. One of the first things I remember about Alain is that he wanted to trade his art for some of my music, and he sent me this package in the mail and the envelope was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen; he had marbelized it. And then inside there was his beautiful work. I think that our aesthetics are quite similar in that we like handmade objects that are devoid of stuff like plastic wrappers and jewel cases and such.

What bands or records have you been listening to lately?
I think I have put the Fleetwood Mac’s “Bare Trees” on several times this last week. Its a good spring time listen. Just got the two new Time Lag releases, Joshua Burkett and Ilyas Ahmed which I really like. Kris Kristofferson has been on the turntable quite a few times lately as well.

Rua Studio

Here are some photos I took over the weekend of Donna Huanca’s open studio from her LMCC residency. It included a sound installation I made. On Sunday, we played music and I recorded the performance on a handheld cassette player- it’s really rugged and messy sounding, I like it. The original was almost an hour long, so I edited it down to 20 minutes.

Listen to mi or and the pedestals rua minx + april 27


Sound piece I made


Psychedelic Revolution (opening night)


Sticker Dude (opening night)

A Million Keys Muxtape


Now that Spring is here, I decided to make a muxtape documenting my favorite slow and sad songs from this past winter.

1. Linda Perhacs- Parallelograms
2. Book of AM- Dawn; Fire
3. Burning Star Core- I Wanna Make A Supersonic Woman Of You
4. Grouper- Black Out
5. Can’t – Lonely At Night
6. U.S. Girls- Lit Fire To This Life
7. Fursaxa – Nakondisi
8. Ksiezyc- Klepana
9. Demons – Self Possession
10. Salem- ?

Soft Errs (2008) by Kabir Carter

I’ve mentioned Kabir Carter’s work – which uses sound as a medium in which to convey the social and psychological contours of architecture and space- on the blog before. Soft Errs was originally produced for an installation in an empty storefront, and was performed again this past January at LMAKprojects. I shot the video below from the piece’s second iteration.

Soft Errs is a temporary sound installation that was initially realized in an empty storefront. The work partially fills the acoustic and psychic vacuum left by defunct postwar consumer electronics outlets, and attempts to explore the invisible shape and language of private and public audio technology. A store as signal chain is assembled with pocket radios, a low power radio transmitter, analog synthesizer modules, malfunctioning CD players, and the live recitation of electronic messages using radiophonic code.

Disco Machines by Peter Sinclair

Disco Machine sculptures by artist Peter Sinclair. Click through for a sound sample. Sinclair developed these in the early 1990s while he exhibited a similar project, a mobile party van named the Cosy Disco.

Gitchii Manitou (12 Step Retrance Program For Troubled Dream Warriors)


I just picked up this release from Monopoly Child Star Searchers, a solo venture by Skaters member Spencer Clark.

Listen to Monopoly Child Star Searchers + Track 04

Listen to Monopoly Child Star Searchers + Track 06

The 8 track CD-R differentiates itself from the muddy terrain of the Skaters’ (and para-Skaters) monolithic catalog through its whimsical tranquility. Layered flutes and cheap synths chirp over the gentle hum of tabla-style drum loops and delayed vocals. It sort of sounds like Zero Kama, if Michael DeWitt conjured fairies instead of “the Great Goat.”

Listen to Zero Kama + Atavism Dream

Listen to Zero Kama + Starlit Mire

Recommended.

Led Er Est at Wierd

Pictures of Led Er Est from last night. So good!

Jeremy Boyle at Hudson Franklin

I went to Chelsea last week to check out Jeremy Boyle’s new solo exhibition at Hudson Franklin. I first became intrigued by his work after reading about his self-playing band on VVORK. His current show proposes to explore “the theme of circulation through pattern and recognition.” Coincidentally, Boyle was present in the gallery when I arrived, and he was on hand to discuss the work with me.


(self-playing) guitar (2008)

The guitar component of Boyle’s self playing band, pictured above, was one of the works included. Ten MIDI compositions, looped automatically, control the pneumatics which play the guitar.

The project is similar to the sound machines I mentioned in the blog a few weeks ago. Both scenarios use MIDI, a format which is often considered cold, to generate an organic sound. I was particularly impressed by the raw mechanics of the guitar- the exposed wires and tubes. Easily the most active work in the show- I thought it was interesting that he made its anatomy such a central focus. It goes against the historical course of design for consumer-oriented electronics, which is so intent on shielding and obstructing the interworkings of machines from view.


head of guitar


base of guitar

In distinct contrast to (self-playing) guitar, the wiring for Boyle’s handmade speaker sculptures were hidden almost entirely from view.


White Noise (2008)


Brown Noise (2007)

Set up as piles in three corners of the gallery, the color of the speakers correspond to the type of sound amplified- white speakers for white noise and brown speakers for brown noise. For each set, only about half the speakers emit sound, so the volume is surprising low in relation to their actual size. I found the formal identification of sound with color novel- as “white noise” and “brown noise” are rarely explicitly visualized as such. While the exhibition also included video and drawing, I felt it was Boyle’s maneuvering- between the expected materiality of the sound-producing object and the sound itself- to be the most effective articulation of the concept of circulation in the show.

SXSW Recap

Back from Texas. This past week/end was a whirlwind. I felt like I spent most of my time dealing with show-related logistics while trying to locate and meet up with friends from all over. That said, I somehow managed to get a tan.

I was really, really excited to see Naked on the Vague Thursday night. They’re a Sydney-based band that remind me of Primitive Calculators with Huggy Bear overtones. Our show was a few doors down at practically the same time, so I had to rush after their set, and missed the rest of the Siltbreeze showcase.


Naked on the Vague

I also got the chance to hang out with my old roommate and bud from my 90s zinester days Russell Etchen. He moved to Austin from Houston a week ago to open a second location for the contemporary art bookstore and gallery he started Domy Books. I got to peek around the space- it’s huge! I am so amped to see them grow.

I made it out to the showcase for Fanatic Promotion and Nail Distribution on Friday as well, and saw Clipd Beaks and Health finally. Health definitely won gold stars in showmanship. My bandmate Marc and I counted the number of pedals they had during their set- a grand total of 24! Whoa.


Clipd Beaks


Health

We played in three separate locations on Saturday, and although the shuffle itself was a bit taxing, it was nice to get a full tour of Austin. One show was at the backyard of an unfinished restaurant, one was in this guy’s living room, and the other was at Spiderhouse, which is an immense bar/restaurant/venue. The Spiderhouse show was organized by New York Night Train, Cakeshop, and the Social Registry, so we were on the bill with a bunch of other Brooklyn bands, including Knyfe Hyts. I always considered them to be a somewhat silly party band, but then on Saturday they ended their set with “Smoke the Milk” which kind of blew everyone away.


S-S-S-Spectres at S-S-S-Spiderhouse

We spent the last night drinking Lone Stars from Austin’s drive through liquor store Party Barn at Russell’s house. It was fun to sit around, catch up and talk shop about music. Russell played me Josefus for the first time and there was a long discussion about Houston rap.

S-S-S-Spectres at SXSW


I’m going down to Austin tomorrow with S-S-S-Spectres, and hopefully I will have time to cover some of the events in the blog. We’ve been recording for the past few months, and will have a limited run CD-R available. Contact me for availability. We also put up a new song from our CD on the myspace page, “Black Malm.”

THURSDAY
Official Showcase
The Gibson Room at Maggie Mae’s
10:30pm S-S-S-Spectres
(with Knife World, The Black & White Years, Cougar Den, Stalkers, Kid Congo Powers, Donita Sparks + Stellar Moments)

FRIDAY
The Longbranch Inn
11pm S-S-S-Spectres
(with Finally Punk, Lozen, Model/Actress)

SATURDAY
Higher Publicity SXSW Showcase
West’s Art Music and Wine
1pm S-S-S-Spectres
(with Nrzs, KIT, The Mae Shi, Scary Mansion, Grouper & Inca Ore, Gowns)

Tweedy’s House (contact for location)
2:20pm S-S-S-Spectres
(with South Mouth, Ripe, IT LIVES, Hello Lovers, Shapes Have Fangs, CAVE DWELLER, The Gospel Truth, Sweet Lee Morrow, Poor People, Red X Red M, The Devil and the Sea, The Roller)

Spiderhouse
New York Night Train, the Social Registry and Cake Shop present 2008 SXSW New York Nimiety Party
5:30pm S-S-S-Spectres
(with The Minetta, Inoculist, Crystal Stilts, Hopewell, Tall Firs, Mike Bones, Doug Armor, Freshkills, Services, Pterodactyl, Knyfe Hyts, Shellshag, Bandit Teeth, Puddin’ Tang, Stalkers)

Brian McKenna- Modulated Zips (2008)

The above is an example of the analog video synthesis work by video and sound artist Brian McKenna.

McKenna is a member of a group of Canadian artists participating in the “Radio Broadcast Cabin” all this week at Mediamatic in Amsterdam. The cabin
is an outpost for the fictional country of “Canadia” and will function as a 24-hour transmission center for an “evolving audio collage” comprised of live and recorded material.

Fast Blue Air nr 1

I came across this video today via Loreto Martin’s blog.

Composer Elena Kats-Chernin wrote the score, entitled “Fast Blue Air”, for these sound machines. The robotics company Festo sponsored the manufacture and design of the quintet, which were originally presented at the 2007 Hanover Fair. The devices utilize pneumatic components to operate, and are divided into four “electric guitars” and one “drum.” Neat.

Viki- Cadillacs on Fire at East Village Radio February 2008

I screened loops off of Viki’s DVD Cadillacs on Fire at the East Village Radio studio in February 2008. I think it looked fantastic! See below for pics.