elnicho, a mail order project for experimental music (who co-curated the recent Radar festival in Mexico City), has curated an evening celebrating the musically omniverous, globe-spanning Sublime Frequencies series. The evening will feature tunes and projections culled from the extensive Sublime Frequencies catalogue, along with wild dancing. It all takes place on 13 May at the Galeria del Comercio, a gallery for free public art projects on the streets in Mexico City (in this case, one particular corner).

Links:
• press page with streaming playlist, videos and articles

• elnicho blog (in spanish): focus on Sublime Frequencies with Alan Bishop's interview and selected reviews

• SF on elnicho (in spanish and available in mexico only)

• Event on Facebook

Nathan Budzinski 19|05|2010

Tags: art | elnicho | events | Galeria del Comercio | sublime frequencies

Sound artist Susan Philipsz has been nominated for the Turner Prize this year (along with The Otolith Group, one half of which is The Wire contributor Kodwo Eshun). It reminded me that we shot some footage of an installation of hers at the ICA back in 2008.

The Internationale was shown for two days at the ICA in central London off The Mall, a wide boulevard leading from Trafalgar Square up to Buckingham Palace (monarchs use The Mall to impress during state visits and other ceremonies). To experience the piece, a small group of visitors were led to the rear of the ICA and up a ladder onto the bare roof terrace. A single loudspeaker attached to the façade of the grand building broadcast Philipsz’s voice softly warbling its way through the anthem of international socialism, blending with the background drone of city traffic. Philipsz’s work takes the form of a series of cover versions; studies in how particular songs can mutate, displacing them from their own time, projecting them via a different voice (usually her own), and mixing them into different spaces (usually public, transient ones). Filter, one of her better known works, has the artist singing pop songs by Radiohead, The Velvet Underground, The Vaselines and The Rolling Stones through the public address system at a supermarket in East London. An earlier version took place in Belfast’s main bus station, both installations eliciting a wide range of responses, from interested to irritated (as covered in Cross Platform, The Wire 244)

Philipsz has presented several versions of The Internationale. The first was in a pedestrian underpass in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1999. Another took place in 2000 at Berlin’s Friedrichstraße Station, a notorious border crossing between East and West Germany during the Cold War. Both of those installations, situated in the former Eastern Bloc, would seem to turn the song into an elegy for a time when international socialism was a reality. It’s less certain what’s happening in this London version though. Situated in the heart of the old British Empire and current capital of finance, the displaced Internationale has either lost an authoritative voice or is just being drowned out by the city’s noise.

The Internationale was made as part of Out Of Bounds, a short series of artists interventions in the private spaces of arts institutions around central London.

Nathan Budzinski 13|05|2010

Tags: art | ICA | Otolith Group | Susan Philipz | Tate | Tate Britain | The International | The Internationale | Turner Prize

The folks at Soul Jazz Records have organised a night at Cafe Oto to celebrate the life and work of the late drummer Steve Reid, who over the course of his long career worked with a wide array of artists including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Fela Kuti and Sun Ra . Details on the flyer below.

Nathan Budzinski 06|05|2010

Tags: cafe oto | Clubs | events | Gigs | soul jazz records | Steve Reid

Check out some recent footage shot by Chris Carter of a jam during Throbbing Gristle's soundcheck in LA as part of their US tour which ends tonight in NYC with a sold out show... Next up is June 19th show in Copenhagen followed by two appearances on the 21st (the earlier show is already sold out) in London [check out their site for more info]

LA Soundcheck Jam from Chris Carter on Vimeo.

Also out there in the eVideosphere UbuWeb continue their expansion with a few interesting vids:
Craig Baldwin's 1995 film Sonic Outlaws which looks at copyright infringement, music and art including Negativland (and their run in with U2 and Island Records)

And on the TG theme, UbuWeb's also posted Tony Oursler's Synesthesia interview with Genesis P-Orridge (part of a series of interviews with Downtown NYC artists including John Cale, Thurston Moore, Dan Graham, Genesis P-Orridge, Kim Gordon, Glenn Branca, Laurie Anderson, Tony Conrad, David Byrne, Lydia Lunch, Alan Vega, and Arto Lindsay)

All of this along with some work by the digital artist Cory Arcangel (Wire #290) and Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgentstein

Nathan Budzinski 05|05|2010

Tags: Cory Arcangel | negativland | Sonic Outlaws | Throbbing Gristle | Tony Oursler | UbuWeb | Uncategorized

After being grounded in London by an erupting volcano in Iceland, the Marshall Allen-led Sun Ra Arkestra, added two extra evenings to their residency at Café Oto, both of which sold out in hours. Now, news from the BBC Radio 3 twitter feed tells us that they're continuing to make the most of their London, Earth-bound hours by heading in to the Jazz On 3 studios to record a special "Volcanic Session" for the show...

Nathan Budzinski 03|05|2010

Tags: BBC Radio 3 | cafe oto | Jazz On 3 | Sun Ra Arkestra | Uncategorized | Volcano Blues

The Wire’s monthly series of salon-type evenings continues with author and The Wire contributor Ken Hollings (author of Welcome To Mars and Destroy All Monsters and presenter of the Hollingsville series on Resonance FM) and Steve Goodman (Kode9, author of Sonic Warfare), discussing the uses and abuses of sound and noise from sonic bombs to soundclashes.

Below is a short online reading and listening list in anticipation of the event (mostly via Ken Hollings)

•Stream Hollings's Radio 3 programme From Gameboy to Armageddon on the Military Entertainment Complex

•Hollings's Radio 3 programme, All Your Tomorrows Today on the RAND Corporation.

•PDF download of Theatres Of War: The Military-Entertainment Complex, an essay by Tim Lenoir and Henry Lowood.

• Read the introduction and a sample chapter from Steve Goodman's Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, And The Ecology Of Fear published by MIT Press.

•Projects page of the Institute For Creative Technologies - an institute set up to bring military planners, games designers, Hollywood SFX people and experts in interactive technology together.

•Give yourself an adrenalin buzz (or scare yourself silly) with Bohemia Interactive's Virtual Battlespace 2 promotional film.

The salon takes place at London's Cafe Oto, 6 May, 8pm, £4.

Nathan Budzinski 03|05|2010

Tags: Clubs | download | events | Ken Hollings | Kode9 | Media | Multimedia | radio | Sonic Warfare | Steve Goodman | the wire salon | video

A new series of monthly events in East London curated by The Wire Magazine. The evenings will consist of readings, talks, panel debates, film screenings, DJ sets and live performances. The first instalment is Revenant Forms: The Meaning Of Hauntology at London's Café Oto, 1 April, 8pm, £4 on the door only

Mark Fisher (K-Punk) leads a panel with Adam Harper and Joseph Stannard debating the uncanny quality of so much contemporary audio, from spektral disco to dubstep, Hypnagogic pop and beyond. Plus screenings of films by Julian House (Ghost Box, The Focus Group), a live set by Moon Wiring Club and eldritch vinyl interludes courtesy of Mordant Music.

Below we've compiled a short online reading and listening list in anticipation of the event:

Ian Penman's Black Secret Tricknology, first published in The Wire issue 133

A transcript excerpt from Joseph Stannard's interview with Broadcast, which formed part of Stannard's cover feature on the group in The Wire issue 308

Mark Fisher's K-Punk blog
•Phonograph Blues
•Nostalgic Modernism

Adam Harper's Rouge's Foam blog
•Hauntology: The Past Inside The Present

Joseph Stannard's The Outer Church
•Revenant Forms: Future-Past Preview

Website of the label and design project Ghost Box

Jim Jupp's Belbury Parish Magazine

Mordant Music home to Baron Mordant, Admiral Greyscale, Sam Shackleton and more

James Kirby's (aka The Caretaker) History Always Favours The Winners

Listen to some tracks from Moon Wiring Club

Broadcast and The Focus Group "I See, So I See So"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlVaRcNf9nc]

Phenomena And Occurrences, a Ghost Box film by Julian House.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ogUcIIn_cU]

Nathan Budzinski 03|05|2010

Tags: Adam Harper | Blogroll | cafe oto | Ghost Box | hauntology | Joseph Stannard | K-Punk | mark fisher | mordant music | Rogue\'s Foam | the outer church | The Wire | The Wire Magazine | Uncategorized

Tickets for the Carsten Nicolai curated Parallel Voices: Missing Link at London's Siobhan Davies Dance Studio (sponsored by The Wire) will be going on sale from 8 February. The three day event, which features talks and performances from Blixa Bargeld, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Christian Fennesz and Chris Carter amongst others, takes place 17 - 19 March with tickets priced at £15/£10 (multibuy ticket) or £9/£6 per night... Get them while you can as there is very limited space available at the venue!

Click here for more information

Nathan Budzinski 03|05|2010

Tags: Blixa Bargeld | Carsten Nicolai | Chris Carter | Christian Fennesz | Cosey Fanni Tutti | Ryoji Ikeda | Siobhan Davies Dance Studio | Uncategorized