Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has been awarded the UCLA Medal, which honours individuals whose achievements and contributions to society reflect the ideas of the University of California, Los Angeles. Launched in 1979, the UCLA Medal’s past recipients include musicians and vocalists Herb Alpert, Plácido Domingo, Ella Fitzgerald and Quincy Jones; Civil rights activists James M Lawson Jr, Loretta Jones and Rep John Lewis; Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and UN secretaries Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon.

“Wadada Leo Smith is a category-defying composer whose achievements have profoundly shaped American music,” declared UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “His work exemplifies a diversity of original thought that has enriched the lives of others.”

The award ceremony and concert will take place on 8 November at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

Poet, performance artist and activist John Giorno died on 11 October. Born in 1936, Giorno became a significant player in the 1960s New York avant garde scene. A partner of Andy Warhol, it’s him shown sleeping in Warhol’s Sleep (1963). In 1968 Giorno started the Dial-A-Poem answering machine service. He also ran the Giorno Poetry Systems record label, specialising in spoken word albums featuring his own readings alongside longtime friends Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, among other projects. Giorno also worked with Robert Moog on a poetry installation at New York’s St Mark’s Church in 1966. In 2007 director Antonello Faretta filmed Giorno in Italy for Nine Poems In Basilicata, and in 2018 Soft Skull published Giorno’s Subduing Demons In America: Selected Poems 1962–2007, edited by Wire contributor Marcus Boon.

TBC Editions is a new label launched by former Bristol arts centre The Brunswick Club. The community run space occupied the former working men's club between 2017–19, until they lost the space to developers. The label promises to showcase some of the artists who performed, exhibited, hosted workshops or undertook residencies at the club.

“TBC Editions functions to document, sustain and distribute the output of artists and groups involved day to day in the collective of collectives, after eviction from the building,” declare the collective.

First releases come from Viridian, Vicky Smith, Bkv Industrial and Copper Coims. A launch party will take place at Dawkins Brewery, Easton Road, Bristol on 26 October.

Pre-orders are now being taken.

“Do you know who I am? Because I don’t!” declares Steven Warwick about his new album MOI. Having previously recorded under the pseudonym Heatsick, this is Warwick’s first release under his own name. Described as a “journey considering interior worlds and personal architecture”, MOI was recorded in the FUGA residency space in Zaragoza as well as New York and Berlin.

MOI is released on 8 November via Pan. Listen to “Open Fire Hydrant” below.

New York art platform Blank Forms present four Éliane Radigue works this November. Performed using newly produced reel-to-reel tapes made from the original masters, the series is organised in collaboration with Radigue and runs as part of a wider retrospective Éliane Radigue: Intermediate States curated by Lawrence Kumpf and Charles Curtis.

Happening in New York, the programme includes Vice-Versa, etc... and Chry-ptus (4 November), Trilogie De La Mort (5 & 17), and Adnos I–III (16 & 18). Also part of the retrospective is a US tour of her Occam series performed by different combinations of musicians.

Film maker and longtime collaborator Beth B’s new career-spanning documentary Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over is structured around the themes that have inspired Lunch since her 1970s no wave breakthrough band Teenage Jesus And The Jerks: patriarchy, sexual abuse, violence, corporate greed and resistance.

Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, the film follows Lunch at rehearsals and on tour with her band Retrovirus. Alongside interviews with its main subject, it also talks to Thurston Moore, Kembra Pfahler, Jim Sclavunos, Donita Sparks and Nicolas Jaar, among others. The world premiere of Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over happens at New York Greenwich Village IFC Center on 9 November.

“Our cultural gem and the first community artist space and studios in Harrow is being closed down” declare Usurp, following news that the landlord will not renew their lease.

Run by local residents and volunteers, Usurp launched their first gallery and afforable studio space in the borough ten years ago. Since they've hosted hundreds of events, workshops, exhibitions and performances as well as running learning and mentoring programmes.

“Social spaces, libraries and community centres are being closed down every day,” it's noted on the campaign page in a letter addressed to the Mayor of Harrow and the Mayor of London. “London has lost 35% of grassroots venues, 61% LGBT+ venues, and it is estimated that 24% of artists’ workspace sites are at risk of closure (Greater London Authority survey). Help us to find a new home so we are not another statistic.”

To sign the petition visit 38degrees.

The director of Usurp Art, musician and artist Poulomi Desai, wrote an Epiphany in The Wire 415. Subscribers can read that on Exact Editions.

Singer and producer Glenmore Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1944. In the 1960s he launched his music career as a vocalist with Sonny Bradshaw's jazz group, later recording vocals for producers Duke Reid, Hopeton Lewis and Derrick Harriott. The 1970s would see Brown's career turn to production. He ran two labels: Pantomime and South East Music, and produced tracks for the likes of Prince Buster, Leslie Kong, Gregory Isaacs, Prince Jazzbo, Johnny Clarke, Wayne Jarrett and Sylford Walker.

In some circles Brown was know as the Rhythm Master and God Son. According to The Gleaner, he was nicknamed Rhythm Master for his ability to create catchy melodies, while God Son referred to his time working as a mentor for artists including Sugar Minott, General Lee and Joseph Cotton.

“He treated all musicians like friends and accepted the role of father to so many of them, therefore, he deserved the title,” his eldest daughter Rosemarie Macklin told The Gleaner. “But now he has gone home to the real Father.”

Brown died, aged 75, on 4 October at the Far Rockaway Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, New York.

David Toop has a new book coming out in November. Inflamed Invisible is a collection of essays, reviews, interviews and experimental texts penned between 1976 and 2018 that trace the relationship between sound and art.

The book also includes QR codes and links to recordings of the music Toop is talking about. Codes can be scanned by a smartphone and read via a QR code reader app. There is also a Spotify playlist for readers to delve into.

Inflamed Invisible: Collected Writings On Art And Sound 1976–2018 is published by Goldsmiths Press / Sonics Series on 26 November.

Back for a second round, NTS have made a call for musicians to apply for their Work In Progress artist development scheme 2020.

The aim is to support and develop the skills of artists and/or groups of artists working in any genre and at any stage of their career. Six applicants will be selected for a year's worth of mentoring plus free software and hardware, studio access and paid performance opportunities. They'll also get a guest NTS radio show. However, unlike last year, DJ applications will not be accepted.

Deadline is 1 November. Full details can be found on the NTS website.