Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Di Domenico has collaborated with Jim O’Rourke in a new composition, titled Arco that will be performed for the first time at Brussel’s Bozar Night on the 10th January.

The piece, composed for a strings ensemble, was recorded by Di Domenico in Brussels last year with O’Rourke adding the electronics over the score.

Arco will be performed with a live string sextet with Di Domenico controlling the electronic track, though the Tokyo based O'Rourke will not be present. Programmed as part of Bozar Night: an evening dedicated to new electronic music, the line up also includes: Fennesz, Helena Hauff, Shxcxchcxsh, Black Rain, Ninos du Brasil and Acid Kirk.

More information here.

A central London tattoo parlour is the venue for a new exhibition of artwork by Savage Pencil, The Wire's resident cartoonist and illustrator.

The parlour, named Into You, is owned and operated by Alex Binnie, a former member of early UK industrial group Pure, and according to Savage Pencil, the exhibition, titled Freekmeet, is "in essence a flashback show, featuring original art from various eras when I was working with bands like Sonic Youth, Sunn O))), etc. I have also raided my T-shirt pile, so there will be vintage merch for sale at the show – all unworn I hasten to add."

Freekmeet runs between 13 November–23 December at Into You, 144 St John High Street, London EC1, 020 7253 5085

As part of its 40th anniversary season Amsterdam's Bimhuis venue is streaming jazz and improv concerts live via its website, with around 40 concerts lined up to be broadcast later this season, beginning at the end of this week.

Already in the archive are performances by Evan Parker, members of the ICP and others. More details and dates via Bimhuis here.

Mouse On Mars’s Jan St Werner is set to release a new album this January. Miscontinuum is the third instalment in Werner's Fiepblatter series and will feature contributions from Dylan Carlson, Markus Popp, Kathy Alberici and Bo Ningen’s Taigen Kawabe.

Originally conceived as a live performance, Miscontinuum was first performed in Munich in June 2013, in turn as part of another of Werner’s series, Asymmetric Studio.

Miscontinuum will be released on Thrill Jockey 28 January. A revised edition of the original performance will premiered at St Luke’s Church, London, 8 February 2015.

More information here

Rollo Jackson, the documentary film maker who created the Tape Crackers rave tapes film, has released a documentary on grime and garage DJ Slimzee. Slimzee's Goin On Terrible, mixes new and old footage that features Slimzee's mum, interviews with various MCs and DJs from Jammer to Novelist, alongside newer footage telling the story of how Slimzee came to have the unique pleasure of having an ASBO which stopped him from going onto the roof of any building higher than four storeys.

Watch it below.

The second edition of Mute and Dirty Electronics's handheld synth has been announced. Far more complex than the first edition, the Mute Synth II includes a noise generator, oscillator, sequencer, mini patchbay and a wave shaper, among other knobs, buttons and plugs. As with the previous synth, Adrian Shaughnessy has headed up the product design.

John Richards, aka Dirty Electronics, will play the Mute Synth II at Nonclassical’s Bloc event in London on 15 November. Preorders are open via Mute, and the synth ships around the middle of the month and costs £90. Listen to a set of samples below.

A selection of recordings of discussions, presentations and Q&As from The Wire's recent literary festival for sound and music are now online to download and listen to.

They include Robert Wyatt in conversation with Marcus O’Dair, Mark Fisher reading from his new autobiography, writer and academic Paul Gilroy in conversation with Tony Herrington, Richard King in discussion with Mike Darby and Pinch about Bristol's bass culture, a demonstration on how a sound system is built with Julian Henriques and Ras Muffet, Carla Bozulich in conversation, and David Keenan on transgression in industrial music.

Click here to listen

The fourth edition of Off The Page, The Wire’s literary festival for sound and music, took place at Bristol’s Arnolfini, 26–28 September, and was coproduced by The Wire, Arnolfini and Qu Junktions. Audio recording by Gary Fawle at Events in Sound. Photography by Paul Samuel White.

Jandek has starred in an episode of Hardly Sound's series of documentary films on underground musicians around Texas. Called Kooken - A One Act Play, Jandek's episode traces a semi-improvised dialogue about nostalgia and freedom between Jandek and an unnamed female character.

The series thus far has also included appearances by Jad Fair, Yum, Ralph White and others. Watch a 28-minute preview below.

The Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie is hosting a week long group workshop this month (24–28 November). Strategies And Techniques Of The Creative Act will take place at Hackney's Apiary Studios where McKenzie will be teaching methods of intense concentration. Practically speaking, this means learning some of McKenzie's esoteric meditation techniques that utilise sound making and listening.

McKenzie has been developing his practices for decades, as far back as his early work as the sole permanent member of shifting group The Hafler Trio. The workshop's organiser, Supernatant Laboratories founder Wassim Alsindi, says the project involves integrating conventional thought processes with "non-traditional wisdom", gleaned from contact with various spiritual and religious bodies and doctrines, from Scientology to Zen, through the mystic George Gurdjieff and time McKenzie spent as a Sufi whirling dervish. Music's place in the workshop is as an entry point: "It is a coat-peg, and an excuse," explains McKenzie.

The workshops will take place in a group, and anyone attending has to be able to commit to the full five days. "With the way in which most technology has developed in the last 30-plus years, group focus is a rarity," says McKenzie. "Experiencing it – even for a few days – is a useful and significant addition of a perspective, I have found."

There is a durational performance at the close of the week, which begins at 6pm and runs for 14 hours. "There are destinations," says McKenzie, "but they will be arrived at via the necessary paths of the people taking part."

Watch a video about a Swedish version of the workshop below. Strategies And Techniques Of The Creative Act takes place at Hackney Apiary Studios, 24–28 November, 10am–4pm, £150. Those registering must be able to attend all five days. The performance will take place 29 November from 6pm for 14 hours and is free to enter. A brief discussion and workshop session will also take place the day before the workshop starts on 23 November, 7pm, £3. No musical training or prior experience is necessary. More details here.

A new book on maverick composer, instrument inventor and onetime hobo drifter Harry Partch has been published by the University of Rochester press. Harry Partch, Hobo Composer discusses in detail Partch’s life as a drifter in the era of the Great Depression, and uses the idea of the hobo in American history and culture to analyse Partch’s life and work as a whole.

Author S Andrew Granade writes how Partch “became a hobo out of necessity and remained one for its freedoms. It is the story of a composer who rejected the tenets of music as he found them and sought to return music to its roots.”

Partch's transient life in the 1930s had a lasting impact on his work, and he used the slang and speech patterns of hobos extensively in his compositions. Partch, who died in 1974, supported his later career with sporadic academic posts, grants and commissions, and the Harry Partch Foundation was created in 1970 to oversee his work and protect his numerous unique instruments. Harry Partch, Hobo Composer is only the second sole authored book on Partch’s life and work, following Bob Gilmore’s 1998 biography (reviewed in The Wire 175).