(Welsh Song Collection)
I found a lot of old Welsh 7inch 45s in the Sense charity shop the other day, couldn’t resist for 50p each..more to come..
Geraint “Busker” Jones from Pentrecwrt – a regular on the streets of West Wales. As seen on TV!
I do like a record with a dog on the cover
https://thefoundofmusic.co.uk/2023/09/19/digital-analog-dogs/
Another show opening tomorrow in Swansea is showing video work created with Kathryn Campbell Dodd as part of her Cragen Beca project.
Read more here cragenbeca.co.uk
Since 2008 I have been part of this project by Maura Hazelden and Lou Laurens.
It has taken place on May 22nd at the same time and place most years since, with 2 exceptions, 1 year was lost due to admin error and one to a pandemic.
This year the date shifts and an opportunity for change arises.
https://untitled-holyhiatus.blogspot.com/
“does dim llwybr; ni sy’n ei greu wrth gerdded”
there is no path; we make the path by walking’ Antonio Machado
Mae’r digwyddiad perfformiadol hwm yn dangos sut y gellir creu, profi a rhannu gofod trothwyol, trwy ddefnyddio cyfres o symudiadau a chân o’r 13 ganrif dros gyfnod o 6 awr.
Mae pob un digwyddiad yn cynnwys perfformiad lleisiol byw a chwarae recordiad y flwyddyn flaenorol; mae’r broses yn chwyddo ymateb acwstig y gofod ac o dipyn i beth bydd yn goresgyn y recordiad blaenorol i ffurfio llun rhyfeddol mewn sain.
Maura Hazelden was commissioned by Ruth Jones in 2008 to create a work for Holy Hiatus: a series of artworks and a symposium. In collaboration with Lou Laurens she created a six hour event using repetition and stillness in the Small World Centre, then newly completed. untitled: holy hiatus is an annual ritual.
This was new work made for the festival of light in Aberteifi back in December 24. It’s a combination of footage from several years working with moving images of the river Teifi and its tributaries.
Since 2020 I have been working with different astrological symbols and themes, changing in relation to the sun as it moves through each sign during the yearly cycle. The circle emerges as a symbol of interconnection and unity, leading to live performance and creativity as an expression of the moment in time and space.
One of several iterations, the video is created through a live mixing process where video clips can be looped and layered in different configurations. Over time the layers repeat while the interactions between the images shift and change.
The astrological chart describes a moment in time and place and in these videos describes the moment of creation of the improvised soundtrack with musician Elsa Davies. Based on a tune called Aberteifi and arranged by Elsa Davies it was created live on November 19th here in Aberteifi with violin and modular synth.
| I do everything Haiku from Bryan Adams (2002) | |
| Take the time, see all And when you find love, tell me tell me it’s true worth | What you do to me I can’t help it, I want more. You give Everything |
| Look into your soul, for Everything true. you will find your love | there’s nothin’ I do. Look, Don’t give me Everything unless you want me. |
| no more sacrifice- You can’t love me more I am mean – take life | There’s nowhere to hide Don’t you search my heart for it I search there for you |
| it’s worth tryin’ for you tell me it’s not dyin’ you’re worth all my heart | |
| Bryan’s Leftovers | |
| I can’t help it for it’s true it’s not there All Search nothin’ there as for you do I fight it’s like fightin’ will I do – I do it your eyes know I lie could you would you There’s – the other way you’ll – And – not I I do it -There’s – into my I would know you Don’t tell it’s not worth tryin’ for there’s nothin’ more Ya would Walk I’d die for Ya no no – I’d wire for – for – it for the Ya know | |
As part of the Annwn / Otherworlds exhibition in the Old Sail Loft last week we set up a space to play live with my video projections in the basement. The performance went on through the evening exhibition opening, with each of us playing different parts, drifting in and out over a few hours. The extract above is from the last section where we condensed most of the processes into a manageable 15minutes.
The video projections were of ‘Otherworlds’, a video made from filming clips of trees reflecting in puddles seen on walks around the local area over the last 2 or 3 years.
My friend John sometimes brings me vinyl, mostly what he finds at the local recycling centre for cheap, these seven inch records are from his Dad’s collection I believe. Great covers, thanks John.
Posted a few new videos on my Youtube channel recently and thought I should probably put something here too…some of these do not appear on Youtube
This year I’ve been looking at using different artists of each Zodiac sign – Gemini artists included Lionel Richie, Prince and Bonnie Tyler.
Cancerians included George Michael and Cyndi Lauper…
At this point I was trying to merge the vinyl loops with samples of music and field recordings as well as the synth sounds..
Looking through some old files from years ago I found the DV recordings of journeys made for ‘Following Fingerprints’. The journeys are around the Teifi valley, between my home in Llechryd and chapels along the River. Read more about the original project here
Over the years my work has played with our propensity for nostalgia and the fetishisation of objects from the past. At the moment there is an unpleasant trend within social media to use this nostalgia as a coded call to right wing racist idiots. I listened to an interesting ‘Explaining History’ podcast episode about our love of nostalgia its origins and uses – Listen here
I also read the Grafton Tanner book Babbling Corpse: Vapourwave and the commodification of ghosts a damning look at the music industry and suggests it’s love of the retro and nostalgic is a symptom of our inability to understand the present state of modernity and contemporary capitalism. Really fascinating read available from Zero books.
If you’re not familiar with Vapourwave as a term or music genre check it out! My first and favourite encounter was with this classic by Macintosh plus
Babbling Corpse Synopsis from Zero Books
In the age of global capitalism, vaporwave celebrates and undermines the electronic ghosts haunting the nostalgia industry.
Ours is a time of ghosts in machines, killing meaning and exposing the gaps inherent in the electronic media that pervade our lives. Vaporwave is an infant musical micro-genre that foregrounds the horror of electronic media’s ability to appear – as media theorist Jeffrey Sconce terms it – “haunted.”
Experimental musicians such as INTERNET CLUB and MACINTOSH PLUS manipulate Muzak and commercial music to undermine the commodification of nostalgia in the age of global capitalism while accentuating the uncanny properties of electronic music production.
Babbling Corpse reveals vaporwave’s many intersections with politics, media theory, and our present fascination with uncanny, co(s)mic horror. The book is aimed at those interested in global capitalism’s effect on art, musical raids on mainstream “indie” and popular music, and anyone intrigued by the changing relationship between art and commerce.
The found of music 