A combined live audio visual improvisation with contributions and vinyl selection from this years guest Libra, Lucas Whittaker.
A circle in 12 parts: Libra
Art
Gala Goldentone Records
I have quite a few of these six inch orange records. They are vinyl but play at 78rpm and being only 6 inch diameter will not play to the end on turntables with autostop mechanisms. Thankfully the Numark PT01 plays at 78rpm and has an autostop on/off switch.
The Astromusical House of Libra
The Astromusical House of Virgo
A circle in 12 parts: Virgo
A combined live audio visual improvisation with contributions and vinyl selection from this years guest Virgo, Anna Sherratt.
“I’m a writer, director, producer and sound designer from Aberystwyth, but currently living in Cardiff. When Jake approached me with his brilliant avant garde project, I was excited but nervous – not knowing quite what to expect. True to my star sign, I am a meticulous planner, but I also love improvisation and chaos, and the creativity that brings.
In the end, I went with a “Desert Island Discs” approach, taking ideas from where life and music intersect and responding to Jake’s amazing mixing in chatter, spoken word and song.
It was an honour to take part in such a unique series, and to have a go at making Virgo whatever it happens to be – especially if that’s a bit messier than the stereotype!”
Analog outputs
Revisiting some old tech including the Sony FD Mavica! what a camera!
A popular digital stills camera about 20 years ago, I remember there were 2 available in West Wales School of Art where I was studying at the time, so popular we had to book it at least a week ahead!
One of the first digital cameras to save to removable media, it used a floppy disc and could hold around 10 photos a disc!… amazing! It also boasts the ability to record short low resolution videos and has an A/V out!
Experimenting with the analog output – after not pressing anything for a while the camera went into a lovely demo cycle…
After rearranging the studio, I can now reach the turntables and synths at the same time! This is really quite exciting, these are the second or third time I’ve played the two together seen by Sony A1E and GoPro4 cameras through a Skytronic A/V switcher.
A third half – Layers of live
Halfway through a third year of a circle in 12 parts.
Thanks again to all the lovely people who have been part of this years series.
I am very excited by the process of making these works and how it has developed this year.
Both visual and sound elements are now being created live, though not necessarily concurrently. Where possible guests have come to my studio and interacted live with the turntables or synths, playing them or their own instruments into the mix. I then have live cameras and recorded video clips, images ready in VJ software to mixin real time with the live audio.
Where we have been working over zoom the audio mix is created and recorded live both ends and both zoom visuals feeds are recorded. I then process those recorded visuals and any other material from my guests to input into a different format for the VJ software where I manipulate and mix all of the visual elements while playing the live recorded audio from earlier.
A circle in 12 parts: Leo
A live audio visual improvisation with sounds, images, video and vinyl selection from this years guest Leo, Susan Sluglett.
In the mix are: Louis Armstrong -‘Dream a little Dream of me’; Ella Fitzgerald – ‘Can’t we be friends’; Talking Heads -‘Road to nowhere ‘; Kate Bush – ‘And dream of sheep’; David Bowie – ‘Heroes’;
Nina Simone – ‘To love Somebody’; Earth, Wind and Fire – ‘Let your feelings show’; George Benson -‘Lady love me (one more time)’; Bob Dylan – ‘She belongs to me’; Joni Mitchell – ‘Chinese cafe/unchained melody’; The Smiths – ‘Stretch out and wait’
Paintings by Susan Sluglett https://www.susansluglett.com
Out with old friends
Music of the Spheres – The Luminaries
A circle in 12 parts has a core of vinyl records selected accorded to the sign of the zodiac and planetary ruler. Most of the planets are represented by Holst’s planet suite and I have a number of different orchestral versions in the collection as well as a couple of interesting electronic versions.
For the Moon (Ruling planet of Cancer) I have been playing with a varied selection of records with Moon themed tracks including Moonlight Sonata and Claire de Lune.
There are obviously a lot more Moon themed tracks in the collection, Moon River, Blue Moon, Paper Moon etc but I wanted to avoid vocals and keep the instrumentation similar to the other planets’ tracks.
I also found some Sun themed tracks on vinyl with similar instrumentation to play with for Leo.
The found of music 