Experimental

Cylch Dŵr – Nol i’r Afon

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I had a great few days working with the Maynard Afon project this last week, I posted a bit to describe my process and thoughts before my visit here.

Arriving with ideas of exploring the cottage as a container for the watery material gathered over the last year, I started immediately projecting video onto different areas of the interior.

The temptation of the vessels on the dresser was too much to resist.

While mapped water played on the different vessels in one room, there was a single channel live video mix projected onto the wall in the other.

This used video clips from over the last year in a structured, layered composition designed to constantly change, reflecting both the control and manipulation which we impose and the inherent changing nature of the water itself.

Over time, the water returns.

I spent some time on the river in the few days there too. Recording more sounds, focusing attention on the resonant, underground spaces I found nearby, the places where human presence has been fixed and changed the acoustic nature of the water course.

With a body of recordings I set about filtering the water sounds, using a QPAS filter I was able to single out different frequencies and add resonance to create a shifting soundscape from only recordings of the water. Using the Rene sequencer I attempted to program the tune ‘Dŵr yr Afon’ and was able to draw out frequencies and guide the water into the shape of that melody, mixing in additional resonance, echo and reverb as well as the source material of the water. With a selection of water sounds in the sampler, the master clock, driving the echoes and the sequencer, was in turn taking its lead from the length of loop playing.

Water connects us all and everything.

I cant help feeling that we should observe the proliferation of words from millennia of observations, interactions and experiences of these fundamental parts of our world. Surely they act as indicators of how important they have been and still are, to our human and societal development.

Reflections on the river (Afon 2019)

Sŵn Annwn

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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.

Live streamed 30th Nov 2024

Cylch Dŵr

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Over the last year, while working with Maynard and Afon,

I have limited my time on the project to when the sun is passing through one of the 3 water signs and taken the mode of each as a guide to consider and collect different kinds of material.

The process began with a walk down the river Pibydd with the sun in the sign of Cancer. The size and nature of the river seemed to express something of the cardinal mode.

While the sun was moving through Scorpio in 2023 we walked in the woods around Fynnone, perhaps Pluto was watching. The still deep waters of the lake inspired an idea to POOL a collection of sounds and I invited the other Afon artists to select vinyl from my collection to become a resource for a new improvised mix.

With the Sun in Pisces this year I spent some time with the confluence of the river Mwldan into the Teifi and the merging of Nant Duad and Nant Hafren near Castell Henllys. I gathered some material and had an idea to MERGE, to explore ways of bringing together different sound making practices.

When the sun returned to Cancer I returned to MERGE and also looked closer to home to explore the Mwldan in more detail. Taith Afon Mwldan was the result and started to explore ideas of containment and control.

During my time with Afon this November the Sun will be in Scorpio. I plan to explore and record some of the hidden parts of the river. To bring together material gathered over the last year and explore its potential once contained and displaced

More works and posts https://thefoundofmusic.co.uk/?s=afon

https://www.may-nard.org/

Moving Images

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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..

Mwldan culverts and crossings

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The river Mwldan is a tributary to the Teifi in the town of Aberteifi / Cardigan in west Wales. Starting in the north it runs the length of the town on the western side before joining the Teifi a little way downstream from the old bridge.

Historically the Mwldan was an important part of the industry of the town powering mills along it’s journey before reaching town and being put to use by a variety of industries and traders over the years. These days it is largely overlooked and unseen but it continues to provide a slender and valuable channel of natural habitat for all kinds of wildlife.

I recorded with a hydrophone on all of the crossing points of the Mwldan, edited and layered in the soundtrack of the video above to include the machine noise and mechanics of handling and movement, blending the natural and man made sounds to reflect the natural and unnatural course of the river.

I was recently watching a pair of swans on the Teifi. They swam into the culvert entrance on the Teifi and went under the car park to emerge onto the Mwldan a couple of minutes later. A strange moment walking across the car park knowing there were swans swimming underneath!

Walking upstream the next crossing is the footbridge at Lower Mwldan which used to be a drawbridge. ‘The Old Sail Loft’ buildings have been used for various things over the years, storage for a long time and a Ceredigion Council run training centre for a while before its recent change to arts space and print studios.

After the footbridge the river Mwldan disappears from sight as it runs behind what was once a timber yard and then storage for Furney’s Amusements. For quite a while the open sided sheds could be seen through the gates, full of old fruit machines, pool tables and the like. When the yard changed hands some years ago they sold off all that, I regret not buying the boxes of old jukebox records still marked up with the pubs they had been in.
As we move further upstream the terrace continues to obscure the river before the culvert begins at the back of the old amusement arcade and the river opens up again just before Bath House Rd Bridge.

Moving further upstream the river has 2 more bridges in quick succession for yet another car park and access to Mwldan buildings.

From there the Mwldan meanders through a low lying area with no public access before the final bridge in town on Gwbert rd.

HELLO

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Gemini pop legend Lionel Richie made it a hit back in the 80s, Osymyso used it brilliantly in his ‘Intro-Inspection’ and looking through the databases, finding all the instances of different songs with Hello in the title and thinking of working with them, I was reminded of John Oswald’s ‘O Hell’.

Those songs listed in my databases are – Hello; Hello Dolly; Hello brother: Hello I love you; If you see her say Hello; Hello Again; Hello Earth; Hello Hurray; Hello Mabel; Hello Hello I’m back again; Please tell him I said hello; Hello Dawn; I wanna say Hello; Hello Memory; Hello Old Friend; Goodbye Lover, Hello Friend; Hello Sunshine; Hello Young lovers; Hello Susie; Say Hello, Wave goodbye; Hello Happiness; Hello My Darlings; Hello Operator; Hello Darling; Hello how are you; Hello Goodbye;

So I took a Hello from each of the tracks found and put them together in a sequence, looped it once and it lasts for 1min19. That then goes with loops of Lionel from the 7″ vinyl in a Katzenjammer. During this session I am playing the Hellos file from an ipad and sampling it into the Morphagene. Later in the video, that comes in a bit abruptly and settles in to add different manipulations of the audio.

It is such a nice loop I could play with it all month! Here I put it through an audio to midi converter that is a bit eccentric and doesn’t always get it right and on into the Mimeophon.

Here are all the songs I took a Hello from –

Playing a loop of Hello while setting up at the theatre I was reminded by Sarah about how the word Hello became used as a telephone greeting and learning that quite recently from the Horrible Histories!

Taurean Time Travel – Analogue Vapourwave?

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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.

Cher is a Taurus
Teifi Bridges

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.

A circle in 12 parts: Aries

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The start of a new series of improvisations with guest artists for 2024.
My first guest for the zodiac sign of Aries was Ailsa Mair. The audio video improvisation was created entirely live, combining a selection of Ailsa’s photos and video clips with astrological symbols, live cameras and sounds.

The session started with a bit of Ann Petrie on vinyl talking about the Aries nature, it combines with a loop of Holst’s Mars and Cor Meibion Aberystwyth before giving way to the cello and voice of Ailsa Mair.

We have been talking of making some work around the tarot and symbol of the fool in particular. Seems wholly appropriate to explore this in the time of Aries.

Check out the Fools Journey on Ailsa’s bandcamp and more music too!
https://thefairytalecellist.bandcamp.com/

A circle in 12 parts – the fifth circle

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Here we go again!

The fifth circle will be about creative expression for it’s own sake, a more outgoing display of creativity. What does that mean? Basically more visible output.

More livestreaming. More guests. More opportunities for play

The nature of the fifth circle is a reflection of the zodiac sign of Leo and the fifth house.
I intend to embrace my Leo rising, to open, share and lead creative processes.
Pluto and Neptune are conjunct in the fifth house of my birthchart.. so that’s nice!

The Pilgrim’s Process: Modular Pilgrim

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The Pilgrim’s Process started in 2004 and maybe never really ended… (read more here).
Primarily a visual project to accompany Vinyl Altar, a live turntable improvisation performance project exploring religious recordings on vinyl, it also includes a number of videos with fixed soundtracks. These 2 recent videos are made live with live modular synths and Resolume VJ software.
The CD artwork for Vinyl Altar links through to mp3 downloads of the recordings from that disc, recorded in 2005. The film below that was an edit from a much longer work created in 2006 with a broken camera, my first post on the then new Youtube!

Vinyl Altar (2005)