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!
The final installment of improvisations for the 4 cardinal calendar points.
Produced live the stream includes the remnants of a fiery circle for Sagittarius for a while before we transition into the liminal space of the solstice, that point of transition leading into a new phase of the year. Another layer explores the emerging Cardinal earth element, filmed by Jay while moving through the landscape earlier on the day. Live cameras are processed through an analogue circuitbent video enhancer, and layer up with live tarot, synths, vinyl and bass guitar as well as readings of texts on themes of the solstice, earth and Capricorn. With 2 Capricorns in the room they got to select vinyl for the evening, subsequently looped and processed by Jay through a variety of pedals they merge with the Make Noise synth sounds shifting and evolving over time. Thanks to guests Rhowan, Erin & Manny as well as regular players Jay and Keryl for their thoughtful and playful contributions.
POOL is a beginning, the starting point for a stream.
Afon artists are invited to browse a database of vinyl records and select a track or album to create a sonic POOL from which samples will flow and LOOP to become a stream.
Forming in the fixed water sign of Scorpio, POOL suggests the start of a journey into hidden otherworlds. Moving into and immersion in the POOL takes us into the unknown, a place where real and unreal worlds interact, where both become fluid memory and noise is the only true reality..
The POOL starts to form with these selected records : Joni Mitchel – Clouds; Johnny Cash – Big River; Top of the Pops Artistes – Float on; Neil Diamond – Walk on Water; Johnny Cash & Marty Robbins – Cool Water
Summoning circles made of mutable earth. Most of the time the AI generated images of circles become slideshow videos which become layers of colour and texture in live audio visual improvisations. I was quite intrigued by the Deep Dream Generator’s results and thought I’d have a go at making one move…it’s quite a lot of work for an ok result.
So I put one into Runway’s Gen2 to see how it might move it…
Pretty cool but expensive to do anything more. I decided it’s more interesting to have the separate components as layers in Resolume, that way they can change direction and adjust speeds individually according to the tempo.
Improvised audio visuals with J&K Hodges on turntables, pedals and synths. Cardinal water and crystal circles for an anniversary with live circle drawing by Spike from https://waldenarts.co.uk/
The Fourth Circle
The fourth circle is a return to the cardinal mode, itself suggesting a new initiatory principle that marks a shift towards more tangible and visible circles both at home and beyond.
Astrologically speaking the 4th house represents the home and family life, echoes the zodiac sign of Cancer, the cardinal mode and water element. The number 4 also suggests solidity, stability and structure, perhaps representing the solid physical world. With these principles in mind the work will extend further into the physical space of the studio and around my home as well as out to wider audiences in the coming year..
The social ritual that has developed over the year of the third circle with Jay and Keryl will also be extended to create a new, larger circle around the home, engaging more people in the physical world by inviting new participants to social ritual performances around the 4 Cardinal points of the zodiac. (edited extract from circular ramblings)
A great day in Aberystwyth Arts centre for the Aberetwm celebrations. Some lovely conversations with new and old friends. Thanks to everyone who came along and joined in and thanks to Marc and Becca for having us there!
I started off the sounds of the day with recordings made on Aberystwyth beach, the waves led us up onto the prom where voices and gulls joined in with some short loops of cello, bass and viol from the lovely Sianed Jones who’s loopstation I inherited full of memories. From there we heard the call of Penglais woods where the rich and lively birdsong merged with voices and music from the Arts Centre. The voice of Peter Stevenson and music from Ailsa Mair Hughes, recorded during the Flora exhibition in 2017, evokes and describes the geographic and botanical world of Penglais hill as experienced by John Salter in the 19th Century before being submerged in the drones and loops from vinyl records connected to Aberystwyth. The Vinyl Mycelium connections resonate, ogham trees adding new layers of connection reaching out to both past and future. Traditional instrumental sounds from Deuair bring us back to the present and merge with loops of the past – a stream begins to flow.
Live stream recorded from the event (apologies for some random level changes)
Above is a horoscope chartwheel for the day in Aberystwyth – this recurs in the live visual mix, rotating and merging with another more artistic impression of the chart drawn up for my collaboration with Jay and Keryl Hodges and the third circle.
The space was also inhabited by the mysterious figure of the mushroom man tending his pods and silently connecting us to a world beyond.
Circular ramblings. As I start another circle in 12 parts I want to say again just how grateful I am for the time and contributions of all my guests over the last 2 years. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunities and challenges it’s raised.
Circles, cycles, endings and beginnings. When I started in 2020 it was with an idea of creating and posting monthly on the the same date each year, that it would become a monthly and annual ritual act. Art, ritual and magic share so much.
Alongside the monthly mix my studio time is now guided by the Sun’s movement through the zodiac signs, images and vinyl selected to compliment and explore the qualities of the sign, its element and planetary ruler.
The third circle brought a number of new ideas to the project and is where the ideas and interactions consolidate as a social ritual.
All live mixes – In January 2022 I bought some VJ software and started to explore using that during the performances instead of editing post. Wherever possible my guests have joined me physically in the studio and both visual and audio mixes have been improvised live with some mixed results! When my guest was remote, I recorded the audio mix with them over the web live, I then took the live audio and the camera recordings along with any video clips we decided on and used them as the material for a live visual mix.
Modular Synths – I started playing with VCV Rack, a virtual eurorack synthesiser back in August 2021 and by the time I started the 3rd circle had invested in some hardware. I added the Make Noise Strega, the 0Coast and 0Control in February 2022 and over the following months started to use them in the mixes if it felt appropriate. The first mix of the third circle for Aries 2022 with Elsa Davies was the first time they were included. Sometime around the same time I started playing more regularly with 2 of my previous guests, Jay and Keryl Hodges, continuing the process of selecting and playing records according to zodiac sign and using the sign’s element and planetary rulers to influence the visual material.
Perhaps the years and the different approaches can be seen as echoes of the astrological houses or modal qualities – 1 – The principal act – A monthly vinyl mix 2 – Consolidation and continuation – Inviting guests to participate continuing a process and reiterating the method 3 – Extension and inclusion – Extending and experimenting with more processes to introduce more liveness
The Fourth Circle I see the fourth circle as a return to the cardinal mode, itself suggesting a new initiatory principle that marks a shift towards more tangible and visible circles both at home and beyond.
Astrologically speaking the 4th house represents the home and family life, echoes the zodiac sign of Cancer and cardinal water. The number 4 also suggests solidity, stability and structure, perhaps representing the solid physical world. With these principles in mind the work will extend further into the physical space of the studio and around my home as well as out to wider audiences in the coming year..
The social ritual that has developed over the year of the third circle with Jay and Keryl will also be extended to create a new, larger circle around the home, engaging more people in the physical world by inviting new participants to social ritual performances around the 4 Cardinal points of the zodiac. The first of these was to take place on the spring equinox but unfortunately I was too unwell to do it, I’m still not sure what that means and how it affects the whole…
A combined live audio visual improvisation with contributions and vinyl selection from this years guest Scorpio, Jack Smylie Wild.
I really enjoyed working on this experimental project with Jake. For me, it was a chance to leave my usual writing practice to one side, and focus on enjoying the collaborative process, dipping into areas I’m interested in, but don’t give much time to.
I found a lot of old footage I’d taken, and Jake was happy to play around with it. I also made some new bits of film especially for A Circle in Twelve Parts, transforming myself into a kind of Green Man in the woods, with river clay and leaf litter. For the live recording on the night, I revisited some characters I used to draw when I was a teenager, for a comic I made called ‘Creatures of the Moonshine’ – which explores ideas around the multifaceted nature of self, and the seeming contradictions and juxtapositions therein.
This work felt more like the start of something than an end-product, and I’m looking forward to getting back into Jake’s lab to conduct further multi-media experiments, perhaps with some spoken word and rap, in the future.
The found of music 