In Memoriam Richard Lainhart

My dear friend Richard Lainhart suddenly passed away on December 31, 2011.  This is a small video piece for him, which will soon appear on the website devoted to his memorial.  Vision was shot at Port Melbourne Beach and treated in Vegas, sound was made with the Vaz Modular softsynth, tuned to a microtonal scale of my own invention, based on work by Ervin Wilson.  The video is dedicated to Richard's life partner, Caroline Meyers, with love.

Summer in the Park - Feb 10, 2012 Bendigo performance

Here's a 21 minute video shot by Catherine Schieve of a performance given by an improvising quartet of myself (sound), Paul Fletcher (video and sound), Jacques Soddell (video), and Ross Healy (sound).  Presented by Undue Noise as part of Summer in the Park, in the Rosalind Park Conservatory in Bendigo on Feb 10, 2012.

What could be better than a warm summer night, with an audience on the lawn in front of the Conservatory (the greenhouse) in Rosalind Park, listening to electronic sound and seeing experimental videos projected from inside the Conservatory? Well, that would have been nice, but the rains started in the afternoon, and by evening, it was pouring. Fortunately, thanks to the resourceful folks at the City of Greater Bendgo and Undue Noise, part of the Conservatory was cleared, and the event went ahead, inside the Conservatory. Undeterred by the inclement weather, a crowd of about 50 watched as an improvising quartet performed. Jacques Soddell, the head of Undue Noise, projected his video works (on the right). Paul Fletcher projected video (on the left) and played sound. Ross Healy played his homemade synthesizers, and Warren Burt played a table full of Android Pad, Netbook, iPhones, and other gear. The video was made by Catherine Schieve on her iPhone. Rather than just look at the screen, she moved about freely, even braving the downpour to go outside the Conservatory on occasion and give us the view from outside. So this represents the feeling of what it was like for an audience member to be at the event. Despite the rain, it was still a very pleasant summer gig. I've wanted to play inside a Conservatory for many, many years. Now that I've done it, I want to do more of it. As one of the other performers noted - it was one of the first times we played to such a big audience, 50 of whom even happened to be human. The rest, of course, were our green buddies. And a good time was had by all.

A busy month! Four Performances in February

Februrary will be a busy month for me!  There are four performances in Melbourne and Bendigo that I'm involved with.  Here's some info and web-contacts:

1. 1st Februrary 2012, SEENSOUND - visual music performance organised by Brigid Burke and Mark Pedersen.  At LOOP - back room - 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne - 7:30 pm - Entry $10/$5.  Videos by many good folks, including yours truly.

More info: http://seensound.com

2. 10 Februrary 2012 - 8-10 pm, SUMMER IN THE PARK, Bendigo - at the Conservatory, Rosalind Park, Bendigo.  Organised by Undue Noise.  Featuring a concluding quartet of Jacques Soddell, Paul Fletcher, Ross Healy, and Warren Burt.  (I've been wanting to perform at the Bendigo Conservatory for many many years.  Thanks to Jacques, I now get the chance!)

More info: http://undue.cajid.com/blog/?p=306

3. 15 Feb 2012, "Making Misteaks" a talk and discussion at St Ali Coffeehouse, 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, 8pm, $5 entry.

4. 23 FEB 2012 - Felix Werder at 90 - Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank, 7:30 PM, FREE Admission. (It's going to be an absolute pleasure to celebrate our dear friend Felix at a concert of mostly new works of his!)

More info: www.joltarts.org

Three Interviews with me that readers might enjoy

If you look at the right column of this page, you'll see a new category called "Interviews."  I've been interviewed by several people over the past couple of years, and I recently thought that these might be shared with those interested.  In October 2011, I was interviewed by UK writer Chris Meigh-Andrews on my work in video; Nina Sofo interviewed me about my work in improvisation in June 2011; and Tegan Nicholls interviewed me about my work with extended vocal techniques in October 2010.  I asked all of them for permission to put these interviews on my website, and happily, they all agreed.  Many thanks to Chris, Nina and Tegan for agreeing to do this.

To read the interview with Chris Meigh-Andrews on video, click here.

To read the interview with Nina Sofo on improvisation, click here.

To read the inteview with Tegan Nicholls on extended vocal techniques, click here.

I hope you enjoy them!

Performances in January - Gent, Los Angeles

I'm having 2 works performed in January by friends overseas.  The first one, already past, was a performance of my "Another Noisy Lullaby" by Decibel at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium, on January 17.  Many thanks to Cat Hope and all the Logos Crew for including me in the program!

The second one, upcoming, on January 29, is a performance of my electronic piece "for Anne, who broke my heart" from 1974 as part of the Welcome Inn Time Machine performances.  Here's a description of the whole event:

The Society for the Activation of Social Space Through Art and Sound (SASSAS) transforms Eagle Rock’s Welcome Inn into a venue for live performances creating a free, six hour event featuring experimental music originating in Southern California, 1949 - 1977.  Micro concerts take place in individual rooms allowing key moments in sound and music history to be experienced simultaneously and sequentially in a single location.  (One of the featured events is a performance/re-creation of Arnold Schoenberg's 1949 "Draft of a String Quartet.")

The event I'm part of celebrates the Theater Vanguard's "Currents" series, which was curated by Barry Schrader from 1973-78.  Barry has put together a selection of pieces from that series and it will play as a 2 hour repeating program throughout the day.  Thanks, Barry, for including my work!

So if you're in Los Angeles this Sunday, you could do worse than to drop into the Welcome Inn at Eagle Rock.  If I were in LA on Sunday, that's where I would be!

Here's some links:

http://www.logosfoundation.org/concerts/concerts2012.html

http://www.sassas.org/welcomeinn/ (click on "Currents Series" for more information.)