We definitely aren’t able to successfully sound like anyone else -- it would be nice if people saw us as our own thing that transcended some of the things we borrow from elsewhere. I think live we have our own thing -- whether or not we can capture that on record at some point remains to be seen. Double live album time!
interviews
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I might be the only person that thinks the self-titled Smiths album is better than Hatful Of Hollow. I love that first LP.
...right at the very start of another busy year of activity – with several bouts of live Heavenly bookings to fulfil upfront -- Ian openhandedly gave over time to tell all on his early career routes; the life and times of Papernut Cambridge being celebrated across the freshly dispensed and indispensable Everybody Is In Papernut Cambridge compilation; the philosophies and operations of Gare Du Nord ; his broad range of other cultural commitments; and plenty more in between.
Both a revolving door group and a single-minded mission, Matt Pond PA were officially inaugurated eponymically in Philadelphia way back in 1998, with the debut Deer Apartments LP. Since this beginning, the off-to-one-side enterprise has been adroitly steered by self-described ‘dignified drifter’ Matt Pond through innumerable membership configurations, label deals, modes of operations and sonic shifts across prolific releases of various shapes and sizes.
Although less prolific and less visible over the last decade after a rewarding thirty or so years of jointly directing The Walkabouts and Chris & Carla, Chris Eckman has remained a reassuring background presence as an adaptable Americana ambassador embedded in Europe.
Australian experimental, improvisational and traditional multi-instrumentalist Mat Watson is known for being part of large and uusual orchestras and collaborations. He has played with Boredoms, conducted an orchestra for 40 synthesisers at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, has multiple solo and collaborative projects on the go at any one time.
Yet, out of the blue in the middle of this year came word of a new solo album -- via the Drums & Wires Recordings label run by her erstwhile bandmate and still-fellow Seattleite Michael Wells -- in the shape of the very welcoming and much-welcomed Beckonings. A richly diverse collection that reacquaints us with Torgerson’s skills as a singer, a song-interpreter, an arranger and a collaborator, as well as her lesser-explored role as a writer.
Latterly, although Bardo Pond’s new activities have slowed somewhat, the band’s bounteous back catalogue and previously unreleased tape vault extractions are being given considered curatorial care through regular releases on Fire Records, Three Lobed and Matador. With the latter label having just exhumed 1999’s churningly squally Set And Setting long-player, alongside Melt Away, a double-LP of choice rarities built-up around the ensemble’s four-album Matador affiliation, the time seemed more than ripe to converse over email with Michael Gibbons on the past, present and future of Bardo Pond...
The concept of a “desert sound,” if such a term truly exists, is more about a state of mind than a specific genre. It embodies a sense of vastness, solitude, and sounds stretched to the limits of the infinite. While I wouldn’t say the desert sound has always been a direct influence, the themes it represents have certainly resonated with me throughout my music.
Since the mid-1970s, Allen Ravenstine has experimented with and expanded on the uses of creative synthesis, perhaps most famously with Pere Ubu (and later Red Krayola), where he brought "unpredictable textures, effects and pulsating washes of sound" to the mix.
You can harness it to make music in many ways, from just observing it do its thing and occasionally tuning something, to rapid playing with knobs and switches as musical performance. Also, from a compositional point of view, the concentration on one source or one process at a time and the interaction between sources and processes within a network can be used as a template for structure and inspires articulation.
Midori's session for Philippe Petit's Modulisme series allowed her to showcase the impact that modular synthesis has had on her electronic sound, and she outlines the ways in which her music has evolved as a result.
Experimental musician, singer and songwriter Siôn Orgon creates electroacoustic music, sound design and production in Cardiff. He has worked with the likes of Thighpaulsandra and is a member of Rocketgoldstar as well as collaborating over the years with groups and artists including Coil, Splintered, William D Drake, Peter Christopherson, Andrew Liles, Damo Suzuki, Faust and many more. Siôn also does sound design for BBC TV, as well as dance […]
A member of Thee Silver Mt Zion and a co-creator of the avant-klezmer group Black Ox Orkestar, Jessica Moss has collaborated and played with the likes of Daniel O’Sullivan, Sarah Davachi and Big|Brave. To accompany her fifth solo album, Galaxy Heart on Constellation, she is on tour throughout Europe. Mr Olivetti put some pertinent questions to the Montréal-based composer and violinist. This album feels like a rather wild and […]
Electronic musician, artist, producer, engineer as well as module designer and maker for Future Sound Systems, Bristol-based Finlay Shakespeare‘s session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project shows off his grasp of the classic British sound of independent modular-adjacent pop music from its heady early years. His influences also are also steeped in experimental electronic music, which led him to create the Throbbing Gristle-inspired Gristelizer eurorack module in association with its […]
Active since 1971, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble has the distinction of being the longest-running live electronic music formation in the world. Their session for Philippe Petit‘s Modulisme project showcases the sort of modular synthesis sounds that the ensemble have been performing annually in Toronto and on tour around the world for over fifty years. The current membership includes founder members Jim Montgomery and David Jaeger alongside John Kameel […]
Daniel Burke has been recording and performing music as Illusion of Safety since 1983, with a variety of collaborators joining him along the way. Dormant from 2015, he revived IOS in 2020, continuing the exploration of unconventional sound using unorthodox devices and methods. Daniel’s session for Philippe Petit‘s encyclopaedic ongoing Modulisme project last no less than eight hours, and is a tour de force of experimental music in […]
Ever since discovering electronic music while at university, Ian Boddy has immersed himself in the world of synthesis, becoming a renowned exponent of the form, particularly active in ambient electronica as well as specialising in sound library creations and sound design. Working with collaborators including Robert Rich, Chris Carter, Markus Reuter, Erik Wøllo and Nigel Mullaney, as well as with Mark Shreeve as ARC, he has been busy […]