Tones, Drones and Arpeggios : The Magic of Minimalism - Episode 2 - New York

In this episode Charles Hazlewood meets Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

"Across the 1960s these New Yorkers added new orchestral dimensions to compositions based on repetition, transcendence and new technology, and broke into the mainstream in the following decade. Charles explores how breakthrough techniques Reich first explored on tape were transposed for orchestral performance. Glass's experiments with repetitive structures, along with his innovative work in opera - Einstein on the Beach - revealed new possibilities for classical music.

The episode includes excerpts from minimalist pieces, including Reich's Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards performed by the Army of Generals orchestra. Charles Hazlewood's All Stars Collective performs part of Mike Oldfield's minimalist-inspired Tubular Bells.



The key attributes of minimalism, its reliance on repetition, its mesmerizing transcendent qualities and innovative use of technology are also discussed with broadcaster and writer Tom Service; director of music at the Southbank Centre, Gillian Moore; composers Laurie Spiegel, Nico Muhly, Julia Wolfe, Max Richter and Bryce Dessner; and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Adrian Utley."


Although I thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as well as La Monte Young and Terry Riley, whom were featured in episode 1, I am disappointed at the lack of recognition for female musicians who made a vital contribution to the minimalist genre. 

Thanks to my incredibly knowledgeable and talented friend Jez, for alerting me to a series of posts highlighting some of the names & influences that have been overlooked in this series:

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/here-in-uk-bbc-is-screening-series-on.html

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/ahead-of-episode-2-of-tones-drones-and.html

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/following-on-from-two-recent-posts.html

Practice Makes Practice at The NewBridge Project: ‘the listening room’ – conversation with Jez Riley French

This event took the form of a discussion about the role of located and performance-based sound in the contemporary sonic arts.

Jez Riley French gave a presentation/talk on some of aspects of his work with extended listening along with anecdotes, and he shared some key artists working with located sound including:

Klara Lewis

Signe Liden

Sally Ann McIntyre

Dawn Scarfe

Halla Steinunn Stefansdottir

Julia Holter

Manja Ristic

and Jana Winderen.

This lead us into an open conversation where we discussed topics such as

How does fit recording sit with the idea of nature and the idyll?

The role of misogyny in the distorted histories of sound cultures

The act of listening

I really appreciate Jez' way of working and highly respect his approach to making work. He likes discovering and sharing existing sounds, as opposed to manufacturing his own. He uses a range of microphones including hydrophones, electromagnetic, ultrasonic and contact microphones to record sounds that are beyond our normal hearing capabilities. His use of photography adds another element to the audio rather than illustrating the sound.

Climate Symphony

I was invited to participate in Climate Symphony, an event devised by Disobedient in collaboration with Jamie Perera. It was co-produced by Forma Arts and Disobedient, and supported by Arts Council England and Sculpt the Future Foundation. The event was held at Culture Lab, Newcastle University. Climate Symphony was a live music performance that turned data into a four part symphony to tell the story of what climate change means for humans and their environment through sound.

Some questions we thought about included

Can we use sound as a narrative and reporting tool?

Can we engage and inspire and maintain factual rigour?

The lab brought together scientists, artists, journalists and members of the public to interrogate some of the ideas behind the project and as part of a workshop/lab, we created some initial works to communicate some of the data to a new and wider audience.

The lab was intended as a research and development vehicle to answer key practical and artistic questions around the process by which we can transform data into a narrative symphony.

Schedule

LEARN

Birth of a Climate Dataset: Artists, scientists and data analysts delivered talks on field recording and climate data collection.




Jim Lloyd gave an introduction to his work as a scientist and artist, and discussed some of the challenges he faces with science that led him to art.




Jez Riley French described his approach to field recording and shared some examples of his work.


PLAY

What is the Sound of a Dying Planet? We split into two groups and each group selected a set of climate data and turned that into sound.



This is the data set that we chose (kindly provided by Erin in our group).

We found the averages of points along the timeline and plotted this data into the computer. We used the trends to alter the recordings that Jez from our group had provided.

CHALLENGE

Each group explained the decisions made throughout the process of making the work, discussed the challenges faced, what worked, and what didn’t work. This led to a broader debate about role of sonification in communicating narratives of climate change.


Here is the presentation about the work that I was involved with making.

In the evening we were treated to two performances, one by Kate Carr and the next by Jez Riley French.

It was a really interesting and stimulating day, working with such a range of experts in their field and sharing lots of ideas and raising lots of questions. Thank you to Forma Arts and Disobedient for making it happen and for inviting me to be part of it.

Climate Symphony Lab in Newcastle at Culture Lab, Newcastle University on Saturday 8th July

I have been invited to participate in Climate Symphony a forthcoming event to be held at Culture Lab, Newcastle University in July. Each organiser comes from a different background and their skills and interests have shaped what looks to be a fascinating and pertinent event. Katharine Round works primarily in film, Leah Borromeo is an artist and journalist and Jamie Perera is a composer. Tonight I talked to Katharine about the event and my involvement. 

"Climate Symphony is a creative lab that turns hard data on climate change into a symphony to tell the story of what climate change means through sound.

Journalists, climate scientists, data analysts and sound artists will spend the day collaboratively exploring and discovering how we can change climate change research data into a sound and music composition.

Datasets related to different areas of climate change will be used - issues like air quality & asthma, glacial erosion, flooding, migration patterns and food choices etc.

The days run from 11-6pm. There will be an overview to the data and the scientific principles around its collection and analysis, followed by a longer workshop exploring how data can be translated into sound and the outcomes. Later there will be a discussion between all participants as to the findings of the day.

The event will culminate in a live illustrated performance by leading sound artist Jez Riley French who uses field recordings in the composition of his work, often from places affected by climate change."

If you would like to reserve a place at the event, please contact Philippa Barr on pb@forma.org.uk by July 1st.

Limited capacity so please book early.

Climate Symphony is supported by the Digital Cultures Research Group, Culture Lab, Newcastle University digitalcultures.ncl.ac.uk. Climate Symphony is devised by Disobedient in collaboration with Jamie Perera and co-produced with Forma.

For more information please visit

https://www.facebook.com/events/1551764054894196/?active_tab=about

Jez Riley French talks about his collaborative sound work created for the Humber Bridge in the year that Hull is the UK City of Culture 2017

"The vast Humber Bridge is the focus of a new artwork for Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Norwegian musician Jan Bang and Hull-based sound recordist Jez Riley French discuss The Height of the Reeds, an interactive soundtrack they have created for Opera North, to be listened to on headphones as you cross the length of the 2,200m bridge."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k19wm

Head on over to the Humber Bridge, put on a set of our headphones and disappear into a sound adventure, walking the epic span of the Bridge, with a world of sound in your ears.

Music by Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, guitarist Eivind Aarset and electronic wizard Jan Bang gives way to the vast sound of the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North; threaded through with the deep music of the Bridge itself, captured by Hull based sound artist Jez riley French. Poetry is read by Maureen Lipman, Barrie Rutter, and 7-year-old Katie Smith from Hull, with musical arrangement by Aleksander Waaktar.

Evoking both the long history of sea travel from Hull, and the Bridge as a powerful symbol of home, The Height of the Reeds is an unforgettable experience in sound."
https://www.hull2017.co.uk/whatson/events/the-height-of-the-reeds-a-sound-journey-for-the-humber-bridge/

https://www.hull2017.co.uk/

Thanks to all involved in the Unpitch event at Culture Lab

The Drone Ensemble would like to thank Ben Freeth and Jez Riley French for inviting us to perform at the Unpitch event at Culture Lab, featuring headliners Hankil Ryu and Lo Wie from Korea.

We would also like to thank all the people who turned up to listen to us!




The Drone Ensemble set up this evening consisted of:

friction drums

pipe gurdys

hurdy gurdy

percussion

It was good to test out a simpler score and allow each of the instruments to have a period of time as the focus.

The Drone Ensemble featuring in Hankil Ryu and lo wie evening performance at Culture Lab

The Drone Ensemble have been invited to perform in

Unpitch presents: Hankil Ryu and lo wie evening performance at Culture Lab, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Invite
You are cordially invited to a series of sound art presentations, workshops and performances to take place on 24th February 2017 in Culture Lab and Fine Art, Newcastle University. These are free and don't cost anything to attend / participate. They are aimed at anyone interested in electronic music, electronic performance, digital media, creative practice involving technology, artists developing their own musical instruments, musicians, artists and those with an interest in contemporary music and performance in Korea.

Background
Following a recent Arts Council England sponsored research visit to SouthKorea artists Ben Freeth and Yvette Hawkins in collaboration with Jez Riley French have invited Korean artist's Hankil Ryu and Lo Wie to Newcastle.

To share practice and expand networks there will be a series of workshops, presentations, and performances taking place over two days: 23rd and 24th February 2017. Ben and Yvette will launch "Hybrid Cultures / Borderless Practice" a book and set of recordings on the Sonospace label. This will feature their work in Korea. https://www.sonospace.org/

Jez Riley French will work with First Year Fine Art Students to create a performance involving field recording and photographic scores.

Hankil Ryu and Io wie will work with Creative Arts Practice students, fine art students and members of the public to explore acts of listening, writing and collective vocalisation.

Daytime
12pm - 1pm Lunch time presentations Hankil / Io wie, JRF (lunch bites format - listen and eat lunch!)
1pm break
1.30pm - 4.30pm Hankil / Lowie Workshop begins
Spaces limited: to reserve a free place book here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/text-oriented-composition-hankil-ryu-lo-wie-workshop-tickets-32055137780

Evening
7.00pm Doors open
7.30pm First performance

Performances:
7.30pm Drone Ensemble
8.00pm Jamie Cook
8.40pm Jez Riley French (UK) + (1st Year Fine Art Students)
9.20pm Ben Freeth, John Bowers and Tim Shaw
10pm Hankil Ryu / lo wie (SK)


Artist Bio's / Descriptions:
Hankil RYU (Korean, born 1975) is a musician from Seoul. He has organised a monthly event called RELAY since 2005 and established his own publishing office called The Manual. He is interested in finding an alternative musical structure possessed by abandoned objects like clockworks, typewriters and telephones. After discovering the instrumental possibilities of a typewriter, he started to collaboration project called ‘A.Typist’ with lo wie and Taeyong KIM. The collaboration’s results were released by The Manual and Mediabus as three CD+Book sets. He has also been a member of FEN (Far East Network) since 2008. As a different approach from his past works, in 2015, he started digital beats project called ‘pilot Ryu’ based on synthesis sound.

lo wie
lo wie is Beckett's Typist and a member of A.Typist, and organizing a music composition concert series, Namsan.
http://lo-wie.blogspot.com/
https://vimeo.com/160201665

Hnakil Ryu / lo wie performance on 24th will feature a variety of objects, text and software:
“A. Typist: The Soft Machine”

A.Typist is a project group consisting of the musician Ryu Hankil, and the writers Kim Taeyong and lo wie. They use prepared typewriters with an interest in finding sound/music produced by writing, texts produced by sound/music and unexpected things produced by the relationship of the two ways of producing sound/music and texts. Recently, their interest is extending into translation among writing, text scores and performance, and transition among physical forms of sound, light and electricity.
In this concert, Ryu Hankil and lo wie will perform “cut-up feedback” using their cut-up score based on William Burroughs’ “The Soft Machine” which is the first work of his cut-up trilogy.

Jez Riley French
Alongside performances, exhibitions, installations, JRF lectures and runs workshops around the world and his range of specialist microphones are widely used by recordists, sound artists, musicians, sound designers and cultural organisations.
In recent years he has been working extensively on recordings of surfaces, spaces and situations and developing the concept of photographic scores and ‘scores for listening’, which have featured widely in publications and exhibitions.
His work has been exhibited in shows and installations alongside that of Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Watson, Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Stars of the Lid, Jeremy Deller, Sarah Lucas, Brian Eno, Signe Liden, Sally Ann McIntyre etc, at galleries including The Whitworth Gallery (Manchester), Tate Modern and Tate Britain, MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan), Artisphere (USA)….
jezrileyfrench.co.uk

Yvette Hawkins
Yvette Hawkins (British Korean, born 1979) is a paper artist of South Korean and English descent who makes installations, sculptural objects and scores for improvised musical performance using books, maps, silk, textiles and other found materials. Hawkins trained at the Glasgow School of Art and graduated from Newcastle University in 2007. She has had numerous group and solo exhibitions within the UK and Europe. She also has pieces in collections in Italy, Japan, and the United States. Her work has been featured in several books. Hawkins is currently represented by Globe Gallery, UK.
https://yvettehawkins.co.uk/

Ben Freeth
Ben Freeth is an artist, musician, and researcher with an interdisciplinary practice using data, networked technologies, sonification, extended recording techniques, prototype electronics and marine algae to create sculptural installations and contemporary sonic performances enabling entangled encounters within “naturecultures” (a necessary entwining of the natural and the cultural, the bodily and the mind). This involves an exploration of sound and its ability to create relations within nature cultures, humans, environments, and technology.
https://bcfreeth.wordpress.com/

Tim Shaw has worked internationally as an artist, performer and sound designer. His practice is situated within media art and draws upon soundscape and electroacoustic composition, performance making and DIY technology. He currently works as a lecturer in Digital Media at Culture Lab, Newcastle. Collaboration plays a central role in his approach, he has been lucky enough to make artistic work with Chris Watson, John Bowers and Sébastien Piquemal.
https://tim-shaw.net/

John Bowers is an artist-researcher working within Culture Lab with a particular interest in the use of art and design-led methods (Research Through Design) to explore digital technologies and novel interaction concepts. He also works as a sound artist improvising with electronic, digital, acoustic and electro-mechanical devices and self-made instruments in performance and installation settings, typically accompanied by live digital image.

Drone Ensemble
The Drone Ensemble is an experimental sound group that uses acoustic instruments that can produce a prolonged drone sound. All the instruments are made by the group and are often re-interpretations of existing instruments from around the world.
The Ensemble intends for the combination of drone and pulse to induce trance-like states and a heightened, timeless listening experience.
Members of the ensemble are students or graduates of Newcastle University Fine Art. The ensemble is led by staff member, Joseph Sallis.

Jamie Cook
"soundscapes created from live foley recordings and granular synthesis"


Sponsored by:
Newcastle Institute of Creative Arts Practice (NICAP)
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nicap/
Digital Cultures Research Group from Culture Lab
http://digitalcultures.ncl.ac.uk/
Fine Art Newcastle University
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/fineart/
Arts Council England
www.artscouncil.org.uk/

I feature in the 'Six question series' in the new format PDF zine, verdure engraved

I was invited by Jez Riley French to feature in the first issue of the new format pdf zine, verdure engraved.

Verdue engraved in a pdf zine containing interviews and art from a range of practitioners. A regular feature in the zine is the 'six questions series' in which artists are asked to respond to a set of six questions. You can read my answers to the questions by downloading the zine from

https://verdureengraved.bandcamp.com/album/2017-1 

As ever the pdf zine contains interviews and art but it now also comes with a download album of sound pieces. Its free to download or you can donate to the costs of putting it together if you are able. 

For issue 1 of 2017 the featured artists are:

Helen Shaddock
Iris Legendre
Izabela Kowalczyk
Cathy Lane
Sharon Renee Stewart
Manja Ristic
Esther Bubley
Ames JN
Rowan Forestier
Pheobe Law
& Jez Riley French

The zine comes as part of the download of the audio album - so to access it you need to download the audio album.

No Niceties Contributing Artists - Jez Riley French & Pheobe Riley Law

'not much is a lot that can happen in fifteen minutes. its a question of scale & position'

the sound of 15 spaces that fit inside 7.1 x 4.8m

its possible to hear inaction, we don’t listen (really)

in each minute so much is happening     breaking narrative

a story often says ‘here, this happened’
a story doesn’t often say ‘all this happened’

its a matter of scale and position

'not much is a lot that can happen in fifteen minutes. its a question of scale & position'

Jez riley French (b. 1965)

working primarily with sound, photography and video, Jrf is particularly associated with developing extended field recording and listening techniques as a key element of sound art and performance, alongside photographic scores and work involving various other media. His work has been exhibited and performed widely in various countries inc. at Tate Modern & Tate Britain here in the UK.

Pheobe riley Law (b. 1997)

my work explores play, digital folklore, psychogeography, the curated space (physical, audible and psychological) and aspects of nurtured personality - I currently explore with photography, text, video and performance 

Jez Riley French visits Newcastle and comes along to Drone Ensemble

I met field recorder and photographer Jez Riley French a couple of years ago when he came to give an artist talk at Newcastle University. We have kept in touch, and earlier this week I met up with him and a group of other artists using sound at NewBridge Studios on his latest visit to Newcastle.



"Using intuitive composition, field recording, improvisation and photography, Jez has been exploring his enjoyment of and interest in detail, simplicity and his emotive response to places and situations for over 3 decades.

Alongside performances, exhibitions, installations, he lectures and runs workshops around the world on field recording and the act and art of listening. He also curates the ‘engraved glass’ label and the ‘a quiet position’ series of online releases / forums exploring the broad ideas surrounding field recording as a primary art of sound / sound art.

In recent years he has been working extensively on recordings of surfaces and spaces (natural and man made) and developing the concept of photographic scores. Jrf is particularly associated with the development of extended recording techniques, including the recording of structural vibrations, contact microphone recording, ultrasonics, infrasonics, internal electronic signals via coil pick-up's and recordings made with hydrophones.

Amongst his key recent works are pieces capturing the sound of the dolomites dissolving, ants consuming fallen fruit, the Tate Modern building vibrating, the infrasound of domestic spaces around the world, glaciers melting in Iceland and the tonal resonances of natural and human objects in the landscape."



His visit coincided with Drone Ensemble's weekly session, and so I introduced him to Joe and the other Droners. We demonstrated our range of sound making machines, and he enjoyed having a go himself.



Jez has invited me to be included in a forthcoming edition of verdure engraved, a regular pdf arts magazine, available to view online or download for free

I will be responding to six questions that Jez has sent me, and this will form part of the interview series that runs throughout the arts magazine.

To see earlier editions please visit

http://jezrileyfrench.co.uk/verdure-engraved.php

Jez Riley French

A couple of weeks ago, sound artist Jez Riley French gave an artist talk at Newcastle University. He spoke very honestly and openly about his approach to making work and shared his working methods with us. He brought along a number of different microphones that he uses to record his work.

I found it remarkable to listen to the sounds of structures such as bridges, particularly so as he does not edit the footage in any way.

Following his teaching at the University, Jez contacted me asking whether he could provide a link to my work.

Here is a link to his post which includes a little mention of my artwork!

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/newcastle-visit-further.html

Jez' website is

http://jezrileyfrench.co.uk

and his blog can be seen at

http://jezrileyfrench.blogspot.co.uk