Month: November 2021

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Friday 3rd of December, Dilston Grove, Southwark Park Gallery

I visited the 2021 MA Postgraduate show, titled FESTIVE LABOUR, where graduating MA sound arts students presented their work.

It was an interesting experience to see and hear the pieces presented by the graduating students, and the exhibition felt like a celebration of their culminated artistic projects. Many of the sound works referenced the ongoing pandemic and its repercussions. But one that caught my attention in particular was Hye Yun Jeong’s takes her own heartbeat, pulse and breath as sonic material, interwoven with instrumentation in a series of seven light sculptures that together play as an ensemble on the floor of the exhibition space. 

I also really enjoyed Lara Geary’s piece (as seen above) which she made through a generative, “real time” interactive digital sculpture, graphite drawing and a neural network binaural / ambisonic audio work. I liked this one in particular because I think it was made with TouchDesigner, a programme which I am interested in and have practiced with.

Overall, the FESTIVE LABOUR show was a good experience and I would highly recommend it.

Koyaniqaatsi is a movie released in 1982, by artist Godfrey Regio.

It follows a poetic narrative. No dialague, just Phillip’s Glass beautiful score. I watched this movie more than a year ago and quickly became one of my favourites. Here are some notes I took from the first time I watched it.

Couple of months ago, I had the privilege of watching the London Philharmonia, perform the score in the Royal Festival Hall.

Unfortunately the flier mentioned that the movie was going to be played in a projector behind the orchestra, which didn’t happen.

Still an amazing experience.

Tuesday 9 November, Cafe OTO, I had the amazing pleasure to experience one of my favourite musicians perform live.

Pan-American (Mark Nelson) is an American electronic musician. He is known for his soft and intricate guitar playing, beautifully layered with synthesisers and field recordings.

The show started late as per usual in Cafe OTO, I was standing in the middle of the stereo PA system, where I could see Mark with his mint blue Stat, a case of guitar pedals, a 8 channel mixing board, an iPad and a computer running stems from Ableton.

His show was intimate, the projector reflecting videos from of his home town. Videos of his children swimming, footage from highways in the US. This recordings were not necessarily in 4K, or had any complex processing to them, it felt DIY, you got to experience fragments of his live through short videos.

He started the show by playing in his iPad some Temple Run type of game, the iPad going through a delay pedal. This was a fun little idea.

Through the show he played songs from his latest LP, two of them with him singing into the microphone. The first track with vocals the microphone wasn’t coming through the speakers which was a shame but Mark didn’t stop singing even though no one could hear him.

The performance was dynamic, and luckily he played some of my favourite tracks.

The most memorable moment of the performance was the last song he performed, which was a tribute to a passing friend. It started of by him playing guitar and synth washes, by the end he got on the floor and started tweaking the pedals, making a wall of sound, or rather wall of noise, gently amplifying and modulating the sounds until the whole room was filled by it, leaving me in a state of trance for a couple minutes. Then he turned it down and ran off the stage, leaving the audience with a profound feeling of nostalgia.