Beatriz Sánchez: "Paraoffelias" (video)

"Paraoffelias" (fotografia: D.R.)

"Paraoffelias" é o título de um fascinante trabalho em vídeo da autoria de Beatriz Sánchez, com música de David Dalmazzo, disponível através da videolabel Alg-a.

Trata-se de uma co-produção entre a TV3 da Catalunha e a NU2's, com a colaboracão do departamento de Cultura da Generalitat de Catalunya.

Sinopse:

«"Paraoffelias" arranca de la idea de la infeliz y enigmática Ofelia shakespeariana ahogada, tomando como referencia la iconografía humanista del Renacimiento (Bosco, Miguel Ángel y Boticcelli). Pero al final, en este vídeo no existe una sola Ofelia, sino vari@s, Parte de un rodaje realizado bajo agua donde diez personajes practican, con raros movimientos, una especie de danza. El montaje y la posproducción se encargan de componer una coreografía. La música es más bien una extraña atmósfera que sumerge más aun estas imágenes en un misterioso y oscuro ambiente».

Information report from V2 / Spread the Word

21 Million Stickers and Continued Activities Worldwide
Having just passed the 21 million sticker milestone, STW extends a very special thanks once again to our ever-constant and kind friends in Mexico City for their heroic diligence there, despite occasional frustrations with abducted packages. We also wish to acknowledge our brave ally in Bulgaria facilitating sticker distribution in Macedonia and the Balkans. To our old friend in Portugal, thank you for helping to spread the word in your language via the Internet. Anonymous resisters at the Burning Man event in Nevada made the emblem quite visible once again, for which we are extremely grateful, as attendance was near 50,000 this year. Thanks always to all our friends in the music industry worldwide. Continued gratitude to our longtime friend in Texas for ongoing distribution efforts at the local library there. And to our brethren from delusionresistance.org who were the voice of resistance at the Roswell Festival, we salute you all.

Resistance in Action
Courtesy of Eclipse Records, STW has a Street Team!

Accolades to Mail Artists and Relay for Life Team
STW would like to offer a long delayed extension of gratitude and respect to the worldwide mail-art network. Mail artists from around the globe have distributed stickers for over a decade through their own unique and creative web. We are honored to be a part of the mail-art community whose correspondences have colored the STW mailbox for many years. Our deep thanks also to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Team/Florida for their fine efforts supporting both causes this past spring. Well done everyone!

Resistance efforts in South America

Many thanks to the major record and concert production company in Bogota, Colombia, for its resistance efforts in South America. The company distributes stickers at concerts, and includes a sticker on every event ticket. Through industry magazines, this company has offered networking of resistance materials in conjunction with international band promotion. Spread the Word wishes to extend deepest gratitude to the tour manager/editor who has been behind the alien resistance movement for nearly 10 years. Muchas gracias to our loyal andcaring friend for continued and tireless dedication.

Resistance activities underway in Kosovo, formerly Yugoslavia

Kosovo is a struggling country with an average monthly salary of $30 and unemployment rate of 60%, yet still wanting participation in world issues. For security reasons, supplies were sent to a contact person in a neighboring country who was kind enough to deliver the stickers across the border to a library in Kosovo, where they will be distributed. STW extends our deep gratitude to the courageous individuals behind this effort.

Akkord I On: "ppp-fff"

Slowly Vital Weekly conquers the world - or rather the world conquers Vital Weekly. Akkord I On are from Almaty, Kazakhstan - the very first time I receive something from that part of the world, of which I know nothing (but I never go the cinema either).

The label Replica was launched during a festival of the same name, the very first (again!) in that country. Akkord I On is a duo of Roman Bliznetsov and Konstantin Timoshenko, who released an EP before and now come with "ppp-fff", which classical music phrase for "pianissimo-fortissimo" - very strong silence that is.




Timoshenko plays laptop, field recordings and electronics, while Bliznetsov plays accordion (hence the band name), small horns and objects. Just as we recently saw with the release by Zavoloko, this seems to be a new wave of artists merging music from their own country along with microsound, techno or more experimental music. Akkord I On does it mainly with techno like music. Pieces are held together with a 4/4 rhythm, over which they freely (and more experimentally) freak out with their sounds.

Not every moment succeeds well, such as "Grace" which is way too long, and muddles in dub effects, but the opening "F Birds" is very nice, with clear field recordings, melancholy on the accordion and a strong beat. Also "Shoegazetta" is quite alright (and the titles shows their humor, "L'Amourmansk" is another fine example).

This release may have needed a bit more editing, but as debut it's quite alright.

[CD-R by Replica]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photos: R.R.

Interview: Elliott Sharp

New York blues

He’s one of those who have been symbols of the avant-garde in New York, but his relation with that city has changed, because – he says – «it's not the same». The multifaceted sound artist Elliott Sharp talks to GPInformation on this subject, as well as on his work and its origins and identity.

Let's start by the present. What are your current projects? In what are you working these days?
I'm in the middle of composing a 45-minute piece, "Polymerae", for Frankfurt's Ensemble Modern, that will premiere in April with the dance company of Jacopo Godoni, and I've just completed a piece titled "Sidebands", dedicated to Karlheinz Stockhausen for the Fylkingen Festival in Stockholm in February. I've also just finished recording a set of my recent string quartets with the Sirius Quartet. There are also recently recorded improvised duos with Frances-Marie Uitti, Josef von Wissem, Scott Fields, and Saadet Turkoz.

Throughout your career, you have been developing a close relation between "conventional" instrumentation and electronics. However, in the "Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk!" project your option was to play only with a guitar. Was that a conceptual option, or did you just felt that it was the best way for interpreting Thelonious Monk?
I often play acoustic guitar at home and Monk's music is something I enjoy playing. It seemed natural to record it that way. I've done a number of fully acoustic recordings in recent years and I like the sound very much.

After the more "classical" sound of previous projects, "Hums 2 Terre" brought you back to more experimental territories. Was that intentional on any way, or was it only a part of a natural process?
I don't believe I've ever left any of my operating zones - through-composed orchestra pieces, "experimental" work, improvisations, blues, film scores, electronic and computer music. They're all parallel threads.

You have studied a wide range of academic disciplines, like for instance, ethnomusicology. What's the importance of that scientific background on your musical production? And, in the same line of thought, how does physics reflects on your work?
Everything I read or study ends up being part of the process! I do like the way mathematicians and physicists map reality to abstraction. It's very resonant with the way I compose and I like to imagine my musical processes as operating in a similar way.

Probably this is a limitative question, but - and in spite of your other influences - would you consider blues and jazz to be a kind of a "skeleton" of your musical work?
I don't know if I would put it that way. I grew up listening to and playing blues and jazz - they're as much a part of my daily life as speaking English or drinking coffee.

Who were your favourite musicians, back then?
The first jazz record that I really "heard" was John Coltrane's "Live at The Village Vanguard" – I listened to it because of his published obituary in the “NY Times” the day of his death. It whetted my curiosity and a friend's father had the record which we put on – I was blown away by it! Next for me was the Mingus record "Oh Yeah" on Atlantic - absolutely killing.
I became very excited by jazz and tried to listen to everything I could get my hands on, searching record store bargain piles (because I had no money!) and in libraries. When I became a radio DJ at Carnegie-Mellon University's WRCT during a summer session there, as a "junior scientist", when I was still in high school in 1968, I dug into the ESP records as well as lots of Ornette, Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra.
My exposure to blues started with The Yardbirds and The Stones and I soon was listening mostly to Howlin' Wolf with Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Joe Williams, Blind Willie Johnson, Otis Rush, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King.




When was the moment in which you started to get into more experimental sounds?
As soon as I began to explore music, I was into the outer limits. I was a science fiction fan growing up and I loved the soundtracks to sci-fi films (and still love), Bernard Herrman's score to "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Mysterious Island", as well as the wonderful electronic soundtrack to "Forbidden Planet" by Bebe and Louis Barron, which I first heard around 1963.
My access to the music library at WRCT allowed me to dig in deep to various composers such as Cage, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Partch, Ligeti (saw "2001:A Space Odyssey" that Summer as well with Ligeti's incredible music) and more.

Although being a multi-instrumentist, is there a special instrument for you, in terms of use and sound?
I'm most comfortable with guitars but when I have the time to keep in practice I truly love playing saxophone and clarinets.

While performing live, do you prefer to perform "prepared" works, or just improvise, taking yourself by the moment?
I like them all – it's only dependent on the desired situation.

I can't help having in mind your contribution for the "Alphabet City" album (released on the Sub Rosa United Series). In which way are you inspired by cities, in general, and New York, in particular?
New York was (and I'm using the past tense purposefully) a very inspiring place for creative work. I still love living here but it's not the same – it's about marketing and consumption, not about living out a creative fantasy and manifesting it in art.




In your online tour diary, you mentioned the fact having played in Portugal only a few weeks after 9/11. Were you in New York that day? Which are your mains memories of it?
I arrived back from Warsaw the day before. My main thoughts were anger at the people who perpetrated this horror – NOT the ones who piloted the planes but the government of George Bush and his cohorts in the corporate oligarchy. If not actually ordering the attack, their policies created the conditions. There's too much to go into here!

After these years, what's your vision on what was changed in the city, both from the social and artistic points of view?
This city is controlled by real estate forces. Its character has changed and there's not much we can do about it in terms of keeping it vital as a creative place – cities change and the creative force moves to other locales.

Talking of New York, do you feel close to the Radical Jewish Culture, promoted by John Zorn?
Not at all. "Jewish culture" had almost always been radical, but this particular movement is very Zionistic and reactionary. I presented my piece "Intifada" at the first Radical Jewish Culture festival in NYC, at the Knitting Factory, and I was booed and shouted down when I gave a preamble to the concert saying that Judaism, whether cultural or religious, is not necessarily the same as Zionism and that as the son of a Holocaust survivor, I find the Israeli oppression of the rightful and long-time inhabitants of the area known as Palestine to be shameful and abhorrent. I greatly dislike religion and nationalism - the source of much human suffering!

Artists like Zorn himself or Z'ev have inspired some of their works on the Jewish heritage. Did you ever have a similar approach?
Just as all of my work is informed by my interest in the sciences and acoustics, all of my work is informed by my Jewish heritage. I just don't wear it on my sleeve!

Nuno Loureiro
(Interview + photos)


This interview is also available at the Clean Feed and Trem Azul blogs.

Iris Ollschewski: "Sound-Destillation"

Destillaat is a yearly exhibition of young artists at Extrapool, taking the form of video, installation, painting, printing and in some cases music. To distill the new talent from the various art schools in The Netherlands.

One of this year' s participants was German's Iris Ollschewski, who asked a whole bunch of people that at one point or another played at Extrapool to send in some sounds from which she would distill a composition that was played on four speakers in a small room. Thirteen people responded positively and Iris composed a six minute piece out of that. It's hard to believe that it comes from such diverse sources, even when Iris applies collage like methods to create the piece. The various sources flow quite naturally into eachother and form a coherent music composition of little over six minutes, also when "reduced" to a stereo mix.

Comes with a nice cover and limited to a few handful copies. Completists for the works of say Roel Meelkop, Harald Sack Ziegler or Machinefabriek should pay notice!

"SoundBodies, oder wohin führt ein Kreis?"
(turntable installation by Iris Ollschewski)

[3"CD-R, private release]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photo: R.R.

Vaimous: "Box"

The man behind Vaimous is one Johan Sandsjö, who still uses software he downloaded to his 486 computer in 1998, when the Swedish government started a program of bringing PCs to their civilians.

The pieces on this CD were recorded over a long period, from 2003-2006, and they were recorded to be played live. Thirteen relatively short electro pop tracks are to be found here: stomping rhythm box, fat bass and vocoder vocals. Maybe it lacks some variation here and there, but throughout it's a very pleasant listening. I was reminded of good Suction Records releases (whatever happened there?) and releases of Swedish Slowball label - which also seems very old by now.

But that doesn't mean that this sounds old or worn out, Vaimous brings quirky uptempo electro-pop punk and it's great. A small strip of sunlight on a rainy day.

[CD by Empop]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photo: R.R

jliat: "now thats what i call noise" vol. 10

«Oh yes - i do. In the past whether and whatever i did i always had to push onto something new - even the drones in the end became from the point of making them less and less interesting / exciting. I remember feeling sick that this happened and envious of painters like Pollock who could continue the same kind of thing for many works over a period. But with the noise works this just hasn't happened!

So i've been making these short tracks for soon a year and have recorded already up to volume 20. When time allows i want to make many more and create a virtual Mall online of downloads. Maybe an animated shopping Mall where all the shops stock jliat noise... so just as the 3.59 tracks parody the pop single i can parody the present consumerism...»

Note: This collection is already on its 12th volume.

[CD-R by jliat]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photo: R.R.

Novidades Alg-a

D.R.

"aliaXe", de Xe, é um dos mais recentes lançamentos da netlabel Alg-a. Este projecto, «que disolve os anteriores plumbandplumber e uveaele», apresenta «un conxunto de "accións percusivas" nos elementos da batería (caixa, charles, timbáis), coa axuda de diversos obxetos (de forma non ortodoxa e en baixa calidade), para mais tarde mesturar, transformar e descontextualizar os sons resultantes das accións, con procesos electroacústicos e dixitáis. Un total de dez micro-composicións deseñadas tanto para a escoita con auriculares, coma para levalos de ton no móbil».

Entretanto, também disponível no site da Alg-a está o (muito interessante) vídeo "irration4l", de MARULA, uma artista visual galega que trabalha sobretudo no campo do video jockey.

D.R.

Senses - Ciclo de Música Electrónica e Multimédia

Mika Vainio (fotografia: D.R.)

Depois do óptimo cartão de visita que foi a actuação de Tim Hecker, em Outubro do ano passado, o ciclo Senses, dedicado à música electrónica e ao multimédia, volta ao palco do Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente (TAGV), em Coimbra.

E o início não poderia ser melhor, com a apresentação ao vivo, no próximo dia 24 de Janeiro, de Mika Vainio, uma das "caras-metade" do projecto finlandês Pan Sonic. O ciclo segue em Fevereiro, nomeadamente no dia 28, com os alemães Rechenzentrum. Para Abril, está já confirmada a presença de Colleen.

Rechenzentrum
(fotografia: Martin Eberle)

Recorde-se que, em 2007, esta iniciativa contou com a presença de nomes como People Like Us, Murcof, ISAN, Vítor Joaquim ou FM3, entre outros.

Senses é uma organização do TAGV, com programação de Afonso Macedo.

Colleen (fotografia: D.R.)

Alfredo Costa Monteiro: "Allotropie"

Despite my name, my French is not what it could have been if I paid more attention in school, but if I understand correctly from the short liner notes of this release, the music was made for an installation made in Barcelona, using sounds from 100 different kinds of paper and there is no use of electronics.

Monteiro is one half of Cremaster, as well as many other improvisation musics. The twenty minute piece is an interesting one, especially if we are indeed to believe that it's the paper who does the talking. I am not entirely sure how these sounds are generated (microphone recording? contact microphones? tearing? rubbing? cutting?), but it's very hard to believe that this just the sound of paper. It seems like an onkyo recording of a saxophone, but in a multi-layered fashion. The collage like approach works quite well here. Part noise, totally culled from improvisations.

Very nice release.

[CD-R by Bourbaki Records]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photo: Bourbaki Records

GPInformation wishes you a...

Photo: R.R.




... Happy 2008!!!

OPINIÃO: Novos ares para a Europa?

«Os habitantes das cidades são, pelo menos no que se refere ao nível de financiamento da UE, cidadãos de segunda classe da União Europeia». Esta consideração, veiculada no ano passado pelo eurodeputado húngaro Gyula Hegyi – relator da Comissão do Ambiente, da Saúde Pública e da Segurança Alimentar do Parlamento Europeu – refere-se a uma das questões de discussão mais urgente no âmbito do espectro político e da própria cidadania, até pelas suas implicações.

A verdade é que viver e trabalhar numa cidade é e continuará, se não forem tomadas medidas, a ser sinónimo de falta de qualidade de vida para o comum dos cidadãos. Os dados são inquietantes: segundo dados comunitários, na Europa dos nossos dias 360 mil pessoas morrem devido à poluição atmosférica. Se forem levados em conta factores como o tráfego automóvel excessivo, a escassez de espaços verdes ou o (ainda) insuficiente tratamento dos resíduos sólidos urbanos, então estes números são tudo menos de estranhar.

É de sublinhar o desafio lançado então por Hegvyi à Comissão Europeia (CE), ao propor que esta estabelecesse medidas como planos de gestão urbana sustentável, quotas de espaços verdes per capita nas cidades, promoção de transportes pouco poluentes e não-motorizados ou a introdução de taxas de congestionamento e de zonas de baixas emissões nas cidades com elevada poluição atmosférica. Para tal - convenha-se -, é também indispensável repensar o espaço urbano.




No que concerne à dimensão político-institucional do problema, esta discussão teve recentemente um desenvolvimento encorajador, com a CE a aprovar um conjunto de objectivos para a melhoria da qualidade do ar e contra a poluição atmosférica, com o intuito de aprovar uma directiva única (mais informação aqui). Algo que, ainda longe de concretizar a ambição (utópica?) de Gyula Hegyi, é importante, uma vez que muitos Estados-membros (Portugal incluído) não cumprem sequer os valores-limite previstos na legislação em vigor.

No entanto, apenas isto não chega. A inquietante constatação de que as metas lançadas em Quioto e reforçadas em Bali são ainda uma miragem leva a concluir que chegou a altura de poupar nas palavras de circunstância, tornando prioritário o investimento em medidas imediatas que conduzam, já numa perspectiva alargada às mais variadas dimensões, a um espaço europeu efectivamente ecológico, onde Ambiente, Tecnologia, Ciência e – porque não? – Economia sejam não apenas compatíveis mas verdadeiramente complementares.

Doa a quem doer, e com alguma atenção a quem sempre desprezou a ecologia e agora ostenta um discurso "verde", devidamente enquadrado em políticas de responsabilidade social e ambiental, enquanto sinónimo de votos e receitas.

Nuno Loureiro
Fotografias: D.R.

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz: "Codpaste" podcast series

"Codpaste" is a free weekly podcast series presented to you by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, who teamed up and, according to them, are trying to «compose collage music for you... with emphasis on the word "trying"».

So, they say that «it's reasonably rare that music is broadcast to you when it's not all finished, polished and dusted, but we're going to spew out the guts and gore to you, dear listener, so do bring a spoon».

Supported by Arts Council England and WFMU, this project presents audio sources, sketches, mixes and collages combining track elements with added instrumentation, electronics, vocals, etc., as well as fragments, layers, and multitracks of the collage compositions. Elements that are «tied together by snippets of light-hearted, tangential conversations and introductions and occasional mental overload and verbal meltdown».

"Codpaste" list:

Episode 1 - 3rd December 2007 - Cartoon Music

Episode 2 - 10th December 2007 - The Chase

Episode 3 - 17th December 2007 - Hooked On Classics

Episode 4 - 24th December 2007 - ThEdit


GPInformation
Photo: R.R.

Entrevista: Ikue Mori

Recentemente, e no âmbito do festival Número Projecta '07, Ikue Mori visitou mais uma vez o nosso país e, desta vez, para um concerto diferente - três composições para três filmes mudos da cineasta Maya Deren. O ClubOtaku e o GPInformation tiveram o prazer de entrevistar um dos nomes mais importantes do panorama musical experimental e avantgarde do país do Sol Nascente.

Começou a carreira artística como baterista. Ainda toca?
Não toco bateria há mais de 15 anos e não tenho tido interesse em voltar a tocar, mas nunca se sabe o que poderá acontecer no futuro.

Para além dos detalhes técnicos, quais são as diferenças principais que pensa que existe entre tocar bateria e usar "máquinas"?
Em qualquer dos casos somos nós que as controlamos e, apesar das diferenças físicas óbvias, não existe qualquer tipo de forma de tocar com outros músicos/artistas.

Falando de "máquinas". Qual a sua caixa de ritmos favorita?
Desde há bastante tempo que uso uma Alesis drum machine. Usei também HR A, HR B e SR em simultâneo.

Tenko Eno, Zeena Parkins, John Zorn e Fred Frith são alguns dos nomes com quem já trabalhou ao longo desta longa carreira. Para si, quais são os factores mais importantes para que consiga trabalhar com outros artistas? Estamos aqui a falar de empatia artística?
Sempre que possível gosto de trabalhar com os amigos. Para mim, é muito mais importante a empatia e a comunicação artistica do que as questões técnicas.

Neste momento, está a trabalhar com alguém? Pode avançar alguns detalhes sobre os seus projectos recentes e futuros?
Tenho andado a desenvolver imagens para serem utilizadas em vídeo aliadas a sons. Editei o primeiro DVD pela Tzadik. Realizei uma animação para umas pinturas antigas do Bali que conta a história de uma viagem do inferno para o paraíso.
Na música, terminei o segundo álbum do projecto Phantom Orchard, com a Zeena Parkins, e o meu outro projecto Mephista, com Sylvie Courboisier (piano) e Susie Ibarra (drums), regressou da terceira tourneé europeia. Ainda tenho os meus dois concertos para Março de 2008 na Japan Society.

De que forma pensa que viver entre os EUA e o Japão se reflecte no seu trabalho artistico?
É bom que existam estas distâncias para termos uma visão diferente das coisas.

Neste concerto tocou três composições para filmes mudos. Escolheu-os ou foi convidada para fazer a banda sonora para eles?
Originalmente este espectáculo foi comissariado pela Tate Modern (London). Lisboa ouviu falar deste projecto e convidou-me.

Mudando de assunto, alguma vez pensou em editar numa netlabel? Que opinião tem sobre as netlabels e qual pensa que será o seu futuro?
Neste momento não tenho nenhum interesse em editar em netlabels...

O que pensa de Portugal?
Já estive em Portugal bastante vezes e gosto muito do país.


Fernando Ferreira e Nuno Loureiro
Fotografias: D.R.


Entrevista também disponível no Niji Zine/ClubOtaku

Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg: "O Du Frohliche/O Tannenbaum Dub"

And of course, the days are short, the nights are long and we must celebrate the birth of our saviour again.

Christmas was no friend of mine. But there is one little bit of light in the dark days of Christmas: Meeuw Muzak releases another fine 7". By now I can spend at least half boxing day listening to the crazy Christmas tunes of Meeuw. The latest addition is by Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg who has released some even more crazy music on his own Walter Ulbricht label and Die Stadt, with partly reading of texts and partly electronic music.

Here he offers two soft electronic music pieces, which are like snowflakes (of course it never snows in Dutch Christmas times). Almost kitchy and new age like on a super cheesy keyboard with all the wrong (and thus right) preset sounds, Ditterich is perhaps that great family man that such tunes under his Tannenbaum for a wealth of happy children, who start unwrapping their presents as daddy finishes his tunes.

Great stuff, once again. I can't wait for Christmas with my Meeuw Muzak collection (isn't about time for a nice CD compilation, mister Meeuw).

[7" by Meeuw Muzak]

Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly
Photo: Meeuw Muzak

De Fabriek goes the Hitmachine : “Het Terrein II”

If this is “Het Terrein II”, there must be a “Terrein I”, which I found in some blog (433.rpm.blogspot.com) being a cassette from the late 80’s by De Fabriek and Hands Minimal Arts. I have no idea why this title is now dusted off and used again, unless the process behind this is the same as the one before, but information is something that not well spends on De Fabriek, unlike their many releases.

After some thirty years it's hard to make any sort of discography by this Dutch “band” (?), let alone tell if they have anything to do with releases that carry the name De Fabriek. Confusing? Yes, sir, it is. Information on “Het Terrein II”? I'm sorry, sir, no such luck. “De Fabriek Goes The Hitmachine” is all it says, besides the label information.

There is however one track on the CD and not two. In a good solid forty minute mega mix (to use that 80’s phrase) we, the listener are taken for a ride through both music by De Fabriek and The Hitmachine, my local groupe extraordinary, who are like De Fabriek: always in for surprise. Who does what or when, who sat behind the controls when producing this, it's all quite unclear. I recognized elements of De Fabriek's “Neveleiland” release, the live rock elements no doubt come from The Hitmachine (as De Fabriek never plays live), but throughout it's hard to know what is the outsider rock/noise/pop of The Hitmachine, or the experiment/industrial/techno noise of De Fabriek.

It's like two chameleons in a room, changing colour, shape and size every time you look up. It's probably as much as a De Fabriek and The Hitmachine release. It even has a cover that strongly resembles a lot De Fabriek did – go figure that one yourself. And as per usual: limited to merely 300 copies only. Another pre-programmed collectors item.

[CD by EE Tapes]

Frans de Ward / Vital Weekly

Photo: R.R.

In memoriam: Karlheinz Stockhausen

1928 - 2007

Fotografias: D.R.

Portefólio: Portraits of "A Longer Journey"

["A Longer Journey", Instalação de Pedro Cabrita Reis, Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra]

Fotografias: Nuno Loureiro (2003)

Projecto: Camera 312 – Promemoria per Pierre

Pierre Restany, o fundador do Novo Realismo, foi um carismático crítico e livre-pensador que influenciou as ideias e o mundo da arte contemporânea.

Durante 30 anos, viveu no Hotel Manzoni, em Milão, no histórico quarto 312. Foi precisamente a decoração deste quarto que foi recriado na exposição/instalação colectiva “Floating Yellow Post-It ®”, o elemento basilar do projecto “Camera 312 – Promemoria per Pierre”, promovido entre Junho e Novembro passados pelo Milan Art Center, com coordenação do artista plástico italiano Ruggero Maggi, no âmbito da 52ª Bienal de Veneza.

Inaugurada por uma performance assente na interacção performer/música/vídeo, “Floating Yellow Post-It ®” – que procurava captar a atmosfera intimista do quarto 312, em todos os seus elementos –, era totalmente preenchida pelo tom amarelo, presente nas paredes, na mobília, no espaço envolvente do público. A intenção – frisa Ruggero Maggi – era providenciar a cada um dos artistas convidados uma forma «directa, colorida e fluxus» de deixar o seu próprio testemunho poético.

Fotografias: Cassaglia & Cerisola

Sobre a origem do projecto “Camera 312 – Promemoria per Pierre”, fica a explicação (pessoal e sentida) do seu mentor:

«The night I was told that Pierre Restany had passed away, I was suddenly and violently moved. I knew he was seriously ill, but his recent letters revealed confidence and hope. When I first met him, in the middle of the seventies, in Milan at Hotel Manzoni, I told him about my travel in the Peruvian Amazon. The world Amazon was the key word that immediately put us into a spiritual contact: he loved a lot that forest as well, and he deeply knew that world.

Since then we met many times and always our love for Nature came out. He was deeply fascinated by the eternal mystery of Nature, even if, in the years, he could perceive is most comprehensive essence only from the airplane, as he ironically used to point out in his letters. (…) After his death I thought I could honour him with this project, which is not only dedicated to him, it is centred around him».

Fotografia: Giorgio Pahor

John Chirstopher Shillock: “Invisible Jazz”

Christopher Shillock is called the underground poet laureate of downtown Minneapolis. He has a BA in Spanish and a MA in philosophy. During the 1980’s he was active with various Communist and Anarchist groups in the Twin Cities.In 2003 Shillock received a Verve grant from SASE and the Jerome Foundation for hispoetry/video book "An Invitation to the Terrorists Ball".

Now that we know this, what about "Invisible Jazz"? It is a collection of poems by Shillock that areinspired on ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Paris, baseball, etc. Tabatha Predovich composed the songs, and both sing and perform the poems.

I can't judge on the poems, but the compositions are very conventional and without any originality. This means boring and completely outdated. They sound as middle of the road 70's pop music. I asked myself how on Earth it is possible that today this kind of music that sounds as if it is directly transplanted from the 70's is played by musicians in 2006. Strange for an anarchist to do so, if you ask me. Of course they merely serve as a vehicle for the poems and most of the poems deal with even more ancient times.

In that sense a coherent project.

Christopher Shillock

[Book & CD by Musical Comedy Editions]

Dolf Mulder / Vital Weekly

Photo + image: R.R.