No Islands | Droplets

Two new releases on the Another Timbre label as part of the Silence and After series will be available this July.

The first is called Droplets , Dominic Lash, Sarah Hughes, and myself, consisting of an Improvisation and realisations of scores by Eva-Maria Houben and Taylan Sussam.


The second is called No Islands, Stephen Cornford, Kostis Kilymis, Sarah Hughes, and myself, consisting of a realisation of John Cage's Four6 and two improvisations.



These wonderful artists will also be released in the same series:
Tierce. Jez riley French, Daniel Jones, Ivan Palackẏ.
Divisions that may be autonomous but that comprise the whole. Performed by James Saunders, Tim Parkinson, Angharad Davies, Philip Thomas, Rhodri Davies, Stephen Chase, Edges Ensemble.
A Pauper’s Guide to John Cage & Early Morning Melancholia. Anett Németh.

They will be available here: Another Timbre

Photo taken By Richard Pinnell at a performance of John Cage's Music Circus in Kettles Yard, Cambridge as part of the 'Every Day is a Good day' visual art exhibition.

"Meaning Machines" - Oxfringe Festival

Members of The Set Ensemble and Oxford Improvisers will be performing a number of text based scores, including ones by James Saunders, Dominic Lash, and myself, in Oxford this coming Tuesday. Indeed. Sadly I can't be there, as I had already booked tickets to listen to Nadjorlak by Elaine Radigue, at Spitalfields in London.

More information about the Oxfrindge event can be found here:

"Meaning Machines"

doors closing. For Michael Pisaro | Manfred Werder | Dominic Lash.

As I sit on my chair, a red cushion separating, I have just got back from a short walk. It is a misty rain outside, I sat on the edge of a bench near a bridge, watching the near silent Swallows flying low over the river. I don't do this nearly enough, an imminent move to Oxford amplifying such. I have my window open, and I am listening to Morton Feldman's - for john cage. The words I am about to write up, I wrote just over a week ago in a cafe in Oxford in somewhat stream of consciousness, not stopping, not looking up, letting my tea go cold, rather stupidly. I was stretching myself over graphic scores, for various reasons. I may take this post down, I want to see how it alters my view, the knowledge that at least a few people will read it, formulating their own opinions, such an opening will always often close doors.


"The line one measures is immobile, time is mobility. The line is made, it is complete; time is what is happening, and more than that, it is what causes everything to happen. The measuring of time never deals with duration as duration; what is counted is only a certain number of extremities of intervals, or moments, in short, virtual halts in time." Henri Bergson


the potential, theory, of a unified listening. a listening where action and reaction cease. a removal of the self, a heightened self, in removal, the self is the environment, does not move, always is. inside and outside such potential listening, existing, changes, without moving. removal from the situation, incorporating others, listening points other than ones own, the introduction of unavoidable patterns. myriad choices presented. less familiarity. if performing unaccompanied one is accompanied. the development of text and sound, enfolding, filling the mind with the contents of the room, searching for solitude within the realisation. dialogues as presupposition, dialogues as present, dialogue therefore as movement. a listening of the past as influencing the performative present, a present of tangled past, quasi interaction simultaneous within oneself. the incorporation of perceived boundaries, insubstantial territories, a positive found doubled, concentration focussed on what is usually not. being, in such situation, as multiplicity. as anything but. a consilience of the preconceived and the unaware, unassuming, a coagulation of purposefully disparate ideologies. all listening, lack of hierarchy or importance, fleeting ideas to be held for as long as 'allowed'. an absence of counting, of attack, of texture, to exit as one assimilates, constantly start again, to accept failure, and ceases to exist in such terms. to forget everything, an undercurrent and overcurrent of allegory. to play at thought and experience, a lack of assumption, varying degrees of preparation, to hear one and many simultaneously. to forget the score, forget object, unification apart of intuition, unlearn at the instant of learning. to listen with ears shut. equal amounts of under and misunder standing. where does under standing cease and misunder standing begin.


we each of us share in what we hear, we all interpret what we hear, how we hear, when we hear, why we hear, differently. creating an infinite variety, a perpetual series of realisations existing in a steady state. there is no ultimate preference, there is no absolute interpretation, as soon as one explanation arises a counter is drawn in all directions. creating more dimensions, more explanations, more counters, always hearing. even in our sleep.

Bestiaries

Bestaries, a duo Double Bassist Dominic Lash, it out on the Cathnor Label, more information can be found in the Releases section of this site. Thanks so much to Richard Pinnell and Sarah Hughes.

The cinnamalogus is a bird that lives in Arabia. It builds its nest using the fruit of the cinnamon tree, which men value greatly. The men who want to cinnamon cannot climb the tree to reach the nest, because the nest is too high and the tree branches too delicate, so they throw lead balls to knock down the cinnamon. Cinnamon obtained from the nest of this bird is the most valuable of all.

The bonnacon is a beast with a head like a bull, but with horns that curl in towards each other. Because these horns are useless for defense, the bonnacon has another weapon. When pursued, the beast expels its dung which travels a great distance (as much as two acres), and burns anything it touches.

The pard has a spotted coat, and is extremely swift. It kills its prey with a single leap. The offspring of a pard and a lion is the leopard.

Sound 323 opening at Cafe Oto, London.

The encapsulation of nonchalance.

All Photos by Fergus Kelly