Erstlaub

Quite a few bits of news from me this week.

Broadcasting on Ghost Frequencies made the man-legend that is The Village Orchestra’s end of year honours list that he was asked to put together for FACT. I don’t think it’s officially posted yet keep em peeled for that. The podcasts are also well worth a punt, great site, good content, nice outlook on things. here

Also linked in with TVO, this month’s Wire magazine features a full page feature on the man along with a couple of my photo’s of him making this my first international published photo credit. Yayy.

Still dragging it’s phantom self around, a nice little review of Ghost Frequencies arose today on Sonomu courtesy of Steven Fruitman.

“This excellent work was inspired by a bit of quackery known as the ”Ganzfeld Procedure” in the field of parapsychology. A subject is blindfolded and equipped with a pair of headphones playing nothing but white and pink noise – static. Out of this aural assault, it is hoped the subject will discern patterns, maybe even hear voices. Maybe even real voices from the past.

More than science, it sounds like a relative to Victorian fancies like fairy photography or Edison´s attempts to hear the voices of the dead via the radio, optimistic hopes that new technology might reveal previously hidden worlds, or at least reveal the otherwise hidden beings that share ours with us.

As music, however, Broadcasting on Ghost Frequencies sits four-square in the contempary field of drone music, which for all its different forms also wishes to put the listener in a contemplative mood, from which he or she will often hear things that are not really there. Or are, but very subtly so.

Erstlaub´s fifty-minute piece appears to be playing the role of the input – the static barrage – and the output - the shapes and colours the mind suggests might appear out of the the flat, prickly monotony. Because he certainly shows an intervening hand by creating sound events which rise and fade away, or are consumed by the greater drone, with regularlity.

In fact Dave Fyans of Perth, Scotland, the man behind the attractive monicker (”first leaves”), proves a very talented composer in a field where patience and taste, knowing just when to change the pitch, send in a reverberating spiral, or add a new thread to the weave of the main drone, is the mark of an artist.

It is really quite beautiful, balancing between both stark and lush in some inexplicable - paranormal? - manner.

http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com” from here.

Finally, I am pleased to be able to announce that I will be breaking cover for a rare live performance on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at the Bowery in Edinburgh as part of the very interesting looking Hidden Door Festival. They are in the process of updating their site so I’ll post more details and times as they are solidified. I will be playing an entirely new set (which I’m also in the process of making visuals for) which at the moment may or may not be floating around in my head with the title of “Sleepwalking into the Underworld” but I can’t be sure yet.

Have a nice holiday season or whatever,

D

Here are a few pics of my installation piece in situ, they don’t really do the piece proper justice but you can get the general idea.

The rest is here, the audio is available via the post below.

D

Just a little summer update for you I guess. I initially came by to tell you that I’m not going to be up to much and ended up decided to just give you a free EP.

Musically I’m putting things on a back burner for a little while, not for any determinate length of time or particular reason. I’ve got a few concepts brewing for future titles so I want to let them expand under their own weight until the time feels right to conceive and realise them.

In the meantime, I put together the In Darkened Corners EP clocking in at 15.57 made up of 2 separate tracks. These may or may not appear in other (or similar) forms in future but in the meantime, just enjoy them for what they are, upbeat summer dancefloor tunes (no stupid, of course they aren’t).

Click on the image to go to the download page.

Yes it’s in ghettostyle 128kbps, if you want a bigger version to play out or whatever ask me and I might have one lying around somewhere. If you want to show some love, you can still pick up a copy of Ghost Frequencies from Moving Furniture.

In other areas, I’ve been embarking upon a series of adventures, exploring the old, abandoned, derelict and forgotten. So far this has taken in Railways Tunnels, Castles, Bunkers and Hospitals. I’ll post a few samples below but there are full sets for each over at my Flickr stream. I think you need to be a contact to see the full size versions of things so drop me a message if you want me to add you.

I would like to point out that my explorations of these sites are conducted in the most respectful of manners and out of an interest in their historical, cultural, archeological and psychogeographical properties.  I take available opportunities with access and never create them, I never lay a finger on any items that I come across. The general rule here is “take only photo’s, leave only footprints” which is a pretty sound philosophy.

In terms of other input, it’s been a while since I did one of these lists so I won’t go into huge detail but I’ve been reading Sculpting in Time where Tarkovsky talks in depth about his art. I’ve also been reading Infinite Crisis and Countdown to Final Crisis from DC whose large story arcs and immense characterisations I’m just finding a deep thirst for.

Visually I’ve managed to watch a huge amount of films over the summer, including rewatches of Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, Finally getting around to seeing Rashomon, Waking Life, Man on Wire, The Joy Division Documentary, The Wave, Catch 22 and MASH, The Fall, and W to name the handful that spring to mind. More recently, I had the utter pleasure of seeing Godard’s Alphaville  on the big scree at the DCA in Dundee which I adored and also (vis BBC iPlayer of all places) The Bothersome Man which was fantastic, it came across like a very black satire of an Ikea catalogue, worth seeking out for sure.

I think I’ve rambled on enough, keep an eye on my flickr, I’m posting new sets all the time. I start at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee early September doing my degree in Time Based Art and Digital Film which I’m looking forward to hugely (but kinda nervous about being the weird old guy in my year, ah well, c’est la vie).

I should also say Happy Birthday to the ridiculous amount of people who had their birthdays recently including my sister, Louise and Moving Furniture’s Sietse/Orphax.

Until next time,

D