So, that Jennie Dennet of Radio Cumbria says they're having a big gathering of local musicians on saturday morning at Dowdales school in Dalton, with the idea of introducing or re-introducing people to instruments and the social side of music making, and would we like to come along with some sound sources and do our thing live on the wireless?
So, here's the interview with Octopode Andrew Deakin, ( above right) and me,
https://soundcloud.com/johnny-octopus/rdaio-cumbria-bandstand
and a snatch of me playing Swan Lake on squishy hacked transistor radio with the Dalton Band.
https://soundcloud.com/johnny-octopus/octopus-on-radio-cumbria
A short story for FON AIR's seasonal broadcast, featuring Glenn Boulter on live Breadboard Lutes with me reading and on fx from Octopus's studio at Piel View in Barrow.
The video is largely unedited, here too is the edited audio version, with added sound, for broadcast . (it's shorter..less pauses.)
https://soundcloud.com/the-cardboard-lung/po-box-25-stroke-4-lid-new
Merry Christmas.
A live radio performance devised and led by Mark Vernon and featuring members of the Octopus Hack lab including me, Fiona Ogilvie and Steve Povey ( below). Broadcast live on Fon Air from our hq at PVH in Barrow Park.
Marks notes read: "A group performance for paper cones, turntables, contact mics and sound effects records. Ideally up to 4 performers with 4 turntables and up to 12 mics with stands. Using rolled up paper cones and sewing needles or scalpel blades as a stylus the performers play the records attempting to play each record simultaneously from as may different points as they can. The mechanism of the turntables is also miked up using contact mics. Each performer is in control of their own mix. Gradually they build up a live soundscape from dead recordings of locations and events that were captured and imprinted on vinyl decades ago.
This version is a post-considered edit that blends a number of advance rehearsals and experiments with a live performance of the piece by the Piel View Hackers Group."
https://archive.org/details/PaperConeMusic
Ingredients: wood, plastic rulers, drawing pins, pie case, tinfoil pie case, tinfoil, Slim Whitman lp cover.
A Sketch for Field Trip 2. Video and wild track recorded in and around the River Rother, Tupton, Derbyshire. Music recorded outdoors in Ulverston, Cumbria. The video is pretty compressed so best watched small-screen.
December 2011. A composition for four radios and 4 players. Narrative read by Bob Dickinson at BBC Manchester (the last session before they levelled the place). The music came through 4 small practice amps and the narrative was broadcast through 4 transistor radios set around the studio upstairs at Lanternhouse, Ulverston. The quality of the sound was affected by the positioning and movement of the audience, reflecting the key themes of the piece. The recording was made on a Zoom, and through the in-camera mic, rather than through a desk in order to include these variations.
