I'm an award-winning composer, engineer and historian of technology. I present talks, make radio shows and perform live with Spacedog - my band of humans, theremins and uncanny robots.
Musicians play live with decrepit dolls, theremins and robots in this eerie entertainment, exploring our fears of the almost human – from golems to ventriloquists’ dummies.
Hot from their sell-out run on the Brighton Festival Fringe, dreamlike musical and mechanical inventors Spacedog join forces with gentleman rapper Professor Elemental, known for his YouTube sensation Cup of Brown Joy, a paean to the pleasures of drinking tea.
Death ballads, unsettling live robotics and tales of the professor’s extreme taxidermy experiments, in a night of music for the curious.
“One of the most inventive acts playing at the moment”, Melita Dennett
“Eerie, evocative and hilarious – tremendous fun”, Roger Highfield.
“A stand-out moment of psychedelic neo-Victorian rap genius”, Monkey Boxing magazine.
Ghosts and machines, as they were imagined in the early 1920s, when Lankins slid under window panes and families soothed their babies with Amperes from the first electric servants.
Musical and mechanical experimentalists Spacedog will be playing a selection of death ballads, darkest folk songs and twisted takes on the European song book. Live theremin, vocals, robotic dolls, waterphone, saw and assorted home-spun electromechanical oddities. With spellbinding visuals from Roger Spy and Dennis Da Silva. This event is an ArtHertz collaboration for the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.
The show will include a live performance from two of Sarah’s creations: dolly therematrix Clara 2.0 and the Ealing Feeder, a 1920s-style robotic carillon, first seen at the Kinetica 2010 Art Fair.
At the Apple Store, Regent Street, London
5pm 23 July
Admission free but booking essential. Book here
At this event, you can also hear more about the Electricity and Ghosts project, staged by ArtHertz and focusing on Battersea Power Station. Coming soon to a large, decommissioned turbine hall near you!
Lady with her serinette, Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin
Can an archaic bird training manual - published two centuries ago - shed light on a mystery of avian intelligence which puzzles biologists today?
I think it might do – and I’ll be explaining all in a 15-minute talk at Dr Bramwell’s Catalyst Club, Thursday 8 July. Expect some evolutionary biology and live 18th-century music, wrapped up with some Easy Listening and contemporary neuroscience in this evening for the curious.
Hosted by Dr David Bramwell, creator of the No 9 Bus to Utopia and the Haunted Moustache, the Catalyst Club is a monthly Brighton event that pays tribute to the old traditions of French Salon, debating societies and Gentleman’s Clubs.
Venue
Latest Seven Bar, Brighton
14-17 Manchester St
Brighton
BN2 1TF
Doors open 8pm late bar every night
Tickets £5 on the door
No riff raff
Juice for the Baby, Spacedog's debut album, is here! I'm ducking out of the Kinetica Art Faire this year but am huddled indoors, writing, sleuthing (investigating a recording in the archives) and devising a new biologically-inspired musical instrument - all will be revealed soon.
News: December 2011
Juice for the Baby, Spacedog's debut album, launches in mid-December. Join us for the launch gigs at the Marlborough, Brighton, on 9 December and the Horse Hospital, London, on 14 December.
News: November 2011
A busy month writing and editing the forthcoming Spacedog album - stay tuned for news.
News: October 2011
I'm focusing on my writing this month (so am quite the hermit) but I'm squeezing in the occasional live performance here and there.
I'm looking forward to working with Helen Keen in her Spacetacular on 20th. I'm writing a code-based work for the new label Chordpunch and some owlish music for that fine wordsmith Professor Elemental.
Spacedog are booked into the studio at the end of the month to complete work on our album.
News: September 2011
A busy month writing, preparing a get-together of maker musicians for the Brighton Maker Faire After-show party. I've also been electrifying a teapot for the Chi-Tek - an exhibition by MzTek of female tech artists at the V&A. And with my fellow Spacedog Stephen Hisock, I made an appearance on the 10th Anniversary edition of BBC Click.
News: August 2011
The Spacedog song For Laika is now available on iTunes (and the album is on its way). Meanwhile, we've been busy preparing our set for Green Man, including the first outing of our torch song for Tommy Cooper.
I'm procrastinating over a teapot which I'm going to electrify for a MzTek event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September.
I took a short trip to a very rainy Edinburgh Fringe where I played at an event for Edinburgh Skeptics in the Royal Observatory and made some plans for a Spacedog show next summer.
Apart from that, I've been busy writing. More news on that shortly, I hope...
News: July 2011
I'm interviewed by Leila Johnston in this month's Wired UK magazine and will be appearing with my fellow Spacedogs at a Wired: The Future of Music on 20 July.
I've rounded up a bumper crop of links and soundclips for my BBC Radio 4 doc The Bird Fancyer's Delight, which is broadcast on 5 and 9 July and is also available on Listen Again. Thanks for all your cheery emails about the doc, to ProjectMoonbase for mentioning it in their podcast PMB038 and for the many national papers who gave the documentary such lovely reviews - I'm glad people enjoyed it! On Sunday 10 July, the doc was featured on Graham Seed's Pick of the Week (Radio 4). A good week!
My latest collaboration with Richard Wiseman is a free and fun magic trick for your iPhone. It's called Paranormality and it's been put together for the launch of his book by the same name in the US. Thanks to Phillis on Derrren Brown's blog for giving the app a mention - thousands of people have now downloaded it and are busy bamboozling their friends.
News: June 2011
Playing theremin for Louise Colborne's homage to Loie Fuller (pioneering cybernetic dancer c1900) and composing sounds for Sonus, an homage to the analogue age with Spacedog, ArtHertz, Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and Ridley Scott Associates. Discovering how easy (or difficult) it is to publicise events in 2011 without Twitter - will report back!
Getting ready for BEAM - a brand new festival of electronics and music at Brunel University (24-26 June). I'll be speaking, running a workshop on optical flow and performing live with my fellow Spacedogs. I'll also be playing a short theremin set at the Speaky Spokey, a new arts salon in Brighton (Wed 22 June).
Putting the finishing touches to a sonic-themed BBC Radio 4 documentary, with producer Neil McCarthy, due for transmission on 5 July 2011.
Presenting a workshop for Hack Circus at Interesting, in the Conway Hall, London, 18 June, and performing theremin at a family day at the Science Museum, 19 June.
Hot from their sell-out run on the Brighton Festival Fringe, dreamlike musical and mechanical inventors Spacedog join forces with gentleman rapper Professor Elemental, known for his YouTube sensation Cup of Brown Joy, a paean to the pleasures of drinking tea.
