Spacedog are packing our bags for the Green Man Festival this weekend (19 – 21 August in the Brecon Beacons). And we’ll be adding a new number to our set: a torch song for flawed genius Tommy Cooper. Here’s a sneak preview of the lyrics before the song has its first public outing on the Solar Stage of Einstein’s Garden, Friday 19 April:
Just before I released the Spacedog song For Laika on iTunes and Amazon, the writer James Burt showed me this wonderful set of comic strips, depicting alternative, happy endings for the dog. They’ve been drawn by Nick Abadzis, creator of the graphic novel, Laika, which tells the story of the dog and her fate.
Phantom Circuit had already sent me the first strip, where you see Laika eject from Sputnik II and parachute into the hands of her trainer. Other endings involving alien intelligences and canine superpowers. The happy endings were sponsored by Big Planet Comics in Washington DC who are celebrating their 25th birthday – you can also see them all on the Bleeding Cool website.
Thanks so much to everyone at Wired UK for putting me in this month’s magazine. The article was penned by the marvellous Leila Johnston (aka Final Bullet), author, blogger, comedy writer, editor of Hackers! newspaper.
The accompanying photo, which has a lovely whiff of the music hall, is by Leon Csernohlavek. It shows Spacedog robots Hugo, Edgar Allan (crow) and Clara 2.0, along with the Ealing Feeder (my robotic carillon) and yours truly, trying to look haughty while playing the saw – never easy. It’s a miracle of digital manipulation. I don’t usually look this posh, nor does my 1950s frock which I ripped while loading my theremin into a cab the night before the shoot.
This Radio 4 documentary aired at 1:30pm on 5 July 2011. It’s repeated at 3:30pm on Saturday 9 July.
Now available on the BBC iPlayer.
For those of you who would like to know more about The Bird Fancyer’s Delight, here’s a bumper crop of references I’ve found over the last few months, including transcripts from the British Library, music excerpts, photographs of a serinette and details of contributors to the show. I hope you find them interesting.
Loie Fuller, c1902
Dancer Louise Colborne is reimagining the famous butterfly dance of Loie Fuller in a new film to be screened at this year’s Latitude Festival. Dancer at the Folies Bergère at the turn of the twentieth century, Fuller was a pioneer of multimedia performance. She projected coloured lights and images onto her voluminous, silk dress and used sticks inside her sleeves to extend the apparent length of her arms, creating an other-worldly, butterfly-like augmented human form.
Last week Louise and I met at the Speaky Spokey, a brilliant new spoken word event in Brighton. When Louise saw me play a short theremin set at the end of the night, she was struck by the resonances between the movements of a thereminist and those of early cybernetic dancers such as Fuller. So today, Louise recorded me playing the theremin. She’ll weave sound and video of my performance into her film of the reimagined butterfly dance – you can catch it at one of the short film nights at Latitude this year. Judging by the still below, showing Louise in action, the result should be compelling and eerie. I very much hope to make it to Latitude myself in 2012.
Sonus (still from video shoot)
Spacedog are thrilled to be participating in Sonus, an homage to the analogue age and incandescent light for the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival. Filmed in a secret location in Chelsea, this short film was devised by Arthertz and filmed by Ridley Scott Associates. It explores many of our shared obsessions with early analogue technology.
Here is a preliminary still from the film shoot, showing Spacedog vocalist Jenny Angliss as the medium, channelling ‘the other side’ through radio static, aided by her incandescent light. I’ll be providing some incidental music, composed of theremin, radio static and bells (bells performed by percussionist Stephen Hiscock).
As I explained in my recent salon talk Ghost Radio, gramophones and radios are transmitters of disembodied voices – a feat that seemed so remarkable in the early 20th century, it lead many people to think these new machines could explain telepathy and ghosts.
Film geeks please note: Sonus was recorded on RED cameras, fresh from the latest Alien shoot. It’s going to look gorgeous! You’ll be able to see it for yourself at the Rushes Soho Short Film Makers’ Market, BAFTA, London on Sunday 24 July.
This Radio 4 documentary aired at 1:30pm on 5 July 2011
It’s repeated at 3:30pm on Saturday 9 July and is now also available on Listen Again
I’ve also prepared this page of music clips and background notes.
Update 4 July 2011: Delighted to hear this documentary has an honourable mention in The Observer and in this week’s Project Moonbase, the podcast for all your musical, retrofuturistic needs.
Update 1 July 2011: Thanks to Gillian Reynolds at the Telegraph for listening to this documentary and writing this lovely preview.
Preview -- read about this documentary on the BBC website.
We know we can teach birds to talk and sing. Here, for example, is an astounding recording of Sparkie Williams, champion talking budgie, 1958. But were birds ever used as primordial, feathered music recorders? Did we use them to bring popular music into our homes on command before the advent of the phonograph, the gramophone and radio?
Philip Marsden ‘The TV Budgie Man’ interviews champion talking budgie Sparkie Williams. The late, great Sparkie is now on display in The Hancock Museum, Newcastle, and June Holmes, archivist at the Natural History Society of Northumbria, is trying to raise funds for a dedicated display.
La Serinette (the bird organ), Jean Baptiste Chardin, 1751
In this new Radio 4 documentary, produced by Neil McCarthy, I’ll be taking this question to biologists, bird keepers, musicians and others and revealing some surprising curiosities in the archives -- oddities that should fascinate anyone with an interest in birdsong, music or early sound recording. This radio piece is packed with some of my favourite bird training ephemera, including 1700s dance tunes and some wonderful 1950s bird training records. Human contributors include ornithologist Geoff Sample, poet Katrina Porteous, behavioural ecologist Tim Birkhead, composer Aleks Kolkowski and Yorkshire’s ‘Champion of Champion’ roller canary fancyer Ken Westmorland.
Documentary: The Bird Fancyer’s Delight, BBC Radio 4, 5 July 2011 (1.30-2:00pm)
I'm performing live at the Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield, QEDCon, Manchester, and the Catalyst Club, Brighton, and composing music for CE3K-inspired Electronic Encounters and some other forthcoming collaborations (stay tuned for news). I'm also hard at work, re-engineering some Spacedog robots, and selecting films for Rocket Lolly, Spacedog's two-hander with Project Moonbase at the Edinburgh Science Festival in April.
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.
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.
A busy month writing and editing the forthcoming Spacedog album - stay tuned for news.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Playing a short set at the the Absinthe Ball, Lewes, 17 June, and highlights of our Televisor set at Richard Strange's legendary Cabaret Futura, 20 June.
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.
Listen to this BBC Radio 4 documentary about teaching birds to sing human music. Read my research notes.
Watch this talk and read about my salon talks for adults, featuring phonographs, theremins and other delights.
View Hugo, the Ealing Feeder and other robots I've created for my music group Spacedog.
Try these magic apps which I've created for the iPhone in partnership with Richard Wiseman.
Read about my world renowned collaboration, exploring the strange psychological effects of extreme bass sound.
View clips and read reviews of this award winning show featuring human and robot performers.
A free tutorial on how to play this ethereal, European skiffle instrument.
Find out about this night of rare vintage science clips, some of which are accompanied by live music.