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.
This weekend, I’m heading to Sheffield to perform at the Megadork, an electronic cabaret for the city-wide Lovebytes Festival. I’ll be there with fellow Spacedog Jenny Angliss, my theremin and a few of our robot pals. Our set will include a new number featuring The Ventricle, my ox blood red 1960s handbag which pulsates like a human heart.
The Megadork is at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, 7pm, on Friday 23 March – see the Lovebytes website for tickets. On Saturday lunchtime, we’ll be performing for free in the Winter Gardens for the Lovebytes headphone festival. On Friday night, we’re sharing the bill with some very fine fellow hackers, including one of my heroes Paul Granjon. If you’ve never seen him in action, here’s an early film of him with his cybernetic parrot sausage… Read more →
As a thereminist who performs live with robots, the only time I suffer ukulele envy is when I have to set up or strike a show. After years of arm ache and stress before gigs, I’m trying to adopt the carefree life of the ukulele player by re-engineering my equipment so it can be carried on the bus, wheeled onto the stage, plugged into a DI box and played. The life of the ukulele player doesn’t need to be the stuff of fantasy – that’s why I’ve thrown myself into this re-engineering task – a job that’s unglamorous but essential. Currently, you’ll find me obsessing about flight cases and castors and pouring over ebay pictures of old prams. Read more →
On 3 September, Brighton is hosting its first Maker Faire – a festival of inventions and the hackers, makers and artists who create them. And I’m hosting what I hope will be the perfect after-show party. Do come!
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.
Eerie musicians Spacedog summon the spirit of John Logie Baird as they perform with flickering projections, created live on their working reconstruction of Baird’s original 1920s televisor.
There will be a crackle of static as Fringe regulars the Angliss sisters evoke the earliest days of television in their new evening of deliciously unsettling music. Televisor is the latest retro-futuristic treat from their band Spacedog, mixing theremin, saw, vocals, waterphone and live action from the group’s famous, uncanny musical robots. And this year, their music is given an extra kick from tip-top percussionist Stephen Hiscock (Ensemble Bash).
Technically cranky, faltering, and even a little dangerous, Baird’s televisor was a world away from the bland plasma screens we see today; a perfect match, in fact, for Spacedog’s trademark, homespun electronica, haunted by an analogue past.
Steampunk favourite, gentleman wordsmith Professor Elemental, will be guesting – he’ll perform a brand new number with Spacedog as well as a couple of his classics. Other highlights include a new torch song for variety star Tommy Cooper and a high-energy anthem to the awe-inspiring Soviet Ekranoplan (aka The Caspian Sea Monster).
“A word of mouth wonder”, the Londonist.
“Like a classic surrealist object from a dream”, FAD magazine
“Spacedog…generate the kind of gore-free spinechilling terror that mainstream cinema seems to have forgotten”, the Londonist.
Spacedog will be reprising some of the Televisor set as we squeeze our theremin and musical robots into Bom-Bane’s, Brighton’s most beautiful and diminutive music venue. Limited space – booking advisable!
For Laika (a song from Spacedog featuring theremin and robotic bells)
Extra event!
Spirit Broadcasts and Ghost Trains
Ocean Rooms, Brighton 11 May
Ticket details tbc Two talks for a special Fringe edition of Catalyst Club, hosted by Playgroup and Dr David Bramwell
In the early 20th century, radio and gramophones seemed so remarkable, some tried to use these inventions to explain the spirit world and telepathy. Engineer and theremin player Sarah Angliss reminds us of a strange time when a handful of leading physicists flirted freely with the paranormal. Sarah’s talk includes live aether music mixed with genuine voices from beyond the grave – recordings of soldiers who were lost on the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars.
Starting with the ghost train on the Palace Pier, Colin Uttley examines how the 18th-century phantasmagoria became this classic fairground ‘dark ride’. He also examines a Victorian railway disaster, deep in a tunnel just outside Brighton, which inspired Charles Dickens to write his haunting tale The Signalman. Includes classic ghost train special effects – hold onto your seats!
Radio listening in the former USSR, c1954. Photo: Sergei Polishchuk.
I’ll be performing some uptempo numbers on theremin and saw, accompanied by percussionist Stephen Hiscock and some of my robot pals in this underwater jamboree. We’ll be joined by the incomparable Professor Elemental for a one-off performance of a neo-Victorian submarine fantasy. From 9pm-4am, Saturday 16 April 2011.
For White Mischief – an extravaganza of live music and jaw-dropping vaudeville, in The Scala, London’s famous art nouveau cinema, just outside King’s Cross Station. Inspired by Jules Verne’s sci-fi classic “20,000 Leagues Under The Seas”, White Mischief will invite guests to explore the mysteries of the deep, dressing up in their favourite nautical regalia for an evening of undersea excursions.
Tickets £17.50
Limited VIP tickets £28.50 Book online
Maestro and mechanical hat maker Jane Bom-Bane will be hosting this evening in the delightful Bom-Bane’s, Brighton.
An evening of words and music, mechanical hats, theremin and robots from Jane, Prof. Elemental (Brighton’s finest hip hop raconteur) and Spacedog. With songs of tea, submariners, love, death, milliners and assorted cryptozoological marvels.
Venue
Bom-Bane’s
24 George Street, Brighton, East Sussex
BN2 1RH MAP
This lovely cafe and music venue is owned and run by Jane and multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn. Check out their other events between now and Christmas. Includes performances by Nick Pynn and Mike Heron, Colin Uttley, Rosi Lalor and Dr David Bramwell (who will be talking about his bus ride to Utopia).
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.
News: January 2012
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.
