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 played with a gaggle of fellow saw players and other artists from Foz Foster’s Sawchestra. Foz hired a barge along the Regent’s Canal, London, and we climbed aboard, performing to anyone who wanted to go adrift with us for 15 minutes. I had a lovely day extemporising with the other musicians, dodging the rainstorms and meeting this marvellous, inflatable arthropod.
This event was for Shoreditch Festival, a day celebrating East London’s waterways across towpaths, green spaces, basins, bridges and other unusual spaces along the Regent’s Canal. Our event was sponsored by the Barbican, London. I performed on saw, waterphone and some of Foz’ toy instruments. I also brought along a hydrophone so we could add some live sounds from below the waterline.
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.
My first test with Hugo, the 1930s vent doll who will be appearing in future Spacedog gigs. Here, you can hear him singing the Kurt Weill classic Alabama Song.
In this first study, I’ve tried to give Hugo a voice and move his mouth and eyes in synch. The mouth movements aren’t quite right yet. One problem is the mouth driver which is too slack in this lash-up. But I hope you find this an interesting first attempt. Stay posted for further developments -- and look out for Hugo in the Brighton Festival Fringe.
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This video also shows my Mk III robotic bell rig for the last time. I’ve now dismantled the rig as I’m attaching it to a new housing for the Kinetica Art Fair. If you go to the fair, you’ll see the new rig on the stand publicising Electricity and Ghosts, a live event that will be taking place in Battersea Power Station later on this year.
You can also hear me playing a little musical saw in the background of this video.
I’ll be playing again at the Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, at their next Steampunk event on 21 February 2009. Details to be confirmed – but I expect to be appearing with the robotic bells, theremin, saw and Good Companion – a rigged Imperial Typewriter. I may also bring along Uncanny Valerie – the ‘all-knowing’ robotic dolly oracle.
This is the second ever Marlborough Steampunk event – I also played there and briefly demonstrated the Edison Phonograph at their inaugural event last December. This event was curated by Tarik Elmoutawakil who went to enormous trouble to make the room look spectacular.
I was really taken by the crowd’s passion for ingenious mechanical devices and for curious electrostatic machines. It made me feel very at home. I’m new to the whole Steampunk milarky but was pleased to discover my robotic inventions fit into the Steampunk ethos very well. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of my wardrobe. At the last gig, Mike Blow and I hot footed it from a Spacedog rehearsal to get to the event. Mike was there in his jeans and green trainers and I was dressed like an old hausfrau, in an ‘ergonomic’ saw-player’s sack. Any advice on how to overcome the wardrobe crisis looming in February would be much appreciated.
Sarah Angliss plays the saw at the Tusk & Garter Club, Brighton (photo Peter Kalen)
Fancy learning the saw? Then you’ve come to the right page – just get yourself a saw, a bow and some rosin and read my potted tutorial.
I have been playing the saw for thirty years – as a teenager I was taught to play by folk musician Bunny Nun in Watford. I’ve taught many other people to play the saw – include the members of the mighty sawchestra in The Lost and Found Orchestra (Yes/No productions). I now regularly use the saw, alongside the theremin, in my award-winning live act Spacedog. And I’m an occassional guest at Foz Foster’s Sawchestra, most recently at The Sci Fi Festival, London, 2011, where we accompanied Der Golem live on theremin and saw.
Looking for a saw player? Send me an email at sarah[dot] spacedog [at] gmail [dot] com
Early test with Hugo the vent doll, before his head was roboticised, featuring my short saw solo.
Here’s a brief tutorial on the musical saw, a European skiffle instrument with a haunting, almost voice-like sound:
The sound of the saw is so unexpectedly beautiful, some listeners find it hard to believe where it’s coming from. Played well, the saw really does sing. Its brilliant, ethereal sound is rather like the sound of a human voice. Saw players stroke the edge of the saw with a cello or bass bow (sometimes home-made) to make it vibrate. Occasionally they percuss it with a soft beater. They bend the instrument to swoop from one pitch to another, giving the instrument its characteristic portamento sound.
The musical saw is a wonderful ‘skiffle instrument’ – a cheap, everyday object that has been appropriated by musicians who have no money to buy classical instruments. I’ve encountered players of this traditional European instrument in Britain, Holland and the USA.
playing the saw
Examples of saw playing
You can see some examples of my saw playing in the video on this page, which also features an early test with my robotic vent doll Hugo (before his head was moving). I can also be seen playing saw here and there in the Reverb Jam.
An example of saw playing that’s easy to come by is in the film ‘Delicatessen’. One of the central characters plays the saw beautifully on his roof. Occasionally, I’ve heard what I think is percussive saw playing on recordings by the chanteuse Edith Piaf.
I’ve heard that saw playing is still quite common in Holland, for instance in bars in Amsterdam. My grandfather Emlyn was a saw player – sadly he died many years before I was born.
These notes have been online since the mid-1990s and much copied and circulated – feel free to circulate them further but do please credit this source. I’ll add a tutorial video when I get a little time.
Thanks! Sarah
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.
This is the second ever Marlborough Steampunk event – I also played there and briefly demonstrated the Edison Phonograph at their inaugural event last December. This event was curated by Tarik Elmoutawakil who went to enormous trouble to make the room look spectacular.
