Hello you. Very pleased and excited to announce a new collaborative work with an old friend – the Swiss-based artist, writer, philosopher, polymath and all round good egg Leila Peacock. It’s an audio essay entitled ‘Waiting Rooms’, one of three new original works that make up her current exhibition running at Zurich University of the Arts‘ exhibition space al_vista until mid-August.
We know how to measure time. We know what time is as long as we don’t have to explain it. It is a useful fiction that structures lives. Substance of sci-fi explorations into the realms of the possible. The perpetually perishing present moment you can never grasp. The illusion of history as progress, the reality of the countdown until our own death-to-come, the longing of the long wait.
Leila and I have produced a handful of works together over the years. She was there when I was just beginning to put Howlround together and was instrumental in helping to realise the Secret Songs Of Savamala LP when we were working in Belgrade back in 2013). Her essays are always a real conceptual trip and so I try each time to create a sound design that’s appropriately far out in accordance. On this occasion we’re criss-crossing back and forth through time in the company of some recordings of chiming clocks I salvaged from a performance at York’s Manor House and taken them even further down the rabbit hole. Perhaps a little obvious when you consider it – but damn, do they sound evocative! Have a listen below and if you’re in Zurich I urge to pop over and investigate further – while respecting social distancing, of course. For the rest of you, strap on some ear goggles on and dive straight in!
Closer to home, but also quite out there in its own way, this week also marks the last episode of Fog Cast before Resonance FM takes a well-deserved summer break. A lot has changed in the 18 weeks since the show emerged blinking into the strange new world of March 2020, but I thought I would end the series with a note of optimism by including a clutch of LPs from a recent expedition to my (joint) favourite record shop Vinyl Cafe in my hometown of Carlisle, which has thankfully now re-opened after months of lockdown-enforced closure.
Naturally our local independent record shops (along with the artists and musicians who make the records they stock) need our support now more than ever, so if you happen to be passing through Abbey Street in Carlisle, do pop in and have a browse. Or for those less conveniently located, simply visit futureisvinyl.co.uk and have a virtual dig through the racks. There’s always plenty of treasure awaiting your discovery – I walk away each with a stack of new surprises and this week’s show is certainly testament to that. I’m aware I’ve said it before, but if you had told me a decade ago that one day there would be a space in my old home town where I’d be able to shop for records by Meredith Monk, Suzanne Ciani and Cabaret Voltaire, make a bunch of like-minded new friends and even put on some Howlround shows, I would have branded you a hopeless idealist and backed away slowly. And yet here we are!
This latest trip was even more of an ear-opener than usual as I must confess to having been previously ignorant of the wondrous works of Ann McMillan, Craig Kupka or Julia Barwick, all of whom feature prominently on this final episode of the series. This is surely why we go to record shops in the first place, isn’t it? Not so much to find what we already know, but to discover the stuff you don’t know yet, that moment where the person behind the counter spots you and says ‘TRY THIS!’ Hurrah for the reopened Vinyl Cafe – now let’s all continue to support it – and all of our local independent record stores! In the meantime, here are this week’s treasures:
Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson – From Light To Refraction [from Emanate, 130701, 2020]
Julia Barwick feat. Jónsi – In Light [from Healing Is A Miracle, Ninja Tune, 2020]
Craig Kupka – Trombones of Lithia [from Crystals: New Music For Relaxation 2, Folkways, 1982]
Ann McMillan – Gong Song / Gateway Summer Sound [from Gateway Summer Sound – Abstracted Animal & Other Sounds, Folkways, 1978]
Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson – Interlude II [from Emanate, 130701, 2020]
Julia Barwick – Inspirit [from Healing Is A Miracle, Ninja Tune, 2020]
Robin The Fog 