Bigo & Twigetti label night with Curve Ensemble
See you there?
*(Exclamation because this will be the first new music from me in aaaaaagesssss)
Update: thanks for everyone who came along. Here's a short excerpt of my piece, 'Pearly'
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Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra: Live to Tape at Visconti Studio
Back in March, the Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra performed a short gig in Visconti Studio that was recorded live to tape. We didn't plan for it to be released officially, but here we are! Thanks to Gavin at Spun Out of Control records, who was in attendance on the day (and took the above photo), we have this lovely document of the event! Available now on limited edition cassette, and digitally via Bandcamp. [SOS cat number 061]
Image: Gavin Stoker-----
Stylophonika, stylophones & more stylophones...
The big news is that my stylophone orchestra is releasing their debut album Stylophonika on limited edition vinyl on the 28th of January 2022, and the album is available now to pre-order and stream via Bandcamp. It's joyful and buzzy and queer and epic and I’m so proud of this group and what they’ve achieved! Also one of the tracks was produced by Tony Visconti, like what? And just look at this beautiful artwork designed by Eric Adrian Lee. Safe to say I'm feeling pretty chuffed about how this thing has turned out.
The vinyl is available in two colour variants - blue/pink 'cosmic swirl' and 'protein pills' in opaque purple. You can order your copy from Spun Out of Control's Bandcamp page. There, you can also read more about how the project came to be.
In other stylophone news, I was very happy to be involved in the development of Dubreq's limited edition Bowie-themed Stylophone.
I was appreciative to be given the chance to write the narrative in the booklet, and include some tabs so people can play along. I insisted on the full tab for 'No Plan' because it just felt appropriate, for a project like this, to mark endings as much as beginnings.
The last bit of stylophone-related news (which was actually a while back now) is that I made a guest appearance playing the lovely instruments on Annie Fish's amazing and heroic whole-album cover of Diamond Dogs. My stylophone freakout was performed on a new-model analogue S1 and a Stylophone GenX-1. You can check it out below, though if you knew what was good you'd purchase and listen to the whole dang thing.
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Sparrow
Some new music that's also sort of old music (of mine), this lovely collaboration I was privileged to be part of, where Aussie producer/artist Tim Shiel took an old piano composition of mine ('Contact Mic') and refashioned it into something new with the beautifully talented vocalist Kaitlin Keegan. So admittedly I didn't do much other than say 'yes' to make this happen, but I'm feeling proud of the results nonetheless.
The track was released as a single from Tim's latest album Distractions One, which dropped in late October. There is also a piano-only version that appeared on Spotify about a week ago.
-----Stylo Orch news...
I don't want to spoil any surprises, so I won't say much more. But here's a recent picture of the group. Such a great shot taken by Marcus Clackson in Visconti Studio back in May, looking every inch like my dream synth band.
-----Malio Reprise
Perceptions - 'Retracing Your Lines'
It was one of the final singles in the Perceptions series from Bigo & Twigetti, a compilation exploring different approaches to creating music for piano. There's so much beautiful music here, one of my favourites is 'Detached' by Julia Gjertsen. Worth a listen!
Finally, here's a live performance of 'Retracing Your Lines' - I'm using a looper with Ableton, piano and an old Yamaha Ps20 organ.
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Interview + Live Looping Session from Home
Here's an interview I did recently with Son Of Marketing, where I talk about Bird Rib, my love of IDM and Trip Hop, my cultural roots and favourite places. There's also a somewhat improvised live looping set, recorded at home during Covid19 lockdown in early June. Yes that's a baby blanket muffling the piano strings. For the loop/mix I'm using Ableton Live 10 and an APC mini.
The first piece 'Retracing Your Lines' is a new one, coming out soon on Bigo & Twigetti's Perceptions compilation.
Set list:
- [00:14] Retracing Your Lines (Unreleased)
- [06:05] Contact Mic
- [10:40] DFACE/Bird Rib
- [19:10] Rosamund Chime
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Bird Rib is here
I did make a music video to accompany the final track on the EP 'Open Again Eventually' - the music speaks of the slow process of trust, the piano begins filtered and buried and slowly throughout the track emerges into itself. The backwards piece in the background is 'The Closeness of Distance' from Machines (2013). In the context of this week's upheaval it could also be about being temporarily closed off and distanced, that's certainly how I'm feeling lately.
Thanks to everyone who has gotten in touch with nice messages about the release, and to anyone who has taken the time to listen. I love you. Now wash your hands. x
Listen and stream Bird Rib here: https://smarturl.it/LK-BirdRib
https://youtu.be/siSUURZozAA
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Into Sporks
I made the track in Logic, firstly sampling loads of kitchen things - glassware, cutlery, chopping boards, plastic containers, egg shells, the gas hob clicking on, etc. I used some shortcuts to avoid being bogged down with programming - the arpeggiator MIDI FX was useful for generating rhythmical patterns at different durations, and I slowed the whole project down so I could jam in the fast melodics live. Then I nested the elements within layers of bus effects - all percussion stems through Stutter Edit, all melodic elements through iZotope Vinyl to detune and filter groups of instruments together, then everything once again through Stutter Edit. Aside from sampled things, I sang bit, and used Sound Iron's Glitch Hero and Spitfire Audio LABS keyboard/piano instruments.
As I did with 'Deedee' last month, I decided to make my own music video for 'Into Sporks' - this time in collaboration with my lovely friend Charlotte White, a.k.a. Restoration Cake. As I was composing and producing the track I was envisioning someone cooking up a storm, stirring, mixing, clattering around the kitchen… so the idea of a top-down cooking tutorial seemed like a fun thing to try and choreograph to fit with the music. I booked out some 4k Blackmagic cameras from the uni's media department and travelled up to Bedford to Charly's place to film her creating a key lime pie from start to finish. Not knowing at all what I was doing, I mistakenly had RAW 4k format selected on the camera, which meant that I filled up my 250GB SSD cards within minutes and had to switch to my phone part way through the process - this will explain the change in colour and stabilisation in the final video. For the edit I downloaded the free version of Da Vinci Resolve and taught myself how to create crude paint-style animations. It was a fun process, but by the end I was feeling SO grateful that I work in audio media and not video… those render times were not fun.
[again, for some reason embedded youtube video won't play - you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/hZS0xXQMUcc]
I'm really pleased with how the first two Bird Rib tracks are being received. I've had some exciting radio play here in the UK, as well as in the USA and Australia; also some playlisting here and there on Spotify and Tidal. It's so rewarding to have people engage with and enjoy the stuff you've made - thank you to everyone who's listening. x
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New single: Deedee
I made a music video all by myself using a nifty app on my phone called 'nception' and some stock footage of starlings doing their thing. You can check it out here (for some reason I can't embed it): https://youtu.be/wzg6XiudcJU
Deedee is the first single from my new EP, Bird Rib, which will be released on March 19. Each of the tracks on the album has a starting point from something I had made in the past, old recordings from past projects either repurposed, resampled or reversed. You can preorder it on Bandcamp here, and stream/download Deedee from all the usual places.
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New Single: Bird Rib
It started when I accidentally loaded an old master tape of Feather Hammer into the machine backwards at work (forgot it was stored 'tails out'), and I kinda loved the sound of it. I ripped it to pro tools and took it away with me. Stretched and reflected and now strange but still completely familiar - I was so drawn to it. I set up a mic on a piano and improvised along - from this game I found the starting points for a few new pieces which will hopefully form a new EP (out in early 2020, fingers crossed).
Following this process, 'Bird Rib' is in response to a backwards half speed (7ips) version of 'DFACE (Practice this Video)'.
The piano is the one in my office - freshly tuned and miced closely with a single condenser (Bluebird SL) bang in the middle, chained through two compressors to get that blown-out tone - once I put it through a tremolo effect it took on this sticky gooey cloying effect which I really loved. It’s mostly multi-tracked and treated piano parts, with additional Volca Keys and some soft Mellotron choirs in the back. Bird Rib is a palindrome, and the music has reflective elements built into its structure; left/right, up/down, front and back.
The title Bird Rib also reminds me of a small bird’s rib cage - an impossibly intricate structure of fine bones, or the idea that my heart could be a caged bird that lives in my chest, fluttering and singing from time to time.
Take a listen to "Bird Rib" above, or find your preferred streaming source here: https://smarturl.it/BirdRib. It's the 4th single released from Bigo & Twigetti's wonderful Scale compilation. Worth listening to in full from start to finish, I promise you. -----
The Model Citizen - RMIT Galllery, Melbourne 8/2 - 23/3
Are you a model citizen?
Meet the micro lenses of surveillance and audit culture; the algorithm of benign search engines; the political poetry of embodied dance; the veneer of the celebrity citizen; the performative monotony of routine; the bio-power of the viral robot; the ghostly noise of a thousand newsreaders speaking all at once, and the hopeful threads and fibres of participatory culture.
For this exhibition I have collaborated with Sean Redmond on an installation titled "The Unknown Celebrity". This will be a mock up on a fan's bedroom. The room, the shrine, will worship this unknown celebrity: this model citizen. Of course, the person whose room it is, is the one and same unknown celebrity who is being worshipped– a haunting mirror on their own invisibility and hungriness to be noticed. Their self-adoring room guarantees them the ubiquity of model citizenship...
The four separate components of my soundscape are designed to be experienced in various locations within the constructed environment. The sonic scenes are haunted by timbres of embedded musical memory, experience and emotion. All compositions are set to a tempo of 60BPM.
Mirror (9’20") plays with repetition, feedback, texture, mimicry and multiplicity of a single voice. Memory (8’17”) uses the aesthetics of vapourware, ambient trip hop and broken tape effects. Shrine (21’08”) is a collage of original vocal recordings, reversed, resampled and stretched. Sleep (10'32”) is an extended version of a piece originally released on the album Machines (2012), and includes cello parts performed by Catherine Saumarez.
My definition of a model citizen: My model citizen is a person who represents the shared human experience in contemporary media cultures. A person whose development is influenced and shaped by outside stimulus - preferences, ideologies and philosophies growing in the hothouse of contemporary fandom. They say there’s a spot in the human brain that has evolved to specifically process timbre, and as a result most of us can differentiate between hundreds of voices, understanding the communicative intent or emotion behind them. Our personalities, histories and collective cultural becoming is soaked through with sounds and music; it transmits feeling and intent, and allows us travel the backroads of our deepest memories. What we experience and love becomes part of who we are.
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Glowing Pains: Music From The Gardens Between
I was chuffed to be asked lovely musical friend and compatriot Tim Shiel to contribute some sonic and instrumental textures to his soundtrack for indie game 'The Gardens Between'. Now Tim has created an album's worth of music that incorporates elements of the soundtrack. You can listen to a preview and pre-order it in bandcamp.
Inspired by his work on the highly anticipated indie game The Gardens Between, Tim Shiel presents an album of rich ambient music that resonates with the game's core themes of time, memory and childhood.
Glowing Pains seamlessly weaves together elements from the game's otherworldly score with improvised contributions from many of Tim's closest musical friends from around the world, to create an album that is as gorgeous and as moving as the game that inspired it.
All music made by Tim Shiel with friends, in order of appearance:
Luke Howard: piano and drones on 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12
Wally de Backer: ondioline on 2, 4, 5, 7, 11
Biddy Connor: voice on 2, reverse viola on 9
Matt Ridgway: a bit of noise on 2, moog bass on 3
Eric J Dubowsky: voice on 1, 2
Andrew Phillips: synth on 3
Jacob Diamond: voice on 3
KAIAR: voice on 3
Eli Crews: Steiner EVI on 4, 5, 7
Liam McGorry: trumpet on 5
researcher: voice and production on 6
Leah Kardos: piano and synth on 7
mara: sounds and voice on 7
Rohan Long: upright bass and field recording on 9
Mid Hike: production on 10
Becki Whitton: reverse voice on 10
Lonelyspeck: voice and guitar on 12 -----
Rococochet out tomorrow
I tried my best to use analogue instruments, technologies and processes as often as possible in this project - that meant no programming or editing (my comfort zones) and recording layers of human imperfection and straight-up ERROR to tape and having to live with the results (certainly NOT my comfort zone). The "rococo" reference in the title is all about a fresh style shift. I was feeling personally a bit bogged down in the 'ambient' piano-triads-with-lots-of-reverb-plus-chopped-beats world, so I thought of the Rococo artists with their humour, wit, eye for left field detail and general lightness of being, and tried to adopt some of that into what I was doing.
I read over and over again that Bowie's process regularly involved a risk, make oneself uncomfortable, going out into the water to the point where your feet no longer touch the bottom. So that's inspiring and comforting. I don't really make music for any other reason than the sheer love and absolute delight of the creative process, so why stick to the well-trodden path?
This is a long, roundabout way of saying I hope some people enjoy listening to it, as vulnerable as it made me feel to create it, and as much as the process of making it taught me new things about music and myself.
Available tomorrow to stream on Spotify and Apple Music, and to buy from iTunes and Bandcamp. Photo of my face below, by the very talented J.Slee.
-----Cat's Eye
My new album Rococochet will be out on Sept 5th. It is now available to pre-order, and the track 'Cat's Eye' is available to stream.
I was gearing up to write a bit of a blog post about the piece, to explain where I was coming from and the significance of the title… but it's actually best explained with this image collage:
-----Recording Rococochet
This record is my palate cleanser, something to counter a growing feeling in myself and how I perceive my little corner of the ‘contemporary classical’ landscape, which can sometimes feel very serious and a bit humourless. For my own personal rococo statement, I wanted my music to feel fresh and fun again: to make space for moments of wit and charm; use strong colours; to completely shed any self-seriousness and be open to possibilities.
The album has been created using analogue instruments and recording techniques at Visconti Studio in London. I brought in some amazing players: Paul Glover on drums, Ben Dawson on piano, Lara James on sax, Charles Mutter, Patrick Savage and Richard Harwood on strings. I turned my inexperienced hand to tuned percussion (vibes, marimba, glocks and bells), and vocals. Rather than use virtual instruments and samples (like I usually do) this time I played the CP40, MiniMoog, Moog Sub37 and Mellotron.
I can't wait for people to hear it. x
-----Piano Day 2017 - Pairs
Here's a little idea inspired by the wind chime someone has on my street, that I'm forever hearing… Available as a free download EP Pairs, which also features an amazing companion piece, 'Junk Bonds' by Jim Perkins.
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Piano day 2017 - Kindred Spirits Vol. 1
My piece was created in an evening especially for this compilation. Earlier that day I had been listening to my “Ultimate Shuffle” playlist of Spotify, which threw up Michael Jackson’s ‘Stranger in Moscow’ (great track) and I was struck by the super quiet piano solo and how cool the chord progression is in the verses. I ended up ripping both those details off for my piece ‘Novice’. I called it that because it sounded so tentative to me at the time, like a piano solo that was afraid to speak up. But then when you layer enough of those soft voices you can get a sense of confidence, depth and detail. I guess that was the feeling I was reaching for.
The Exquisite Corpse
Big & Twigetti have announced a new collaborative album in conjunction with Moderna Records. ‘The Exquisite Corpse’ is based on the surrealist game of the same name. Taking my piece 'Little Phase' from the Bigo & Twigetti Summer compilation as its starting point, the piece has been/will be reworked by a series of composers and producers to create an album of tracks which continually evolve as each new version is passed from one artist to another, adding to and transforming material from the original piece.
The group will be releasing a new track from the album every 2-3 weeks with the full album available in April 2017. My own contribution, in addition to providing the first move, is track 6: Contact Mic.
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Duchess (Scott Walker cover)
In late October a few friends and I went in to Visconti Studio to make a track and 'learn how to use the new kit'. The timing was good, as the God Is In The TV Zine had recently asked me to contribute to their Scott Walker covers compilation Plastic Palace People. With help from fellow KU music colleague Alex Evans, and my very good friend Andrew Wiggins, we knocked out this version of Duchess in an evening: me on piano, vocals, drums and mellotron, Andy on guitar, percussion and bvs, Alex on Hammond organ, mellotron, percussion and bvs. Fun!
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Little Phase
From the Bigo & Twigetti limited edition 'Summer' release.
Variables (various artists)
From the 24th August and over 7 days, I was invited along with some other bigo & twigetti artists and special guests to assist in collaboratively writing, arranging, performing, recording, editing and mastering an album from scratch to release. The experiment is complete, and you can stream/download Variables on Bandcamp now.
The album features contributions from Jim Perkins, Tiny Leaves, Lucy Claire, Chris Perren (Nonsemble), Antonymes, Richard Talbot (Marconi Union) & myself. For an experiment in subverting individual process and authorship, I think there are some genuinely lovely moments that have come out of this. It's also received some nice feedback from Stationary Travels and was "approved" by Complete Music Update. Richard Allen at A Closer Listen called it "sublime", commenting further that "the collaborative spirit is alive and well at bigo & twigetti; we congratulate the artists on a beautiful set that seems like it might have taken a year to complete, had we not known otherwise."
Some photos from my activities in the week:
Violist Ariane Alexander
A broken harpsichord I found in a store room
Feather Hammer throwbacks
forty eight - EP
Memory Machine
Butterfly Kite
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Three Preludes EP - Out Now (updated)
A limited edition of 50 hand painted physical copies with artwork by Jim Perkins can be purchased here. I've even written out the CD inlays myself...
Orann
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The Three Preludes EP (18.11.13)
Working in the studio on my own compositions, everything is exactly how I intend it to be; when you press play you hear the very version I created for you to hear. But when somebody performs a score (essentially abstract system of symbols and instructions), it is different every time. That got me thinking about the value of performance situations: what would this score sound like if it was being read for the first time - where would the player trip? would they gloss over inaccuracies, cover up and continue or stop altogether? If he was going to rehearse a difficult passage, what speed would he choose and where would the passage start and end? What would it sound like through a wall as background noise to some other activity? Capturing these 'versions', and seeing accidents and anomalies as variations, I felt the pieces evolving into something else - something bigger than what I had started with.
I peppered the score with moments of vagueness and 'unplayable' bits designed to force the pianist to make a creative decision in the moment, and we recorded the first read through and initial rehearsals. The extra musical material created off the back of these preludes was used to inform the final recorded versions, and provided the all of the source audio for the three accompanying experimental pieces.
The Three Preludes EP will be released by Bigo & Twigetti on November 18th, 2013. There will be a limited physical release featuring hand painted artwork by Jim Perkins - I'll post more information about that soon.
"Kick" World Premiere, 09/05/13
The performance, to be held on 9 May, will be hosted by the Government of Western Australia, alongside a reception of West Australian fine wines.
Click here for ticket & RSVP info
It's here!
Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz & Leah Kardos (photo by Jez Brown, Feb 2013)
MACHINES is here! You can purchase a copy from Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Linn Records as well as stream it from Spotify. Check out some of the early reviews:
One can’t fail to be impressed by Kardos, her debut album was a delight and Machines is not content with delivering more of the same, but strives to push new angles and ideas, blended with verve, imagination and, most importantly, a sense of unconstrained freedom to experiment. Naturally, this brings mixed results, but ultimately everybody can take something precious from the jewel box.
- Barcode Zine
Machines has a wholeness that is quite remarkable. But equally impressive is the manner in which Kardos conceals her virtuosity. Nothing draws attention to itself; everything is deployed in pursuit of an organic integrity. I had listened to the album several times before my attention was conscious of astonishing passages such as the intertwining keyboard lines that close “The Closeness of Distance” or the poly-temporal percussive underscoring of “Highly Active Girls.” The entire album is beautifully paced, with each individual track fitting into a larger whole. The phrase “song-cycle” is entirely apt.
- David D. McIntyre for I Care If You Listen-----
Lyrics
If you're interested in that sort of thing, CLICK HERE to see the lyric sheets in full, as sung on the album "Machines", with the original spam messages alongside.
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Machines - coming March 1, 2013
Machines will be released by Bigo & Twigetti on the 25th of February, 2013, and features guest vocals from Australian soprano Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz and the lovely Catherine Saumarez on Cello.
"... and darkness came" - Headphone Commute
I was so chuffed and honoured to be asked to contribute a track to this amazing benefit compilation curated by Headphone Commute. It's a killer lineup of artists, featuring many personal heroes of mine (Clint Mansell! Hauschka! Nils Frahm!), who wouldn't be honoured to be in this crowd? The aim is to raise money to help people who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, with 100% of the proceeds being donated towards Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society. It's a gigantic release featuring 87 artists and over 6 hours of gorgeous music; $10 = bargain of the year!
Here is info from Headphone Commute:
… and darkness came
December, 2012
$10+ USD
Headphone Commute is incredibly proud and honored to announce a colossal benefit compilation, with 100% of the proceeds being donated towards two charitable organizations, Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society, to help all those affected by Hurricane Sandy!
Available as a download via above link on Bandcamp (320kbps MP3, OGG, FLAC, etc.), this digital release is sold for only $10 or more if you wish to donate towards our cause. The selection of tracks comes from some of the world’s top talent in ambient, modern classical, and experimental music.
Clint Mansell • Nils Frahm • Hauschka • Machinefabriek • Valgeir Sigurðsson • Christoph Berg • Hummingbird • Simon Scott • Marcus Fischer • Peter Broderick • Black Swan • Rival Consoles • Lawrence English • Kate Carr • Ólafur Arnalds • Waves On Canvas • Maps And Diagrams • Dalot • Good Weather For An Airstrike • Leah Kardos • Ezekiel Honig • Radere • Fabrizio Paterlini • Netherworld • Stephan Mathieu • Talvihorros • Pleq • Antonymes • Brambles • Clem Leek • Minus Pilots • Olan Mill • Ian Hawgood • loscil • Bersarin Quartett • Hammock • M.Cadoo • Jóhann Jóhannsson • Rafael Anton Irisarri • Helios • Mike Jedlicka • Christopher Willits • :papercutz • Dakota Suite • Kreng • Aria Rostami • Peter Prautzch • The Frozen Vaults • riverrun • pinkcourtesyphone • David Wenngren • offthesky • Autistici • Strië • A Bleeding Star • Kane Ikin • Sun Hammer • Roel Funcken • Wabi Experience • Another Electronic Musician • Scanner • Erik K Skodvin • Julien Neto • Absent Without Leave • Last Days • Stray Ghost • Trifonic • Marcus Fjellström • Gen Ken Montgomery • David Newlyn • Boy Is Fiction • SaffronKeira • Ben Lukas Boysen • Ex Confusion • Seth Chrisman
Ruthless Jabiru
Ruthless Jabiru, performing at the City of London Festival, 2011, conducted by Kelly Lovelady.
Artistic Director and conductor Kelly Lovelady. Photo © Paul Talbot Photography
I'm so happy to announce that I have been commissioned for a major new work by Kelly Lovelady's all-Australian London-based chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru. Aiming for a premiere performance in London in March 2013, it will be a 15 minute piece for strings that abstractly explores themes of modern sensuality and sound. Here's a little snippet from my proposal that explains what I hope to achieve:
Focussing on a language characterised by texture, timbre and harmony, I would like to compose a continuous 15 minute work for string orchestra (Ruthless Jabiru) that abstractly explores ideas of modern sensuality, in particular aggressive feminine sexuality, and notions of power and control. Nothing timid or pastel here, nor will it be overly dark and morose, but a picture painted in vivid beautiful colours. I would like to tease out some ideas about the language that is implied by the contentious term "woman composer" and twist them around, subverting expectations.
The string orchestra is the perfect ensemble to orchestrate with a view to pinching ideas from the realm of the studio composer/producer, where the sonic and timbral possibilities are so diverse and flexible, and yet from a sound world so well worn and timbral language so familiar. I want to play with compositional and sonic concepts that I commonly hear being exploited in studio based music production, but rarely in orchestral writing; ideas that relate to perception, psychoacoustics and the communicative power of timbre. Observing the internal listening process, which is coloured by context, and then trying to recreate that sensation externally in a concert hall. I want to try and emulate the throbbing compression effect of "ducking" to play with sound priorities in a live performance space - perhaps turning tiny sounds into giants and the well known big sounds of a string orchestra into something very distant and small. Real and 'fake' reverberence to achieve illusions of distance and size.
-----These are just some of the ideas I wish to play with, to add new colours to the tonal pallette in order to furnish and illustrate a (what will probably be quite dirty) story.
Recording at Abbey Rd for Lonesound
The wonderful graffiti wall out front.
The Dark Side of the Moon console, a.k.a. MUSIC TECH PORN
It should say: "On hearing an alarm, ignore the screams of your burning friends and colleagues. RUN to the second floor corridor and rescue the Sgt Pepper 4 track console. Ride it to safety."
James helps James with those high notes.
Incantation
My next record for Bigo & Twigetti, which is still yet untitled but currently being referred to as "Machines", is a song cycle based on themes of technology, loneliness and the human condition. All of the texts have been taken from various spam emails that I have been collecting over the past few years, using the cut-up technique to find new combinations, meanings and narratives - an idea nicked from Burroughs via Bowie. I'm not wanting to give the world the impression that I spend all of my spare time pouring over every unsolicited email (bear with me), but over time a few messages that I've seen have caught my eye, seemed poignant; the random texts generated in a few created nice images and juxtapositions in my mind. Overall I was arrested by the notion of humans trying/wanting/needing to reach each other for whatever reason, and the kinds of things they will say in order to seduce, ensnare, or foster feelings of trust. What lengths we go to to be noticed.
These kinds of things:
From here, and the resulting cut-ups, the cycle began to take shape; songs about intimacy and insecurity, greed, automation and screaming into the void. I could yap on about it all, but I think I'll leave that stuff for another time. For now, there's a little snippet from "Incantation" (still a work in progress, featuring the gorgeous voice of Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz) on the Bigo & Twigetti soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/bigoandtwigetti/leah-kardos-incantation-clip/s-3EBLR
More to come very soon, I promise. x
Lonesound
Lonesound is the name of songwriter/producer James Ewers' new solo project; his wonderful EP "The Great Outdoors - Part One" was released at the start of the month (click the album art above to listen). I really love it, it's got touches of a few of my favourite things: a bit of Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, even The Cure.
I've been a fan of James's work for a long while now, from way back in the days of his band My Luminaries, so I was very honoured when he asked me to play synth and sing backing vocals in his live band. It's been a very long while since I've played such loud music as part of an ensemble - most of the performances I've done recently have involved lots of multitasking with lots of technology, it's a lovely change of scene for me to sit back and play a supporting role. I'm definitely getting a kick out of it!
So there are shows you can come to - head over to Facebook and like the band's page to stay on top of updates and such.
In the mean time, you should watch this video for the track "The Great Outdoors" and consider coming out to the next gig, which is free, in London this Friday!
Happy recording times
I didn't manage to get any photos of Laura in action because I was too busy squealing with excitement at how amazing everything was sounding. She did such an incredible job, it almost pains me to make you wait to hear the results. I did, however, manage to get some photos of the delicious vintage keyboards I borrowed for the weekend. Total keyboard porn.
I got the Rhodes stage 88 and the Wurly EP200 from Matt Snowball backline hire, whose service I can highly recommend. Totally helpful and reliable, and the high quality vintage kit seems to be lovingly maintained. Needless to say, I now need a Wurly in my life; if only to soothe myself to sleep each night with some gentle buttery chords.
A few days prior to these sessions, I was at Kool World studios in Luton with George Hinchcliffe (of 'Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain' fame), recording material for his new album (which I am producing). He brought along what I can only describe as an abundance of ukuleles:
This little one, in particular, summons up strange maternal instincts within me when I hold it...
SEQUENCE3
I am so very happy to be included on their latest release SEQUENCE3. It features a never-been-heard-before alternate version of DFACE (Practice This Video) from Feather Hammer.
Click here, or the gorgeous cover art to the right, to stream or download the whole 39 track release, it's beautiful. Or click below to hear my contribution.
Apology (the version with the subway and not the voices)
If you're interested to hear how it might have been, knock yourself out!
[Feather Hammer] demo 1 Apology (with subway) by leahkardos
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dface (Practice This Video)
Approaching this piece the primary aim is creating interesting textures and playing with the proximity of those sounds. A secondary aim is to recall the feeling of early piano lessons and repetitive practice routines, pattern based technical exercises, the warmth of harmonies built from 3rds. After recording the various patterns using a variety of mic types and positions, I used Logic's space designer, delay designer, some FabFilters, in addition to scissors, stretch and flex-time to manipulate the material. Each "part" to the arrangement is a unique pattern that repeats, so my starting point was this thick texture of all of the looped up cycles working at the same time. The arrangement you hear in the demo below is the result of "carving" into that cyclic material, editing, erasing and eliminating certain bits to create some sense of form. This way of working reminds me of a method my artist friend Kristian Purcell often describes to me, of applying thick layers of media and then carefully stripping it away to reveal the piece.
Here's where I got the sample from:
Big thanks to PianoforteMaestro for letting me use it.
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In other news I have my next PhD milestone due around the end of August. Cue overly dramatic flailing about, anguish, gnashing of teeth, etc. This time it is the first few chapters of my exogesis, which mostly means lots of writing about myself. Can't be too hard, right? I'll keep telling myself that and hopefully one day I'll wake up one morning and have a PhD.
We're only a few weeks in, and already the material being generated is really interesting. Maybe when it's done we'll publish it online, and I am hoping that when it is viewed as a larger body of work the threads of inspiration that run throughout can be seen and heard. For now I'm just enjoying the freedom to explore musical thoughts without being tied to a brief/job/commission/context or any "this should be serious you're a PhD student" bullshit ideals.
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Feather Hammer sessions
We mic'd up the strings and the pedal mechanics (underneath, though you can't see that)... we also set up a mic on the keyboard itself to capture the clacking of my currently unkempt fingernails. Matt was very helpful today, not only in being a roadie but also in holding down strange chord shapes for me while I prepared the strings. We had a little jam session on the lowest E string featuring me playing the 2pence coin and Matt's slap bass action-thumb. Nice!
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CUBO: COPAL
We met (in the virtual sense) on the Steve Reich remix contest in Indaba, and he invited me to take part. It started with a facebook group, initially with people posting videos and pictures of dream-like subject matter. I responded to the stimuli with some improvisations, and from there the music passed through many hands - singers, guitarists, composers, arrangers, sound designers - so many talented people have their fingerprints on this thing. I'm glad I got to be one of them.
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More AV from Spider & I
The next piece uses/recycles parts of the Feather Hammer sessions, working with infinite loops and sampling/retriggering. The warped piano sound is a beatmapped filter effect I just discovered by accident, which made the whole thing sound about 80% more evil than I originally intended! The strange video just adds to the "eraserhead" vibe.
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Core
This video is a demo for a live audio visual project I have developed with Matthew Greasley - something about creating experimental textures and surreal imagery that we can manipulate and improvise through live performance. At the moment we're collecting a new live set - the stuff is mostly being drawn from the Feather Hammer project, but a few older pieces might also get a look-in (like the ill-fated Black Mouth of August project, for example).
This piece, Core, is an unusual one for me as it started life as a poem. I'm a terrible poet so there's no chance of me posting the thing here, I only mention it because it's a strange way for me to work - from words; taking a picture in my mind and abstracting it with imagery and language, then further abstracting it into music and sound. The best bit is passing the music over to Matt Greasley to see what he sees in it. The final beautiful abstraction that gives the whole thing a new context.
I am loving the imagery Matt is coming up with - the perfect soft/heavy subject matter to match the style of the music.
Experiment in Subtraction
Then I took out the core element, the improvised piano solo, and just left the "around" sounds. It's an interesting result, the empty space left by the missing piano part is almost like a silhouette.
[edit: I've since taken these demos down, since they became The Waiting, both versions appear finished on the Feather Hammer album]
I'm reminded that I've done this kind thing before - back when Helzuki were writing in the studio, many of the arrangements started with piano parts that I had written. As band members added their layers to the arrangement, we all found the song worked better if we took the original part out, leaving all the stuff that had been constructed around it to hold the thing up.
Imma try out this method some more. It suits me, since my improvs sometimes come out sounding a bit basic and obvious. This could be a cool way to use that material in a backwards kinda way.
In other news, the My Lithium & Me project is being noticed and listened by the best people: sweetoblivion blogged about it, Boy George downloaded and listened to it, and it was featured on David Bowie's very own site as a news item. Fair to say I'm absolutely chuffed at the reaction it's getting. In little over a week since releasing it I've had over 5700 plays and nearly 2300 downloads via soundcloud, which is just awesome! Thanks everyone!
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Update - here's a video demo by Matthew Greasley to go with the non-piano version of the track:
You Cant Hide Beat
The first of the three Bowie cover gigs I’ve performed was for Trevor's 49th birthday party. Trev is a lovely man and Bowie fan of legend who I had gotten to know through BowieNet (www.davidbowie.com). He had asked my band to come and play the gig - I was fronting for Helzuki at the time. The band couldn't make it but I decided to offer to play some covers instead. Lugging my red furry piano, I pitched up and played a set of slightly more obscure/unobvious numbers. I met a few quizzical looks, but on the whole it went down pretty well. He invited me back the following year for his 50th birthday party - again with my piano, again with a new set of slightly off-kilter interpretations. Standout surreal moment of that party: singing Under Pressure with a Bowie impersonator.
The third, and last, time I did this was for Phil's 40th birthday party in February 2010. For Phil (another lovely man and Bowie fan of legend whom I had gotten to know via BowieNet), I wanted to do something a little bit different. With the party being held in a venue in SE London, it was impossible to lug my heavy piano across the city on the Tube. I decided to perform with my keytar, doing a set of songs in an electro style. I thought it might be funny and give the fans a bit of a laugh (while solving my
Once the summer hols had started, and I had a bit of spare time, I decided to get Liz to come up to Bedford and help me get the vocals down. I'd chosen six tracks, some new and some from Phil's electro birthday set. We got drunk on Jack Daniel’s and I bellowed out the lyrics while she pressed record in the control room. It was FUNNY. The productions were crude, bashed out quickly in a DIY-bedroom style. We joked about getting gothed up and posing for a cover photo in the woods sitting in a tree, and about how horrified the fans would be when they heard what we had done.
But, as time passed, it started getting serious, with the suggestion of a possible news feature about it on BowieNet. Liz arranged for the artwork to be done by the infamous Rex Ray, whom she is friends with. I started to panic - I enlisted my friend Paul Ross to help me with the productions. I started all the arrangements again; for the first time I had to really think about what I wanted to do with these songs - how could I put a modern spin on this, without taking the piss?
Inspiration came from everywhere - starting with Bowie's own back catalogue, which I scoured for usable samples to embed in my arrangements. Anyone who reads my blog will know that I'm really into this idea of using recordings as resources to construct new things, so I figured why not try it out here? At best, it might suggest new shades of meaning through association and memory; at worst it would be a type of treasure hunt/guessing game for the fans. Other inspiration came from a general desire to make a modern sounding trip-hop record - something that I have wanted to do for ages now; mixing the deep downtempo sounds of 90's-style trip-hop with more modern timbres you might associate with current pop or dubstep.
I've worked hard on this, and I'm proud of the result. I'm honoured and humbled by the volunteered involvement of so many talented and creative people: Kristian Purcell painting my face to look like Screaming Lord Byron and taking the cover photo, Rex Ray volunteering to design the cover and make a fangirl's dream come true, Matt Greasley and Izzy Foster for making those beautiful videos, Paul Ross, who helped me raise the bar on this project and spent many long evenings after work making my voice sound good, my boyfriend Matt for putting up with my absenteeism and helping with the mastering... and not forgetting Liz Tray who was there, drunk and giggling with me in the beginning, who really championed this project and pushed it from being nothing more than a joke to something we can both be proud of.
Here it is:
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Copal 2 & 3
Copal 2 (improv) by leahkardos
Copal 3 is a sentimental little piano piece that I played shortly after learning that a childhood pet had finally died. Claudia was my little Burmese cat, such a delicate soft little thing. She would sit on top of my piano while I practiced as a youngster... so a little bit of simple child-like piano music seems appropriate in the moment. Aww rest in peace sweet kitty cat.
Copal 3 (improv/Claudia's Song) by leahkardos
Right. That's enough improv for now, I think. There's a lot of proper writing I need to be getting on with.
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Feather Hammer
The Feather Hammer is an ambient piano record I have just finished writing and am about to commence production on. The artwork to the left will be the cover, a wonderful piece by Kristian Purcell called "Unelma 1".
The record will comprise of piano sounds - played music and ambient sounds recorded "around" the music (a longer more detailed blog on this aspect will probably come soon) - and location recordings taken from around Bedford, mostly the college campus where I work.
Strongly inspired by Bjork's Vespertine, with its percussion tracks utilising soft intimate non-musical sounds (shuffling cards, clinking cutlery, footsteps through snow), and Amon Tobin's Foley Room where textures of found sounds are built up to create heavy, thick ambiences. Other influences come from the Harold Budd/Eno collaborations and Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. The focus will be on combining and manipulating recorded audio, avoiding synthesis and most digital effects.
At the centre of the production is a collection of 9 solo piano compositions that have been traditionally scored and performed by me. I am quite excited about this project as it is the first where I really get to try out all my fancy PhD process ideas and experiment with production concepts gleaned from psychoacoustic research. It's an extra treat that I get to perform on my favourite instrument. Due to me not being able to say no to anyone or anything, it's been on the back burner for a while... but this is where my heart is at the moment, it's all I want to work on. I don't want to say I'll have it done in early 2011, since I have a pile of commitments bearing down on me over the holiday season. As progress is made I will update the blog with news, ideas and demos but for now... isn't the cover just lovely?
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