Open Sound Group

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Open Sound Group session, run by sound artist and friend, Graham Dunning. Graham has been on residency in Rea Garden for a while now and he was keen to get local experimental musicians together to create compositions based on the space and objects at the Rea Garden site.

I first met Graham at Sonic Weekend. To open the session yesterday he spoke about how his time at Sonic Weekend was one of the inspirations for getting everyone together to make some recordings. As ever with these things I was a little unsure of the plan, and myself, to start with but Graham explained the idea and everyone was very welcoming. A few familiar faces helped too, in the form of AAS and Antonio.

Alongside the familiar faces there were many I hadn’t met before. I was particularly excited to meet Dallas Simpson, Sarah Farmer of Lombard Method fame and Andy Ingamells. Dallas had spent the previous day doing binaural recordings of the site, which were available to all as a form of inspiration for their pieces. Sarah was most pleasant and had a lovely approach to sound generation and looping, focusing on the sound of physical objects on an ancient turntable. Andy really blew me away. A young chap with some amazing ideas. I love people who focus on the voice and novel ways to score pieces. His piece for the group was made up of a list of words and phrases he had come across in the area and was scored using a visual score, based on the boldness of the felt lines he had drawn on sheets at the site the day before. The rain had randomly altered the score, which lead to an unpredictable cacophony of sound, with all of the group partaking. Great stuff!

Overall it was a really inspirational and stimulating event. It was great to see the variety of styles and working methods coming together so well. Having been very busy for a while now, with workshop planning and midi-octopus building, this was a welcome break. It was all consuming, yet lots of fun. If the outcomes are as good as it felt on the day then we are in for a treat. Good stuff Graham!

Glatze News

Just a quick update from the world of Glatze.

Despite keeping a low profile for a while, to allow my other selves to flourish, I have been asked to play a gig on the 20th of August in Cheltenham, which I was very happy to accept! Callie who saw me play at Supersonic last year has sorted out a night for me to play in place of the July Supersonic this year. The only problem is Cheltenham didn’t seem to have its act together for a July date, so she has lined me up an August date instead. As ever, it’ll be balls-out live fun from me…come along if you can!

Also, I have been putting the finishing touches to my new, self-titled “Glatze” EP. Never one to do things half-heartedly I am producing some lush demo CDs (mock-up below – I’m loving my black faced CDRs) and sending this out to some people I want to sign me. Mike Patton, if you are reading this, that means you! :) I hope the world is ready for my new Romany Surf Step genre. The mighty Centrifuge certainly are, and I am happy to announce that they plan to release it soon, thanks Wassim!

I have two “reviews” in already. I sent it to BJ Cole, who I’d like to work with if anyone gives me an album deal, and he said “I have had a listen to your tracks, and think they are great! You have a very original direction“. Also, the chap who mastered it said “It’s great stuff! I’ve never really heard anything like it. Sure, it’s music, and it sounds like a lot of stuff, but there is a unique voice, and it’s good!“.

As they are the only two people that have heard it entirely so far, I am pretty chuffed with the response. I’ll keep you posted on what the wider world makes of it…


Thanks to Ben Waddington for the main artwork.

Theremin Day

Just a quick announcement and some further information on my upcoming event Theremin Day – 24th April 2010.

I am delighted to be able to work in association with the fizzPOP crew, to deliver both a daytime workshop and an evening of music, all with a Theremin theme. The day is split in two with an afternoon workshop in which you can build your own Optical Theremin, and an evening of live Theremin performances. While tickets last, you can attend either or both! Let’s start with the evening event…

DO NOT TOUCH – An evening of Theremin Live Performances

A special evening of audio/visual delights, based around the Theremin theme. The highlights are:

Ms Hypnotique
This is an opportunity to see one of the nation’s most renowned Theremin players. She has trained with Lydia Kavina, the grand-niece of Leon Theremin, and performs in many genres from classical to surf-rock to industrial. She has given numerous performances and recordings for artists including Bob Moog, Damien Hirst and TV appearances include “James May’s 20th Century” and “New Paul O’Grady Show”. In 2009 she performed on the fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square, as part of Anthony Gormley’s “One and Other” project and in April 2010 she will perform at Ether Fest at Royal Festival Hall in a 20-piece Theremin orchestra.


Ms Hypnotique also features on one of my soon to be released “Romany-Surf-Step” tunes. I am very pleased she is coming to Birmingham for Theremin Day.

Listen to this!

Image: copyright Jason Knott 2002

Mr. Underwood & Friends
Yes, me! I’ll be doing a super rare performance of Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music, using four torches and four Optical Theremins (of the same kind made in the afternoon workshop). The performance will be in darkness and will peak in a cacophony of squealing sound.

Pete Ashton
Pete will be wowing us with his Thingamagoop (see video below) and some 8-bit sounds. He will also be collaborating with Ms Hypnotique and myself in an improv session.

+ a selection of other Theremin audio/visual delights

Do Not Touch – Build your own Optical Theremin Workshop

During the workshop, people will be able to make a 3 oscillator Optical Theremin, which makes noises like this, when light is shone on it:

[flv:/video/theremin.flv 524 294]
I will soon be adding a video showing the finished article, in a nice shiny box…

The event will take place on the 24th of April at The Edge, Cheapside, Birmingham. I am very grateful to fizzPOP and Friction Arts for supporting this event. All profits go to fizzPOP in order to help them go on to bigger and better things. Birmingham needs you!

I hope we can fill the place for this highly distinctive day of workshoping and live performance, Theremin Day.

Tickets are available here: Workshop – Sold Out! and here: Event Tickets

Further information is here: Workshop Details and here: Event Details