That about sums it up and no surprise when you have a beautiful new boutique publication launching, brought to us by a pair of amazing gentlemen, a room full of lovely people and a bonkers idea set in the perfect venue. Everything from the cross-dressed door man, Danny’s dad with his face painted like a dart board for the retarded, the various games and stalls, and the broad selection of entertainment made this a really wonderful and memorable event! It was a lovely thing that left me feeling warm and hopeful for the future.

Of course this is about a magazine at the end of the day. One I hope to see flourish. A brave/stupid venture, brought to you by two very brave/stupid individuals and their band of willing supporters. Respec’!

Ooh, and for my part I pulled some silly faces…

Thanks to Pete Ashton for the great photo

Having been concentrating on other things for a while I now find myself with three gigs in three weekends. Following on from Cheltenham I will be playing at the Dirty Bristow Fete this Saturday and the Whales EP launch party on the 5th of September. I’m really chuffed to have been asked (!) but I also have my concerns…

Apart from the usual nerves and self-doubts I am also a little worried about both gigs, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I worry that people who have heard my EP will expect me to sound like that. In fact I am billed as a “Romany Surf Step Supremo” by Bad Egg (see flyer below), which is cool / true but I only do one tune from my EP in my liveset. Secondly, I might be a bit of an odd act for the Dirty Bristow bill. I am particularly concerned what the Dirty Bristow lot are going to make of my raucous antics at 9:30pm…ho hum! Both of these might be non-issues and I will give it my all regardless but I just wanted to get these thoughts out in the open. Either way Glatze does what he does, so nehhhh!

Event flyers below (click each flyer for more info):

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!

Here is an update (in list form) of what I achieved:

• Got airplay of my debut Glatze EP on The Big Paws, Brumcast, Phantom Circuit and Brap FM – I thank you very much for your support!
• Got lots of positive feedback about my Glatze EP. People seem to choose different tracks as their favourite, which can only be good news?
• I even sold a few copies so far through my Bandcamp. This means a lot – cheers!
• At the fantastic Port Eliot Festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed attending with my ueber-cool dad, I handed copies of my EP to Grayson Perry, Gavin Turk & Deborah Curtis, Tim Smit and Jarvis Cocker. For some reason I was too scared to give one to Martin Parr.
• I have had a couple of Glatze live dates confirmed. I will be playing my reworked liveset (including the song “Glatze” from my EP) at The Frog and Fiddle in Cheltenham on the 20th of August and then at The launch event for the fabulous Dirty Bristow magazine, on the 28th of August.
• I have been working hard on my midi-octopus to get it sorted and music written for it, for my debut performance at The British Science Festival, in September. The associated workshop is coming along nicely too!
• I have been in working on updated noise box / optical theremin designs for my workshop at The Digital Media Centre in November, and I will soon be announcing another similar workshop and performance(s) at an upcoming festival (a favourite of mine), once details are confirmed

So, all in all it’s been a busy holiday. Rather productive though and I did nearly finish reading a book too…

It’s available as a free download from my friends at The Centrifuge or you can get it for a very reasonable price on Bandcamp, which offers higher quality audio and a free bonus drum and bass track.

Finally, for more information on the release and on Glatze in general, here is the all new Glatze website.

I hope you like it!

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.

Many people, including myself have blogged about it :
Theremin Day site | fizzPOP | Genzaichi | Hellocatfood | Digbeth is Good

Phantom Circuit kindly covered the event in full : Phantom Circuit #36

All great stuff, but there is life after Theremin Day and I wanted to let you know a little about it! Firstly, building on the success of Theremin Day, I am talking with two festivals about workshops and musical performances. I have planned some really special boutique hardware for this. Secondly, I have my next Glatze gig coming up in July – details soon. Also, I am gearing up towards my workshop and debut midi-octopus performance at the British Science Festival. I am writing a score for an animated film. Lastly, my debut Glatze EP is almost good to go now, sounding groovy!

That is all, carry on…

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…

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

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:

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

Tomorrow night sees me performing my new liveset for the first time. I will be headlining a night at The Portland Arms, in sunny Cambridge. This gig came about through some peeps that watched me play at Supersonic last year. Since then I have reworked large sections of my liveset, which is all well and good in my studio, but I’ll be keen to see how it goes down live.

For a taster of what to expect, although it’s a rollercoaster ride as ever, here’s a live recording of the last track in my new set:

Looking forward to playing in front of someone other than myself again…

Last year was all about the emergence of Glatze as a live music sensation. Well, I had my moments ;) My time in Birmingham led to some exciting new relationships. I played a variety of gigs as part of the underground experimental scene. Then, out of the blue, the delightful Capsule girls got in touch to ask whether I’d like to support Melt Banana. As they are one of my favourite bands, it was a no-brainer. I went on to play at Supersonic, which was amazing. I was also honoured to be chosen by Capsule to complete an alternative score for “There Are No Others, There Is Only Us”, which was shown at Moor Street Station, throughout Supersonic.

Then to top my “Year with Capsule” off, they included a photo of me in their 10th birthday programme – see below. I am most flattered!

2009 also saw me develop my midi-octopus, which I demonstrated at Futuresonic (Thanks to The Centrifuge for sorting this!). Production of my midi-octopus stalled a little in the latter months of 2009, to give me time to concentrate on my Glatze liveset, but it’s very much back on the agenda for this year.

Other 2009 musical highlights included:

• Gigs for, and continued support from, the delightful Wassim at The Centrifuge
• Sonic Weekends 4 & 5, playing White Noise Festival and the friendship and support from White Label Music
• Gigs with Grover and Stuart
• Having a tune of mine released on Make Recordings
• (Virtually) meeting and collaborating with Ms Hypnotique
• A great night at Milk Kitchen
• Airplay on Resonance FM, Brumcast and The Big Paws
• My Supersonic interview on Rhubarb Radio, and subsequent encounters with Danny and Kevin

(sorry to anyone or anything I have missed, I have ZX-81-like memory)