SMACK BANG
FRIDAY JAN 29
7.30 DOORS OPEN, 8pm PERFORMANCES BEGIN
DAVID STRATTON (SYDNEY) the man who put Australian cinema on the world map, and World cinema in the Australian consciousness delivers a MINI LECTURE ON WHEN SOUND MET CINEMA & THE DEATH OF THE SILENT FILM that will include some rare glimpses into the first ever sound film experiments.
JACK LADDER
Performing a live soundtrack of song with his distinct sense of swagger, sanguine and a touch of raunch to 16mm film by Paul Winkler.
http://www.myspace.com/jackladder
LOUISE CURHAM 3 PART HAND-PAINTED AND FOUND SUPER 8 FILM & ALISTER SPENCE, LIVE RHODES ORGAN SOUNDTRACKS
Louise Curham (Canberra) is a woman who believes that every super 8 projector deserves its own eco-system. Alister Spence (Sydney) has long been one of the leading lights in contemporary original jazz and improvised music in Australia. Together – they will present an extraordinary found and handpainted Super 8 film through paper pyramids, perspex screens and prepared surfaces with an exquisite Rhodes organ live soundtrack.
http://www.aphids.net/tags/louise_curham/all
http://www.alisterspence.com/
BOTBORG
Proving that the future of television is bleak, but scintillatingly beautiful. A feedback video and sound massive from Brisbane.
http://www.botborg.com/index.php?go=about
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SATURDAY JAN 30
7.30 DOORS OPEN, 8pm PERFORMANCES BEGIN
CLAYTON THOMAS (DOUBLE BASS) & VICTORIA HUNT (BODY) (BERLIN/SYD) FILMED LIVE BY KIDS WITH CAMERAS
Clayton plays bass like a hobo in a drag race having a fist fight with euro-virtuosos, Victoria is one of the most mind altering body weather performers around. Mix that combo with a few kids with hand-helds, choosing to zoom in on the bits they find fascinating – live.
http://www.myspace.com/doubleclayton
ABJECT LEADER (BRIS)
Blurring the line between why, when and how using what? A 16mm live film duo that performs live expanded cinema pieces which emphasise the analogue, the handmade, the photo-chemical and the acoustical. http://www.abjectleader.org/
JULIAN HAMILTON (SYD)
One half of songwriting & productions wunderkind duo The Presets – Drum machines are his middle name, Aria winning melodic invention is his game. He’ll be delivering a live electro film soundtrack to experimental 16mm film by Dirk De Bruyn.
http://thepresets.com/
FOOD FILM: BRENDAN WALLS & CLARE COOPER (SYD)
Live film soundtrack to 16mm films by Robert Wyatt using amplified food preparation. Edible, incredible.
http://gutstring.net/
ROBIN FOX (MELB)
He makes florescent laser green convolutions the stuff of legend! Presenting new work for laptop laser and oscilloscope. http://www.robinfox.com.au/
GET DOWN ON IT.
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http://redrattler.org/
http://gutstring.net/
http://www.otherfilm.org/
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MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS…
DAVID STRATTON
DAVID STRATTON Painted by Nick Stathopoulos (Archibald Prize Finalist 2008)
Born in Trowbridge , Wiltshire , England in 1939, Stratton was sent to Hampshire to see out the war years with his grandmother, an avid filmgoer, where he was taken to the local cinemas regularly and saw a diverse range of movies. He saw his first foreign film at Bath in 1955 – the Italian Bread, Love and Dreams . That was soon followed by Akira Kurosawa ’s Japanese classic Seven Samurai tracked down in Birmingham . At the age of 19, he founded the Melksham and District Film Society.[1] David arrived in Australia in 1962, and soon became involved with the local film society movement. He directed the Sydney Film Festival from 1966 until 1983.
A highly regarded expert on international cinema, particularly French cinema , Stratton was President of FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) Juries in Cannes (twice) and Venice .[1] He was also a member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1982.
Stratton worked for SBS from 1980, acting as their film consultant and introducing the SBS Cinema Classic and Movie of the Week for 24 weeks a year. From 1986 onwards Stratton co-hosted the long-running SBS TV program The Movie Show with Margaret Pomeranz . Stratton left SBS in 2004. From 2005 Stratton and Pomeranz have co-hosted the ABC film show, At the Movies .
Stratton has cited on numerous occasions that his favourite film of all time is Singin’ in the Rain . He currently writes reviews for The Australian newspaper and formerly did so for the US film industry magazine Variety . He also does film reviews for TV Week , where he has been for a number of years. He lectures in film history at the University of Sydney. In 2008 he released his autobiography called I Peed on Fellini, a reference to a drunken attempt to shake Federico Fellini ’s hand while using a urinal.
http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s1138600.htm
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Jack Ladder
Since the release of his 2005 debut ‘Not Worth Waiting For’ (Spunk Records) Ladder’s sound has undergone a transformation – whilst strong traces of the brooding, lovelorn balladry remain, this new album, ‘Love is Gone’, has a distinct sense of swagger, sanguine and a touch of raunch.
How to describe the sound? Imagine Leonard Cohen driving through Detroit singing along to Little Richard on the radio. Now imagine Detroit is a vast beach located somewhere north of Sydney.
Ladder moves effortlessly between the sounds of early R&B, alt-country, folk and blues, subsuming them all into a rich blend which is both classic and unique. Lyrically, Ladder possesses a wordsmith’s talent for creating poignant, occasionally humorous – always honest – tales of love found, lost and discarded. His gifts have not gone unnoticed – his story tale songs have earned him heavy rotation on independent radio and a series of national tours with Stephen Malkmus and the JIcks, Bill Callahan (Smog), Pajo and Okkervil River.
To capture the kind of raw, ‘vintage’ sound, Ladder took a group of gifted musicians, including drummer Laurence Pike (Pivot/Triosk) and bassist Ben Wapples (Triosk), into the studio where the songs were arranged and recorded ‘live’ (with minimal overdubs) straight to tape. The process took only five days.
Jack Ladder spent 2008 living and performing in New York and Europe. He recently performed on Fox 5’s high rating breakfast show ‘Good Day New York’. He was also invited by Will Sheff of Okkervil River to cover the track ‘Starry Stairs’ from the ‘Stand Ins’ LP. Others performing tracks for this project include Bon Iver and AC Newman.
Winner of the Australian Music Prize for Outstanding potential in 2009, he has been on tour ever since.
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LOUISE CURHAM
Born in NZ, Louise has lived in Australia since 1991. She works in film performance, installation and experimental film. Her key interest is the experience of deteriorating and ephemeral film images.
Louise works frequently with film in performance. She has collaborated with many musicians in both new music and improvisation including the Alister Spence Trio, Melbourne composer David Young and Rome-based Mike Cooper. Louise’s work has been regularly presented at Australian music film festivals including Sydney’s NowNOW and Brisbane’s OtherFilm Festival.
Recent highlights include the just released DVD collaboration ‘Fit’ with the Alister Spence Trio, presentation of a Film of One’s Own in the FPS program of the NZ International Film Festival in Auckland (July 2009), Teaching and Learning Cinema exhibition of a re-enactment of Guy Sherwin’s 1976 Expanded Cinema work ‘Man with Mirror’ at Artspace in Sydney (July 2009), participation in the Canberra International Music Festival with the Clocked Out Duo at the NFSA (May 2009), the film performance Waiting to Turn into Puzzles at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (June 2008), the exhibition Propositions and Game Plans in the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2007), the film installation A Film Of One’s Own at the Performance Space, Sydney, NZ Film Archive, Wellington NZ and Te Manawa ART, Palmerston North NZ (2006).
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Clayton Thomas (b. Hobart, 1976) is a dedicated improviser and grassroots organiser. He has studied contrabass with celebrated bassists Wilber Morris, Peter Kowald and Barre Phillips. Clayton’s unique approach to the contrabass and unrelenting enthusiasm for music as a positive social force has meant that in the two years since he relocated from Sydney to Berlin he has performed in excess of 200 concerts collaborating with hundreds of artists including Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Mats Gustaffson, Peter Evans, Manon-Liu Winter, Hannes Loeschel and The Ex. More at http://myspace.com/doubleclayton
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Botborg is an international audio-visual performance group that fuses and rewires raw electronic signals to create intensely visceral experiences of sound-colour synaesthesia. Using a complex array of custom electronics, Botborg create totally live multi-sensory assaults of interdependent colour and rhythm, pushing the limits of technology to invoke the maximum possible stimulation of their audience’s mind and body. Botborg work with a level of experimentation and improvisation that places them in a territory outside traditional musical or cinematic formats, where the boundaries between art, science, and philosophy mutate until they are rendered meaningless.
Botborg demonstrations often include very loud sound played in combination with very fast flashing/strobe light using the largest sound systems and projection screens available.
Botborg is a practical demonstration of the theories of Dr Arkady Botborger (1923-81), founder of the ‘occult’ science of Photosonicneurokineasthography – translated as “writing the movement of nerves through use of sound and light”. Botborg’s ‘instrument’ is the Photosonicneurokineasthograph – a complex feedback machine incorporating an entangled mix of new and old technologies, that are altered and customised to the unique features of every venue. Although the human operators of Botborg are skilled manipulators of the system, it is equally unpredictable and uncontrollable, allowing Botborg to look and sound vastly different on every occasion. All demonstrations are completely improvised and no source material is used outside the Photosonicneurokineasthograph.
Botborg has hosted live demonstrations at many prestigious music, film, and media festivals throughout Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (see Demonstrations).
Botborg’s first DVD Principles of Photosonicneurokinaesthography released through Australian label Half/theory has long since been sold out. Final remaining copies are available through specialist experimental film distributors Metamkine (Europe) and OtherFilm (Australia).
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Robin Fox is a Melbourne based sound and visual artist currently working with live digital media in improvised, composed and installation settings. He creates audio-visual works for the cathode ray oscilloscope, 3 dimensional audio visual laser environments and works with audible phenomena alone. Fox has performed worldwide both solo and in collaboration with Anthony Pateras. Recent highlights include the Yokohama Triennale, Musica Genera Festival (Warsaw), Steirischter Herbst festival (Graz) and a recent season at BAM in New York with Chunky Move’s award winning Mortal Engine.
‘‘….draws the audience into a matrixlike world of tunnels and virtual walls of light….it’s visually stunning’’ (New York Times)
‘The distortion of space and reality is awe-inspiring’ (www.newyorktheatre.com)
“Fox’s use of an audio controlled laser projector to demonstrate the geometry of sound was as elegant as anything you might experience in a concert hall or gallery” The Age
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ABJECT LEADER (BRISBANE)
“Abject Leader’s deeply materialist aesthetic sets them at an angle to the mainstream of contemporary moving image work. In the era of digital proliferation, their emphasis on the analogue, the handmade, the photo-chemical and the acoustical, is pleasingly defiant, and a little perverse. It’s also captivating; Stern’s delicately textured, sensitive soundscapes serve to contour the space in which Golding’s projections explore the bewitching possibilities of the celluloid medium, creating ephemeral cinematic experiences of startling sensuality.
Hinging on the frisson of the moment, their work courts chance, improvising the performance of sounds and films. This is what makes their work so beautiful, vital, surprising, compelling: Abject Leader perform cinema.” – Danni Zuvela, 2007
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JULIAN HAMILTON was born in Sydney in 1976. As a boy he sang in a St Andrews Cathedral Choir. Later he studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he met collaborator Kim Moyes. Julian spent the next few years performing with Kim in the 5 piece instrumental band Prop. From there Julian and Kim formed The Presets. The band released their 2nd album Apocalypso in 2008 to warm reviews. The album went on to win 5 ARIA awards including the award for Album of the Year. He lives in Sydney’s Inner West with his long time partner Janice Petersen, where is he currently working on a new Presets release, as well as battling Queensland Fruit Fly for control of his tomato plants. thepresets.com
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Clare Cooper (born Sydney, 1981) is a musician based in Berlin. Clare improvises with both the pedal harp and chinese guzheng and has performed extensively throughout Europe, Australia, USA and Japan as a soloist and collaborating with a wide range of musicins, dancers and visual artists. She also works internationally as a producer and curator.
Some of her key projects are Hammeriver, a 7 piece ensemble dedicated to the music of Alice Coltrane (with Chris Abrahams, Christof Kurzmann, Tobias Delius, Werner Dafeldecker, Tony Buck and Clayton Thomas), Germ Studies a science/fiction electro acoustic duo with Chris Abrahams, and Nevers with French electronic instrument builder Jean-Philippe Gross and LVSXY with long-term collaborator Clayton Thomas. Cooper is also a member of the John Butcher Group, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and Nicholas Bussmann and Martin Brandlmayr’s Kapital Band 1.
In 2001 Cooper started the fortnightly concert series If you like improvised music, we like you in Space3 Gallery Sydney with partner Clayton Thomas. The popularity of the series snowballed into what became ‘the NOW now festival of spontaneous music’, an annual celebration of Australian contemporary music, new collaborations and experimental film soundtracks. During her years in Sydney, Cooper was a founding member of minimalist ensemble the Splinter Orchestra, and collaborated with internationally acclaimed Australian improvisers Jim Denley, Oren Ambarchi (Sun O))), Amanda Stewart, Jon Rose, Chris Abrahams (the Necks), Robin Fox and Tony Buck (the Necks) as well as producers Scott Horscroft (Silverchair, The Presets) and Chris Townend (Sun), songwriter Darren Hanlon, Hip Hop producer Unkle Ho (The Herd), and Australian pop groups Sun, Prop, Gelbison and Inga Liljestrom.
Cooper co-directed the NOW now festival for 6 years and In 2007 relocated to Berlin where she completed her Master of Fine Art (Sound). Outside the sound world, Cooper can be found animating, designing album covers and interviewing filmmakers. More at http://gutstring.net
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Brendan Walls made his first recordings as a teenager living in the middle of nowhere in rural Australia. Working in isolation for years before eventually moving to the city, he began building his own acoustic and electronic instruments out of discarded equipment from his depressing job in a pawnshop.
His early embrace of public failure as an integral part of life and art, first established with his early Bovine tape series which presented carefully selected low points (the most inept and pathetic moments lovingly highlighted), continued for a time with his often confusing live shows in which his temperamental machines refused to obey their maker.
Although he rarely performs live, he continues to record and collaborate with his closest and dearest friends. An analogue purist, Walls prefers watches with hands and tape hiss to digital silence.
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