electric angel /design for life

peasholm magic lantern

coastival sees the welcome return of scarborough’s festival of light [which i think was our first design work for create]. we’ll be converging on the rotunda museum for a lantern parade on friday 13 february and will certainly be checking out other light goodies such as video installations in the south bay underground car park and in the crypt of saint martin’s church on south cliff. there’s also something called the chroma van which promises ‘a unique exploration of colour perception in the comfort of a remodelled caravan’. how can you resist that?

i’ve also been invited by poet kate evans to apply typographic interpretations to a series of haiku’s as part the peasholm magic lantern. the lantern will take place in the faux-oriental pagoda on the island of peasholm park and features haiku’s by kate, photographs by mark vesey and an original composition by amaya huntley. kate showed me the first draft of the complete sequence yesterday – i think it’s going to be something rather special. the music is wonderful and the whole experience reminds me very much of some of the more immersive alt.worship experiments we instigated in bradford.

the images above are from felt – our little book of treatments of poetry from 2 years ago. this haiku makes an appearance as part of the magic lantern – you’ll have to come experience it for yourself to see the others.

what we’re listening to [14] – ollie’s free download

back as part of digital scarborough 06 we organised a creative coast event – the 5 minute pitch. we invited a panel of investors and creatives to hear three local creatives pitch an idea, dragon’s den style.

the ‘pitchers’ received training on speaking in public from lizzie of raised eyebrow and duncan from business link. ollie green was the youngest of the participants – still in school at the time – and impressed the panel with his idea for an internet radio station showcasing local music and his enthusiastic & slick presentation.

forward-wind 2.5 years and olllie is now at music college and has just released his first album ‘hold on’. it’s a free download so you can enjoy it too: http://ollie.bandcamp.mu/

the tracks are as infectious as ollie’s enthusiasm was back at the sjt in ‘06.
if you’re local, look out for an interview with ollie in next month’s issue of scarborough’s future.

kosmigroove – what we’re listening to [13]

it’s funny when you discover a description and whole subculture for something you’ve been into for ages, blissfully unaware that there’s a whole load of other people out there also desperately seeking more of the same. such it is with a clutch of albums currently on rotation in the studio, all of which are apparantly fine examples of ‘kosmigroove‘. nice to know we’re not alone.

miles davis, olympia 1973
miles in his post-bitches brew stop-start chuggery. ‘jazz fans’ often hate this stuff. but if you like it there are lots of live performances from this period available on the net.

charles earland, leaving this planet
tight group with stellar soloists often heading for the stratosphere.

tony williams lifetime, emergency!
where jazz really meets rock. frantic, distorted, kinda scary.

fela ransome-kuti and africa ‘70 with ginger baker
funk jive goodness.

pirates, puppets, projections and proms

a quick mention…

for the punch and judy puppets exhibition opening tomorrow at scarborough art gallery. maybe see some of you at the launch this afternoon?

for seafest for live music, boats, seafood, fireworks, real ale and other good things in and around the harbour this weekend. it’s free. [as is the wifi]

for rachel howfield’s installation in the coffee lounge at scarborough art gallery which opens on saturday.

and for the bbc proms which begin tonight with a blast of brass and there’s plenty more of that in this year’s programme. i’ll offer my pick of the proms next week [like you're the least bit interested...]

have a good weekend y’all.

what we’re listening to [12]

with last night’s south bank show retrospective of billy joel it’s maybe time for us to confess our appreciation of the piano man. songs in the attic was part of the studio soundtrack last year and we’ve been willing in summer with cold spring harbour.

Continue reading…

what we’re watching [1]

jonathan meades : magnetic north. tv rarely produces anything as stimulating as a jonathan meades documentary. any of them. last night’s giddy ride in search of ‘north’ ranged from inebriation as essential climate coping mechanism to the secularisation of religion embodied by reformation church-stripping via dogging as metaphor for heaven and hell. wonderful. but then anything that debunks the myth of ’south’ is good by me.

one gripe though – in the programme southwold was quoted as the first english seaside resort. tut-tut, mr meades. that accolade does belongs to somewhere beginning with an ’s’, but it’s definitely in the north of england.

what we’re listening to [11]

nothing. because it is no music day.

what we [james] are/is listening to [10]

well as adrian is away on holiday it’s just been me in the studio this week. i’ve been busy! here’s the albums that have got me through a testing week:

shine eyed mister zen by kelly joe phelps is an album i’ve had for a few years and it makes a comeback in times of stress and need. this is seriously heart-felt acoustic blues, its not feelgood music, it’s pure and simple with nothing but kelly joe’s rasping yet soft voice and beautiful acoustic picking. it reminds me of camping at the end of summers at deserted beaches, when the air is starting to chill and the nights begin to draw in, playing guitar with friends.

sufjan stevens album come on feel the illinoise is the second of sufjan’s 50 states project album’s, where each album relates to one of america’s states. whether he seriously intends to do this is debated but if he does and all the albums are as good as this it’d be worth owning them all. sufjan’s style of folk is original and beautiful, and very emotional, referencing the places and people of illinois. his lyrics often relate to his faith and you’ll best know his songs for being used in the FiveUS pre-programme stings on TV.

elephant eyelash by why? is a strange album. i’d call it folk hip-hop. why? began life as a solo project but has since become a full band. they are part of the anticon collective of artist who have produced some very original work, taking hip-hop to a more poetic level with elements of electronica, folk and minimalist music. why? features some of the more pop tinged elements of this genre and is really fun.

a lad insane… or what we’re listening to [9]

bit of a bowie vibe in the studio at the moment…

lou reed’s transformer is chaotic, pastoral, dumb, smart, sexy and innocent all at once. but it’s always near the top of those ‘best album in the whole world ever’ lists so you don’t really need us to recommend it. the bowie link – he produced it and ’spider’ mick ronson did the arrangements. there was no stopping these guys in 1973.

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aphex twin’s mixes for cash is something james brought in. and boy is it good. we particularly like his take on philip glass’s heroes symphony, based on bowie’s album of the same name and featuring some wonderfully stretch-out histrionic vocals.

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and finally an album by the man himself. i seem to remember this got a bit of a slagging back in ‘96 and as a result earned bowie an ‘embarrassing grandad trying to hang out with the kids’ reputation. can’t see why, it now sounds twice as good as most of the drum n bass stuff that was its contemporary. he’s the man.

mmw+s …what we’re listening to [7]

meant to blog this earlier in the week. today is the last chance to ‘listen again’ to last friday’s most groovy and sometimes out-there concert by medeski, schofield, martin & wood on radio 3. funky hammond n guitar ruffness with abstract tendencies. yum. listen here.