Friday 30 September 2011

Opera to take place inside a cabinet




An opera to take place inside a cabinet, preferably wooden, by Ergo Phizmiz.




 The text is written by David Niven, from his autobiography "The Moon's a Balloon".


Made with two pieces of metal, an electric guitar, a musical saw, a midi keyboard, a cassette recorder, a floor tom, a plastic tube, a euphonium mouthpiece, the end of a recorder.
 
Recorded September 2011, at Grindia, Bridport.

Download at the Internet Archive.

Thursday 29 September 2011

Ergo Phizmiz Dates - Oct - Dec 2011

Greetings from the realms of chaos. Lots of things happening in the coming months...


04/10/11
"Disappearing Boxes" broadcast on Deutschland Radio Kultur (repeat of the WDR3 broadcast from July)

06/10/11
"The Third Policeman" live at the Kazimier, Liverpool, organised by UpitUp Records.

09/10/11
"The Third Policeman" live at The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe

15/10/11
Ergo Phizmiz live pop & disco van show, at Serralves Museum of Art, Porto, Portugal

23/10/11
Release of Ergo Phizmiz / R. Stevie-Moore 7" single "Food & War" on Care in the Community Recordings

06/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at Musicport Festival, Bridlington

08/11/11
Ergo Phizmiz live session on Marc Riley, BBC6 Music

09/11/11 and 10/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at The Cube, Bristol, organised by Qujunktions

11/11/11
Premiere broadcast of "The Carnival in the Mirror Marches Into the Sea", a new 30 minute radio piece, on Deutschland Radio Kultur

25/11/11, 26/11/11 and 27/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at Worm, Rotterdam

09/12/11
"The Third Policeman" live (and premiere broadcast) at Soundart Radio, Dartington

10/12/11
"The Third Policeman" and Howtosayto live at Bridport Arts Centre

Tuesday 20 September 2011

New podcast - Hallucination Duets: 1


I have become interested recently in the idea of double-doses of information by the fragmentation and simultaneous presentation of two originals.



That's to say, what the Hallucination Duets are, are two different pieces of music sat on-top of each other, each split into equal fragments of a few milliseconds and playing alternately.



 We can hear both, but not quite enough of either but too much of one to hear the other.


I wonder whether it becomes a piece of music itself, or if actually we are hearing two pieces simultaneously without the usual juxtaposition of overlaying anything. Everything is in isolation.


I'm curious if this was applied to "Moonraker" and "The Man With the Golden Gun", would we be able to watch two Roger Moore Bond films in the time it takes to watch one?



Hallucinatory Duetting today comes from ...


Delia Derbyshire vs Art Shaw
Jack Hylton & his Orchestra vs JH Squire's Instrumental Octette
Maria Callas vs Maria Callas
King Tubby vs the Poet Musicians of Turkey
Musique des Vallees Scandinave vs Tala'i, Musavi and Kiana
Robert Ashley vs Polynesian Polyphonies

Sunday 18 September 2011

Ergo's Disco Van Dango



Goodness gracious. Lock up your daughters in Bee Gees torture chambers. Ergo's Disco Van is back in town.




The fifth instalment, "Ergo's Disco Van Dango" presents three grooveobelisks for your sexual delectation.


Take off your shoes, dance like a maniac, put your shoes back on, dance again but enjoying the protection of that finely crafted fabric helmet that protects your floor-hands.


Crafted in the living room, lots of tea, jigs, and a bottle of Guinness.

Sunday 4 September 2011

Happy Birthday Beyonce, lots of love from Phizmiz & Killerwhale


On the occasion of her 30th birthday, we pass on a Bon Anniversaire to Beyonce Knowles, and wish her all the best of luck and happiness. Let's raise a glass to the next 30 years of soulful R & B.




By way of wishing her happy birthday, we take lines for a walk around "Survivor", "Independent Woman", "Crazy in Love" and "Single Ladies".

Recorded at Grindia, Bridport, 04/09/2011, straight to cassette tape.

Amie "Killerwhale" Willingale - Violin & Vocals

Ergo Phizmiz - Vocals, Harmonium, Musical Saw, Toy Piano, Hammond, Drums

Thursday 1 September 2011

Playback Play : Three American Composers - Ergo Phizmiz in Warsaw 05/09/11 - 12/09/11

Ergo Phizmiz is participating in Playback Play, in Warsaw, September 2011.

He will be creating a collaborative work based on the early operas of Robert Ashley, plus a performance of solo piano songs & improvisations.

PLAYBACK PLAY.



 THREE AMERICAN COMPOSERS


6-12.09.2011



Robert Ashley / Morton Feldman / Alvin Lucier


*


Frank Denyer, piano / Ergo Phizmiz, everything / Hilary Jeffery, trombone / Alessandro Bosetti, voice, electronics / Maciej Cieślak, guitar, voice, electronics / Edyta Fil, flutes / Michał Górczyński, clarinet / DJ Lenar, turntables / Paweł Nowicki, glockenspiel / Mikołaj Pałosz, cello / Julia Szproch, voice / Julia Ziętek, violin






Zachęta Art Gallery / Instytut Awangardy / Chłodna 25 / Powiększenie / Nowy Wspaniały Świat






There is a domination in every triangle, they say. Two allies dominate the third. In the Ashley / Feldman / Lucier trinagle there is as many rotating alliances of the two against the other as you wish. Number one, let's say: involvement with the voice. Two: graphic scores. Then: composing dying sounds rather than the notes. And so it goes, endlessly, because there is an infinite number of experimental techniques in the works and lives of this triangle.






Despite its selectivity Playback Play is by now the most comprehensive presentation of the works by the three american composers in Poland (perhaps). But also – not really. Their works are sometimes almost impossible to present. Fine, Feldman is very precise but Lucier's pieces as they survive are close to being hypothetical. They need to be checked out rather than presented in front of the audience. And Ashley? Where are his early operas? The librettos are incomplete and if you are lucky enough to know them – you see they are not precisely the same as the content of the very few and incomplete recordings. What they seem to be altogether is perhaps a grand theory of disappearing. The disappearance of the reverberating sounds in Feldman. The disappearance of speech in noise – Lucier. The disappearance of the recordings and the scores of the Ashley early operas. This is the most we can have. But at least let's have it as an airy way to approach the agony of contemporary music which – it seems – dies out just like their sounds and pieces. Playback Play is an arch from the performances of the pieces to pure phantasies on the ones which are not there anymore. Or to put the same thing in other words: a week long session of musicians who agreed to broaden the compositions of the three american composers with their own experiences and iterests.






06.09.2011, TUE (free entry)


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Nowy Wspaniały Świat, 20.00,


--- Electronic transformations of speech


Alessandro Bosetti + Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar


- Alvin Lucier, Duke of York


- Alvin Lucier, The Only Talking Machine of that Kind in the World


- Alessandro Bosetti, It is an Island






07.09.2011, WED (free entry BUT obligatory reservation: michal.libera@gmail.com)


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Instytut Awangardy, 20.00:


--- Trombone + pure waves


Hilary Jeffery solo


- Alvin Lucier, Wind Shadows


- Hilary Jeffery, Tromboscillator






08.09.2011, THU (free entry)


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Zachęta, 19.00:


--- Radio broadcast [Morton Feldman]






Zachęta, 20.00:


--- Early Feldman


Frank Denyer + Edyta Fil, Paweł Nowicki, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Ziętek


- Morton Feldman, Only


- Morton Feldman, Projection 1


- Morton Feldman, Durations 2


- Morotn Feldman, Projection 4


- Morton Feldman, Extensions 3


- Morton Feldman, Durations 1


- Morton Feldman, Why Patterns?






09.09.2011, FRI (20 zł)


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Powiększenie, 20.00


--- Free noise & songs & Lucier's “Bird and Person Dyining”


Alessandro Bosetti, Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch






10.09.2011, SAT (20 zł)


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Chłodna 25, 19.00:


--- Lecture [Robert Ashley]






Chłodna 25, 20.00:


--- Opera, Operas, Operandi


Alessandro Bossetti, Ergo Phizmiz + Maciej Cieślak, DJ Lenar, Julia Szproch, Julia Ziętek


- Alvin Lucier, Sacred Fox


- Robert Ashley, That Morning Thing / Wolfman Motorcity Revue (incl. Woflman, Automatic Writing, Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon etc.)


- Alvin Lucier, Opera with Objects






11.09.2011, SUN (free entry)


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Chłodna 25, 13.00:


--- Ergo Phizmiz solo piano






Zachęta, 19.00:


--- Radio broadcast [Alvin Lucier]






Zachęta, 20.00:


--- Resonanses


Hilary Jeffery + Frank Denyer, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch


- Alvin Lucier, Music for Cello with One or More Amplified Vases


- Alvin Lucier, Still Lives


- Alvin Lucier, Letters


- Robert Ashley, In Memoriam... Esteban Gomez






12.09.2011, MON (free entry)


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Zachęta, 20.00


--- Late Feldman


Frank Denyer solo


- Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories










The project has been co-financed by the Culture Bureau of Warsaw