Tag Archives: field recording

If Wet #16 – Preview

EEK! If Wet #16 is nearly upon us; Sunday 27th July, 2-4pm! JOIN US.

After his wonderful presentation at Bardsea Malt Kiln (as part of our recent tour) we are a delighted to have Lee Patterson back for a second time…but in our village hall!

[Please note: from now on all tickets will be sold on the day; Pay as you enter.]

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We will kick things off, demonstrating our latest work as MortonUnderwood, and we might even show a little personal project or two off…

MortonUnderwood

Then it’s over to Lee Patterson to present his work.

Lee will explore the sonic potential of his unique instrumentation. From effervescent salts to amplified springs and dry rock chalk to burning nuts, he will open up and play the usually inaudible, microscopic sounds emitted by otherwise mute devices and objects. Having witnessed Lee’s presentation and wonderful sonic delights at If Wet at Bardsea Malt Kiln recently, we can assure you that you are in for an aural treat of the highest order…

Lee Patterson

Lee Patterson

All accompanied by the usual local ale, home-made grub and cake. JOIN US.

If Wet 2014 Tour #4 at Callow End Village Hall – Preview

The If Wet 2014 Tour is looming large! We set off around the country on the 21st of June, for events on consecutive weekends…

The fourth and last event in the tour is at our home venue of Callow End Village Hall, Worcestershire, 29th June, 2-4pmTICKETS. JOIN US.

It seems fitting that we will kick off our second season of If Wet in our hall with a piece we demonstrated at the first ever If Wet. We will be demonstrating the latest work on our Giant Feedback Organ. Originally shown at If Wet #1 and then commissioned by the Southbank Centre, we have continued to develop the sounds this beast can produce and we will share these with you…

Giant Feedback Organ

MortonUnderwood – Giant Feedback Organ

We then give the rest of the afternoon over to the wonderful Paddy Steer. Paddy will talk about his work and perform a few pieces to demonstrate. We could write more about Paddy but sometimes a picture and a video can sum stuff up better than we can with words:

Paddy Steer

Paddy Steer

OK, so maybe we do need to include this review of his album The Fortified Herd on his Bandcamp page, “Wonderfully bizzaro funky stuff from Sun Ra’s switchboard operator”.

As ever, this will be accompanied by the local ale, home-made grub and cake. JOIN US.

If Wet 2014 Tour #2 at Fitzhead Tythe Barn – Preview

The If Wet 2014 Tour is looming large! We set off around the country on the 21st of June, for events on consecutive weekends…

The second event in the tour is at Fitzhead Tythe Barn, Somerset, 22nd June, 2-4pmTICKETS. JOIN US.

We will kick things off as usual, demonstrating the latest work on our Giant Feedback Organ. Originally commissioned by the Southbank Centre, we have continued to develop the sounds this beast can produce and we will share these with you…

Giant Feedback Organ

MortonUnderwood – Giant Feedback Organ

The second presentation is from a wonderful maker we met at the Southbank Centre, as part of the aforementioned commission. Jules Bushell will talk about his work on this project, known as Bushell’s Amazing Drain-O-Phone – a pedal-powered drainpipe organ – and a selection of other pieces he has worked on.

Drain-O-Phone

Bushell’s Amazing Drain-O-Phone

For the second presentation in Somerset we are delighted to have Hacker Farm presenting their work. They have a message for you regarding their intentions.

A few words from HACKER FARM: “When we were asked to appear at If Wet… the first thing we did was hack their web-page. But we hacked them in the nicest possible way – we temporary borrowed the HTML tags that ‘describe’ the web-page advertising the event we were asked to appear at: Fitzhead Tythe Barn, Somerset, on Sunday 22nd, June. The processing is known as ‘scraping’ because it literally scrapes information off a web-page. We took this borrowed data and ran it through an algorithmic script that creates MIDI information. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface – it’s a protocol for controlling synthesizers and samplers that was used a lot in the 80s and 90s. Many of your favourite classic pop records from that era were played using MIDI information. So, basically, we turned the If Wet… web-page into a tune…

“We’ll be playing that tune using a… ah, well, you’ll just have to wait and see. We will also be bringing along and demonstrating a variety of hand-built / salvaged musical-instruments, incl. the NANDIcams (chip-based synthesisers housed in Kodak Brownie cameras), a synth made from an old paraffin can along with a rusty-broken bucket – now re-envisioned as the Atari-Punk-Bucket. All of this, as well as broken/bent kids-toys and contact-mic’d plastic-instruments – will be played through our purpose-built ‘Farmyard Sound System’…

Hacker Farm

Hacker Farm – Atari-Punk-Bucket.

Well, there you have it. Somerset, eh? All being well, this will be accompanied by the usual local ale, grub and cake. JOIN US.

If Wet 2014 Tour #1 at Sompting Village Hall – Preview

The If Wet 2014 Tour is looming large! We set off around the country on the 21st of June, for events on consecutive weekends…

The first event is at Sompting Village Hall, West Sussex, 21st June, 2-4pmTICKETS. JOIN US.

We will kick things off as usual, demonstrating the latest work on our Giant Feedback Organ. Originally commissioned by the Southbank Centre, we have continued to develop the sounds this beast can produce and we will share these with you…

Giant Feedback Organ

MortonUnderwood – Giant Feedback Organ

Next up, we are delighted to have Leslie Deere presenting her work.

California Coast

Leslie Deere – California Coast

Leslie will be talking about several projects, including an ongoing sound sculpture series, works in progress and KPPG live performance work. Her recent work in progress project, which revolves around field recordings and projected images, will be the starting point. Photographs and sounds were captured in California and Nevada last summer and she has been experimenting with analogue techniques to process the material. Deere recently transmitted some of these sounds live to a sound silo in California for her first KPPG performance. Leslie will also be talking about her ongoing time capsule project, preserving thoughts, musings and moments in time through sound.

Amplified Science

Leslie Deere – Amplified Science

Following on from Leslie we are delighted to have Sarah Angliss back at an If Wet.

Sarah Angliss and Hugo

Sarah Angliss and Hugo

Sarah charmed our audience when she came to the village hall we call home so it seemed like a good idea to invite her back when we were so close to her home of Brighton. She will talk about her automata and how she uses them in her live performances. She has also hinted at a couple of other pieces she would like to discuss and demonstrate. Most exciting!

Here is a recent video of Hugo to whet your appetite:

All being well, this will be accompanied by the usual local ale, grub and cake. JOIN US.

If Wet at Flatpack – Preview

The first If Wet of 2014 is upon us and it’s also our first outside of the village hall. On Saturday 29th March, 3-6pm we will be at Flatpack Festival in Birmingham. We are delighted to present a double-bill made up of Trevor Cox and Sebastiane Hegarty. JOIN US.

Sonic Wonderland

Sonic Wonderland, Trevor Cox

Trevor Cox is Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford and author of Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound. His book is contains examples of some of the most fascinating sounds on the planet, including sand dunes that drone and the world’s longest reverb.

In-keeping with Flatpack’s aquatic leanings this year, Trevor will present a variety of recordings and stories related, at least loosely, to watery sounds. As ever when Trevor presents there will be a mixture of science and sound, and a deep understanding of and enthusiasm for his subject.

Sebastiane Hegarty

Rain Choir, Sebastiane Hegarty

We are also delighted to welcome interdisciplinary artist Sebastiane Hegarty, who will be presenting a collage of sound and talk around the subject of time and place in relation to sound and field-recording. This will include a presentation of his work Rain Choir, a sound installation he created for the crypt at Winchester Cathedral.

One Water

One Water, MortonUnderwood

Your hosts MortonUnderwood will be presenting their One Water instrument, which was commissioned by Swedish composer Jonas Asplund. Their brief: “make me an instrument that uses water in the way it makes sound”.

We will also have our regular Run What Ya Brung section where anyone can do a brief, informal presentation of a sonic curiosity they might own or have built. Please JOIN US and contribute! If you do wish to contribute please drop a line ahead of the event to: hello@ifwet.org.uk

We hope to see you at Flatpack on Saturday 29th March at 3pm! Tickets here

Note: includes a separate screening of Solipcism Cinema by Stephen Cornford if you stick around!

If Wet #7 – Preview

Not long until If Wet #7; Sunday 27th October, 2-4pm. For our penultimate event of our first season we have a double-bill made up of the fabulous Helen White and Ian Rawes. JOIN US.

Helen White

Solar-wind Chime, Helen White

Inspired by recent media attention on solar flares and their effects on both positive and predicted negative events (the northern lights / technological disruption), Helen has been exploring creative ways to respond to this natural phenomena. She will be presenting her ‘solar-wind’ chime, a slowly-evolving resonating sculpture that responds in real-time to solar wind data collected from a satellite an hour away from earth, and she’ll be talking about working with complicated scientific principles and aesthetically bereft data sources that finally led her to listen to the sun.

By day Ian Rawes works in the sound archive at the British Library. He also runs London Sound Survey, a growing collection of Creative Commons-licensed sound recordings of places, events and wildlife in the capital.

London Sound Survey

London Sound Survey, Ian Rawes

Ian will present a series of rarely-heard and never-heard archival recordings of vanished customs and daily life from London in the 1920s to the 1950s. Performing dogs, fortune tellers, Mike Stern the mayor of Petticoat Lane, lavender sellers, the singing sewer workers of the New Kent Road, Commander Daniel’s noise nuisances, Godfrey the bagpipe king and how London Zoo’s animals helped win the war.

Sound Trolley

Your hosts MortonUnderwood will be presenting the Sound Trolley they built for their recent artist residency at the Library of Birmingham.

We will also have our regular Run What Ya Brung section where anyone can do a brief, informal presentation of a sonic curiosity they might own or have built. Last month we had Richard Windley with and acoustic guitar (!) and harp combo he had made. Please JOIN US and contribute!

We will also have the usual yummy treats of home-made food, cakes and a local ale.

We hope to see you at Callow End Village Hall on Sunday the 27th October at 2pm! Tickets on the door.

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Oh and GET YOUR TICKETS NOW for our final event of our first season…a fundraiser for Season #2 no less! Or feel free to just donate to the cause. THANKS.

If Wet #4 – documentation

If Wet #4 was another lively and well attended affair. As ever our guests did us proud.

Here is the full audio recording, in two parts: Part1 / Part2

Here’s an overview of what went on, so you can access topics of interest:

Welcome

If Wet #4 - intro

Photo: Pete Ashton

“Actually I don’t know quite what to expect, which is one of the delights of doing If Wet!”

MortonUnderwood present…

[2:20 – 38:36 | Part 1]

World Listening Day

[2:20 – 7:00 | Part 1]
We started by introducing World Listening Day before going on to cover our release on RHP, entitled “Field Augmentation”.

“World Listening Day is to celebrate the practice of listening as it relates to the world around us, environmental awareness, and acoustic ecology.”

“I don’t know whether you’ve ever experienced a tube journey but it is phenomenally loud sometimes. […] For me those sorts of journeys are fascinating because you have people there who would never normally listen to that sort of sound. I would go to a concert that sounds rather like that […] but a lot of the people on the tube definitely wouldn’t.”

Field Augmentation

[7:00 – 38:36 | Part 1]

If Wet 4 - July - 05

Photo: Pete Ashton

“We are very open to all of the chance sounds of course that appear in that setting; of which there are many.”

“[…] has the rather odd effect of sounding, as you’ll hear in a few minutes, like a scrapyard in a cathedral.”

“We are going to play this track in full. It’s about seven minutes long, so this is an endurance listening moment.”

Listening

Photo: Pete Ashton

“It’s quite interesting that people seem to be paranoid if you take a camera out but to my surprise it’s the other end of the scale with microphones.”
[David talking about our experience when recording in the field]

“Why is it that one type of sound is acceptable in a certain environment and another type of sound isn’t?”
[Sam talking about the recording of his piece The Bells]

mortonunderwood.co.uk

Laura Kriefman

[00:09 – 01:02:42 | Part 2]
Laura Kriefman introduced us to her work as choreographer, technologist and sound artist.

If Wet 4 - July - 06

Photo: Pete Ashton

“I came up with this ludicrous theory […] which is that the more labour saving devices we’ve found, the less we have rhythm in our body.”
[Laura discussing why we find dancing increasingly awkward]

“So, I started this plan to liberate dance. […] I may never achieve it but I am going to keep trying. […] I started taking all our work we were doing and putting it slap bang in the environment people were spending time in, because I wanted to show the way people move every day is beautiful.”

If Wet 4 - July - 12

Photo: Pete Ashton

“I wanted to create something which could be installed anywhere, whether it’s a country estate in the middle of a forest or on a street corner. […] The smallest one is small enough to hold and the largest one is large enough to sit on.”
[Laura talking about her Rolling Stones project]

“Would anybody like to touch a Rolling Stone?”

If Wet 4 - July - 08

Photo: Pete Ashton

“That’s playing on that base of chaos. It’s a really unusual place to put yourself, to create a piece of work when you know it’s going to tour because you have to make something that’s tourable. So, it has to have a finite form in the programming, it has to last 45 minutes, it has to be suitable for these kinds of people […]”
[Laura discussing applying chaos in her latest work]

Moving on to her mechanical bird building, Laura outlined her approach to making a variety of birds for her latest exhibition.

“How can I create a way for people to look up?”

“Some of the sculptures have very real birds and some of them have imaginary birds, so of course honker birds do not exist, nor do fluster birds. I only brought two of the fluster birds, there will be six living in this nest.”

If Wet 4 - July - 16

Photo: Pete Ashton

“All the birds are kenetic and hand manipulated because actually it’s more fun.”

“For the final one I need five volunteers!”

If Wet 4 - July - 19

Photo: Pete Ashton

guerilladanceproject.com

Run What Ya Brung

[01:05:14 – 01:16:45 | Part 2]
We run a regular feature at If Wet in which members of the audience are invited to bring along and demonstrate instruments, sound objects and sonic oddities. This month our regular contributor Richard Windley brought down his self-built Stroh guitar and amplifier. Once again, a remarkable rarity demonstrated in our village hall!

Richard Windley

[01:05:14 – 01:16:45 | Part 2]
If Wet 4 - July - 22

Photo: Pete Ashton

“The original Strohs were made out of some sort of nickle and aluminium alloys, which I guess were cutting-edge in the early nineteen hundreds. […] What Stroh did was he took part of the energy from the bridge and he pivoted it and brought this little arm down onto this very, very thin diaphragm, which is spun aluminium.”

richardwindley.co.uk

Once again, the event ended with a lot of people sticking around to chat. One of the core aims of If Wet it to build links locally. We are confident there are people who share our interests out there and we’d like to hook up with them to form some sort of creative community. Another successful If Wet, see you at the next one!

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The full set of Pete’s photographs of If Wet are available here.
 

A huge thank you to:
Everyone who presented! Everyone who engaged and provided feedback. Everyone who came. Kavita and Gill for running the bar and tidying up. Pete Ashton for taking photographs.