We did it! From what started as a bit of experiment, we seemed to build some momentum over our first season, topped off by our Season Finale and Fundraiser event at the end of November 2013. It was a stressful event, due in part to this, but it also felt like a triumphant celebration of all we had achieved in our first season. Many fond memories, and we even raised some money.

We would like to thank everyone who made our first season and fundraiser a success. People were generous beyond our wildest expectations. Below is a picture of Sarah Angliss playing at our fundraiser. Sarah has supported throughout but our thanks extend to so many people that we aren’t even going to attempt a list. Hopefully you know who you are, we certainly do.

Our fundraising efforts raised just over £1200. Not bad for a sound art event in a rural village hall. Read on to find out what 2014 holds.

Onward

In order to make this sustainable, we have set a budget of £400 for each If Wet. Therefore the funds we have raised so far will cover three events in the village hall in 2014. We are now looking for funding for additional events in this our home venue. We hope that potential funders will see the effort and outcomes of our first season and will be willing to match our own fundraising. We’ll see. We’d certainly love to do more events in our hall this year, since this is where the heart of If Wet lies.

Once we see how we get on with our search for funding, we will define our programme at Callow End Village Hall, but for now we just wanted to provide this update and statement of intent.

Also, If Wet has grown wings and will take flight in 2014, stopping to perch at a variety of venues – occasionally with a subtly different format. First up, we have been asked by Flatpack Festival to host an If Wet as part of their festival this year. The second If Wet outing of the year will be the Southbank Centre, when we host a Meet The Makers event. Then we are talking with Capsule about a potentially very exciting event in April. More details on all of these soon but we are delighted to be keeping such fabulous company!

AND we secured funding through Sound and Music, which will see us tour some village halls this year.

Wowee! Thanks again to all who have supported us.

ONWARD.

We are having to delay the start of our fundraiser by 30 minutes, due to a double-booking made by the people who organise the village hall. As a result we will only be able to get into the hall at 5pm and we are told they will still be removing a bouncy castle at the time! This might make things a little more shambolic/charming in general as we wont have the time we’d hoped to set up and test – but we’ll manage. If you do arrive at 5pm you will of course be welcomed in but please consider delaying until 5:30pm if you can.

Once in, grab yourself a drink, make yourself comfortable and we will start around 6pm with a presentation by your hosts MortonUnderwood.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused. See you soon!

The whole bouncy castle inside a village hall thing had passed us by but the image above is in fact of Callow End Village Hall.

For our final event we have a much extended offering, on a Saturday, so people can join us in celebrating our first season. By coming to this special fundraising event you will be helping to make our second season happen.

There will be presentations and discussion, much like a normal If Wet, but this event will feature musical performances more centrally.

JOIN US for a night of sonic exploration and wonderment >> Tickets here

Line-up:
Sarah Angliss / Isle of Everywhere / ORE / Nimzo-Indian / Soundhog (DJ) / MortonUnderwood

MortonUnderwood

Your every faithful hosts, MortonUnderwood will welcome you to the final If Wet of the season with a smile – all being well. The evening will start with some time for guests (new and old) to mingle and settle into the space and pace of the village hall – and explore the various goodies in the fundraising auction etc. We will then present a celebratory review of the previous events before moving on to showcase stuff that will feature in the fundraising auction. Then, the latest presentation of work by MortonUnderwood.

Nimzo-Indian

Next up there will be a presentation and live performance by Nimzo-Indian, an alter-ego of artist and technologist Fatsuma. Andy will discuss his work and present four mini guitars he has built, before going on to deliver an unpredictable performance with them.

At this point we’ll break for some refreshments. Hot food and drinks will be provided, as will cakes, snacks, wine, local ale and soft drinks.

ORE

With your belly full of grub, ease into a satiated transcendental state with a live set from drone doom tuba duo ORE. Again there will be a brief discussion about their ethos and working method ahead of the performance.

Isle of Everywhere

After ORE we are delighted to welcome back a band that were at our inaugural If Wet in April, the wonderful Isle of Everywhere (duo). They feature Stuart on tuba (if he has any puff left after playing with ORE) and Simon on santur. A rare combination; together in dub. Note: this is a duo performance without Lydia on drums.

Sarah Angliss

Our last live act of the evening is Sarah Angliss. Her last appearance at If Wet was a delight to behold and we are very pleased to welcome her back; only this time the emphasis will be much more on performance rather than discussion of working methods – although there will be a element of that too!

Soundhog

The rest of the evening will be spent celebrating and discussing, to a soundtrack provided by Soundhog.

We are not really sure what more we can do to entice you to our village hall; it should be a really distinctive experience. Step out of your world and into ours for a night.

We hope to see you at Callow End Village Hall on Saturday the 30th November at 5pm! Tickets on the door, £14. Or we have a few other ticket options available on-line

THIS IS NOW CLOSED FOR ORDERS.

If Wet – April 01

If Wet – April 06

If Wet 2 – May – 01

If Wet 2 – May – 26

If Wet 2 – May – 29

If Wet 3 – June – 01

If Wet 3 – June – 10

If Wet 3 – June – 30

If Wet 3 – June – 41

If Wet 3 – June – 42

If Wet 4 – July – 14

If Wet 4 – July – 24

If Wet 4 – July – 25

If Wet 5 – August – 27

If Wet 5 – August – 39

• All Pete’s If Wet photos are in this Flickr set and you can choose any of them.
• Deadline for orders is November 22nd. Pete will be printing them to order so will need a week.
• Photos will be brought to If Wet in Callow End on Saturday November 30th.
• The sizes are A4 in an IKEA Ribba 30x40cm frame for £20, and A3 in a Ribba 40x50cm frame for £40.
• The photos are mounted and Pete will sign the mount.
• If you’d rather not pay by Paypal, please get in touch with Pete.
• If you can’t collect from If Wet but really want a print, get in touch with Pete though be aware he’ll add a reasonable surcharge.

More information on the Season #1 Finale and fundraiser event, Saturday 30th November, here: fundraiser.ifwet.org.uk

Click poster to link to fundraiser page.

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.

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.

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.