Tag Archives: MortonUnderwood

If Wet 2014 Tour – Preview

On the 21st of June we head off around the country, for four events on consecutive weekends. Here is a full list of artists and tour dates. Please save the dates and get your tickets soon, as they are selling and village halls aren’t huge…

It’s hard to overstate quite how delighted we are to be able to bring the following artists to a village hall (nowhere) near you.

Saturday, June 21st, 2-4pm
Leslie Deere / Sarah Angliss
Sompting Village Hall, West Sussex – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

Sunday, June 22nd, 2-4pm
Hacker Farm / Jules Bushell
Fitzhead Tythe Barn, Somerset – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS
[NOTE: map position updated – was in wrong place before – sorry!]

Saturday, June 28th, 2-4pm
Lee Patterson / Hugs Bison
Bardsea Malt Kiln, Cumbria – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

Sunday, June 29th, 2-4pm
Paddy Steer
Callow End Village Hall, Worcestershire – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

SO CHUFFED! JOIN US.

Thank you to Sound and Music for their support with this.

If Wet 2014 Tour - poster

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

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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, 2-4pm – TICKETS. 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

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 #3 at Bardsea Malt Kiln – Preview

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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 penultimate event in the tour is at Bardsea Malt Kiln, Cumbria, 28th June, 2-4pm – TICKETS JOIN US.

We will kick things off, 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 have Phil Powell and Shaun Blezard talking about their duo Hugs Bison, which they describe as the collaboration of a musician with an interest in technology, and a technologist with an interest in music.

They’ll demonstrate the devices, apps and techniques they use, and how they’ve evolved over time as the technology has matured. They’ll talk about the setup they are using to take their gigs “off grid” and ways to collaborate remotely with other artists.

Hugs Bison

For the second presentation in Cumbria we are delighted to have Lee Patterson presenting 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. Sam was lucky enough to witness the outcomes at Monomania Festival earlier this year. You are in for an aural treat.

Lee Patterson

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

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

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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, 2-4pm – TICKETS. 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

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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, 2-4pm – TICKETS. JOIN US.

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 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 Supersonic – documentation

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Generally speaking we have resolved not to document remote If Wets. There is a lot involved in putting them on and in our local hall we know better what we face. This means the If Wets at Flatpack Festival and the Southbank Centre are documented only in preview form and in the memories of their attendees.

If Wet at Supersonic is a little different, though, because Sam normally contributes a rambling blog post to the Supersonic Collective Memory, so we felt we ought to provide a few photos (taken by David during the event) at least.

We spoke about our project Descent first. If you are very quick you may still catch it at Millenium Point.

Then we had Sarah Kenchington talk, followed by Ryan Jordan. This led on to an extended Run What Ya Brung section, co-run by Stryx, with presentations by various artists. The day finished with wonderful performances by Sarah Kenchington and Graham Dunning.

Here are some pictures and a few lines about what went on.

Sarah Kenchington

Sarah Kenchington demonstrating her self-made instruments

Sarah Farmer

Sarah Farmer running what she brung

Graham Dunning

Graham Dunning’s Mechanical Techno

Drumpet

Sam playing Sarah’s Drumpet

We have rooted around for some reviews but most reviewers seem to have stuck to the main stages. Here are a couple of exceptions – 1 / 2.

We enjoyed what the former said of Sarah Kenchington, “It really felt like she summed up everything Supersonic was actually about – pushing the limits of what music is and how we should think about it.”

It was a delight to behold. Thank you to everyone who presented and performed, and to all of you who came to witness it.

Next up, we are off on tour to four village halls across the country. We are delighted with the line-up. Have a look and buy tickets HERE. JOIN US.

If Wet at Supersonic – Preview

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We have never published an If Wet preview so close to an event before but we wanted to tell you because we are delighted with the extended line-up and events we have put together for Supersonic Festival – taking place tomorrow, 31st May 2014. JOIN US. The day will go something like this:

We will kick things off as usual, demonstrating our latest piece of work, Descent, which you can actually go and use during the time of the festival.

Sarah Kenchington

The first visiting artist to present is Sarah Kenchington. Sarah is a musical instrument builder. She makes wondrous acoustic machines, which she amalgamates into one large instrument that she does solo performances with. It is a sight and sound to behold.

Sarah will present her work and musical instruments in the salon part of our event, which starts at 5.30pm. She will then delight us with a performance (also in the Theatre Space) from around 8:45pm.

ryan

Ryan Jordan

Next up we have Ryan Jordan, who is a noise artist working with derelict electronics. He is also an instrument maker but Ryan’s work is predominantly electronic; building crude instruments that replicate fundamental electronic components. His sound is very far removed from that created by Sarah but this is what If Wet is all about. We hope you will find parallels in their work that go beyond the end product.

Ryan will present his work and creations in the salon part of our event, which starts at 5.30pm. He will then perform his liveset on the Second Stage at 8:45pm.

Richard Windley

Richard Windley – doing a RWYB

From 7.30pm we have the most full-on Run What Ya Brung section ever at an If Wet, with a number of artists presenting work and sonic curiosities. This is co-organised by Stryx.

We have always been lucky enough to have wonderful work presented in our Run What Ya Brung section. You can expect lots to relish and ponder from this one!

graham

Graham Dunning

Lastly, we are delighted to welcome Graham Dunning back to If Wet. Graham will perform a set for us using his latest set-up; a sort of mechanical techno thing. This will take place in the Theatre Space from 9.45pm.

I have no doubt we can convince Graham to explain it more on the night but here is a video to whet your appetite.

We hope to see many friendly, and lots of new, faces tomorrow. JOIN US.

I’m no yardstick – 2014 Tour t-shirts

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I'm no yardstick - t-shirt

With a little help from our friends [Sound and Music] we will be taking some t-shirts on our tour…

These were designed by the wonderful Julian James [New Sugar] and are based on a phrase David is often heard uttering to Sam, whenever he expresses a view about a matter of taste: You’re no yardstick. One day we realised that this probably applies to most people we know and to the majority of people inclined to attend an If Wet.

Remembering that you are no yardstick is important when assessing the world around you. In case you should ever forget, you will have it written on your t-shirt. Maybe we can proudly reject the yardstick together?

On the road, these will be on sale for £10 [Heavy Gildan t-shirt] and will come with a little tag saying you bought them on our 2014 Tour of village halls. If you can’t make it to a tour date, these can be purchased for £13 (inc. P&P). The first run will be of 100 t-shirts, of various sizes.

Please email us if you are interested in ordering one, stating your preferred size.
All proceeds towards funding future If Wets. We have three more to fund this season alone…

I'm no yardstick - t-shirt

If Wet 2014 Tour – full line-up

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Here is a full list of artists and tour dates. Please save the dates and get your tickets soon, as they are selling and village halls aren’t huge…

It’s hard to overstate quite how delighted we are to be able to bring the following artists to a village hall (nowhere) near you.

Saturday, June 21st, 2-4pm
Leslie Deere / Sarah Angliss
Sompting Village Hall, West Sussex – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

Sunday, June 22nd, 2-4pm
Hacker Farm / Jules Bushell
Fitzhead Tythe Barn, Somerset – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS
[NOTE: map position updated – was in wrong place before – sorry!]

Saturday, June 28th, 2-4pm
Lee Patterson / Hugs Bison
Bardsea Malt Kiln, Cumbria – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

Sunday, June 29th, 2-4pm
Paddy Steer
Callow End Village Hall, Worcestershire – map
PREVIEW | TICKETS

SO CHUFFED! JOIN US.

Thank you to Sound and Music for their support with this.

If Wet 2014 Tour - poster

We are 1!

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A week or so late mentioning this but we turned one year old at the end of April. A year that saw us go from events in our village hall to an event at The Southbank Centre!

Our 2014 season started with an event at Flatpack Festival, then the aforementioned Southbank Centre appearance. At the end of May we have If Wet at Supersonic, followed by a tour of village halls at the end of June. The last of these tour dates (29th June) will see us back in our hall for the first of a season of monthly events.

Why not grab yourselves a copy of our fundraising compilation as way of a celebration? Includes tracks by Leafcutter John, Kit Downes, Astral Social Club, Graham Dunning, Colin Webster & many more…

<a href="http://mortonunderwood.bandcamp.com/album/if-wet-in-the-village-hall">If Wet…in the village hall</a>

We are really grateful for all the support we have received and are very happy with the results thus far. Cue smiley faces…

Morton
Underwood