For
Email Members: www.spiritofgravity.com
email: info@spiritofgravity.com
GRAVITATIONAL
PULL
Dispatches
from the Spirit of Gravity / Edition 92 / May 10
·
Happenings:
Next
Spirit of Gravity gig:
Tuesday 18th May 2010
N.B. For one month only TUESDAY, due to Festivalness
AN EVENING OF ROOTS AND CULTURE:
ADAM
BUSHELL / SOGCHESTRA / PIMMEL / CALEB MADDEN
The
Komedia Studio Bar, 44-47 Gardner Street,
Brighton, BN1 1UN
Time
8:30 - 11:00 Cost £5 / £4
Adam
Bushell
"I am Sitting in a Room" (Alvin Lucier)
The SoGchestra
"In C" (Terry Riley)
Pimmel "Piece
for massed fuzz organs" (Andrew Saunders)
There
will also be an installation of "House Music" by Caleb
Madden instead of the Elektrocreche.
Spirit of Gravity members will be joined by the SafeHouse
Collective and others in a performance of Terry Riley’s In C, plus the
Tacet Ensemble’s Adam Bushell
performs Alvin Lucier’s ‘I am Sitting in
a Room’ and Pimmel will be asking audience
members to get involved in their celebration of the power of the fuzz
tone organ.
”In C” and “I am Sitting in a Room” were chosen by collective
members as they represent musical touchstones for the electronic, electroacoustic
and improvisatory work which Spirit of Gravity presents at it’s
regular nights. Both are important works in the history of experimental
music and have provided inspiration for members of the collective in
their own music making.
Pimmel are based at The Lewes Arts Lab and
will be continuing their ongoing exploration of the power of massed fuzz
organs under the direction of Andy Saunders.
Pimmel includes:
Andrew Saunders / Mick Hobbs / Richard Miles / Dave Tribe / Chris
Cutler / Tom Muggridge / Jake Rouscham
/ Dave Benke / Mike Barnes / Mark Robertson
/ Steve Mason
The Sogchestra includes:
Derek Thompson / McCloud / Gus Garside / Dan Powell / Steve Gillitt
/ Adam Bushell / Tony Rimbaud / Chris Cook /
Henry Collins
Caleb
Madden’s “House Music” Premiered at
the De La Warr Pavilion in November.
Hosted
by our very own 'Laptop' Lee Hume
Visuals by _minimalVector
There
will be the elektrocreche available
for any unaccompanied toys who will be looked
after during the intervals by our professionally trained team of
volunteers. And anybody else that wants to bring along a sound toy to
play with.
For
details of future Spirit of Gravity events, go to www.spiritofgravity.com/.
We
have video and audio on the Spirit of Gravity mp3 blog
from all our recent shows at spiritofgravity-brighton.blogspot.com/
There
are other videos on the Spirit of Gravity MySpace
page at www.myspace.com/thespiritofgravity
We
now have a Facebook group where you can be
kept up to date with shows and information:
www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=75568366205
There
are also downloads available of some complete Spirit of Gravity sets at
www.archive.org/details/the-spirit-of-gravity
There
are now also some of _minimalVector’s
films featuring Spirit of Gravity acts and guests at the Vimeo
HDTV page
www.vimeo.com/thespiritofgravity
·
Greetings:
The main Brighton Festival this year has already featured aspects of Roots and Culture in the choices of curator Brian Eno. Our contribution is to nod to our antecedents with performances of “In C” and “I Am Sitting In A Room”. Join us in a journey through our musical history to acknowledge the particular giants on who’s shoulders we stand. Don't forget that we are also offering a free limited edition CD to everyone who attends, featuring more tributes to those who came before.
Speaking
of which, advance warning of a real coup for the Gravity – the
legendary Eugene Chadbourne is gracing us
with his presence, advance tickets will be available, information anon.
·
Reviewings
Spirit
of Gravity
at the Komedia Studio Bar, Brighton,
Thursday 8th April
2010
Tetras
play the kind of elevator music you may hear in the Tardis,
your attention is drawn to the foreground Vibraphone of Olli Mayne
laying space age rings around you ears, but the uneasy computer scrapes
of Thanos Chrysakis
and James O'Sullivan’s creeping guitars unnerve you until the long
notes of clarinet ground you in some completely unexpected place.
Halfway through Olli starts shouting through a Maplin’s
megaphone, and Thanos loses his monitors.
It’s a great example of musicians playing together and actively
listening and responding excellent.
Concrete Belly is a fine counterpoint; a one band, dense with
bent toy rhythms and fuzz guitar structured. Ashley channels Jay Mascis
more than Thurston Moore these days, freeing him up for some foot on the
monitor fun. There is a section where it all gets psychedelic and
freeform in the middle and he ends with the William Burroughs
“medicine” cut up from the CD's he left behind when he played last
year.
Finishing off the evening in many ways were Jez
North. They enter from the rear of the hall with masks and lurid
underpants in place (to be fair, 2 were more fully attired), they fire
up the distorted backing tracks and enter into the full throated raw Vox
Brut full throttle screaming. The first reaction is to laugh, but there
are dark undertones here, and I'm sure given the time and talent I could
get all Paul Morley about them, but this is uneasy stuff. There seem to
be some cover versions (not Madonna) some banter, an unlikely
contribution from a support act, a lot more screaming and not many
people left at the end. They handed out a number of CD's in VHS size
boxes. I still have a sealed copy I'm rather worried about.
El
Maestro Con Queso
Editor.