New Picturesque

Dusk & Dawn

This morning, I discovered this odd bit of sound art via the wonderful resource which was Continuo. I only hope someone, somewhere, sees sense to archive his endless and remarkable collection of strange sounds for future generations. More information here.

Echoes, Voices, Medium, Scenes

...... just a little post to say that if you're in the vicinity of Glasgow,you may wish to visit The Good Press Gallery in order to cast your critical eye over an exhibition of curiously odd spectral Modernism by graphic designer Julian House.The exhibition runs throughout November - December and is well worth a peek or two.Highly recommended.

A selection of limited run prints are for sale,contact goodpressgallery@gmail.com for further information. 

Where It All Happened Once

I visited the Richard Hughes exhibition at the Tramway yesterday and was struck by both its conceptual rigour and beautifully crafted artifice. Many of the sculptures appeared to be discarded ‘found objects’ but upon closer inspection revealed themselves to be remarkably eerie simulations which had been painstakingly crafted in polyester resin, fibreglass and painted bronze. These carefully rendered models of urban detritus seem caught within a state of strange flux; a full scale replica of a dilapidated community centre hovers in mid air, bewitchingly tilted, its windows and doors barred and hermetically sealed to all visitors. Yet, despite all its absurd location in space and foreboding presence, its internal lights and extractor fans are switched on, presenting a curious halfway house between social function and oneiric ritual. A building where youthful optimism and childhood wonder once flourished is now revealed as yet another grim reminder of the dark wasteland of failed civic idealism and haunted nostalgia. Disquieting stuff indeed. Richard Hughes has an uncanny knack of magically transforming the neglected, burnt out and grime smeared objects of our social decay into curiously enchanting artifacts which are powerfully charged with cultural history and urban alchemy. An exhibition very much worth seeing. 

Where It All happened Once, Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 26 Oct - Sun 16th December

More about Richard Hughes here.

The House Of C.G. Jung At Küsnacht

The Haunted Radio

As a little prelude to All Hallows Evening, here's a little audio collage of oddly atmospheric spectral wonder by one of my favourite purveyors of 'haunted pop'. Dymaxion [comprising of duo Jeremy Novak and Claudia Newell] produced only a handful of singles in the late nineties but each one is a sonic wundercabinet of layered and playful composition. I hope you enjoy this four minute trip into the uncanny as much as I do.

David Noonan Monograph

This month sees the publication of the first comprehensive monograph on artist David Noonan and I'm delighted to report that it exceeded all my expectations. Designed with a typographical restraint only the Swiss seem to manage, the book beautifully presents a chronological overview of the artist’s work to date. Accompanying texts by Jennifer Higgie, Dominic Molon and novelist/cultural provocateur Michael Bracewell explore the many cultural references found within Noonan's work with insightful observations. Michael Bracewell, in particular, delivers graceful textual incantation on Noonan’s lucid dream house of images to intriguing effect.  Wonderful stuff and very much worthy of your investigation.

David Noonan is published this month by JRP|Ringier.

Alignments

Drawings Of Old Trees

David Noonan - New Work

If you're visiting London between the 10th October and 10th of November, I strongly recommend that you try to see David Noonan's exhibition of new work at Modern Art which is a darkly theatrical exploration of veiled narratives and gender politics. I particulary enjoyed trying to decipher the paper collages on linen which combined a strange meld of functional representation and oblique abstraction.

Kindred Of The Kibbo Kift

I found this perplexing image by chance and was immediately drawn in by its powerful narrative.

Five figures, four of which are wearing peculiar, dark hooded cloaks are caught in an air of fixed purposefulness. The young men are oddly clothed in what appears to be religious or militaristic garb. Their backpacks are adorned with weird heraldic insignia and each carries a knife and a wooden staff. The figure on the right has a woven badge which depicts a crescent moon sewn onto his left shoulder of his jacket. All eyes are intently turned towards the ground in an air of focused ritual. Smoke begins to rise. This is the kindred of the Kibbo Kift.

The Kibbo Kift were an early 'open air' social movement founded by John Hargrave in 1920. Hargrave’s aim was to encourage “outdoor education, the learning of handicrafts, physical training, the reintroduction of ritual into modern life, the regeneration of urban man and the establishment of a new world civilisation.” Noble themes indeed. As I began to dig a little deeper I became further intrigued. Despite existing for five only years, the Kibbo Kift had many illustrious champions; suffragette Emmeline Lawrence, photographer Angus McBean, social reformer Havelock Ellis, biologist Julian Huxley and author H.G.Wells, each were all enthusiastic and ardent supporters of the movement. By all accounts, John Hargrave was something of an eccentric visionary and exuberant polymath, being an illustrator, cartoonist, wood carver, anti-fascist, thriller novelist, inventor, psychic healer and a forefather of the modern anti-capitalist movements. He was distinctly anti-fascist and abhorred the restrictions of what he saw as the shackles of an industrialised society. In the 1930's he formed the largest uniformed paramilitary street-army in Britain, the 'Greenshirts'. The 'Green Shirt Movement For Social Credit' advocated social change through the dismantling of  financial institutions and oppressive banking systems, arguing that a culture of loans and debt were just a means to enslave the working man. Oh, how times have changed.

At the height of their rise, John Hargrave's social and cultural movement could count more followers than Oswald Mosley’s Blackhirts. Strange, so very strange, that he and is his movement are now all but forgotten. 

There's a very informative site here should you wish to delve further into tales of 'green painted  bricks'  being thrown through the windows of 11 Downing Street and all things Kibbo Kift.

As a rather odd footnote, I stumbled across this wonderfully evocative audio collage of 'campfire magic' while researching the story behind this striking image. I hope you enjoy. Tracklist in comments.

Cults Percussion Ensemble

Here's another delightful recording which has just popped through the A Sound Awareness letterbox. This time, an oddly beautiful compendium of tuned percussion music, wonderfully played by an ensemble of Aberdeenshire school children. All twelve tracks were recorded and issued privately in 1979, with financial support by Grampian Regional Council and Aberdeen Educational Trust, with the resultant lp to be sold at concerts while the ensemble toured the United Kingdom, Germany and France. In my many years of scouring charity shops, jumbles sales and early morning carboots I've never even had a sighting of this elusive gem and I have a sneaking suspicion that many a proud 'Granite City' grannie or grandad have multiple mint copies sitting underneath their beds waiting to be bequeathed to future generations as precious family heirlooms. The copy I acquired came via a rather odd Yorkshire antique dealer who liked to send records in recycled pizza boxes. Luckily, the aforementioned pizza boxes hadn't been used prior to delivery. The recording itself is very peculiar, combining child like exotic percussion flourishes and eerie, swirling sound tones, all beautifully played with a melancholic innocence only youth can muster. Years ago, when I first heard this record, I instantly thought of Jonny Trunk. It's like the perfect Trunk record and it seems fitting he's decided to reissue it. What's not to love, there's spectral vibraphonic glissando, impish flourishes played on glockenspiels, proto hip hop drum breaks played on timpani drums and fourteen year old musicians conjuring all sorts of weird little shimmering sound shapes of sonic wonder on every composition. It's very enchanting stuff indeed. I should probably also mention that the record features a fourteen year old Dame Evelyn Glennie and a rather fine beige sleeve, which according to the sleeve notes, Jonny Trunk decided was too beige for a contemporary audience. I guess he's right. Head over to Trunk HQ to find out a little more.

Absurdist Sound Stones & Gallic Acid

Two very strange recordings arrived through my letterbox this morning, a decidedly odd compilation of absurdist wonky 'head jazz' by Emil Richards and a sublime anthology of psychedelic orchestration by French composer William Sheller. 

Emil Richards, percussionist extraordinaire, maverick electronic freakout pioneer and wearer of immensely formidable moustaches has long been a favourite on the A Sound Awareness turntable. This compendium collects his three best recordings; the wonderfully delirious and 'out there' "Stones", the remarkably off-kilter and weirdly arranged strangeness that is "New Time Element" and probably my favourite example of 'zoned out transcendental rug jazz' ever recorded, the extraordinary oddball and bizarre "Journey To Bliss". All three are musical gems.

William Sheller has also been a longtime favourite and this collection not only gathers together his visionary opus "Lux Aeterna" but many of his rare and seldom heard 45s such as the rather fine (and rather pricey) Erotissimo OST single which is delerious minute and a half of French psychedelic pop wizzz! "Lux Aeterna" is a very different musical proposition entirely and as such this uniquely strange recording is both difficult to describe or reference. Originally composed as a wedding gift in 1970, it's an oddly beautiful recording which combines a weirdly sinister melange of ritualistic choral chants, melancholic psychedelic orchestration, whirling electronic oscillations, meditative kosmiche groove and devout spoken word recitations. I can only think of a handful of records to compare it to, the nearest touchstones being the dark instrumental passages of Jean Claude Vannier's “L'enfant Assassin Des Mouches” or the mystical psychedelic liturgical paens of Majoie Hajary's "La Passion Selon Judas" or maybe a few of the immersive orchestral reverberations found on Jason Havelock's "Pop Symphony". As I said, comparisons are not easy. Whatever dark chemicals they were dumping in the Seine in the late 60's and early 70's to create such weirdly uncharted musical waters we can only guess. This is an exceptional example of fractured Gallic acid from the post May '68 musical pharmacie.

Both of these musical oddities are released this month by the Omni Recording Corporation and are well worth your further investigation.

Typographische Monatsblätter