Maquette For A Museum Of Switzerland

Inner Space

I've been meaning to write something up on this wonderful documentary series for a while but it's taken myself and the family a couple of weeks to watch all thirteen episodes of this legendary Australian cult television show. Filmed in 1973 by sub aquatic explorers Ron and Val Taylor, the series finely balances factual documentary with dramatic oceanographic adventure, capturing an innocence and sense of playful wonder rarely seen on cinematic screen nowadays. It's compulsive viewing, a strange combination of aquatic sensuality, sublime cinematography, factual science, drama and of course the charming relationship of husband and wife team Ron and Val. As a youngster I remember my teenage brain being submerged by similiar documentaries, endless Film Board Of Canada documentaries on the deep sea with strange electronic scores, rainy Sunday afternoons transfixed by the underwater acrobatics of Frenchman Jacques Cousteau or watching from behind the sofa the subaqueous celluloid terror of Bruno Vailati's 'Jaws' cash-in films. Exotic televisual treats such as these, often but not always fueled by the success of 'Jaws', offered a form of escapism from the daily grim realities of growing up in the industrial belt of Scotland. These were other worlds, uncanny, hauntingly beautiful and sometimes fearful. 'Inner Space' is a delight to watch from start to finish and beautifully illustrates the extraordinary hypnotic power of underwater filmmaking. Episode 9,in particular, is a terrifying edge of the seat masterpiece of monstrous mondo exploitative film making. Steven Spielberg was apparently so impressed with this particular episode that he consequently changed his script to allow inclusion in the film 'Jaws'. 'Inner Space' is a cinematic wonder, charting strange, undiscovered waters and perhaps the only film I know of which features a charming aquadelic jazz soundtrack, man eating sharks and a William Shatner narration. An unclassifiable gem. Seek out.

Inner Space is out now on DVD on Votary Records. 

Percupulsions / Gymnorythmies 1

Here's a little compendium disc which is definitely worthy of your attention. 'Percupulsions' by Patrice Sciortino was released on the French 'Neuilly' library label in 1970 and was originally intended to be used primarily as functional mood music for film,radio and television. As a historical document,it's a fascinating example of avant garde music colliding with popular culture in a most unexpected manner. Musically it's astoundingly singular in both its compositional breadth and lyrical diversity. Psycho baroque harpsichord patterns jar harshly in rhythmic counterpoint creating a strange kind of derailed avant primitive minimalism. Oddly tuned gamelan tones float over perpetually changing clock-like rhythms creating an uncanny metronomic pulse. Interleaved with dissolving free improv skitter, the track "Spelelien" summons ghostly vibraphone, supernatural rattle and gloomy unease while the short, quick paced dark repetitions of "Multitudinaire" and "Para-Docks conjure bleak mechanistic paranoia. It's amazing to hear percussionists tease such complex and otherworldly sonics out of a such a limited palette of instrumentation. The overall effect is akin to listening to Tony Oxley, Moondog and Steve Reich gleefully jam a deranged, non machine-generated form of proto-techno. Despite the rhythmic complexity, it's all woodblock, handclaps and tom-toms on show, no electronic instrumentation in sight. Weird gear indeed. 'Gymnorythmies 1' is a very different proposition altogether. Created as an accompaniment to early school dance and gymnastic lessons [very much in a similiar vein as the BBC's innovative 'Music, Mime and Movement' and 'Listen, Move and Dance' series] this is very much music for dance and expression. "Excercices Avec Cerceaux No. 2" elevates a simple hula hoop exercise into a giddy, unearthly enchantment and is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. Have a listen to the track uploaded by the ever wonderful Toys & Techniques here.  The track, "No.12 Relaxation",evokes a dreamlike world where sound clusters of ethereal glissando shimmer celestially only to be punctuated at random intervals by a baleful voice. Odd, disquieting stuff indeed.  Throughout this disc, the playing is beautifully restrained, precise and hypnotic creating a strange hybrid of childlike melodics and avant garde modular percussion. Hats off to the Omni Recording Company for making this visionary music available once more.

Jacqueline De Jong

 

 

Berberian Sound Studio

Last night,I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Peter Strickland's new film,Berberian Sound Studio and what an audio visual treat it turned out to be. Without giving away too many spoilers,the main narrative of the film centres around Gilderoy,a rather dowdy and reticent British sound engineer who is lured to Italy to record and produce the soundtrack to a lurid Italian 'Giallo' shocker. The setting for the film is loosely based on the pioneering Milan RIA electronic Studio di Fonologia where clinically precise sound technicians and composers such as Luciano Berio created high brow and avant garde musique concrete compositions by day and experimental film soundtracks for low budget horror films by night. Playing on this uniquely odd intersection between high and low  cultural forms, the film is oddly humorous and disquieting,fear and tension is consistently implied but never witnessed,the audience is aware of a grisly spectacle unfolding but the magnetism of the narrative resides,like in all good horror films, in what is heard rather than what is witnessed. Many of the visuals unfold like musical compositions, transforming the mundane minutiae of daily life into something sublimely poetical. Likewise sound is used to create cinema for the ears,imploding,colliding and blurring conventional cinematic narrative. Never before had I imagined the horror implicit in the ripping,shredding and scalding of an orchestra of vegetables. A special mention should be made of Julian House's beautifully evocative title sequence which is a graphic wundercabinet of haunting mondo exploitation and will have most horror fans salivating. I personally can't quite remember seeing such a rich and disturbing visual homage to the black arts. Wonderful.

Oh, ...... and as an afterthought there's plenty of oscilloscopes, echoplex tape recorders and vintage reel to reels to keep even the most demanding electronik tape boffin content. A must see and more importantly must hear film.

The Rise & Progress Of Superstition

The Little Folk

Jonny Trunk sent me this little recording for my breakfast. It features school kids cutting a folk strum rug in Petworth in 1966. An oddly enchanting acetate which sounds as if it was recorded in the room next door or maybe the room next to that one. It sounds weirdly psychedelic. Oh and before you get all shirty, he gave me permission to share.

Worm

A few collages and a little bit of of poetry from the late, great Bob Cobbing. Sorry for the lack of posts of late, life has been a bit hectic.

Origami

It's always a pleasure to see new work by visual artist David Noonan and these images are no exception. I hope you enjoy this small selection of recent work currently on show at Xavier Hufkens in Brussels as much as I do. If you're in the vicinity, I would highly recommend a visit. A little bird has also told me that a catalogue will be available towards then end of the show. Origami by David Noonan runs between 1 March - 31 March 2012.

Les Dents Du Singe

René Laloux's "Les Dents Du Singe" is a fiendish little animation about monkeys, teeth and bicycles. Filmed in 1960, in collaboration with patients, while working as an artist in residence at a psychiatric clinic, the film is a tour de force of primitive scrawl and absurd drama. I hope you enjoy.

The London Nobody Knows

Here are a few images from a little filmic oddity which I finally got round to watching last night. Based on Geoffrey Fletcher’s book of the same title,"The London Nobody Knows" follows actor James Mason on a psychogeographical walk through the neglected, hidden and seamy streets of post war London. Infused with period charm,the film depicts a strange netherworld of melancholic meths drinkers,tilted streets,eel soup,goldfish swimming in Victorian public toilets and the odd piece of electronic library music by composer Wilfred Burns (see youtube clip below). Lovely.

I Futuribili

Another impossible to find Italian library recording sees the light of day once more. Originally released in 1972, in a minute pressing of 500 copies by the Italian Gemelli label, Egisto Macchi's "I Futuribili" is perhaps one of the finest examples of Italian library music ever recorded. Despite working extensively in the field of film, television and soundtrack music for over forty years, Egisto Macchi is known little outside a few soundtrack collectors and music library music aficionados. This is a shame, as much of his work and especially this recording is remarkably unparalleled in both vision and execution. The oppressive incertitude of "Camere Anecoiche"is a masterful study in compositional suspense. Vapourous and eerie electronic tones pulse and fluctuate like the flapping wings of stunted and misshapen insects. Sound becomes slowly asphyxiated as tense, blunted string motifs twist, loosen and tighten around the main electronic theme, the effect is like being suspended in a hallucinatory, motionless hall of fevered dreams. With each successive listen, new details are born out of the darkness, hidden resonances wait in the shadows, eager to snare the unsuspecting listener. "Nouvi Planeti" demonstrates Egisto Macchi's consummate prowess in cinematic composition, this arrangement weirdly pollinates twilight zone stuttering pizzicato, rattling percussive palpitations and deep resonant drum tremors which oddly sound reminiscent of a funereal procession in space. "Richiami Spacziali" is darker still, a vertigo inducing contradiction of ascending and descending scales, rising and falling in foul perfection. Sonorous strings decay in bleak noctambulation, the forest is alive with owl-like woodwind, archaic electronics cackle, rattle and hiss creating a veritable cinema for the ears. Thematically, "I Futuribili"is a strange beast, with sound images consistently converging in unexpected and radical ways. It seems strange that music such as this, which was originally intended as mere background music for the flickering screen and cathode ray tube sounds so emotively powerful to modern ears. Far from a collection of miscellaneous cues, each composition builds and develops into a singular vision of a dark, sinister, mysterious sound world. Is this sacred music? Is it music of the profane? Is this music of inner or music of outer space? Is this music of past, present or future? "Forme Planetaire" is a perfect example of these contradictions, as dank moog droplets languorously fall from the heavens, forming taught harmonic stalactites gilded by an elegant and restrained string arrangement. Sounds dissolve then momentarily reappear, flickering, wraithlike. In this dark,untenanted landscape everything which is solid melts into the black miasmatic smog.  "I Futuribili", which translates as "The Futuristic" is a fascinating, category defying recording, investigate it at the earliest opportunity. Another wonderful cinematic communique from the immeasurable darkness by Roundtable. Now, if someone will only be so kind as to reissue Città Notte.

"I Futuribili" by Egisto Macchi is out now on Roundtable/Omni Recording Corporation in a limited run of 500.

Objections To An Empty Mind

Here are a few photographs I took yesterday while visiting a rather wonderful exhibition of work by marginalised and at times controversial British artist Austin Osman Spare at The Hidden Noise in Glasgow. The show presents a small selection of hallucinatory, seldom seen works from various private collections. Having recently read this fine book, it was a joy to see Spares's exquisite draughtsmanship in the flesh. I was particularly drawn in by his peculiar, anamorphic portraits which are like a sideways glance into a mysterious and strange world. The show runs to the 17th March and is well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity.

The Uncanny