Touch Newsletter #301
Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #301. September sees two Touch-related events at Iklectik, London.
On Saturday 16 September, Touch, Iklectik and Mary Prestidge invite you to “A Tribute to Philip Jeck”, with a presentation of “Oxmardyke” by Chris Watson, a performance by Claire M Singer and others who have collaborated with Philip through film, dance and music over the decades.
On Wednesday 19 September 2023, drøne, English Touring Opera and Iklectik present “Vox Interruptus”, an evening of voice versus noise. In performance, drøne and Julia Mariko (soprano), The Howling, Dale Cornish and JTM.
Further details on both these evenings below, alongside Jon Wozencroft’s “Touchpoint” on Jamie Reid (1947–2023).
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A Tribute to Philip Jeck
Iklectik, London
16 September 2023
Chris Watson presents Oxmardyke, Claire M Singer, Jonathan Raisin, Liverpool Improvisation Collective and John Beaumont. Doors: 7:00pm. Start: 7:30pm. Tickets: dice.fm.
Touch, Iklectik and Mary Prestidge invite you to “A Tribute to Philip Jeck” at Iklectik, London on 16th September 2023. With a presentation of “Oxmardyke” by Chris Watson, a performance by Claire M Singer and others who have collaborated with Philip through film, dance and music over the decades.
Chris Watson presents “Oxmardyke”.
Claire M Singer – solo performance.
clairemsinger.com
Jonathan Raisin – piano solo. ‘in the absence…’ an improvisation, a memory… half a duet. Jonathan is a composer and improvising musician, based in Liverpool, who played with Philip several times over the last few years, and co-released “Resistenza” in 2022.
Liverpool Improvisation Collective (Andrea Buckley, Paula Hampson, Mary Prestidge and Kate Brown) – “Echoes of Philip”, an ensemble performance with dancers from Liverpool and London.
John Beaumont (Tenor) – Gregorian chant.
spire.org.uk
Tickets: dice.fm
Facebook Event Page
Vox Interruptus
Iklectik, London
19 September 2023
drøne and Julia Mariko (Soprano) in collaboration with English Touring Opera, The Howling, Dale Cornish and JTM. Doors: 7:30pm. Start: 8:00pm. Tickets: dice.fm.
Vox Interruptus – an evening of voice versus noise. Operatic soprano from Julia Marika alongside drøne (their UK premier), The Howling (Ken Hollings and Robin the Fog) talk trash over tape loops and distortions and Dale Cornish delivers south London keening in all its joy, horror and sadness. JTM is the overseas special guest - the mystery voice (What’s My Line for the 21st Century?) in this eclectic lineup.
drøne are Mark Van Hoen and Mike Harding, exploring a soundworld characterised by tiny, almost imperceptible changes in currents. Snatches of overheard conversation and baritone prayer calls join hissing noises and faltering shortwave data broadcast with tiny clusters of electronic melody. This is their UK debut, and features Julia Mariko (Soprano) in collaboration with English Touring Opera. field.nu/drone
The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and trash aesthetics. At Vox Interruptus they preview their upcoming Autumn album for The Wormhole, “Incredible Night Creatures Of The Midway”. robinthefog.com
Through his wickedly experimental approach to electronic music, South London’s Dale Cornish explores the outer-edges and inner-workings of musical forms. Cornish has been gleefully deconstructing club and experimental music and reassembling it in his own fashion. dalecornish.com
Tickets: dice.fm
Jana Winderen
“The Blue Beyond”
Tone 78
Vinyl LP with Fine Art Print – 2 tracks. Release date: 4 August 2023. Buy “The Blue Beyond” on Bandcamp. Mastered and cut by Jason at Transition. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft. Commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary.
A: The Art of Listening: Under Water
B: Du Petit Risoud aux Profondeurs du Lac de Joux
“The Blue Beyond” is produced by Touch and Audemars Piguet following Audemars Piguet Contemporary’s commission of two new compositions by Jana Winderen in 2019.
Edition of 1000 copies, the first 100 copies numbered and signed by the artist.
The record offers edits of two sound compositions for installations, “Du Petit Risoud aux Profondeurs du Lac de Joux” (2019) and “The Art of Listening: Under Water” (2019). “Du Petit Risoud aux Profondeurs du Lac de Joux” was first presented at Art Basel in Basel from 13 to 16 June 2019. A live performance of the piece was given at HEK (House of Electronic Arts Basel) on 11 June 2019. “The Art of Listening: Under Water” (2019) was first presented in the Rotunda, Collins Park, Miami Beach, in the context of Art Basel in Miami Beach, from 4 to 8 December 2019. “The Art of Listening: Under Water” installation was made in collaboration with Tony Myatt. It travelled to the Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York, from 3 to 13 February 2022.
Winderen’s practice focuses on sound and knowledge production. The artist seeks to raise awareness of the environmental issues we face as a society.
Audemars Piguet Contemporary collaborated with Winderen on two new sound installations compositions. The first, “Du Petit Risoud aux Profondeurs du Lac de Joux”, was developed during two field trips to Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux, at the heart of the Swiss Jura, where Audemars Piguet has been based since 1875. On these trips, Winderen captured sounds in the waters of the Lac de Joux and in the Risoud forest.
When Audemars Piguet Contemporary invited the artist to present a second composition for exhibition in Miami Beach, Winderen proposed a site-specific sound environment. For “The Art of Listening: Under Water”, Winderen used sounds recorded in the Atlantic Ocean in the Miami area, as well as sounds from the Barents Sea around the North Pole and the Tropical Oceans to expose the constant underwater presence of human-created sound today.
In both pieces, the artist offers a unique opportunity to listen closely to the underwater inhabitants of a specific region and to reflect on how human activity interacts and interferes with aquatic and also terrestrial life in a seemingly beautiful and visually calm environment.
Jana Winderen often draws the fish, amphibians and plankton she meets. This release also consists of a drawing of two fish that probably would never meet; the pike from the freshwater Lac de Joux in the Jura Mountains and the snapper from the saltwater environment by Miami.
janawinderen.bandcamp.com
Guerrilla Audio
Guerrilla Audio is a series of audio raids by Simon Fisher Turner.
guer·ril·la
ɡəˈrilə/
noun
noun: guerilla
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.
Each audio edit will be posted for 14 days and then removed from the site, although the information about each guerrilla activity will be archived, but without the audio. There will be two postings per month with the first (also featuring Klara Lewis & Rainier Lericolais) on 1st August 2015, so please check in regularly to listen to the latest offering. We are well into the fifth year and have just posted episode 194…
Guerrilla Audio
Long Wave
“Suspending time and immersing the listener in a widescreen of sound.”
Long Wave has now moved to the second Tuesday of the month from 8am-10pm PST.
You can catch up with the dublab archive on dublab.com, and for the entire Long Wave history (12 series so far for dublab and resonancefm) visit mscharding.net
Touchpoint
Jamie Reid (1947–2023)
Jamie Reid, Margi Clarke, Jon Savage and I used to see a lot of each other in 1985/6/7 helped by the fact that we lived in close proximity in NW London. For the “Touch Ritual” project, a triangle developed between Jon Savages’s text “The Secret Public”, Jamie’s images and his collaboration with Margi, “Leaving the 20th Century”, and Greil Marcus’s collage/text, “The Corpse Metaphor”… Jamie also contributed his “Media Sickness – More Contagious Than AIDS” piece for this edition and made a scarf of it for Margi to wear when she appeared on the primetime BBC Wogan show to promote the “Letter to Brezhnev” film. Wogan commented to Margi, deadpan, live on air, “media sickness eh?”. It’s not on YouTube.
“Liar” is a detail from the back cover of the catalogue for Jamie’s 1986 show at Hamilton’s Gallery in Mayfair, London. Designed by Malcolm Garrett, the catalogue opened up to a poster-sized reproduction of “Fuck Forever”, which had been used as a prop in The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle film. “Viciousburger” was used in a heavily photocopied version alongside Greil Marcus’s text in “Touch Ritual”.
In the years that followed, Jamie’s work grew in stature and prescience. Thanks to his long-term alliance and support from John Marchant, we worked together once again last year on the catalogue for his Ulster University exhibition “Taking Liberties” which echoed the template of the Hamilton’s catalogue. “Fuck Forever” became “Peace is Tough”, a framed image of cowboy hero John Wayne, red lipstick and CND symbol on his hat. Another variation has Donald Trump with the same lipstick stare. Google them.
John Marchant wrote that Jamie “not only established an entire counter-cultural visual aesthetic for the late 20th century but also continues to be central to protest movements today”. But this is not an obit, more a thank you for the generosity Jamie showed and the determination never to give in, the need to persist and stay true to one’s intentions.
Jamie’s work will always resonate. The directness and the passion is the technique.
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