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Last Updated: 1/31/2010

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Status: Single
City: London
State: London and South East
Country: UK
Signup Date: 4/6/2006

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Saturday, August 01, 2009 

Current mood:  pensive
Category: Music
August 2009

Hello

It has been said that too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation and I must share in this view. With my rather busy travel schedule I do seem to observe more surreal episodes than the average commuter. In the last month I have shared a hotel both with archaic graying metal bands, Anvil and Slayer, and 3000 little people; in New York City, when this incredible multitude of dwarves descended upon my hotel for its annual national conference.

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July began with a marvellous performance at The World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City as part of the River to River Festival series, where a host of twittering audience members reported live upon my show, and I embraced the wondrous surroundings of concrete, glass and palm trees in this surreal business oriented location. Documentation of the show can be found here at Fabric. Whilst there I also had the opportunity to rant enthusiastically about one of my favourite book stores in the world, St Mark’s Bookshop. Enjoy my little keen words.

Then it was onto another sunny glamorous location in the shape of Monte-Carlo for the premiere of Pavillon d'Armide, the new ballet by Matjash Mrozewski, for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Impressively danced by a cast of 16, the work was an emotive, grandiose creation, with a rich opulent character and my softly dignified sound track accompanying the poetic production. We were grateful to perform as the first act of a triple bill programme since the live concert by leathery rock lizard Johnny Hallyday, a French musical legend, erupted in the local stadium at the very same time as the second ballet, so the delicate footsteps of a dancer were rudely interrupted by a stadium rendition of Born to be Wild, with obligatory audience participation in the chorus, all heavily accented.

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Continuing a choreographic theme I worked with celebrated British choreographer Wayne McGregor again for the opening ceremony for 13th FINA World Swimming Championship In Rome at the historic Stadio Dei Marmi, with a record number of 1470 Athletes and 164 participating countries. Wayne had been invited to choreograph the opening ceremony of this international sports event and commissioned my music to accompany the celebrations. Put your bathing suit on, wet your hair and tune in here to share in the fun.

 

The dance world also bid farewell to two key figures in the last month - Pina Bausch who passed away in June and who I first experienced live in Germany when I was 18 years old, and more recently Merce Cunningham who died at the sagacious age of 90. Cunningham revolutionized the visual and performing arts, especially in collaboration with his partner John Cage, and I was very fortunate to have worked with him at the Barbican Theatre in London in 2005. I fondly recall meeting him after our first show and interrupting his salad dinner. He looked up from the secure comfort of his chair, reaching out to hold my hand and said Are you Scanner?...I find your music so beautiful; with a peachy twinkle in his eye. It was hard not feel tears falling at the corner of my eyes.

Scanner

Back to some creative writing exposure over at Bleep, a very fine download boutique catering to passionate music fans. Invited amongst a selection of independent artists and writers to choose some of the best releases of 2009 so far I focused on the essential re-issues of Maurizio from Berlin. It's a handy portal to discover new music and sounds.

Closing the month in a darker mood since I'm recovering in Milan at present after a biopsy, where my skin was expertly and painfully sliced from my chest for examination, so a quieter month to follow now and an opportunity to immediately rest and then finish some deadlines, amongst them two film soundtracks, a public arts project and even the occasion to take what is commonly recognised as a holiday vacation in Croatia, otherwise known as an opportunity to read all those books collecting in my office library, watch DVDs and recharge the Scanner batteries.

Have a lovely month.

Until next time


Robin

Scanner

::: listen :::
Nurse with Wound: The Memory Surface (Dirter)
Ennio Morricone:  The Complete Edition (GDM)
M.Ward: Post-War (Merge)
Benjamin Biolay: Trash Yéyé (EMI)

::: read :::
Tom McCarthy: Remainder (Alma)
Declan Kiberd: Ulysses and Us (Faber & Faber)
D A Miller: 8 ½ (BFI)
Simon Armitage: Book of Matches (Faber & Faber)

::: film:::
Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt, USA
Bronson, Nicholas Winding Refn, UK
Antichrist, Lars von Trier, Denmark
Moon, Duncan Jones, UK

::: Diary Dates :::
2009
01 Sept-Artists talk with Michael Gumbold Austrian Cultural Forum London UK
25-26 Sept-Githead Ososphere Festival Strasbourg FR
03-04 Oct-Kirikou & Karaba Rueil Malmaison FR
17 Oct-Live Lenz Rifrazioni Parma IT
18 Oct-Lecture Lenz Rifrazioni Parma IT
21-22 Oct-Faultline QEH London UK
24 Oct-Kirikou & Karaba L’Amphitheatre Lyon FR
28-31 Oct-Kirikou & Karaba Palais des Congres Paris FR
1-3 Nov-Kirikou & Karaba Palais des Congres Paris FR
14 Nov-Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde live soundtrack Gartenkino Vienna A
18 Nov-Kirikou & Karaba Cite des Congres Nantes FR
21 Nov-Kirikou & Karaba Vinci Tours FR
22 Nov-Kirikou & Karaba Palais des Congres Le Mans FR
16-20 Dec-Kirikou & Karaba Summum Grenoble FR
22 Dec-Kirikou & Karaba Colisee Roubaix FR

2010
16 Jan-Kirikou & Karaba La Commanderie Dole FR
26 March-live Presence électronique Paris FR

Exhibitions

Awake Are Only the Spirits - On Ghosts and Their Media
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
16 May-18 October 2009

The exhibition Awake Are Only the Spirits On Ghosts and Their Media is dedicated to a topic that appears, at first glance, timeless: it involves the presence of the supernatural; the appearance of ghosts and (trans-)communication with the beyond; facilitated by technical media. The exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, investigating the making-visible or making-perceptible of the invisible, and tracing the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena. Artists include Jason Ajemian, Sam Ashley, Kathrin Gunter, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Tim Hecker, Susan Hiller, Chris Marker and Scanner.

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009 

Current mood:  selective
Category: Music
July 2009

Hello

Rock and roll was the theme to close the month of June with the debut North American tour for Githead and what an adventure this was.

Professor Scanner and his fellow Gits, Colin, Malka and Max took our show on the road from Calgary to Toronto and Brampton. Participating in the Sled Island Music Festival, we arrived in Calgary to strict immigration and customs procedures, where once again I was quizzed on my minimalist luggage and clothing. “Where’s the rest of your clothing?” has become a mantra through American and Canadian customs of recent so am fully prepared for such intrigue. Rehearsing in a local church for two days, our highly amplified sessions were frequently interrupted for requests to pause whilst the Jazz-a-Size exercise classes could take place, and prayer classes and choir practice could follow.

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Out of our leotards and putting down our sheet music we performed a grand show alongside family favourites Health and Holy Fuck, and set off at 04.00 a.m. to Toronto to swap the heat saturated streets of Alberta for damp and humid Southern Ontario. A live broadcast on Orchard TV will be archived for future pleasure. This was an especially unusual encounter, set up in a barn in the countryside, with veggie burgers and buns for starters and a live performance for the main course before a select gang of supporters and a web audience.

June has been an extremely busy month too. From designing the sound of mosquito DNA for an exhibition soon to open in London, to live shows in Lisbon, Den Haag and an exceptionally busy mini Scanner weekend in Napoli. The latter offered a chance to perform in the exquisite vineyards in the city at Vigna S. Martino with Roberto Paci Dalò, immediately after the most Hollywood style thunderstorm that cut out electricity and water supplies to the area for some time. The skies remained clear for a brief moment whilst the audience sat immersed beneath ripening grapes and we sound tracked the darkness of the night.

Scanner

Faultline, my collaboration with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh has begun being taught on the AQA GCSE Dance syllabus in the UK and will remain there for the next 6-7 years. Students will study both the choreography and the production itself, including all collaborating elements, and in anticipation of this Faultine is now available on iTunes for download. Combining the operatic talents of soprano Patricia Rozario, who also sung on my latest album Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges, and with a vocal arrangement by celebrated composer Errollyn Wallen, it’s an immersive and a gloomily evocative score. It will also be performed live as part of the Dance Umbrella season in London later this year at the Southbank Centre too.

With barely time to readjust my body clock I return to New York City in early July for a very special live performance at Winter Garden at the World Financial Center. Performing alongside Mountains on 7 July it will be rare live return to this beautiful city and even more appealing a completely free show in the extraordinary surroundings of palm trees and projections in the midst of the obligatory Blackberry/iPhone community.

Scanner
Then it’s off to Monte Carlo for the premiere of Pavillon d'Armide, the new ballet by Matjash Mrozewski for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. An entirely new work, the soundtrack weaves a way around Handel’s Rinaldo in a splendidly grand and emotive manner. Performed by a cast of extraordinarily impressive dancers the work will tour in the future.

So once again in between suitcases I bid thee farewell.

Until next time

Robin
Scanner

::: listen :::
Roberto Paci Dalo: Sparks (21st Records)
Simon Whetham: Lightyears (Traceable Echoes)
Pimmon: Smudge Another Yesterday (Preservation)
Most Significant Beat: Musica y electronica (Geometrix)

::: read :::
Banks Violette: Elevator to the Gallows (Kunsthalle Wien)
Various: Millesuoni, Deleuze, Guattari e la musica elettronica (Cronopio)
Michael Raedecker: Line-Up (GEM)
Hermann Nitsch, Museum Naples (Edition Morra)

::: film:::
Sunshine Cleaning, Christine Jeffs, USA
Accident, Joseph Losey, UK
Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi, USA
Muriel, Alain Resnais. France

Exhibitions

‘Awake Are Only the Spirits’ - On Ghosts and Their Media
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
16 May – 18 October 2009

The exhibition ‘Awake Are Only the Spirits’ – On Ghosts and Their  
Media is dedicated to a topic that appears, at first glance, timeless: it involves the presence of the supernatural – the appearance of ghosts and (trans-)communication with ‘the beyond’ facilitated by technical media. The exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, investigating the making-visible or making-perceptible of the invisible, and tracing the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena. Artists include Lucas & Jason Ajemian, Sam Ashley, Kathrin Günter, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Tim Hecker, Susan Hiller, Chris Marker and Scanner.
Night Haunts
By Sukhdev Sandhu
Design Mind Unit
Sound Design Scanner

Artangel Interaction invited writer and historian Sukhdev Sandhu to write a nocturnal journal unfolding over the course of 2006. His postings will appear sequentially at this microsite specially designed by Mind Unit. Sandhu's forays see him prospecting in the London night with the people who drive its pulse, from the avian police to security guards, zookeepers and exorcists. Acclaimed artist and musician Scanner has collaborated with Sukhdev and Ian Budden of Mind Unit to compose the sound for the site. If you would like to be kept informed as each episode is posted, join artangel's mailing list by clicking here .
www.nighthaunts.org.uk
www.artangel.org.uk

Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City
Artangel Interaction

NightJam is the latest project in Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expresses how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny. NightJam presents two elusive visual and musical journeys through the city’s ‘quiet’ hours.

NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced and freely downloaded. Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.

www.nightjam.org.uk
.. ..
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Sunday, May 31, 2009 

Current mood:  productive
Category: Music



June  2009

Hello

May was a month in which I celebrated another grand birthday at home with ice cream DVDs and Facebook since I'd succumbed to the (swine?) flu for 14 days, but in an almost surreal I became both a victim of identity theft whilst becoming two people at once, or rather two professors. Not quite the Nutty Professor as demonstrated by Eddie Murphy in the movies but I was appointed as Visiting Professor at University College Falmouth UK, and Visiting Professor at Le Fresnoy National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing France.
 
    Scanner

The former of these kicks off in early June when I'll be presenting my work at UCF and subsequently returning over the years to follow to hopefully inspire, interrogate, and wonder at the delights of creativity. I'm honoured to be in such fine company too, along with award-winning artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, Michael Grandage; founding partner of design studio, Barber Osgerby, Edward Barber; interactive media pioneer and MD of Illumina Digital, Andrew Chitty eponymous fashion designer and British Fashion Awards Designer of the Year, Luella Bartley, and Emily Bell, Director of Digital Content for Guardian News and Media.
 
Le Fresnoy is an extraordinary post-graduate art school and audio-visual research and production centre in France, where advanced students follow a two-year course run by guest artist-professors who themselves produce new work, so I'll be acting as both advisor and producer. Previous occupants at this school have been Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jean-Luc Godard, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Kurt Hentschlager, Ryoji Ikeda, Andrew Kötting, and Atau Tanaka, so quite something to live up to and 'm not even certain whether I need to dress like a Professor yet though so any fashion tips welcome.   

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With summer approaching in Europe it's perfect timing for some bleak, dark wintery sounds to compliment this sunshine so here's a release, May The Plague Be With You {Remixes}, free to download, to darken your days. I contributed a piece to this album, based upon recordings taken from the anonymously 'BBW' tracks appearing on May The Plague Be With You. With new works from Audela, Maarten van der Vleuten, Black Box Warning, Nathan Siter, Sid Redlin, The Caretaker and vidnaObmana, it was originally planned as a physical release in 2007 but never issued due to administrative entanglements (i.e. Kafkaesque bureaucracies).  Close the blinds and immerse yourself into the shadows.

June takes me off to Lisbon and The Hague to present my 52 Spaces project, based around the film L'eclisse (1962) by Michelangelo Antonioni. An extremely immersive and gentle performance it uses slow motion footage from the closing moments of the film to create an image of a city suspended in time, anonymous and surreal. A complex and mysterious chronicle it can also be experienced as a free installation work in The Netherlands for one month at the Filmhuis.  

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Then it's back to Italy for a mini retrospective weekend in Naples, where I'll be giving a free talk and DJ set at Perditempo, performing live and showing collaborative film works at Museo Nitsch, then a duet with composer Roberto Paci Dalò at Vigna S. Martino for our very secret agent inspired The Napoli Files. Pasta, sunshine and sight-seeing will also I'm certain be part of the package.
 
Close to finishing our third Githead album, at the end of June we are off to Calgary in Canada to play at the Sled Island Festival curated by our very own Colin Newman. We'll be playing on the same bill as two of my favourite bands,  the unforgettable and magical Holy Fuck and Health and with a day to recover we play additional shows in Brampton, Toronto and Montreal. A London date and potential European tour will follow in July.

So, another month, same suitcase.
 
Until next time
 
Robin

  Scanner

 ::: listen :::
The Hafler Trio: The Name of Someone (Korm Plastics)
Throbbing Gristle: The Third Mind Movements (Industrial Records)
Stephen Vitiello/Molly Berg: The Gorilla Variations (12K)
Julia Kent: Delay (Shayo)

::: read :::
Naomi Green: The French New Wave (Wallflower)
Tar Magazine Issue Two
Chris Marker: Coreennes
KesselsKramer: The Worst Hotel in the World (Booth-Clibborn)

::: film :::
Coraline, Henry Selick, USA
Away with Words, Christopher Doyle, Japan
Synedoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman, USA
Cashback, Sean Ellis, UK

::: Diary Dates :::

2009
07 June-52 Spaces Lisbon P
11 June-52 Spaces Filmhuis The Hague NL
15 June-Praxis Kuopio Festival FI
19 June-DJ set/Workshop Oblomova/Perditempo Naples IT
20 June-Live Museo Nitsch Naples IT
21 June-Live Vigna S Martino Naples IT
26 June-Githead Sled Island Festival Calgary CA
27 June-Githead Warehouse Sled Island Festival Calgary CA
29 June-Githead Horseshow Toronto CA
30 June-Githead Rose Theatre Brampton CA
02 July-Githead Montreal CA
07 July-Orbital Glider Winter Gardens NYC USA
22 July-Premiere Monte Carlo ballet FR
31 July-Interferenze Festival Lacedonia Italy
25-26 Sept-Githead Ososphere Festival Strasbourg FR
23 Oct-VNM Festival Vancouver  CA
28-30 Oct-Kirikou & Karaba Palais des Congres Paris FR

2010
26 March-live Presence Electronique Paris FR

::: Exhibitions :::

52 Spaces
Zaal 5
Filmhuis The Hague
The Netherlands
16 June-30 June 2009

Commissioned and produced by The British School at Rome for film director Michelangelo Antonioni's 90th birthday year, 52 Spaces uses sounds of the city of Rome and elements of The Eclipse (1962) to create a soundtrack of an image of a city suspended in time, anonymous and surreal. An audio visual installation.

www.filmhuisdenhaag.nl

     

Awake Are Only the Spirit - On Ghosts and Their Media
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
16 May-18 October 2009

The exhibition Awake Are Only the Spirits On Ghosts and Their Media is dedicated to a topic that appears, at first glance, timeless: it involves the presence of the supernatural-the appearance of ghosts and (trans-)communication with 'the beyond' facilitated by technical media. The exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, investigating the making-visible or making-perceptible of the invisible, and tracing the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena. Artists include Lucas & Jason Ajemian, Sam Ashley, Kathrin Gunter, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Tim Hecker, Susan Hiller, Chris Marker and Scanner.
www.hmkv.de


Night Haunts
By Sukhdev Sandhu
Design Mind Unit
Sound Design Scanner

Artangel Interaction invited writer and historian Sukhdev Sandhu to write a nocturnal journal unfolding over the course of 2006. His postings appeared sequentially at this microsite specially designed by Mind Unit. Sandhu's forays saw him prospecting in the London night with the people who drive its pulse, from the avian police to security guards, zookeepers and exorcists. Scanner collaborated with Sukhdev and Ian Budden of Mind Unit to compose the sound for the site.

www.nighthaunts.org.uk
www.artangel.org.uk

Nightjam
Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City
Artangel Interaction

NightJam was a project in Artangel Interaction's Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King's Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expressed how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny.

NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced and freely downloaded. Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.

www.nightjam.org.uk

 
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009 

Current mood:  imaginative
Category: Music
FREE DOWNLOAD: May The Plague Be With You {Remixes}

Hello

with the summer arriving over here in Europe it's about time for some dark wintery sounds to compliment this sunshine so here's a release, free to download, to darken your days.

Remixes based on source-material taken from the anonymously 'BBW' tracks appearing on May The Plague Be With You.

1. Audela - Black Box Warning {23 Black Boxes Mix} (9:12)
2. Maarten van der Vleuten - Black Box Warning {Through The Cracks In The Box Mix} (9:39)
3. Nathan Siter - Black Box Warning {Remix} (8:49)
4. Scanner - Black Box Warning {Remix} (7:59)
5. Sid Redlin - Black Box Warning {Rotary Glass Mix} (4:43)
6. The Caretaker - The Black Box Warning {MSR990 Memories Mix} (7:55)
7. Vidna Obmana - Black Box Warning {Subterranean Plague Mix} (6:23)


Planned as a physical release in 2007 but never issued due to administrative entanglements (i.e. Kafkaesque bureaucracies).

Warning: Low frequencies in track 1 may damage some speakers..


http://rapidshare.com/files/234724729/MTPBWY-rmxs.rar
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Friday, May 01, 2009 

Current mood:  vibrant
Category: Music
May 2009

Hello

It has been said that absence makes the heart go wander and with my fairly constant travel schedule I sometimes feel as if I need to map to rediscover my own territory. April was spent entirely overseas.

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Beginning in Derry Northern Ireland I participated in Imagine-Create, a weekend event produced by the School of Creative at Arts University of Ulster. Breaking all laws for capacity at the very fine Void Gallery my live show was received very positively, though a late night wander back to my hotel through the Derry streets meant a risky trip past stumbling orange skinned girls squeezed in micro lycra luminous outfits, nudged up against alcohol fed boys in short sleeved shorts in sub degree temperatures.


Then off directly to Geneva for the hugely ambitious sixth edition of the Electron Festival where singer Sally Doherty and I premiered our new songs to a impressively polite audience, enjoyed the beautiful sunny sights and admired the largest mechanical clock in the world in our hotel, significantly home to a legendary Tin Tin tale.

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With barely a moment to wash my smalls it was off to Troy, Albany to the mighty EMPAC arts centre, an alien building balanced beside educational institute RPI, overlooking this tiny conformist town. As part of Adventures in Motion, programmed by London onedotzero, a weekend of explosive moving image work, performance and installations, I was visiting with filmmaker Olga Mink to premiere our live cinema piece The Nature of Being on the East Coast.  An enormous success, the days spent in Troy were most enjoyable and yet surreal; at one point a walk through town meant seeing no one on the streets for over 15 minutes, whilst stores exhibited second hand Weetabix, Pasta Pizza (that is indeed pizza with pasta as a topping) Buzz Haircuts and an unlikely forthcoming show by BB King in a tiny second hand record store, some 20 years too late.

 

Then off to Italy, skipping past Salone Internazionale Del Mobile in a monsoon, and off to Osnabrueck for the European Media Art Festival to perform Orbital Glider, sound tracking a film by East German artist Maix Mayer. Wittily described in the newspaper as 'a man who changes residence like some people change shirts' the show was a super success, a humanistic journey through the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts, in sound and image.


And now, back into the present and future tense. Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges, my new album, is out in selected record stores now and happily available online at countless locations, Amazon, Boomkat, iTunes and so on. Positively received so far it's been described as my most intimate and 'human' sounding composition to date. Comparable to Max Richter or Johann Johannsson, 'Through Your Window' and 'Broken Faultline' prove to be highly successful exercises in modern classical fusion, weaving the luscious orchestral instrumentation with full-blooded electronic production - and the novelty of 'real' instrumentation shouldn't overshadow the programmed material on offer here; Rimbaud presents a rich tapestry of found voices, environmental recordings and even radar transmissions, making this as accomplished and ambitious a Scanner album as he's ever released.' At least that's one person's opinion !

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As it's recession time if you fancy something a little more exploratory and challenging (and FREE) then point your browser to Tate Modern at iTunes, where they have uploaded much of their sound archive for free download. Scroll down to unlucky number 13, Sound Surface, my collaboration with American artist Stephen Vitiello and download it for free. It was an original commission for Tate in 2004.


4m2, my collaboration with dancers and choreographers Claire Cunningham and Jose Agudo now has a Myspace presence. Created in 2008 whilst in residence at Deda, UK, the show will be touring soon. Claire and Jose have previously worked with a range of companies including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, T.R.A.S.H., Theatre Rites, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Rui Horta, Ballet de Marseille, Random Dance and Charleroi/Danses. The performance itself explores the periphery of memory inspired by real stories, using movement, words, film by artist Sian Stammers and an original score I composed for the piece.


I'm also presenting new work in the exhibition Awake Are Only the Spirits - On Ghosts and Their Media at Hartware MedienKunstVerein at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund in Germany. Beginning with the audio-tape archive of Friedrich Jürgenson who discovered the so-called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in 1959, the exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts. I'll be visiting for a live performance there later in the year as part of this progrmme.


So, another month, passport in hand, into rehearsals for a forthcoming Githead tour and recording deadlines as always.

Until next time


 

Robin


  Scanner

::: listen :::
The Black Dog: Further Vexation (Soma)
Gregory Taylor: Amalgam (POL)
Siouxsie & the Banshees: A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (re-issue) (Polydor)
Andrew Poppy: And the Shuffle of Things (Field)

::: read :::
Maix Mayer: Monograph (Hatje Cantz)
Michael Donaghy: Collected Poems (Picador)
Muriel Barberry: The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Europa)
Unica Zurn: Dark Spring (Exact Change)

::: film :::
Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson, Sweden
Une Femme est une Femme, Jean Luc Godard, France
Away with Words, Christopher Doyle, Japan
The Escapist,  Rupert Wyatt, UK

::: Diary Dates :::

2009
08 May-Switch New Baltic Dance Festival Vilnius LT
07 June-52 Spaces Lisbon P
11 June-52 Spaces Filmhuis The Hague NL
15 June-Praxis Kuopio Festival FI
21 June-Live Vigna S Martino Naples IT
07 July-Orbital Glider Winter Gardens NYC USA
22 July-Premiere Monte Carlo ballet FR
31 July-Interferenze Festival Lacedonia Italy
25-26 Sept-Githead Ososphere Festival Strasbourg FR
23 Oct-VNM Festival Vancouver  CA
28-30 Oct-Kirikou & Karaba Palais des Congres Paris FR


::: Exhibitions :::


Awake Are Only the Spirits - On Ghosts and Their Media
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund
16 May – 18 October 2009


The exhibition Awake Are Only the Spirits; On Ghosts and Their Media is dedicated to a topic that appears, at first glance, timeless: it involves the presence of the supernatural; the appearance of ghosts and (trans-)communication with the beyond; facilitated by technical media. The exhibition shows 22 international artistic positions questioning the existence of ghosts, exploring the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, investigating the making-visible or making-perceptible of the invisible, and tracing the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication
phenomena. Artists include Lucas & Jason Ajemian, Sam Ashley, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Tim Hecker, Susan Hiller, Chris Marker and Scanner.


www.hmkv.de

Atlantida
Casa Museo Colon
Las Palmas Gran Canaria
2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands
05 March - 05 May 2009

 A multiple screen installation with immersive sound, the work addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail, and over its ten minute duration presents a unique sequence of scenes that resonate with an ethereal glory.

www.bienaldecanarias.org

Night Haunts
By Sukhdev Sandhu
Design Mind Unit
Sound Design Scanner

Artangel Interaction invited writer and historian Sukhdev Sandhu to write a nocturnal journal unfolding over the course of 2006. His postings appeared sequentially at this microsite specially designed by Mind Unit. Sandhu's forays saw him prospecting in the London night with the people who drive its pulse, from the avian police to security guards, zookeepers and exorcists. Scanner collaborated with Sukhdev and Ian Budden of Mind Unit to compose the sound for the site.


www.nighthaunts.org.uk
www.artangel.org.uk

Nightjam
Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City
Artangel Interaction


NightJam was a project in Artangel Interaction's Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King's Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expressed how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny.


NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced and freely downloaded. Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.


www.nightjam.org.uk

12:01 PM 
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Thursday, April 09, 2009 

Current mood:  amorous
Category: Music
A chance to listen back to the live radio session and interview on Radio Suisse Romande 8 April 2009, with singer Sally Doherty + Scanner
30 minutes of music and funny words
Exclusive new material, begins about 5 mins into the show.
Live in Lausanne :-)

http://real.xobix.ch/ramgen/rsr/rsr1/radio_paradiso/2009/radio-paradiso20090408-190000-56k-001.rm?start=00:00:00.000

3:27 PM 
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Wednesday, April 01, 2009 

Current mood:  selective
Category: Music

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Scanner Strom April 2009
April 2009
 
Hello

A month of travels, visas, hotels, variable weather conditions, delays and delights, both present and future past.

  Scanner

Visa tales continue, this time to visit the US for The Nature of Being show at EMPAC NY in April. Having waited four months for processing the paperwork, then an edgy few days for the final pages to arrive via fax, my interview was a surreal encounter of questioning at the Embassy:
Q. Why are you working in the USA?
A. To play a music concert at an arts centre
Q. I don’t understand – why would you play music at an art centre?
A. It’s a purpose built space for new work and I’m performing live music with film
Q. With film? At an art centre? I don’t understand, could you explain some more
A. (simplifying everything) I’m playing a live soundtrack to a movie in the cinema there
Q. Okay, I can approve your visa.

Ummmm…. Meanwhile anyone in the locality curious to find out how weird and wonderful this might be is encouraged to visit EMPAC in Troy for the opening of Adventures in Motion, an explosive showcase of internationally curated moving image with onedotzero from London, featuring ground-breaking short film screenings, playful installations, spectacular live cinematic performances, vj/dj events and artist talks. I will be performing The Nature of Being with Olga Mink in the main theatre there.
 
Our installation Atlantida also just opened at the 2nd Biennial of the Canaries 2009 in early March. Commissioned by the Biennial of the Canaries 2009 in Las Palmas, this multi-channel video work with immersive sound addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail.

Scanner
     
Pink Flag by Wilson Neate, part of Continuum's 33 1/3 series of publications, is finally out at the end of this month. The book focuses on the recording of legendary art rockers Wire and seminal album Pink Flag, setting it within the context of Wire's history, the history of the times and within the greater story of its influence and relevance, ably lavished with personal commentary from the band, including my own introduction as a schoolboy remembering 1977:

  “I can recall with some accuracy that in December 1977 when Pink Flag hit the record stores, I was evidently more excited about purchasing Houdini on Magic, enjoyed playing volleyball, failed to buy trousers with my mother, and was sick all over the carpet on Christmas Day.”

With Wire just finishing European dates and the new Githead album building up to release it’s  mighty fine entertainment and an honour to find my words nudging up against quotes from Steve Albini, Graham Coxon, Richard Jobson, Henry Rollins, and Glen Matlock and many others.

    Scanner
 
A very special little Scanner single release, Whisper, in anticipation of my new album, has just been released on iTunes for less than a dollar, half a Euro and whatever is left of the Great (RIP) British Pound. Software designed for the compact slinky iPhone or iPod Touch (with headset and mic, ) it aligns ambient electronic music with my voice, so you can have me whispering into your ear whenever you wish (or not). It creates an infinite, generative piece of music that reacts in direct response to your environment, so the louder the location the more ‘musical’ it will appear.

Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges my new album is finally officially out on CD on 17 April 2009 on Bine Music and by May I’ll be offering online sales again in a new shop set up for Scanner releases so please stay tuned for that. iTunes will be featuring it as well as Correspondence (Auguste Orts Film Soundtracks),  my soundtrack for the inventive film collective in Belgium. An amazingly dark and film noir promotional film by Olga Mink for opening track Sans Soleil is now available to view.

April offers no respite in terms of travelling. It begins with my opening the Spill Festival of Performance in London, the premiere festival of experimental theatre, live art and performance, and then directly off to Imagine-Create at the University of Ulster in Ireland where I’ll be presenting my work, performing live and shaking my hips to The Black Dog and Hot Chip at night.

Then it’s off to Geneva for the Electron 2009 Festival, where I’ll be premiering a new project with singer Sally Doherty, an extraordinary British singer who has previously collaborated with Richard Hawley and Planet Funk. We are very excited to perform these songs live and then finish up recording for a release later this year. Real songs with words and melodies, whatever next?

The month ends up with an appearance at the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrueck Germany for a live performance, having passed through Italy, New York City, Sheffield, Frankfurt, Muenster and other locations.

Until next time

Robin

  Scanner

 
::: listen :::
Lawrence English: A Colour for Autumn (12K)
Steve Roden: Ice (inbetweennoise)
Hildur Gudnadottir: Without Sinking (Touch)
Bill Calahan: Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Drag City)

::: read :::
Prospect Disorder I-III (Galleri Erik Steen)
Richard Yates: Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (Vintage)
Alain de Botton: The Pleasures & Sorrows of Work (Penguin)
Nicolas Bourriaud: Tate Triennial (Tate)

::: film :::
In the City of Sylvia, Jose Luis Guerin, Spain
The Atrocity Exhibition, Jonathan Weiss, USA
The Family Friend, Paulo Sorrentino, Italy
Zazie Dans le Metro, Louis Malle, France


::: Diary Dates :::

2009
02/03 April-Praxis La Dansoir Paris FR
04 April-Imagine-Create University of Ulster N Ireland
09 April-Electron Festival with Sally Doherty Geneva CH
17 April-The Nature of Being with Olga Mink Empac Troy USA
25 April-Orbital Glider EMAF Osnabruck GE
07 June-52 Spaces Lisbon P
11 June-52 Spaces Filmhuis The Hague NL
15 June-Praxis Kuopio Festival FI
21 June-Live Vigna S Martino Naples IT
07 July-Orbital Glider Winter Gardens NYC USA
22 July-Premiere Monte Carlo ballet FR
31 July-Interferenze Festival Lacedonia Italy
25-26 Sept-Githead Ososphere Festival Strasbourg FR
21-24 Oct-VNM Festival Vancouver  CA

::: Exhibitions :::

Atlantida

Casa Museo Colon
Las Palmas Gran Canaria
2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands
05 March - 05 May 2009

A multiple screen installation with immersive sound, the work addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail, and over its ten minute duration presents a unique sequence of scenes that resonate with an ethereal glory.

www.bienaldecanarias.org




                                 

                                 
                                         
                                             



11:03 AM 
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Monday, March 02, 2009 

Current mood:  nostalgic
Category: Music
March 2009
Hello
A very adventurous month has passed and another about to begin, one which should have begun in LA but unfortunately had to be cancelled close to show time. With my flight ticket and work visa still fresh in my satchel, my show won’t be happening since the USA Tax office now makes it virtually impossible for independent artists to work in the USA with their rather draconian and heavy handed laws. Curiously playing the show would have meant losing almost as much as it’s cost to produce since I don’t have an office in the USA, I’m not on tour and don’t have a record label to support me there.

 

    Scanner


Instead I’ll be at the opening of my new audiovisual installation in Las Palmas as part of the 2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands, in collaboration with filmmaker Olga Mink. A multiple screen with immersive sound work, it addresses the themes of silence and landscape with location recordings of each of the seven volcanic islands captured in high detail, and over its ten minute duration presents a unique sequence of scenes that resonate with an ethereal glory. It’ll also be a fine excuse to dress up smartly and nudge elbows with celebrity artists.
My live collaboration with celebrated pianist Joanna MacGregor was a roaring success at De Le Warr Pavilion in February, where we explored compositions improved around Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Cantatas, Chorals and Keyboard Concertos. Favourably reviewed in the press as ‘beautiful and challenging, a concert that forced the audience to re-assess everything they thought they knew about music and its structure and form,’ an extremely generous response I would argue, but we are keen to take this work across the globe, so watch out in the future for further shows.

 

  Scanner


Further trips to Italy to continue workshops at Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and Strasbourg to research our ambitious Githead art project for Ososphere 2009 proved that traveling on budget airlines could be a foolish mistake, but that doesn’t stop me setting off in March to Pula, Breda and Derry in the coming weeks. My live show Nature of Being with Olga Mink will be presented at the Breda Film Festival to close this month, before we take it off to EMPAC in NY in April for our wonderful adventure with the onedotzero film festival.
This month I’ll also be participating in the on-going Future of Sound tour, hosted by Martyn Ware resplendent in his finest shiny electro suit, this month, when it lands at Goldsmiths in London, on 24 March. A host of artists at the cutting edge of sound production and manipulation will present and perform their work. Sophie Clements and I will present our Of Air and Ear project from the Royal Opera House in 2008 amongst other things and remains a free-ticketed event so check in quickly if you wish to attend.
Another premiere takes place this month at Deda in Derby where I’ve been Artist in Residence for the last year. On Thursday 26 March we will be presenting the first collaboration between choreographers Claire Cunningham and Jose Agudo and myself in a work created together in summer 2008. 4m2 is against a stunning backdrop by visual artist Sian Stammers and with an original score the piece explores the periphery of memory inspired by real stories, with movement, sound and image.

 

  Scanner


Recently released was the CD Symbiosis Orchestra : The Perfect Blend... a series of live performances and collaborations between a host of creative individuals. Created in 2005 by Italian sound artist Andrea Gabriele (Pirandèlo, Mou, Lips!) for a festival in Pescara, this size-shifting mixed-media ensemble has been carrying on with its journey in live performance settings enhanced by Claudio Sinatti’s stage designs and visuals and I took part some time ago in Florence to perform, part of which can be heard on this release. Featuring treated vocals by Iris Garrelfs, jazz flutist Geoff Warren, vibes player Stefano Tedesco, Mario Masullo, (electronics) Diego Conti (violin), Roberto di Egidio (trumpet) and Michele Scurti (piano), it’s a union of electronic and acoustic music that offers up a cinematic world to tease and please.
With my major new album, Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges officially out on 17 April 2009 on Bine Music, I have a modest digital release out exclusively on iTunes this month too. Entitled Correspondence (Auguste Orts Film Soundtracks), it’s a series of works that accompanied a gallery showing of film works and papers from the Auguste Orts collective in Belgium, each title using samples and excepts from the films to form a new composition out of the originals. The gallery show itself will soon be touring again so stay tuned and hope that some of you might enjoy this new release.


You will have to soon adjust to calling me Visiting Professor in the School of Art and Performance  or simply Professor Scanner more casually if you wish, as I have been welcomed into a national community of practitioners in art, performance, design and media in a currently top secret university project. Though not formally in my imaginary office space as yet I’ll be beginning my role soon amongst some very high profile guest professors and continuing for the foreseeable future. Now, finish your homework!!
Until next time


Robin

 

  Robin

 

  ::: listen :::

  Beirut-March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland (Pompeii)

  Pan American - White Bird Release  (Kranky

  Sonic Youth-Sensational Fix (Koenig)

  Arvo Part: In Principio (ECM)


::: read :::

  John Waller: A Time to Dance, a Time to Die (Icon)

  Cathy Lane: Playing with Words (CriSAP)

  Christan Bok: Eunoia (Canongate)

  Ryan McGinness: Works (Rizzoli)


::: film:::

  You, The Living, Roy Andersson, Sweden

  Milk, Gus Van Sant, USA

  Choke, Clark Gregg, USA

  Dog Days, Ulrich Seidl, Germany
 

 




7:38 PM 
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Sunday, February 01, 2009 

Current mood:  thoughtful
February 2009
Hello
A hectic opening to this New Year with a barrage of deadlines, lifelines, commitments, brushes with lawyers, solicitors, administration, paperwork, housework, and preparations towards imaginary and real futures.

   

    Scanner


2009 is setting out to be an extraordinarily diverse and exciting year in terms of projects. My new studio album, the first full-length album release in some years, will be out on April 27 2009 on BineMusic. Entitled Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges, it explores a variety of routes, most surprisingly I suppose for some is my singing and playing guitar on some pieces, but it’s far from being an edgy James Blunt, and closer to Bach and Max Richter combining forces with N.E.R.D via Pan Sonic and Klaus Schulze. Having taking over a year to compose and produce I hope the wait was worthwhile. Stay tuned. You can hear excerpts of every composition here.
Having presented The Nature of Being project to a sold out audience in Reutlingen Germany in January for their Sonic Visions event, Olga Mink and I will be installing our new three screen immersive installation in Gran Canaria at the invitation of the 2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands, which will be on display for several months. In April we will bring The Nature of Being live project to the USA for a show at EMPAC Troy NY and possibly further afield.
ArtGit, the more exploratory offspring of Githead, takes to the streets of Strasbourg this month in preparation for an installation/performance work for the latter part of 2009, so watch out for three figures laden with recording and photography equipment striding through the ancient streets. In the meantime we are around 45 minutes into a very intense and  productive series of recording towards our third full-length Githead album.

   

    Scanner


As part of the re-launch of the East Wing Collection at The Courtauld Institute of Art in Somerset House in London this month I’ll be collaborating with artist Troy Bararzi on The Missing on 13 February. Visitors passing through the Courtauld’s external arches will be greeted by an audio installation of The Missing, a rich hypnotic dreamscape that pays homage to invisible London, the passing of time, missing people and the ethereal voices of parallel and hidden worlds. With twenty singing monks outdoors, recordings of a séance and twisted soundscapes, it looks set to be an unsettling appealing and incidentally FREE night.
For any French speaking readers I’ve recently contributed an extended interview to a new site, Magnetic Room that explores that work of artists working in a range of media, ranging from graphics, music, film, net art and so on. An English version will be following soon too, so please remain patient! In reflection of this I’ve updated much of this website with new interviews and art projects, should you want to lose some time exploring.

   

    Scanner


This month down at De La Warr Pavilion, a Modernist icon for contemporary art just a tiny pebble’s throw from the beach at Bexhill on Sea East Sussex, I’ll be performing and collaborating with pianist extraordinaire Joanna MacGregor. We will present two worlds meeting united by a devotion to Bach. Hailed by The Times as ‘the future of music’ Joanna is director of the Bath International Music Festival and has performed in over sixty countries, made over thirty recordings and has collaborated with artists such as Nitin Sawhney, Andy Shepherd and Brian Eno. We will be realize a host of musical experiments around the Preludes and Fugues from Book 1, the Goldberg Variations and Bach’s Chorales and Cantatas, so it looks set to be a harmonically pleasing evening.  With his unrivalled control of harmonic composition for diverse instrumentation, and his adaptation of rhythms and sympathy towards concepts of improvisation I’m certain that Johann Sebastian would have approved.
Back to practice then…
Until next time


Robin

 

  Robin

 

  ::: listen :::

  Kora! Kora! Kora! Cabaret Voltaire mixes (Shiva)

  Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto + Ensemble Modern:UTP (Raster Noton)

  Blonde Redhead: 23 (4AD)

  Bon Iver: Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar)


::: read :::

  Richard Yates: Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (Vintage)

  David Foster Wallace: Girl with Curious Hair (Abacus)

  Robert Lowell: Day by Day (Faber)

  Cabinet Magazine Issue 32: Fire


::: film:::

  Black, White & Gray, James Crump USA

  The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky, USA

  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,  David Fincher, USA

  Westworld, Michael Crichton, USA

   

    Exhibitions

   

  Night Haunts

  By Sukhdev Sandhu

  Design Mind Unit

  Sound Design Scanner

 

Artangel Interaction invited writer and historian Sukhdev Sandhu to write a nocturnal journal unfolding over the course of 2006. His postings will appear sequentially at this microsite specially designed by Mind Unit. Sandhu's forays see him prospecting in the London night with the people who drive its pulse, from the avian police to security guards, zookeepers and exorcists. Acclaimed artist and musician Scanner has collaborated with Sukhdev and Ian Budden of Mind Unit to compose the sound for the site.
  www.nighthaunts.org.uk

  www.artangel.org.uk

 

 

 

  Bittersweet Songs for the Sleepless City

Artangel Interaction
NightJam is the latest project in Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. Scanner invited young people at New Horizon Youth Centre in King’s Cross to collaborate on a creative project that expresses how the city at night looks and sounds to their ears and eyes. Through music and voice workshops they explored the sense of freedom and fear, celebration and solitude of the concealing darkness. Meanwhile, they captured their nights on disposable cameras, taking images that are at times eerie, startling, contemplative and funny. NightJam presents two elusive visual and musical journeys through the city’s ‘quiet’ hours.

NightJam presents two music tracks, a film, photographs, that can be experienced and freely downloaded.  Now featuring remixes of NightJam by Stephen Vitiello, Hakan Lidbo, Troy Banarzi, Si-cut.db and Pete Lockett.

   

    www.nightjam.org.uk
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..


1:23 PM 
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Thursday, January 15, 2009 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxF07kSnf6Q

One chapter in a multi-channel video performance work, "The Nature of being" by Scanner and Olga Mink. This video explores an idea how we memorize and connect data stored in parts of our brain, as if in a dream. Dreams and memories...

12:48 PM 
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