Sea of Mirrors on Electronic Musik (em139)

Live recording from 'Stroke Club at Gulliver's on 17-03-11 is available on the Electronic Musik net label along with two out-takes from a home recording. Free to download.

Download: em 139- Sea of Mirrors (zip of all files including cover direct from the label)

1. Cymbal + Book    2. Sea of Mirrors [live]    3. Lime Street Station 1

Electronic Muisk is: "...a DIY label which specialises in experimental electronica and improvised music. Formed in 2000 it’s run by the Sound manipulator / Improvising musician Ian Simpson (aka Noise Research) and is non profit making which enables the label to release exactly what it wants (ie: what it likes). Ian is based in the U.K."




The recording "Sea of Mirrors" was made live at the 'Stroke Club' night at Gulliver's, Manchester using; cymbal and book with contact mics; Buddha Machine; tape recorder with Amstrad tape; reverb spring and FM radio. The piece was titled afterwards with a phrase I've had with me since I was a kid and remembered when an audience member mentioned the ocean in relation to the feel of the piece. Also on the release are two out-takes from a rehearsal recorded at home. 'Cymbal + Book' is a live recording experimenting with the two amplified objects and with panning the different looped sounds in Stereo and 'Lime Street Station' (named after the train station in Liverpool because it feels like a nice combination of words) was recorded the day before the performance and features all the same objects and instruments. The cover photo was taken in Birmingham in 2009. 


(See also: post 23-3-11- live review by Cath Aubergine)

Hiss Heads zine interview.

A very idiosyncratic interview by Florian Fusco for his self-published magazine 'Hiss Heads'. (know what I mean?) Not exactly in depth but touches nicely and lightly on my process, influences, general ramblings etc.

Click the image to see the full-size scan.

Hiss Heads is an interview 'zine on experimental musicians and recordists who work from home in the Manchester area. I'm not sure of the availability of the publication. 

Florian Fusco is an artist and writer from Germany and was the Kraak Gallery artist in residence during November 2010. florianfusco.com

Stroke Club at Gulliver's, 17-3-11 live review.

Here is a lovely review of my set for Stroke Club at Gulliver's, Manchester. 

By Cath Aubergine.

"...anyone wandering in unawares would be forgiven for thinking "what the fuck?" - there's a bunch of people sitting about on chairs or even (god help them) the carpet while what initially sounds like a rather quiet aeronautical flypast emanates from the speakers. The sound is coming from the fingers, electronic equipment and imagination of Gary Fisher, a locally-based sound and visual artist whose general philosophy is, as he puts it: "objects, images, sound recordings and live performances may be seen as individual pieces in their own right as well as parts of a bigger 'work in progress' that is the process itself". Tonight he is working in a field somewhere near the far boundary of "ambient music" where, what could be heavily processed found sounds or could be waveforms designed from scratch (and how processed does a sound need to be before it is no longer found but manufactured? You don't find yourself in this kind of thought process watching indie bands, do you?) build, overlap, fold back in on themselves. More abrasive and discordant than, say, Machinefabriek but equally entrancing, this is probably as close to a synaesthetic experience as a person with regular senses will get: these sounds definitely have shapes, of sorts. The room's small glitterball spins slowly above, tracing strings of light across the floor and audience, absorbing and hypnotic."

 Photo by Kane

The full review by Cath Aubergine including a set by the mighty WOMB can be found at: www.music-dash.co.uk/live

Stroke club is a regular night of independent music at Gullivers, Manchester.

Record sleeves

Some selected scans from the Record Sleeves series of drawings, prints and collage onto found paper 45 sleeves.

The first is a laser-jet print of a transcript from two tape recordings of journeys. Typed onto a till roll as part of a 2008 project of recording random journeys and later typing from the tapes, the text is a mix of describing what I heard on the tape and the memory of what I heard, saw and did on the journey. At the time I was only vaguely aware of Situationism and the similarities in my work. It has since become a valuable reference point.

The second is another re-used image from a previous stage in my work- part of the Mechanical Drawings  series from 2007-2009- is laser printed onto the top corner of the paper sleeve. The old sticky-tape, number 37 and signature of the previous owner become part of the new composition and of course the hole which has removed a large part of the original drawing.

These two circular drawings are made by fixing drawing media- a black marker pen and graphite stick to the arm of a record player and letting the turntable do the drawing. The graphite was so light that the record player had to be left running for some time before the pattern became clear. The writing crossed out in blue felt-pen was already on the sleeve when found.

Electronic Organica IX 28/01

Electronic Organica IX at the Briton's Protection, Manchester
28/01/2011


The piece went well. Even though a the tape recorder didn't work the sound of the buttons being pushed was good. Starting out with a clean cymbal and then gradually introducing delays and loops. Made a nice collage of textures with scratching, scraping, tapping sounds along with more metallic sounds from cymbal and a reverb spring (removed from a guitar amp and mounted in a cigar box) with some sounds building up and some dropping in and out. Made a loop between the radio ariel touching the cymbal with both going through the mixer then touching the cymbal with a skewer linking myself to the ariel. Moving the skewer around the cymbal changed the tone of the static. A bit of experimenting during the performance is always fun. Built up  loop of loud rumbling clattering cymbal and that electronic whipping sound from the reverb then dropped everything to reveal the textured sound of the brush bristling and scratching on the cymbal.

^ Phone pic by Ian Simpson.

     Notes for the composition.>

Objects / insrtuments used: Cymbal with contact mic, skewer, book with contact mic, pocket radio, reverb spring, Buddha Machine, tape recorder, workshop brush, 'beater' (a rubber ball on a knitting needle), digital loops and delays.

Temporary Structures free download album

"Temporary Structures"

Gary Fisher 2010
1. (12.02)

2. (8.04)

Now on free download from my new netlabel Found In a Skip
Hosted by the Internet archive: archive.org







Download:
Skip06- Temporary Structures
(all files including cover direct from the netlabel)

From the album's last.fm page:

A recording of a rehearsal the night before a concert that was cancelled. Temporary Structures is a continuous, improvised, live composition in three loose ‘movements’ moving through different combinations of instruments and objects and forming smaller compositions and cycles that overlap and leak into each other, sounds falling in and fading out or popping up suddenly (the accidental sound of a spectrum game tape signaled the end of the first part and has ended two live performances in a similar way). The intention for the performance and this recording was to was to be more patient with building the composition by letting it unfold with more of a sense of time passing and include a mixture of sounds created electronically and acoustically ranging from textured, minimal and close, such as a rustled plastic bag against a microphone, to ambient and spacial sounds like live radio static without it getting too noise-heavy. The piece starts minimal and quiet with the textured sound of an amplified book being tapped and scraped and ends in a similar way, but more tuneful, with a single echoed note from the scrap guitar a home-made instrument of a bit of found wood with two guitar machine-heads at one end and strings stretched across it.

The title “Temporary Structures” comes from a fascination with architecture and structures related to it that are not permanent fixtures (cranes and scaffolding are constantly going up and coming down all over Manchester in it’s relentless regeneration) and was conceived some time before but chosen for this recording as it suggests something about the approach to the composition and the things that inspired it. The cover photo is the Chapman Gallery at the University of Salford taken by Gary on 35m film. The CDr version is packaged in a single sheet of folded A4 paper printed with the full photo.

Instruments and objects used: amplified book, scrap guitar, contact mics, plastic bag, small cymbal, drum mic, reverb spring (removed from a guitar amplifier), knitting needle, beater (metal skewer with bouncy ball on the end), tape recorder with train tape and spectrum game tape, heat sink (removed from an old stereo), stylophone with chorus effect pedal, pocket radio, Loop-station and -of course- digital delay.

(in this post blue text are links to tags in last.fm)

Counting Backwards #5

Thursday 3 February, 7.30pm, Fuel Cafe Bar, Withington, Manchester.

The next installment of Counting Backwards: a bi-monthly text-sound-performance event founded and curated by Matt Dalby, Richard Barrett and myself. The event has been doing well since it launched and has featured a good mix of experimental music,   poetry, sound art and performance.

Electronic Organica IX 28/01/11

Planning a piece in 3 parts for this night of experimental music and improvisation. Aiming for a good mix of sounds, electronic and acoustic with some nice subtle, quiet parts as well as the usual loops and noises piling up.



Electronic Organica IX onfacebook

Postcard collages

The Postcard Collages are arranged on postcard sized flyers or plain postcards. The process of collecting pictures, words and numbers for the purpose of collage was begun a few years ago when when my work was based mainly on collecting, collage and drawing. These three were made recently after realizing that collage was still relevant to my work and I still enjoy doing it. They are composed of things collected over the last few years; bits cut from newspapers and record covers, receipts, an envelope, a photocopy of a key and some green paint found in my flat the day I moved in. An idea with these three- seeing as they have unused stamps in them- is to post them to myself and get the postmarks on them.

photos from ...menu for murmur. Salford, June 2010

^Vibrating cymbal exhibit at ...menu for murmur. Sharing a suspended plinth with work by Chopshop. Chapman Gallery, Salford, June 2010. Photographed on out-of-date 35m film.

^The small cymbal on top of the speaker with the amp built into a plastic box.
Photographed by Ben Gwilliam.

More on ... menu for murmur: http://thosesoundsbetween.co.uk/projects/-menu-for-murmur/

"Ground-loop Problem"

A free download EP on my Found in a Skip netlabel. Originally released in 2009.

(Original post: 16/06/10. Updated: 05/02/11)

Download direct from the label (all tracks and cover): Skip 05


1. Six Lines 2. Buddha Book Taps 3. Three Bands of Static 4. Delayed Trains
5. Accidental Ending.

Named after a problem with a ground-loop ruining any attempts at recording with an unwanted and constant noise that went away as suddenly as it arrived- Ground Loop Problem is an EP of selected live improvised, minimal composition experiments from 2010 and one from 2009. The tracks ‘Six Lines’, ‘Buddha Book Taps’ and ‘Accidental Ending’ are taken from the same recording.

‘Accidental Ending’ is a genuine accident with the main loop cutting off instead of fading out.

The sounds are made with; amplified books, contact mics, broken cymbal, small cymbal, toy xylaphone, wire rack, pill packet, typewriter, breath, 3 band pocket radio, tape recorder, found field recording tape, ‘Steam In The 50s’ tape, turntable with ‘Golden Age of Steam’ record, fence brace, various found objects, reel-to-reel tape recorder, digital delay, Loopstation.

Track 2 contains samples from the FM3 Buddha Machine II: fm3buddhamachine.com

Piece for ...menu for murmur: a small cymbal placed on top of a speaker playing the sound of the cymbal being hit and brought close to the mic from a CD player powered by a small amp unit for which I built the circuit myself. The original idea was for the speaker to vibrate from the tone of itself, which worked nicely on tape but not so well on CD, such is the nature of improvised work. Still the sound and tone is altered by the cymbal placed on the speaker to an interesting effect. One the loudest things in the exhibition. The whole exhibition works really well with some automatic sounds happening regularly, some interactive ones happening sporadically and some pieces that don't make actual sound but get the imagination working on what sounds there could be. The sounds all work together to create a kind of ongoing live composition and performance.

...menu for murmur at Chapman Gallery, Salford

…menu for murmur

Curators: Ben Gwilliam,  Helmut Lemke

Tuesday 1 June – Friday 25 June

Performance: Saturday 5 June, 5.00 – 7.00pm


A menu, tables but no food… instead tables laid with objects producing sound.

…menu for murmur is an experiment that will show new and exciting Sound Work, which acknowledges the subtle interactions of different sound work and highlights trust between artists.

As many regulars of sound art will attest, the presentation of such work in group exhibitions can be problematic due to the very nature of noise itself; its ever-penetrating, omni-directional nature resulting in unintentionally overlapping sounds. Rather than viewing the overlapping of noises as a disturbance, …menu for murmur takes such sound bleed as its central concern.

Curators Ben Gwilliam and Helmut Lemke have invited international sound artists to contribute individual pieces that will stand on their own but will also create a new collaborative piece …menu for murmur. The sound objects, which include electorinic devices, rulers and even a desk fan, will consciously be arranged in one space far and near.

Sounds will be heard simultaneously, individually and in collaboration; close listening events as well as more cacophonous ones will emerge throughout the duration of the exhibition, considered by Gwilliam and Lemke to be one continuous performance.


Helmut said: “We have 26 artists from all over the world who are contributing to this exhibition. They’ve had to put a lot of trust in us to create a meaningful piece using their individual creations, but we’ve come up with a truly diverse and interactive piece of work which combines visual and audio art.

Mill 24: 12 tracks completed.

Mill 24 was a 24 hour arts event at Islington Mill, Salford, from 12pm on Saturday June 29 till 12pm on Sunday June 30 With artists creating works and performances throughout the 24 hours. My original proposal was to make 24 different sound recording in 24 hours with 1 hour to source, record, edit and publish each track within the hour. The project was shortened to 12 hours. Using only the place and what was happening at the time as the basis for the recordings the results are mostly field recordings taken on various formats; reel-to-reel tape, digital voice recorder, cassette-recorder and direct to computer, capturing different textures and documenting actions, observations, people, places and spaces around the Mill. The results are the 12 tracks and photographs below that were posted as they were finished some were published late - an hour is a rather short time find something to record, record it, photograph it, edit it, upload to Soundcloud, link to the blog and upload a photograph.

Tape recorder and sound drawing on a windowsill of the stairs  at Islington Mill.

Mill 24 Track 9: Graham's Induction Coil

MilL 24: Graham's Induction Coil by Gary Fisher

Sound of Graham Dunning using a drill against his hand-made induction coil echoing down the corridor outside the studio. Recorded on cassette dictafone with lots of inteference. Published at 20:57.


Graham Dunning at Mill 24

Mill 24 Track 4: Outside The Building From The Studio.

Mill 24: Outside The Building From The Studio by Gary Fisher


Sound from outside the building, from the studio on second floor, as picked up by a drum mic, pointing downwards, through a mixer with added bass. Recorded direct to the computer. Published at 15:58.

Mill 24 Track 2: Contact Mic Dragged Down Stairs.

Mill 24: Contact mic dragged down stairs. by Gary Fisher

A hand-made contact mic dragged down stairs from the 4th to the ground floor.

Digital recording. Published at 14:02

Mill 24 Track 1: On The Stairs

Mill 24: On The Stairs. by Gary Fisher

First sound recording for Mill 24. Taken on the stairs of the Mill with a cassette tape recorderon the lowest tape speed. Published 16 minutes late.

Mill 24: 12 new sound recordings in the first 12 hours.

12pm - 12am

mill24.blogspot.com 

Mill24 is a series of 24 hour exhibitions taking place every last Saturday of the month in April 2010 and May 2010 at Islington Mill, Manchester, UK.

The project will utilise all 5 floors of the vastly versatile Mill space with a diverse range of work from both Local and International artists. The work will be innovatively presented, with site specific installation, performance, and time based media. Each exhibition will be a packed programme of up and coming artists, with each piece of work scheduled within a structured ‘day’.

The concept for this project was born out of an interest in the quick turnaround of exhibition programming and the short attention span towards art that comes with it. The 24-hour time frame is essentially one private view, prolonging the excitement of an opening but turning all of the artwork shown in the exhibition into ‘limited edition’ works, once the day is over the work will not be seen again at the same venue. We have curated these engaging, interactive shows so that throughout one day several performances, happenings, and ‘openings’ occur simultaneously.

Dates . Sat 24th-Sun 25th April 2010 6pm-6pm. Sat 29th-Sun 30th May 2010 12pm-12pm.

Place . Islington Mill . James Street . M3 5HW .

Contact . mill24@hotmail.co.uk


Curated by Lois Macdonald . Helen Collett . Anna Beam .

Recording of Amplified Floorboard.

Amplified Floorboard by Gary Fisher


A recording of the Amplified Floorboard installation -direct from the contact mic- on the last day of the exhibition.

April 23, 2010.

Amplified Floorboard exhibit at Kraak Gallery, Manchester.


"A site-specific installation that explores sound through the amplification of surfaces, textures and surroundings in the gallery space. Part of the gallery floor is amplified to draw attention to the vibrations and sounds created when visitors walk across a specific part of the space. The sound is relayed to a speaker placed away from the source meaning the result is dislocated from it's origin." (from statement in exhibition catalogue)



In appearance this is my most minimal exhibition work to date: an amplifier at one side of the room and a speaker on the other. Underneath a contact mic attached to the underside of the wooden floor with the wire going underneath to an amplifier sat on the floor with avery long wire going along the gaps in the floorboards to the other side of the room. The hand-built contact mic was quite sensitive and picked up sound from other floorboards around the one with the mic attached meaning more quiet sounds could be heard by not stepping directly onto that specific floorboard. It was not obvious to most visitors which was the amplified floorboard and some didn't realise where the sound from the speaker originated or what it was. Some fun was had on the opening night watching people interact with the work noticing that when they stepped on a certain part of the floor it made a noise, some people started dancing to create rhythmic sounds while others traced the wire back from the speaker to the amplifier to try to discover the source of the sound.

Notes and drawings for amplified floorboard exhibit.

Upcoming group show in Manchester.

From kraak.co.uk

Lost Language juxtaposes themes of loss, fear and disgust with visions of beauty, transcendence and spirituality. Cutting edge media and practice is juxtaposed with time old concepts and concerns. Lost Language raises questions about femininity and masculinity through material and concept: outmoded machines with crocheted acrylic, organic matter with video, digitalism with spirituality.

The inspiration for the Lost Language came from Julia Kristeva’s bookPowers of Horror which investigates the roots of our sense of the ‘abject’, our fascination with it and what it means to us. The key theme in the book is around the concept of ambiguity. Ambiguity frightens us: when we think we know something or someone and we find we have been deceived or misguided we doubt our senses. If we become too afraid of ambiguity it can be stifling to creativity and to our fascination with the unknown in general. The rediscovery of horror and therefore ambiguity, according to Kristeva, brings us closer to our pre-historic selves who were not so bound to oppressive patriarchal systems.

Workshops and performances will be held on 17th and 18th April with artists including Matt Dalby, Graham Dunning and Gary Fisher.

Contact Louise 07958 050 730, louwoodcock@hotmail.co.uk to book workshop places or for more details