Powerlines Live at Manchester Literature Festival 20/08/2016

Coming up:

Powerlines at Manchester Literature Festival

20th October 2016, 6.30pm

Manchester Central Library,

St Peter's Square, Manchester

I will be performing a live piece commissioned for this project:

Powerlines: New Stories From The Urban Edge 

Some people struggle to get from one end of the day to the other – but their stories are not being told. Five artists have worked with people in Salford to explore the lives unfolding far beyond the aspirational city of artisan coffee shops and slick new builds. Join poet Jo Bell, graphic novelist Darryl Cunningham, sound artist Gary Fisher, short story writer David Gaffney and novelist Stephen May as they place these stories centre stage.

These stories will make you cry, laugh and shout with rage at inequalities perpetuated by a social security system that is no longer social or secure. Produced in partnership with Church Action on Poverty, Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service, and The University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing, Powerlines will shed light on some of the too-little considered realities of life in the Northern Powerhouse.

 I was commissioned by one of the organisers of the Powerlines project- based in my home City of Salford- to produce a live sound piece based on short stories written by people from Salford about their experiences of having to live on welfare benefits. The group I worked with had some interesting, tragic, funny and very personal stories to tell. I have recorded each of them reading their own works and I am currently working on weaving their voices into a live soundscape performance with fragments of the stories filtering through like memories or disconnected pieces of dreams.


I also produced this preview trailer:

For booking and links to more info on the project, artists and the festival: http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/powerlines-new-stories-from-the-urban-edge-37253

The Other Room 13/04/2016 report.

On 13th April 2016 I made a performance for The Other Room's 8th Birthday in Manchester.

The Other Room is a reading series presenting experimental writers at The Castle Hotel in Manchester.

I usually let some time pass before reflecting or reporting on a performance.

This was my first performance for a while and I could not have hoped for a better night. The other performers were excellent too.

I always like to try new things so this time I produced a free hand out with a drawing of my set up and list of sound sources. This was the first time I have composed live using mainly playback devices with pre recorded sounds including some of my own field recordings, a mobile phone app of relaxation sounds and the FM3 Buddha Machine. On a whim, I also brought along my lucky cat to provide some visual rhythm. And good luck.

Free photocopied handout from the performance.

During set up the synthesiser shown in the drawing was replaced by my trusty amplified book which just seemed more appropriate at the time and provided some nice acoustic sounds to go with the other noises.

The initial idea was to make a piece along the lines of Musique Concrete and ended up as something breaking probably every rule of that.

A video of my performance:

Link to all videos from the night:
https://otherroom.org/2016/04/21/videos-from-the-other-room-8th-birthday/

The Other Room:
https://otherroom.org/

Coming up in April: The Other Room 8th Birthday 13/04/2016

From The Other Room 8th Birthday on facebook:

The next Other Room is a sound special, featuring Stuart Calton, Gary Fisher, Linda Kemp and Rosanne Robertson. It's also our eighth birthday and the launch of our new anthology. Come along and help us celebrate on Wednesday 13th April (7 pm) at The Castle Hotel, Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE. Bookstall. Free admission. Details of all performers below, with previews of each to appear at http://otherroom.org/ over the next month. www.otherroom.org

Idea:
At the moment I'm thinking of doing a live mix for this with some of my old field recordings and found sounds on playback devices like mobile phones and digital dictaphones and maybe some kind of graphic score or visual piece to accompany. More on this later.

Live recording from Sluice Art Fair 2013

New live recording published on Soundcloud

In October of 2013 I was invited by The Penthouse to the Sluice Art Fair in London (see Oct '13 in the archive). I had done a residency for The Penthouse earlier that year, where I made new improvised works and performances, and was invited to help represent them at the fair. On the final night of the fair I made a live performance that would on reflection be one of the noisiest and less compromising of my performances.


Not being as careful at documenting my own performances as I probably should be I had forgotten that a friend who was present had recorded the gig- and I guess he forgot too, since it arrived in my inbox only last week. On listening back two years later it reminded me of being quite relaxed at the time and just letting the waves of sound and feedback build up further and louder than I would usually before turning some channels down and other up. It wasn't really planned that way but my travelling from Manchester with a limited set of equipment and the atmosphere at the event not being one conducive to people listening intently influenced my decision to make something more direct and reactionary and less abstract or quiet. At some point I asked for a microphone that was not part of my set-up to be switched on and stood for a while playing the FM tuner into it while the Loopstation did some of the work, then left the FM tuner on the floor in front of the audience which can be heard at the end playing out static before I come over and turn it off. With the benefit of hindsight I can say that this performance relates to my interest in using instruments and technology in ways which they were not designed for and adapting to situations and environments as part of improvisation. Something I would go on to explore as part of my MA in Sound Arts and continue to do.

Some pictures from the event:

Vinyl Release From Christian Marclay White Cube Performance with Thurston Moore

The limited (500 copies) vinyl release of the performance from Marclays show at White Cube London. I was one of a number of performers invited to play in a composition using a vast collection of glasses with Marclay on turntables, Thurston Moore on guitar and two musical saw players.

http://www.vfeditions.com/product/view/218

From The Vinyl Factory Editions website:

In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. The fourth and fifth performances are from Christian Marclay and Thurston Moore. Both of which are pressed onto Live 4.


Side A: Christian Marclay with Thurston Moore, 'Good Vibrations'.
Side B: Thurston Moore and The London Sinfonietta, 'Nice'.

Thurston Moore started his band Sonic Youth in 1980. He has worked collaboratively with Yoko Ono, Merce Cunningham, Cecil Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Takehisa Kosugi and Glenn Branca. He has composed music for films by Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, and Allison Anders. He presently records and tours both solo, with various ensembles and with his own band. His most recent recording, entitled The Best Day, was just released by Matador Records. Thurston currently resides in London.

Performances take place each Saturday and Sunday of the show. Following live pressing on the VF Press by The Vinyl Factory and live screen-printing by Coriander each Thursday and Friday.

* Limited Edition of 500
* Hand-Screen printed by Coriander Studio
* Live performance by Christian Marclay and Thurston Moore in conjunction with Marclays exhibition.
* Live recorded, pressed and screen-printed inside the White Cube

To receive information on the full Christian Marclay / White Cube programme as announced please email marclay2015@whitecube.com

Christian Marclay
28 January – 12 April 2015
White Cube, 144-152 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3TQ.

Available to pre-order now: Expected delivery date week commencing 23rd Feb.

Singing Saw and Glass Harp performance with Christian Marclay, White Cube London

SATURDAY: 07 February 2015, 3-4pm

I'm playing glasses in a group performance with Christian Marclay, Thurston Moore, saw players from The London Sinfonietta and some invited artists playing with the glasses in the gallery.

From the White Cube website:

Room 2, South Gallery II, Bermondsey

In a collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions.This Saturday there will be a performance led by Christian Marclay featuring saw players. The ethereal tones they produce by drawing a violin bow across the edge of a hand saw will be accompanied by Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP) students from the University of the Arts London, who will be using glasses as musical instruments.

Special thanks to Lisa Hall and Cathy Lane (from UAL).

To receive information as the full programme is announced please email 
marclay2015@whitecube.com

Christian Marclay
28 January – 12 April 2015
South Galleries, North Galleries and 9 x 9 x 9, Bermondsey

Live on Fractal Meat On A Spongy Bone- NTS Radio, London.

January 23, 2014.

Performing live on Fractal Meat On A Spongy Bone Presented by friend and occasional collaborator Graham Dunning on NTS Radio, London. Using two tape recorders and a dictaphone sampling and mixing random parts of some collected tapes and a recently rediscovered digital dictaphone recording of footsteps in snow from about 5 years ago. The tapes are from a number of spoken word, field recordings, radio programs, games and others collected over the years.

https://www.facebook.com/FractalMeat
http://ntslive.co.uk/shows/fractalmeat/

Constantly Evolving But Never Ending

Constantly Evolving But Never Ending is the exhibition, symposium and performance event for MA Sound Arts at The London College of Communication featuring some of the work I've been developing in my practice as part of the course. My piece will be a performance on the final evening.

2nd-7th December 2014
Angus Hughes Gallery
26 Lower Clapton Road
London E5 OPD

Opening: Monday 1st December 7-9pm
Symposium: Sunday 7 December 2pm
Performances: Sunday 7 December 7pm

Facebook event


From the program notes:

GARY FISHER

Approaching The Object (solo improvisation with objects), 2014

Fisher’s performance will be a solo improvisation reflecting aspects of the ongoing development of a personal playing practice based around sounding particular objects in an improvised way. It will present a series of examples of ways in which the artist approaches the objects to create sounds and focus on the relationship between the artist’s own idiosyncratic approaches and the object as a material with potential to make sound.

It is only through some kind of interaction that these particular sounds can happen. Are these sounds unique to the person causing them? Why these objects and approaches? What are the risks of improvising alone? Is there a relationship between the object and the artist? How will this work in the context of a performance? In the context of his overall practice which usually involves improvised performances incorporating combinations of different media and technologies this would be considered a relatively minimal and restrained approach.

Pictures from Ritual In Parallel For Objects And Electronics- at Soundings No.1

Some pictures from the performance of Graham Dunning and Gary Fisher: Ritual In Parallel For Objects And Electronics at Soundings No.1, 6 November 2014, Power Lunches, London

This was an improvised three phase 'ritual' of two people improvising with two sets of the same three instruments; cymbal, drum and turntable, and moving through timed segments of each instrument in turn and in parallel with each other.

Pictures by Gilda Manfring

Graham Dunning & Gary Fisher: Ritual In Parallel For Objects And Electronics – at SOUNDINGS No.1

‘Soundings, No. 1′, Power Lunches, Thursday 6th November 2014

‘Soundings’ is a series of concerts exploring the boundaries between new music, sound art and computer music.

Graham Dunning & Gary Fisher: Ritual In Parallel For Objects And
Electronics
Graham Dunning & Gary Fisher are sound artists and improvising musicians who individually explore process, investigation and experimentation in their work. The duo have performed together a only handful of times despite their close, ten year association. This new collaboration is a ritual in parallel exploring similarities in
practice and differences in approach. (From grahamdunning.com)

facebook event

ALLAN KAPROW: YARD 1961/2014 INTERVENTION

Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
31 August 2014, 2-4pm
Sculpture 4 in Allan Kaprow: YARD 1961/2014

As part of the Hepworth Gallery's rendition of Allan Kaprow's YARD installation, a room filled with car tyres, David Toop and Rie Nakajima will be holding one of their Sculpture series of sound events in the installation. As one of the 'sculptures' in Sculpture 4 a recently formed improvising group of musicians and artists from the London Collage of Communication including myself have been invited to perform and interact with the space. This will be a meeting of different concepts and approaches incorporating free improvisation with the idea of performance as sculpture in time and Kaprow's philosophy of the Happening (events as art).


YARD 1961/2014 at the Hepworth
"YARD is one of Kaprow’s earliest Environments, conceived by the artist as a transient, temporary work that invites public participation. Like most of his works, YARD was also conceived with the possibility of being re-staged, both by Kaprow himself during his lifetime, and also by others. Kaprow described all subsequent manifestations as 'reinventions', with an emphasis on reinterpreting the original idea rather than remaking as a direct copy. YARD has been re-invented over 23 times, though unlike many of his activities or environments, there are no definitive instructions, only hand-written notes and images of previous versions, allowing the work to be re-conceived each time it is presented."
Sculpture, Rie Nakajima and David Toop
"In their conversation for OTO Broadcast on Resonance FM, Rie Nakajima and David Toop talked about events as sculpture, the duration of objects and the weight of actions. Sculpture is an experience that proposes a strategy, working to subvert the routines of performance as entertainment, lecture as information, literature fixed to the page, the conventions of duration, the direction of light and occupation of a space.

Does the sculptor have to be present, or make things? Always end with a question?"

The Hepworth Wakefield

Gallery Walk

Wakefield

WF1 5AW

XMAS AT THE MILL, DECEMBER 7 2013.

Terminal Cheesecake LIVE at Islington Mill with Gnod, Bong, Die Hexen and more!!!

What better way to begin the festive period than being immersed in a heady world of music, art, noise, performance... and mince pies? All at your fave venue; Islington Mill.

You'd have a bit of a job topping this line-up...

Concretecock and Fat Out Til You Pass Out bring you Islington Mill's Xmas Xtravaganza!



Clubspace:
TERMINAL CHEESECAKE
GNOD
BONG
DIE HEXEN
TRANARCHY
RAIKES PARADE
BRATAN
DREAM EYES
RIVER SLAUGHTER
(more TBA)

DJs:
Lucy Ironmonger & Chew Disco
VULJ

PLUS DJ sets from performers.

1st Floor:
ROSANNE ROBERTSON
DEBBIE SHARP
AULO'S FIRST REED
GARY FISHER
MATT DALBY
2 KOI KARP

Visual Stimulation:
KHOM
WOODCOCK&GRUNDSTROM
MARK O'SHEA

TICKETS:
£7 ADV. http://www.wegottickets.com/event/246675
£9 OTD

https://www.facebook.com/events/232104690279940/

SLUICE ART FAIR, LONDON 18/10 - 20/10/13

Some pictures from the Sluice Art Fair in London.

Tabletop sound making.

Performance at the closing event.

 I was invited to the Sluice Art Fair by THE PENTHOUSE, Manchester where I was on the artist residency program for five weeks early in 2013.

Along with fellow artists and Penthouse directors Rosanne Robertson and Debbie Sharp and Invited artist Benny McChrystal Plimmer I spent almost the whole time on the stall collaborating and improvising with sound and making on-the-spot works responding to the immediate environment including spontaneous sound making around the venue with a found metal object which got a few confused looks from people who probably couldn't tell if I was making art or just a slightly strange person, particularly when I threw the object out onto a metal fire escape. To close the event 2 KOI KARP joined myself, Debbie and Rosanne in line-up of improvised, experimental sound perfromances. From a personal perspective it was one of the performances I've enjoyed playing the most since I'd had two days of warming up it was one of the more disjointed and louder sets I've done as well as the longest so far. Travelling to London meant I had to strip down my set-up so went for the lap guitar, book, and pocket radio for my most minimal set-up so far, which forced me to concentrate more getting different sounds from each instrument and made for a more raw and immediate sound.

NOISE ABOVE NOISE AT THE PENTHOUSE 19/9/13

I'll be taking part in this experimental noise/sound art/improv extravaganza with some friends and fellow noise makers. A great opportunity for trying new things, collaborations and live experiments.

From The Penthouse website:

NOISE ABOVE NOISE |||

An evening of experimental sound and improvisation. 

This event is one of a pair of ongoing (possibly monthly) nights joined with The Basement and 2 Koi Karp (Louise Woodcock and Neil VG). 

Artists

Rosanne Robertson

Debbie Sharp

Louise Woodcock

Neil VG

Gary Fisher 

Matt Dalby

Together these artists will create new work, invite guest artists to work with and invite an audience to experience it. 

Details on individual artists to follow. 

NOISE ABOVE NOISE is hosted by The Penthouse- a new artist led work space- a place for making, doing, sharing and showing. The Penthouse was recently featured on The Manchester Culture Show as a new and exciting side step to the Manchester cultural scene and favoured most fondly in the HOT 100 list by Kevin Hunt for a-n magazine’s Signpost publication. 

NOISE ABOVE NOISE is about making and sharing new sound art. 

Our ideas and sounds fly from the rooftops.

http://thepenthousenq.com/events

Live at Chorlton Arts Festival, 27-5-2012

"Not And"
Live improvisation for Chorlton Arts Festival, 27-5-2012.
Keyboard, square-wave, FM radio, cymbal, book, objects, contact mics, mobile phone, effects, loops and mixing all improvised and performed live. 26th live performance and first to feature the Casio PT-30 mini keyboard and a sample recorded on a mobile phone.
This is a recording of the entire performance. The last few minutes are an impromptu ending of touching a stereo jack through a digital delay, something I will use more in future performances.
Apologies for the not-perfect sound but it is quite a big file and I wanted it to stay in one piece.

Live pictures 2008-2011

Some live photos from the last few years.

A full list of performances and events is at the "About/CV" page

Stroke Club at Gulliver's, Manchester, 2011

Electronic Organica 9 at Briton's Protection, Manchester, 2011

Counting Backwards at Fuel, Manchester, 2011

King's Arms, Salford, 2010

KRAAK Gallery, Manchester, 2009. With Graham Dunning.

Startrunning at Sandbar, Manchester, 2009

WOMB Live, Briton's Protection, Manchester, 2008

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.

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.

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