September 2008 Archives

YOU'RE TAMPERING WITH THE HOLY GRAIL. Sir George Martin.

Sparks flew when some of the most sacred music of the past century was reinterpreted by a circus. LOVE, the stage show created in 2006 by Cirque du Soleil and The Beatles, continues to sell-out to huge audiences. A remarkable fusion of talent brought it to life, but not without some painful disagreements and the re-ignition of some intriguing old family feuds. The launch of ‘All Together Now’, at the Raindance festival on October 9th, promises to reveal all.

UNDERWATER CONCERTS PROVIDE A UNIQUE AURAL EXPERIENCE.

Sound travels faster through water than it does through air, so it follows that any listening experience will be very different submerged in a pool than it would be on dry land. This was the thinking behind this summer’s Wet Sounds tour, curated by Joel Cahen, which finished up recently having hit ten public swimming pools around the UK. Yep, swimming pools, with ticket buyers donning bathers and goggles before diving headfirst into a never-before-heard world of sonic experience.

POLE DANCING IS NOT WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WAS.

Well OK, partly it is, but if you peel back the clothes you’ll find a form of expression - and a dedicated group - projecting an image quite distinct from the strip club aesthetic that the males among us will probably know. The Miss Pole Dance UK Championships roll into town in October intent on righting popular perception. And if you want to see what’s humanly possible on a pole, follow the link below.

HE DID WHAT HE DID AS A PLAYER AND THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES. Paul Azinger.

The colourful, biennial obscurity that is the Ryder Cup is upon us. Europe, led by the notorious loner, Nick Faldo, arrived at the Valhalla Golf Club, Kentucky, as favourites. On paper, they should be. If recent performances are an omen, Team Europe will romp to another famous victory. The question is, can the single-minded, egocentric, individual ex-pro now bring a group of young men together to form an egoless, united team?

STARTLING IMAGES THAT DO JUSTICE TO THE FEROCITY OF IKE.

Perhaps the disaster capitalists described in Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine might see some good in the recently subsided bout of Atlantic hurricanes, but the rest of the world clearly doesn’t. Ike alone resulted in over 130 deaths and $27 billion of damage. But disasters do, invariably, propel creative people into action, with photographers leading the pack. These images are evidence of that - a telling reminder of a reality we in the UK will hopefully never know.

THE FUTURE OF PREDICTIVE TEXT?

I can’t make up my mind about Swype. Exploiting touchscreen technology, it promises to make typing on computers, mobile phones, tablets and virtual screens quicker and easier. Rather than press specific letters for specific words, you just drag your finger across the touch-screen pad in the same order of letters that you’d type them. Swype then figures out what word you intend to write. Supposedly. It could be genius; it could be awful.

IF DAVID LYNCH TOOK PICTURES OF CARS.

A period spent working in the darkroom of Mercedes HQ, Stuttgart, awakened Olaf Hauschulz’s love of cars; he’s since made his name as an automotive photographer. In this particular set he creates a sense of cinematic theatricality that befits some of the world’s most desirable automobiles.

RUSTY ALLEYWAYS AND VAPOROUS GHOSTS PAINTED BY THE MASTERS OF DREAD.

Rare is the child that will happily kiss goodnight to his parents and head upstairs to bed alone in the dark, too young to reach the light switch as he goes. “No need to come and check on me,” he bleats. “I’ll be fine.” Grown men bristle when the lights go out; women shriek; kids freak. There’s no denying it, human beings just don’t get on too well with the dark. Fear(s) of the Dark, a new animated feature, brings together some of Europe’s leading artists in different disciplines to explore humanity’s frosty relationship with the dark.

PAUL PFEIFFER TRAVELS BACK IN TIME TO REWRITE THE PAST.

Paul Pfeiffer, relocated to New York in 1990 after growing up in the Philippines, exploits what’s now become basic technology for his spooky meditations on sport and a culture obsessed by frenzied celebrity. One project, The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, sees Pfeiffer taking images of situations in sport, some known, others not, and removing them of all contextual detail. He leaves us with a solitary figure, devoid of teammates, a lone ranger watched by the masses in the stands above.

ANDY MURRAY IS A FUTURE KING BUT HIS TIME IS NOT YET NIGH.

Andy Murray barely broke sweat when beating the ball back again and again from beyond the baseline against the world’s best player. Nadal, a beacon of athleticism, the ultimate in strength, speed and skill, was the one dripping with sweat as he scampered from one side of the court to the other, reaching, panting - screaming even - as the Scot stood bolt upright, firing groundstrokes to all corners of the court with power, direction and purpose.

NO LABEL DID THINGS THE WAY WE WANTED THEM TO BE DONE. Carsten Nicolai.

Nicolai, along with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, is one of the three founders of Raster-Noton, the minimal electronics label that, for twelve years now, has fused music with art through its sculpted sound objects and unique approach to aesthetics. The label has remained absolute in its commitment to physicality, to delivering objects of value, lovingly produced, making use of innovative design ideas, solutions and materials, while the quality of the audio product has always been a given. Earlier this year, Ryoji Ikeda (above), the arch-minimalist of Japan, resumed his relationship with the label with Test Pattern, an extraordinary album, not always easy to consume at once, but a work that, in its process particularly, perfectly reflects the stream of innovation pulsing through the digital veins of the Raster-Noton platform.

THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF BIG THINGS.

This weekend I had the privilege of pitching camp at the second annual Festibelly down in Lymington. The seemingly heaven-sent, beaming sunshine and rolling Hampshire countryside afforded this mini-festival the perfect backdrop. It was a weekend powered by the energy and charge associated with the coming of new young things.