Museum of Dust

Big news: I now have a monthly radio show on CAMP, the broadcasting wing of the arts residency facility high in the French Pyrenees.

This is proper dream-come-true stuff for me – I’ve always wanted an outlet to play whatever the heck I want, all my favourite music, without having to worry about commercial pressure, or people coming up and asking me to turn this crap off and play some Oasis instead.

Listen online at listen.camp and afterwards at mixcloud, where all the shows are archived.

The first show, Tuesday 11 August, is archived here:



Future shows:
Tuesday 8 September, 8-10pm (BST)
Tuesday 6 October, 8-10pm (BST)
and so on, every 4th Tuesday until I run out of things to play, or they kick me off.

Gwrth​-​gitâr

My friend Ash and I have recorded an album of guitar duets, and the album is available to buy on CD or digital formats via Linear Obsessional Recordings. It’s not your usual Live Forever / Wonderwall-inspired acoustica, but we’re proud of it and had a lot of fun recording it. Gwrth​-​gitâr is a term we coined – it means anti-guitar, because although it doesn’t reject melody outright, it rejects the need for it. It’s inspired by the question ‘we all know what an acoustic guitar is normally used for, but what else can it do?’.

Niche appeal music, volume 3

I spent a couple of days over the Christmas break messing around with an old 6-chord JubelTöne zither that I found at a car boot sale. It’s seen better days, and has not been tuned. This is what happened:

Niche appeal non-music

In preparation for a new project I recently went through my archives of field recordings, fragments of various sound bits collected over the years. I’ve recorded a lot of pointless audio, it’s true, so I ended up deleting a whole bunch of stuff that was badly recorded, or just boring, but in amongst it all were some things that were worth keeping. So I thought that with a bit of editing, some of them might be interesting for other people to hear. I’ve compiled them into three volumes, because no-one wants to be presented with a single, huge archive dump, do they? Plus, of course, creating three volumes means a more impressive discography (and more entries on discogs.com).

Niche appeal music, volume 2

I’ve recently been messing around with an old three-quarter-size guitar I found at the car boot sale. It was £2, had no strings, saddle or nut, so I added those myself, and given that it’s quite difficult to play properly (not that I actually have much interest in doing so), I’ve been figuring out what else it can do. Here are the results of some of my investigations. Preparations include fidget spinners, paper clips, sandpaper, wool, suction cups, a cactus and roll-on deodorant. It some of it seems a bit ‘warts and all’, well, that’s the nature of research.

and here’s the third and final part of the acoustic guitar trilogy, recorded on a full size with steel strings.

Niche appeal music

Like one of those infuriating rural bus services that publish no music for years and then suddenly release two albums at once, I’m delighted to announce that despite not having published any music for years, I’m suddenly releasing two albums at once. I’ll write more about these later (maybe – no-one’s actually reading this, are they?), but for now here are the plain facts:

CAHN INGOLD PRELOG: Tolerance
2xCD, Recordiau Prin
“… imagine yourself unexpectedly released into an alien forest filled with swamp mist and static electricity…”

The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor: Cerddoriaeth Ddefodol Gogledd Sir Benfro (Ritual Music of North Pembrokeshire)
2xLP, Amgueddfa Llwch
Ritual trance music from rural Wales, performed on kitchen utensils and garden tools.

Gwaddol / Legacy

gwaddol-promo-640

If you find yourself anywhere in the vicinity of Bangor (Gwynedd, not Co. Down) over the next 3 months, then please consider calling in to Pontio, the new and exciting Arts & Innovation Centre. It’s an interesting place with lots of things going on, but in addition to those interesting things, you can see my new multi-media exhibition, Gwaddol, for free.

Gwaddol is a celebration of Theatr Gwynedd, the popular precursor to Pontio, built in 1974 and demolished in 2010. Here’s what I said about the exhibition when put on the spot with a voice recorder by Pontio’s marketing team:

“I admit to feeling a bit daunted when I was first approached about doing this, as it was clear from the outset what a clear sense of community there was around Theatr Gwynedd. There were so many people who knew each other, worked together, grew up together and one of the most interesting things for me was finding out these stories – these stories and people who had grown into local legends.

“I feel really warmly towards the place now, though I never went there myself, and it seemed there was lots of fun to be had there. So that was something I really wanted to come out in the exhibition. It’s all very well doing a very serious and sombre reflection of the history of Theatr Gwynedd, but from speaking to people who were involved with it, it really seemed as if it was a good, fun happy place so I wanted that to be reflected.

“Rather than a memorial, I wanted it to be a celebration which maybe triggers memories. I really hope that people who do know what Theatr Gwynedd did can connect with this – whether it’s one of their stories used for something, or they see an object and it reminds them of a good time they had there.”

Cinema

Hi there. I thought I’d better let you know that I’m no longer artist in residence at Oriel Wrecsam – that stopped back in March, but the lack of an update probably made it look like I’m still there. If you’re wondering what I’ve been up to (not that you were, but if you were), check out the community cinema I started, and make sure you come to our next event on the 9th October: New Dot Cinema. Bye!

Oriel Wresidency

I forgot to tell you, but I’m currently Artist In Residence at Oriel Wrecsam, documenting and archiving the gallery before it moves out of its current location and into a temporary off-site phase.

Following all the latest developments on Twitter: /OrielWresidency.

Something Happened / Gwaddol

I have two new solo exhibitions coming up, featuring all new work.

Oriel Wrecsam Off-Site

Something Happened is an oblique tribute to Roy Andersson, Stewart Lee, Studio 54 and the now defunct retail chain JJB Sports. It’ll take place at Oriel Wrecsam Off-Site throughout September. More details soon.

Theatr Gwynedd

Gwaddol is being commissioned by Pontio, the wonderful new multi-purpose cultural centre in Bangor. It aims to bridge the gap between the now defunct Theatr Gwynedd, on whose foundations Pontio is being built, and the new centre, by sharing / collecting / exploring memories of the old theatre. This will likely be opening September / October time. Again, more details soon!