#alister spence music

[lcurham]

Wordpress site changes - live

Selected Performances

The Film Remains the Same, You are here 2014;

Spartak at CCAS Nov 2014

Unconsious Archives at Café Oto, London with Alison Blunt, June 2013;

Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre with Alister Spence Trio, April 2013;

Jazz at the Loft, Canberra with Alister Spence, Raymond McDonald & Shoeb Ahmad, Jan 2013;

SoundOut Festival, Canberra 2013, 2014

Melbourne International Arts Festival, Soak, with the Australian Art Orchestra, 2010

Jazz Visions Festival, Sound Lounge, Sydney, 2010

Smack Bang Festival, Red Rattler, Sydney, Jan 2010

NZ International Film Festival- Frames Per Second A Film of One's Own, Auckland, 2009

Waiting to Turn into Puzzles at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2008

Val Camonica Pieces, Victorian Arts Centre, 2007

OtherFilm annual festival, Brisbane 2006-8;

NowNow annual exploratory music festival, Sydney, 2006-9

[dustedmagazine]

Satoko Fujii / Alister Spence — Intelsat (Alister Spence Music)

Tradition can function as a bulwark against time’s erosive influence, but time has a funny way of working changes upon tradition. Kanreki is a Japanese celebration that observes the renewal of life when one reaches the age of 60. According to the Chinese calendar, the celebrant has come to a point of beginning again, which gives them license to enter a second childhood of sorts. Conceived in a time when most people didn’t live that long, it both honored an elder’s place within the family unit and eased them out of the patriarchal position of control. The son took over the family business, and the daughter-in-law ceremoniously took the rice paddle from mom.  

But now Japan is being so hard hit by graying demographics that the country is reevaluating the notion of retiring at 60. Under such circumstances, Satoko Fujii’s version of Kanreki makes a lot of sense. Far from winding down, she’s ramping up. The composer, bandleader and pianist observed the landmark by putting out a CD every month in 2018. Some are by longstanding ensembles, but others explore new ideas. Intelsat does a bit of both. Fujii and Australian pianist Alister Spence have shared stages since 2008, but this is their first duo album. Recorded at the Intelsat jazz club in Nishio, Japan, it’s an outlier in both musicians’ discographies and better for it.

Fujii’s music tends toward bold extensions of the jazz vernacular, and she often celebrates the merging of perspectives by bringing compositions to quickly convened big bands in different cities. Spence has worked a lot with small groups, including an enduring partnership with Scottish saxophonist Raymond MacDonald and a keyboard-bass-drums trio with Lloyd Swanton (the Necks) and Toby Hall. His music tends to be a bit more user-friendly than Fujii’s. But they’re both piano players, and the productive tensions and unlikely commonalities between their approaches makes for fascinating listening. Fujii plays grand piano, while Spence mostly sticks to an electric Fender Rhodes. From the start, both treat their instruments as sound sources rather than keyboards. E-bowed strings and high-pitched slides across the grand piano’s innards interweave with looped, mechanical clanks and bulbous single notes, creating a sound environment in constant flux.  

Then Spence shifts course with some phrases subjected to the sort of distortion that made Miles Davis’ recordings with electric pianos so rich and enveloping. Fujii responds with low-end vamps and a quick-paced, high-end foray, initiating a push-pull dynamic full of drama and tonal color. Over the next hour the two musicians jointly explore ribbons of continuous sound, oppose one another with jagged attacks, and hang back while one or the other goes deep. This isn’t the sound of musicians easing up and riding upon their laurels; this is the sound of genuine discovery, founded upon decades of experience but unfettered by habit.

Bill Meyer

[burlveneer-music]

Kira Kira - Because of the Sun (Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Alister Spence,  Ittetsu Takemura)

Allister Spence's "Because of the Sun" is the first track on Bright Force, the new album from the co-operative band Kira Kira. Featuring Japanese pianist/composer Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, along with Australian keyboardist Alister Spence, and drummer Ittetsu Takemura the album will be released on April 28, 2018 via Libra Records.

Fujii explains that in Japanese, the name of this collaborative quartet, Kira Kira, means to sparkle or twinkle brilliantly. And that's just what the music does on the band's live recording which flashes powerfully with brilliant ideas, color, and feeling.

The band is an outgrowth of a long musical relationship between Fujii, Spence, and Tamura. They first met in 2008 when Spence's trio shared a bill with Fujii's ma-do quartet in Sydney, Australia. In the ensuing years, Spence and Fujii performed as a duet in Australia and later in Japan on a tour that also included concerts with Fujii's orchestras in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe. In 2016, Australians Spence and drummer Tony Buck of The Necks joined their Japanese companions to form Kira Kira. The Melbourne Jazz Festival commissioned new compositions from band for their appearance at the festival that year.

[diyeipetea]

Especial HDO 500 (Novedades a gogó AKA SHDJSI VII) [Podcast]

Especial HDO 500 (Novedades a gogó AKA SHDJSI VII) [Podcast]

Por Pachi Tapiz.

HDO llega a su programa número 500, y vamos a celebrar esa cifra con un programa especial de más de seis horas de duración, con unos invitados de auténtico lujo. Suenan temas de una docena y media de grabaciones publicadas en los últimos meses, ciertamente interesantes y  más que recomendables, a saber:

Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar (Moonjune Records)

Ferrando – Galiana –…

[matwalerian]

AllAboutJazz - magazine and website for jazz enthusiasts and industry professionals - One Man's Jazz by Maurice Hogue - Okuden | Walerian Shipp Parker Drake presentation.

"I admit to being a little breathless after listening to this very impressive album... One listen and I definitely wanted to hear more... Those names are enough to conjure up ideas of powerful music"

"He has been recording for Esp Disk since 2015 and receiving great reception for his albums and diversity where his trio with Shipp and Hamid Drake has been highly recommended in several publications."

So much amazing music this episode! ... How to describe the Mat Walerian Okuden Quartet with the multi-reedist leading Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Hamid Drake. Those names are enough to conjure up ideas of powerful music.

One listen and I definitely wanted to hear more... Mat Walerian ... I think a lot of his time was spent in New York, an incubator for creative jazz.

He is primarly self-taught musician but has taken lessons from Matthew Shipp which Walerian says were key in his development. He has also spent much time studying eastern philosophy and japanese culture and you can hear that in his music. He has been recording for Esp Disk since 2015 and receiving great reception for his albums and diversity where his trio with Shipp and Hamid Drake has been highly recommended in several publications. Walerian is also the artistic director of the Okuden music series.

For his latest effort on ESP disk he has expanded his trio to a quartet with the addition of great bassist William Parker ... he is in fantastic form on Walerians new "Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter".

I admit to being a little breathless after listening to this very impressive album. To give you a solid taste of Mat Walerian and his Okuden quartet here are 2 tunes : "Thelonious Forever" followed by "Business With William".

Listen to full episode of One Man's Jazz here :

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/mat-walerian-larry-ochs-aram-shelton-and-alister-spence-billy-mohler

[jazzsotd]

27. Alister Spence Trio - “Not Everything But Enough” from “Not Everything But Enough” (2017) on Alister Spence Music

[mysydneymemories-blog]

Music reviews: Neneh Cherry, Alfred Brendel, Elixir, Soap & Skin and more

POETRY/SONG Elixir/Katie Noonan/Michael Leunig GRATITUDE AND GRIEF (Kin/Universal) The dichotomy could not be wider, and yet it is exactly this that makes the album work so well. Firstly Michael Leunig reads one of his picture-of-innocence, charm-laden, spell-casting poems in his uniquely lugubrious way, and then that same poem is set to music and sung my Katie Noonan in a voice that is as ethereal as Leunig's is rooted in the earth. This happens with 10 poems, and it is like looking at the same set of words through two different kaleidoscopes: one of muted browns and yellows, and one of flaring golds and silvers. The compositions are attributed to Leunig, Noonan and Noonan's two collaborators in Elixir: her husband Zac Hurren on saxophones and that great Australian sorcerer of the electric guitar, Steve Magnusson. As well as the latter pair's delightful solos, string arrangements flesh out some pieces, while others are left more naked, like a monochrome Leunig cartoon. The words mostly wry observations and homespun philosophies of coping seem made for song. Try these from Love Is Born: "Love is born/With a dark and troubled face,/When hope is dead/And in the most unlikely place; Love is born/Love is always born." JOHN SHAND EXPERIMENTAL/AMBIENT Soap & Skin FROM GAS TO SOLID/YOU ARE MY FRIEND (PIAS) "Just as you wanted to avoid it, you already hold it in your hand," sings Anja Plaschg in the closing line of Athom. It is unclear whether she's happy or not about this state of affairs, and that is the push-me-pull-you paradox at the heart of the Austrian songwriter's third album as Soap & Skin. Plaschg has said these new songs are about separation, forgiveness and healing. There is an intensity and intimacy here that make it obvious that she is dragging some personal demons to the surface. Her vocal delivery is a blend of Nico's Teutonic tones and Bjork's child-like clarity, while the instrumentation uses live playing and then cuts it up and reassembles the parts. Italy tips its hat to Suicide, as whirring organ winds around a preset rhythm, the free-form patchwork of horns and strings in Heal echo David Bowie's Blackstar, and (This Is) Water sounds like a duet between monks and mermaids. Plaschg closes by covering What a Wonderful World (made famous by Louis Armstrong). The song so often used to soundtrack cinematic happy endings is sung over a spooked backing that suggests Plaschg is, at best, cautiously optimistic about the state of her world. BARRY DIVOLA [embedded content] CLASSICAL Alfred Brendel LIVE IN VIENNA (Decca) How wonderful that 10 years after Alfred Brendel finally left the concert platform at 77 we should have two "new" marvellous performances. Both were recorded live in Vienna, one being the Schumann piano concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Simon Rattle in 2001, and the other a 1979 account of Brahms' Handel Variations. Brendel, for me, is close to the perfect pianist: a flawless technique always at the service of the music; idiomatic interpretations that always sound exactly right; a cool intelligent naturalness, but not at the expense of vitality. He has recorded the Schumann at least three times previously, but this is surely the Brendel ideal: the pianist's delicacy and subtlety matched by the Vienna musicians and Rattle, and the recording is first rate. Brendel never recorded the Handel Variations in the studio, saying in the album notes he found the "neo-classicist/neo-baroque corset" irritating, but he reconsidered the Variations' merits when he heard this performance from Austrian Radio archives, and registered the "wealth of different characters, the colour, economy and masterful disposition of the pieces". He's right, and we are much the richer for it. BARNEY ZWARTZ SOUNDTRACK Phillip Johnston THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (Asynchronous) If you've seen the film, to hear the music is to have the magical images once more dancing before your eyes. The Adventures of Prince Achmed is Phillip Johnston's score for the revolutionary silent feature film of that name made in 1926 by Lotte Reiniger, which brings tales from The Arabian Nights to life in silhouette animation. Johnston's intricate score (for his own soprano sax, James Greening's trombone, and the keyboards of Alister Spence and Casey Golden, plus recorded loops, samples and Nic Cecire's drums), only deepens the mystery of the images, while highlighting the humour, drama, and, of course, romance. To listen to it independently of the film to be struck by the breadth of musical ideas that can hurl themselves from zaniness once moment to explosive grooves the next, and on to eerie beauty, while leaving scope for pithy little solos. Simultaneously Johnston has released a new album from his band the Coolerators, Diggin' Bones, on which he is joined by Spence, Cecire and Necks bassist Lloyd Swanton. This presents another facet of his music: a love of aerated, groovy, organ-based jazz. They are both worth the cost of admission in their own ways. JOHN SHAND POP Say Lou Lou IMMORTELLE (a Deux/Cosmos) On their Spotify artist page Swedish-Australian duo Say Lou Lou have created several playlists, including one called Opium. "Haze, smoke, sheets, somewhere between waking and sleeping, silk, Arabian wood," is how they describe it, and this also sums up the sound and aesthetic of Immortelle. Comprising genetically blessed twins Miranda and Elektra Kilbey (daughters of the Church's Steve Kilbey), Say Lou Lou combined breathy vocals and wistful melodies with pretty, gauzy, production on their 2015 debut, Lucid Dreaming. The effect was alluring, but also somewhat anaesthetising. They relocated from Stockholm to Los Angeles to record this follow-up, which swaps their debut's gossamer textures for a smokier, more noirish sound. Bond film soundtracks are an audible influence in sweeping, sultry songs such as Ana and Limbo, which adds trip-hop horns and smoulder, and on Phantoms and Immortelle they recall another Swedish sister duo, First Aid Kit, albeit in a muted, misty form. Their cover of Under the Milky Way, penned by their father and mother, Karin Jansson, is a tasteful, beguiling interpretation. Like smoke, though, these songs tend to disappear without leaving a lasting impression. ANNABEL ROSS https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/music-reviews-neneh-cherry-alfred-brendel-elixir-soap--skin-and-more-20181029-h17823.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[lcurham]

‘See how you go’ 

curated by Danny Wild at Down/Under Space, Chippendale Sydney Dec 2017 https://www.facebook.com/events/202470946965306/

Hi ya Danny, there are 3 things to collect from the Greyhound terminal:

RED BAG Contents 2 x power leads for projectors (jug plugs) hero films inside bubble wrap, red plastic bag 4 x 'dummy' films take up reels (3) in 35mm film can film cleaning and repair kit (screw drivers, puffer brush etc)

BLACK CASE 2 x super 8 projectors

LONG BROWN CARDBOARD RECTANGLE 2 x panel works

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Digital file for super 8 to follow. Here are notes about the super 8 films:

Title: 

Untitled 2017 [Road movie]

Canberra Sydney bus freight 1 x 'tips' sheet and gear list Potential super 8 performance

Gear list 1 x plastic road case 2 x Eumig 610 series super 8 projector with variable speed 3 fps - 18 fps 2 x power cables for projectors 1 x double adaptor 2 x take up reels 2 x 'dummy' films, Do You Like Snow and Greece and its beautiful islands, along with two from the Victa lawnmower series, you choose. Use to set focus and image size. Splicer and sticky tape to stick film back together. 2 x hero films '2 screen work Feb 2006'.

Tips

Have a desk lamp beside you, it won't interfere with the brightness of the wall, it lights you up a bit which I like, you are part of this performance so good that you are visible. Also much easier than a torch if you get mangled film problems during the performance.

These projectors have zoom lenses, suggest set them mid length so you can adjust when you have the film in ie don't make it really small or really big because if you want to change it you have to actually move the projector whereas, go mid length on the lens and you can adjust size without moving the projector.

Focus - use two 'dummy' films to set focus. Good projection etiquette is to always run a film the whole way through, these 'dummy' films are much longer than I'd like to be giving you so I think you're fine to just wind them back. You may find you want to tweak focus throughout the screening as the thickness of the film and that the image is on both sides of the film strip means it keeps subtly moving all the time. I'm quite fussy about this, you might not even notice it.

Film speed - i go for either 3, 6 or 9 fps and I go for same speed on both projectors.

Mangled film - these films are very 'lumpy' ie lots of splices and quite a lot of 'fat' collage so you need to actually stand beside the projectors and at times you will need to turn the take up reel to gently 'pull' the film through the gate.

Mangle during performance - dont' worry, try to keep the other one going. see if you can fix it during the performance, use your desk lamp so you can see what's what.

Things you might need - table at reasonable height or projector stand so that you don't have to 'keystone' the image from the projectors.

Audience behaviour - the beauty of celluloid film projection is that they look really good up close so feel free to invite your audience to get up close during the performance. Try to get focus grain sharp if they decide to get up and take a close look.

Performance - up to you if and what you put with it - music, poetry, silence, radio, your work. others who might like to be invited to perform with it are Nalina Wait and Alister spence - we have been meaning to do something together for ages. Also Al's daughter Alex (I think she is in Canada tho'). Also Pete Humble might like to do a performance for two projection artists - he has been making concrete film/sound films for performance. For me, I like all options but I have a special love of absolute silence, it's quite demanding but I think very rewarding. Time does strange things, totalitarian agony for some, serenity for others.

Rules - please keep all mangled film bits even if they're minute. Lots of ways I can use them. - enjoy yourself, stand in for me, my motto is 'think like a projector' which to me means highly repetitious and quite mute and dumb but still noisy. - if you can, get a photo of you at work.

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WALL PIECES 

2 x wall pieces titles ‘A film of one' own archive fever continued (shellac)’ and same title but  (damar)

a) shellac yellow piece, 6 strips, all same height 6 pieces plus shelf, super 8 frame scan, plywood, shellac, mirror, blackboard paint.

Some of these are mirrored and some have blackboard paint on the back. Not all will fit on the shelf. Please mount the shelf at a bit above waist height. Please make a selection to go on the shelf and you decide which way they face (plywood backs are not intended to face out but not 'wrong' if they do), lean up the others below the shelf or nearby.

b) damar white, 7 panels, various height, super 8 frame scan, plywood, damar, blackboard paint Blackboard paint didn't really work on these. Up to you if you turn any over. Same thing with mounting, a bit above waist height, you choose how to organise the panels, leave what won't fit leaning.

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What's it all about

Road Movie - this film started in 2006. It is literally 3D as the film strip is heavily collaged and cut. It requires 'nursing' through the projector so for it to be shown seems to be a performance in its own right, the drama focused on the fate of the strips. The film changes with every projection because of the damage it undergoes. Not sure what will happen when someone other than me performs this decay process but I'm very keen for this work to circulate in its own right without my support, now really quite old as it is but then again always new.

The panel works You could sum up my film interest as a lifelong shift from the narrative of Jane Campion to the focus on the experience of time and light and sociability of Anthony McCall's Long Film for Ambient Light. I spent a long time looking at ways to get the image off the wall into the room with me, which all nods to my abiding interest in Expanded Cinema of the 1970s. And I've spent a long time wondering how little narrative material still suggests narrative. I still wonder if it is inevitable that if you have sequence you have narrative. These panels came out of a work A Film of One's Own [Archive Fever] from 2015 - I wrote a blog post for the CBR gallery that explains my thinking about the politics of making these kinds of films - check it out if you're interested PhotoAccess Louise Curham 2015 A Film of One's Own and you'll find it.

[diyeipetea]

HDO 469. Satoko Fujii: ¡feliz 60 aniversario! (y algo más) [Podcast]

HDO 469. Satoko Fujii: ¡feliz 60 aniversario! (y algo más) [Podcast]

Por Pachi Tapiz.

En 2018 la pianista Satoko Fujii cumple 60 años. Para celebrar su aniversario, la músico nipona está publicando cada uno de los meses de este año una grabación. Aunque en HDO ya hemos escuchado unas cuantas de estas grabaciones, en HDO 469 volvemos nuestros oídos sobre las tres últimas grabaciones publicadas entre julio y septiembre: intelsat (Alister Spence Music), dúo con el…