Friday 17 November 2017

NOVEMBERISM: SEASONING AT THE LAUREL AND HARDY MUSEUM

NOVEMBERISM  was our final presentation. Here are some comments on the evening and on other aspects of the project, and after that the programme notes for the evening and links to some of the a/v pieces.

Thanks on the night to 
Jennie Dennett (vocals,fur) 
Ste Tyson (decks)
Martin (Transport) 
Mark and Matthew (venue).



"The evening has stayed with me and continues to inspire new reflections... Wonderful that art can have that effect and to be able to experience this kind of art in a rural area so far from the cultural hubs!"


".I saw and heard an evocation of our local hill. I watched a piece of film of George Butterworth and Cecil sharp dancing (a film I have personally watched many times) but saw it through very different eyes. I Heard the words of a poet from Dalton’s 19th Century industrial history singing out here and now. A dusty fragment of 60’s vinyl recording history fascinated us and turned into an imagined world of the dense ordinariness of making pop music in the form of a written story read to us in a dimly lit room. 
 All involving, evolving and experiential leading to a performance of sound effects, voices and vinyl. Could it be all the voices and writings from the past, the sounds of here and now all emerging from hundreds of record crates? All of this is moving and emerging and offering an insight into a year’s worth of thoughts, exploration and glimpses of the bones of bigger projects and pieces in development."


 

"I particularly enjoyed the video pieces - the rediscovery and dusting off of the song from the castle, the footage of folk dance with beautifully poignant song to accompany. The story was fab - great fun to imagine the back story behind those relics of musical history - a little window on another world that may or may not reflect the reality - in a world where we are fed so many ready made experiences that the imagination could become redundant. And the use of the sound effects to DJ nicely playful too - almost like a musical zoo - who'd have thought that those sounds from such diverse locations and sources would be brought together!"


"An artist living and working in a small market town can be virtually invisible, perhaps showing a small selection of work once in a while only lightly marking their place in the community. John however has brought us a way of seeing and being some way invited into what he has been thinking, developing and working with through the year, offering a feeling of sharing and inviting an involvement. It becomes clearer to see and understand his relevance to the fabric of our community and draws us into involvement."


" a very mesmerising sonic collage"


"Really enjoyed listening.   Interested to know how the Indian (?) music was connected and the story behind the sneezing man!?  Loved the different uses and textures of the horns, and when it merged into the music : ) (TRH)


"a really lovely yet subtly disquieting piece" (TRH) 


 "Excellent work! Great to see the development and direction of travel." 


"brilliant, arresting and fun" 


 "Loved your performance" 

 
"..it was something entirely unique and totally mesmerising.."

 "(we enjoyed) particularly the simplicity of it, which spoke for itself; each sound or track being really ‘clean.’ ( TRH)


 "Thank you for giving us such a great musical accompaniment!"  (Street theatre group on the Human Organs at Ulverston Lantern Procession)


I think these guys were possibly my favourite act of the weekend, loved watching them today! #weirdlygenius  ( Human Organs at Dickfest)


"Valuable projects like the Walney Sound Calendar enable us to provide a different perspective from which to work with the environment, and allows us to work at length with young people from within our community while reaching beyond it through the use of an online platform."  (Natural England)


The programme notes for Novemberism, our show presenting a selection of new work from Seasoning.


Seasoning has looked at seasonal rituals and celebrations, , the shapeshifting nature of the folk process, the blurs and echoes of folk and vernacular arts in what we do today.
 Research and collaborations have involved musicians, sound recordists, a DJ, crate digging, writers and archivists, local collections and venues, more crate digging...I visited folk and social history archivist Doc Rowe in Whitby and he brought his film "Parted Friends" to the Hope. At Cecil Sharp House Mike Willoughby and me found songs from this area which we are  feeding back into the tradition and the local repertoire.



A couple of performing units have emerged...Ste, Damo and me devised two pieces for radio and performance.The Human Organs have taken to the streets and the woods with our elbow-driven techno.
 We have a 4-piece core and a strong "bench" to play our backpack mounted pipes, donated by Mark Latimer and built by Alex Blackmore

Novemberism: the ritual and ceremony of what we used to call the blood month. Sacrifices of all kinds, bargains and observances made with a eye on getting through the
 winter.

The video pieces include documentation of a piece made for the Sir John Barrow Monument, one of a couple of days out at the Merzbarn with the Human Organs, and a recording made with Mike one november morning in the Hope of a song from 1889 discovered in Dalton Castle, and oddly relevant.

An there's a shot at linking the pantheist pastoral side of english psychedelia with the romanticism of composers Ralph Vaughn Williams and George Butterworth. Artists looking beyond the territory of rock n roll and european classicism to folk tunes, songs, nursery rhymes and seeing parallell worlds moving at different speeds, unaware of each other. Recorded on Armistice Day.
The last piece is a patchwork of sounds and images from the year, a lens and a mic largely pointed away from the action to quiet spots and, again, to worlds unaware of each other and moving at different speeds.

Serves Twelve is built around a narrative and a recipie for the Alls Soul's night delicacy Soul Cakes. You'll hear the the BBC's SFX vinyl, Field Recordings, a nursery song of slaughter and  narration from Jennie Dennett..a recording was featured in the Radiophrenia festival this November in Glasgow

Piccadilly Sunshine is set in 1967-68, the dark nights are coming in after the summer of love. Two smaller and less idealistic players are wondering what kind of deals they'll have to make if they're get to the next era without starving or having to leave the game,whichever is worse. The story draws on the information available within and around these 2 slices of paisley-exploitation vinyl from 1967-68. 







Mike Willoughby sings Charade  by J Myers

https://vimeo.com/245557163

George Butterworth


https://vimeo.com/245558890


To Every Thing




Charade is available via this blog on a short-run
DVD edition.

 Piccadilly Sunshine is available as a softback illustrated book from

http://www.bifocals2013.com/bifocals-library-shop/4589880526

from bifocalsmultiples on Etsy, and from Sutton's Bookshop, Ulverston.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project, either by turning up, joining in , or having something to say.
Stay tuned, there is more to come.

John Hall November 2017



   




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