Amphibolous - Occupying the Mainstream

Amphibolous' occupying the mainstream was a commission for If Only's two-week 'occupation' of Gallery 2 at the Bluecoat in Liverpool.

Adam Webster taking a spin on the turntables in Gallery 2

The piece consisted of an a cappella vocal performance by the trio that used streaming technology to create a unique audience perspective, seen from the individual points of view of the performers. To do this we taped mobile phones to our heads, sending the three video streams to a TV in the gallery and the audio to the sound system. The ultimate lo-fi hi-tech action.

The idea was to start as normal: a performance in a gallery. However, the stream allowed us to go exploring - through the rest of the Bluecoat, and out into the streets of Liverpool - while the audience inside the gallery could still watch the performance from the comfort of their seats. This also created a second audience, the people of Liverpool, who caught a primetime showing of a unique happening. Finally, after our adventures around town, we headed back to the Bluecoat for the grand finale.

The project offered a number of ideas to play with. Firstly, because the audience could see from each of our perspectives, we didn't have to always be together. We could split up, combine in different configurations, and come back together, creating a range of dynamics to be explored.

The piece was part improvisation, part composition. In order to exploit the different combinations, 'textures' and dynamics of the journey, we decided not to plan an exact route, but rather set meeting points along the way. We also came up with a number of strategies to create larger scale forms in the piece: when it would be more appropriate to start splitting up; when we should come together; points where we should run to increase the pace of the action.

The resulting piece was a lot of fun. It is always fascinating to see the response to public interventions like this. Well, you can see for yourself. Here's the video...



Amphibolous are: Adam Webster, Ash Steel, Simon Jones.

PRSF New Music Plus performances

It was a busy week for me last week, particularly the Thursday (16th Dec), when I played at two consecutive performances to mark the culmination of the PRS for Music Foundation's New Music Plus partnership. The New Music Plus project consisted of a set a of year-long partnerships between the PRSF, new music producers and prominent venues and cultural organisations. The two performances I played in on the final night were:

'The Intergalactic Mashup King'
Organised by Ross Dalziel with his partnership organisation, National Museum Liverpool - World Museum. We got to play in the planetarium at the World Museum, performing along to the planetarium's show about the solar system and the Universe. A dream come true! In fact, this concert was the first of its kind at the planetarium, and was to mark the 40th anniversary of its opening. As well as Ross and myself performing, there were also Glenn Boulter and Mark Pilkington. We started out with a composition of Mark's that melted into one of my compositions, before we all started improvising along together. Great show, and amazing how dark it gets in there!

Setting up at the planetarium

Opening Party for FACT and Tate Liverpool's Nam June Paik exhibition
The next gig was organised by Glenn Boulter in partnership with FACT and Tate Liverpool, and was the opening event for their joint exhibition of the work of Korean artist, Nam June Paik. The event took place at the Kazimier, which is a great venue. The group this time was a new duo that myself and Adam Webster of Frakture have set up called 'the white snow leaves imprints in the dawn'. In fact, we set up the duo in response to the commission to do a Nam June Paik inspired piece, but we're planning to take the group further and have a second work ready to go. The piece we created for this performance was called One, after Paik's piece of the same name. While Adam played the cello, I affected his sonic output. We then simultaneously sent out the clean and affected signals to the PA. At the same time we projected some of the computer generated visuals I've been working on, using a second projector and a camera to capture the visuals and project them back into the same space, creating a visual feedback loop.

Photos by Glenn Boulter