Spring Always Comes

Wel, mae’r gwanwyn bron yn gaeaf erbyn hyn! Beth bynnag, wnaethom ni orffen yr albwm o’r diwedd a’i lansio yng Nghaergybi gyda chymorth Cass Meurig, John Lawrence, Owen Lloyd-Evans ac Alun Tan Lan. Gwybodaeth gigs ac ychydig o ganeuon yn fyma: Fiona a Gorwel MySpace.

I’ve been a bit slow at keeping this site updated! We released an album of songs in the spring, and had a great launch night at Ucheldre in Holyhead with the help of the musicians above.  We’ll hopefully be playing some more gigs soon – details appearing on the MySpace link above, where there are also some songs.

Also been playing quite a few times with Fiona and Jim (KOO) and sometimes with Dave and Julie too (KOOSH) – I’m trying to work out how to upload a video clip here. I wish I could find time to write about many of the interesting performances I’ve heard recently too. For the moment, I’ll just mention a performance by Bwyd Sonique who I caught by chance at Conwy Food Festival. Karine prepared food; Simon captured the sounds of the preparation and improvised with the material. A true multimedia performance: as well as the visuals and sonic elements, the aromas of the cooking filled the small performance space, and we ate/drank the ‘product’ at the end of the performance. I thought it was a great example of how experimental music/art can work in a public space. Photo: Ali Drew.

 

 

 

 

Triawd I (ar gyfer ymwelwyr) / Trio I (for visitors)

 

Chwith i’r dde / L-R

Ymwelydd anhysbus/ Unidentified visitor

Simon Proffitt

Fiona Owen

 

 

Mae gen i osodiad yn Safle Celf, Galeri Caernarfon tan Mai 3ydd – Triawd I (ar gyfer ymwelwyr). Diolch i bawb a ddaeth i’r agoriad, i’r Galeri am adael i mi weithio yn y gofod, i Pwyll ap Siôn am agor, Charlie Kay, Jim Knight a Mei am berfformio ar y noson, ac i Gwion Llwyd (Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod) am gymorth technegol.

I’ve just installed a piece – Trio I (for visitors) – at Art Space, Galeri Caernarfon, which will be active until May 3rd. Thanks to everyone who supported the opening, to the Galeri for letting me have the space, Pwyll ap Siôn for opening, Charlie Kay, Jim Knight and Mei forperforming on Friday evening, and to Gwion Llwyd (Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod) for technical assistance.

‘Datganiad Artist’ ar gyfer Safle Celf   Trwy fy ngwaith rwy’n trio codi cwestiynau ynglŷn â ffiniau rhwng celfyddyd gain a cherddoriaeth,  y berthynas rhwng cyfansoddwr, perfformiwr a gwrandäwr, a rhwng ffurf gwaith a’r person sy’n ei brofi. Mae’r gwaith yma yn ymdrin â dwy brif berthynas. Yn gyntaf, fy mherthynas i ag offeryn cerddorol, sef banjo 5-tant. Prynais yr offeryn nifer o flynyddoedd yn ôl, hefo llyfr am sut i chwarae ‘bluegrass’ – es i ddim yn bell. Methais ddod i adnabod yr offeryn yn iawn nes i mi benderfynu ei osod ar ben bwrdd, a meddwl amdano fel ffynhonnell gynhyrchu sain. Yn lle efelychu perthynas rhywun arall, roedd rhaid i mi ddarganfod perthynas fy hun â’r offeryn, drwy broses o fyrfyfyrio (1). Mae deunydd crai’r darn yn deillio o’r broses yma.Yr ail berthynas yw’r un sy’n bodoli rhwng ymwelwyr i’r gofod a’r deunydd crai. Mae symudiadau ymwelwyr yn cael eu tracio drwy’r gofod perfformio/gwrando, a thrwy broses rhyngweithiol, yn rheoli’r deunydd crai mewn ffyrdd amrywiol. Rwy’n gobeithio bod y gwaith yn tynnu sylw at y weithred o wrando, drwy wahodd ymwelwyr i archwilio’r berthynas rhwng eu symudiadau yn y gofod ac elfennau sonig y darn. (1) Yn ddiweddar, clywais y cerddor Keith Rowe yn trafod ei berthynas â gitâr mewn ffordd debyg, a chefais fy sbarduno gan hyn.

 

‘Artist Statement’ for Art Space  Through my work I try to raise questions about boundaries bewteen fine art and music, about the relationships between composer, performer and listener, and between the form of a work and its beholder. There are two main relationships explored through this piece. Firstly, my own relationship with a particular musical instrument, the 5-string banjo. I bought this instrument a few years ago along with a book on bluegrass playing – I didn’t very far. The instrument only began to make sense to me when I laid it flat on the table, and thought of it purely as a source of sound-production. Rather than trying to emulate someone else’s relationship,  I needed to find my own through a process of improvisation (2). Recordings of such improvisations provide the raw material for this piece. The second relationship is the one that exists between visitors to this space and the raw materials. Within the curved performance/listening space, movement is tracked, leading to manipulation of the material in various ways. I hope that this work draws attention to the act of listening, by inviting visitors to consider the relationship between their movement within the space and sonic elements of the piece. (2)  I recently heard Keith Rowe similarly describe his relationship with the guitar, and was encouraged by this.

 

Pedair Awr Yng Nghymru Fydd / Brave New Wales

Diwedd 2007 cawsom gynnig cyfrannu at hwn – mae ‘na drac byrfyfyr gan Jim, Fiona a mi, a darn banjo unigol. Newydd dderbyn copïau a chael cyfle i wrando arno fo dros y penwythnos. Mae’r casgliad yn anhygoel o eang. Mwy o wybodaeth yn fyma: www.fouriertransform.com/010/

Received copies of this over the week. It’s an incredibly diverse compilation. Fourier Transform have done a great job in collecting and compiling it. Contributed a ‘postcard’ of some improvisation with Jim and Fiona, and a solo banjo piece. There’s information about the release here: www.fouriertransform.com/010/

Two Thousand And Eight (Update More Often)

2008 got off to a creative start with an event organised by ‘Parking Non-Stop’ at the Anglesey Arms, Menai Bridge. As well as hearing some great music, it was a good opportunity to play electrically for the first time with Jim and Fiona (the name ‘koo’ seems to have found its way to us).

I’ve been reading about and listening to Keith Rowe and to Feldman, and they’re reminding me that some music is as rooted in visual art traditions as it is in music traditions. Rowe makes many links to visual art, including the parallel between Pollock’s decision to put the canvas on the floor, and his own to lay the guitar flat on the table, thereby ‘inventing’ a new tradition. I got interested in the relationships between Rothko’s paintings and Feldman’s Rothko Chapel and need to follow this up. There is an interesting interview with Rowe (as well as several great programme archives) in the Audition archives.

Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod / Risk of Shock

Mae Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod yn rhywbeth mae Gwion Llwyd wedi bod yn brysur ei drefnu ers rhai misoedd. Mae petha’n edrach yn bositif iawn i gerddoriaeth arbrofol yng Ngogledd Cymru ar hyn o’r bryd gyda hwn, a hefyd Risk of Shock, wedi ei drefnu gan Ed Wright, yn cychwyn ym Mangor yr un mis. Gwyn ei byd y rhai sy’n trefnu’r petha ‘ma.Cymdeithas y Rhyfeddod, roughly translated as The Society of Wonders, is something which Gwion Llwyd has been working on at Galeri, Caernarfon, for some time. Things are good for experimental music in North Wales at the moment with Ed Wright’s Risk of Shock starting next month too. Blessed are the event organisers.

Click on thumbnails above to viewposters!

Rhwng: The Point Between (On-line Journal)

Mae Fiona wedi dechrau blogio ‘Rhwng’ yn fyma / Fiona has started blogging the society she runs (‘Rhwng: The Point Between) here: http://fionarhwng.wordpress.com/

Gweler ymarfer ar gyfer cyfarfod mis yma: Charlie Kay (symudiadau) a mi (banjo a phethau).

The photo is of Charlie Kay and myself rehearsing for this month’s session – more details on the above blog soon. I’ve just started reading an inspring book by David Borgo called Sync or Swarm:Improvising Music in a Complex Age, where he relates swarm intelligence to free improvisation. A sentence from the book entered my mind following some audience questions after we played: ‘many people’s first experiences with free improvisation evoke feelings of alienation, confusion, or even hostility’ (Borgo, 2007, p.27). Actually Cynthia seemed to sum things up well with a kind of koan which, unfortunately, I can’t remember!

Clybod (Phase 2)

Dwi wedi bod yn rhedeg sesiwn ‘open-mic’ heb meics yng nghaffi Canolfan Ucheldre, Caergybi, ers Mai 2005. Ma’r peth wedi tyfu’n eitha da, ac o mis yma ymlaen – ‘da ni’n cyfarfod pnawn Sul cyntaf o bob mis – ‘da ni’n cael defnyddio neuadd yr adeilad, sydd efo acwstig delfrydol ar gyfer chwarae’n ddistaw a gwrando astud.

‘Clybod’ – the non-mic ‘open-mic’ session that I run on the first Sunday of each month at Ucheldre, Holyhead, moves from the café to the hall from this month on. The original idea for the session was partly inspired by Offsite, and although our meetings have been successful in many senses, and spawned some interesting collaborations, the environment of the hall will enable more quiet and focused playing and listening. As well as being inviting to all ‘abilities’ (whatever that means! – for me it’s something related to the ear), I’m also trying to provide a ‘stage’ for a wide range of non-plugged-in musics.

This month I’m looking forward to playing with Fiona and Jim Knight which should be interesting in terms of keeping within a time-limit of about 10-12 minutes. Normally when we play together, lengths are variable, but usually longer than this. We tried playing last night with an alarm clock, trying to embrace it as part of the sound – it seemed to work OK, in fact, it was less obtrusive than trying to think about time whilst playing.

Website (Permanently?) Under Construction

Dechreuodd hwn fel blog i gofnodi gwaith ymchwil rwy’n ei wneud ym Mangor, ond dwi wedi dod i’r canlyniad bod hi’n amhosib gwahanu’r gwahanol bethau dwi’n eu gwneud yn gerddorol, felly, mae’r blog wedi morffio mewn i wefan. Mae’r llun yn cofnodi un o’r pethau nes i fwynhau’n fawr ei wneud yn ddiweddar.

This blog began life as a journal related to a research degree that I’m pursuing at the University of Wales, Bangor. I’m now acknowledging that it’s impossible, for me anyway, to compartmentalise relationships that I have with different musics, so the blog has essentially now become my webpage. The photo is of one of those relationships: from left to right Angharad Davies (Violin), Pwyll ap Siôn (Piano), Catrin Anic (Oboe), Rhodri Davies (Harp), Fiona Owen (Hammered Dulcimer) and myself (Guitar), performing Pauline Oliveros’s Four Meditations for Orchestra at Canolfan Ucheldre, Caegybi/Holyhead, as part of the concert to celebrate the anniversary of Rhwng: the point between, on 11/03/07.

Crossley-Holland and Boundaries

One of the difficulties that I need to sort out is putting some sort of boundary around this work, or at least I need to decide when is the right time to do that, otherwise it is in danger of spiraling out of control. I seem to drift into things that don’t at first seem relevant but soon do. For example, last night I was reading an article in Welsh Music History Journal (No.5 2002), by John Harper, about the musicologist and composer Peter Crossley-Holland. Amongst other things, Crossley-Holland wrote entries on music in Wales for earlier versions of Grove (interestingly these were edited for later versions).

Some of the many things that I found interesting about the article:

the relationships that Harper describes between Crossley-Hollands various selfs: ‘The scholar: knowledge and understanding The composer: creativity The magus: spirituality’;

problems of objectivity in musicology: ‘scholarly writing reveals so much about the writer as individual’;

Crossley-Hollands views about the relationships between music, the process of music-making; and the self: ‘I see music as an examination into the nature of the self, as a form of speculation, if you will. Insofar as music asks a question, it can only be “Who am I?”’

Taking Stock

As I turn my attention towards this research I’m trying to gather together my experiences from following an MA programme at UCW Bangor from 2002 until 2005, and a Postgraduate Diploma with the Open University in 2005/6.

I registered at Bangor to pursue, in more detail, some of the things that had been hovering around the edges of my interest for many years, and which grew alongside many ideas bounced around between people I’ve been fortunate enough to record and play with. Things escalated following a few important events including Fiona (my wife) buying me a copy of Michael Nyman’s book Experimental Music for my 40th birthday, and hearing a number of epiphanic performances from ‘traditional’ folk music through to free-improvisation.

Half of my studies at Bangor were musicological, focusing on Cage and his legacy, particularly the work of Pauline Oliveros. I also spent many hours playing the music of Pauline Oliveros with friends of various musical ‘abilities’ which was very rewarding. The other half of my MA was in Electoacoustic Composition, though it’s probably fair to say that I went off on a bit of a tangent. I wrote some pieces where I tried to incorporate various amounts of indeterminacy into ‘electronic’ pieces using abstract source materials. My final project was an interactive installation, and I began to notice that I was being drawn towards using source materials which were linked to particular places which were important to me.

At many times, I felt quite confused, though I now view this as a very positive thing. I couldn’t find a common thread between Cage’s ideas, technology, and an interest in folk musics particularly, and certainly couldn’t work out what some of this had to do with the music I was involved with making, at least with the music I was making as part of my study. During the Diploma, I had further opportunity to study music-making from many contexts, and things started to come together.

At present, though I still certainly think that Cage was probably the most important composer, and probably one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, and whose ideas were important especially as a reaction to many forces of modernism, we are now in the twenty-first century, and are faced with different problems. Cage helps to break down dominant structures, and this was/is certainly needed; he also forces the individual to challenge his/her ego, which is also a good thing. However, this can render us ‘homeless’, and can possibly imply homogeneity, which is something that I find uncomfortable. This might, of course, be a problem in me – that is what I am hoping to find out.