...a novel use for aluminium foil...

A fantastic and surreal evening of improvisation from south koreans HONG CHULKI and CHOI JOONYONG on wednesday night! Thanks to everyone who came along, particularly Richard Pinnell who drove all the way from oxfordshire and then very kindly wrote this review:

http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=5818#more-5818

support came from the trio of PATRICK FARMER, DANIEL JONES & STEPHEN CORNFORD whose three (3) tables-worth of electronics, turnatbles and objects was easily the biggest performers' set-up of equipment we've ever seen at aural detritus, and myself, PAUL KHIMASIA MORGAN which should have been composed of 15 minutes of me coughing a lot due to illness but luckily for the audience, (and me), wasn't.

but here's the bare bones of the koreans' set from Richard's review:

http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=5818#more-5818

"There then followed a set by two of the Korean musicians involved in the Seoul-based Balloon and Needle organisation, Choi Joonyong and Hong Chulki. Having long been a fan of their music, I was blown away by their live performances in London early this year, which leant towards a more inclusive, maybe theatrical manner of performing that extended beyond the purely aural. Last night’s duo set continued in the same vein, and was a remarkable performance. They began with Chulki sat behind his turntable in the centre of the room, letting it spin and applying small pieces of metal to its edge, the lids from baked bean tins or something similar, so creating a thin, squealing sound that thickened and thinned as he crouched over it, carefully retaining the same sound by holding his hand steady. He did similar things with various other objects, sheets of thin metal and a small transistor radio, which he allowed to spin around on the turntable, its blast of detuned white noise flicking on and off as the speaker turned to and ‘fro. After they had done this for a while, Joonyong set off with a roll of aluminium kitchen foil, initially cutting off lengths of it as he wandered about the small room, dropping them as he went. Then, much to the amazement of the audience, he climbed on a spare seat amongst them and began to tape these lengths of foil to the blades of the currently switched-off ceiling fan. He then went over to the wall switch and turned the fan on, slowly at first, increasing the speed so that the streams of foil fluttered around, creating a very satisfying whirr that complimented the similarly circular sounds from Chulki’s turntable. Joonyong also then tried to do something similar with a small electric fan mounted high on one wall, but here the intended stream of foil failed to work, and instead we watched him studiously trying to push the foil in to the machine so as to create a sound, settling for a deep rumbling in the end.
Then Joonyong wandered off out of sight, but I kept track of him in a mirror as he opened and closed a window at the far end of the room, so letting the sound of the pub garden below flood in and out. Then as Chulki sat motionless and focussed, continuing to produce sounds in the manner we have come to expect from a musician, Joonyong began to place several of his modified portable CD players around the room, some on the chairs amongst the audience, each doctored so that the disc span even with the lid removed, and each producing whirring, clicking sounds as bits of paper, little screwdrivers and other odds and ends were stuck or rested against the discs as they rotated. Then, as we were all sat completely engrossed, he went to his mixer and sent a low roar through the room’s P.A, before he got up and, picking up one of the weighty speakers, he opened a door and took it out onto the narrow balcony overlooking the street below, leaving it outside, facing in, but with the door shut. He then took the other speaker out of the room through onto the landing outside, closing the door behind him as he returned. He then adjusted the volume now and again, reminding us that the speakers were there, and using the doors themselves to adjust the sound coming into the room. Finally, returning the speakers to the room, he turned a microphone towards Chulki, who had until now played entirely acoustically and for a few short blasts amplified the sound back to the audience before gradually the duo set about turning everything off, ending with the blocked-up wall fan to finish the performance."

- Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear, 1st sept 2011

South Korea meets Brighton

aural detritus proudly presents

Wednesday 31st August 2011
The Upper Lounge at The Caroline of Brunswick, Ditchling Road, Brighton

CHOI JOONYONG & HONG CHULKI [south korea]
[balloon & needle]

On a basic aural level, it is a retort to the ambient noisiness of Seoul, focusing inwards on sonic minutiae. But their music is also resolutely unaspirational, embracing the redundant, the cracked, the possibility of failure, in stark contrast to a society that prizes the shiny and new, where conformity and social climbing measure success.
- Peter Meanwell, The Wire

DANIEL JONES & PATRICK FARMER [uk]
[another timbre, compost & height, cathnor]

Shifts of texture occur sporadically and without seismic structural earthquakes; the music just seems to know, and goes there.
- Phillip Clark, The Wire

PAUL KHIMASIA MORGAN [uk]
[engraved glass, con-V]

...textures placed on top of each other, but still with the sudden appearance of smaller, hard to identify sounds.
- Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear

www.auraldetritus.blogspot.com

Door £5/4 concs
prompt 8pm start

Gold Dust headphone concerts in Brighton

Gold Dust headphone concert at The Ceramic House, 75 Stanmer Villas, Brighton on Wednesday 18th May 2011 7pm £8/5 concs. Sound / Art performances by Joseph Young, Paul Khimasia Morgan, Neil Luck and Michail Mavronas.

The final Gold Dust performance will feature performances by Joseph Young, Jon Aveney and Marcus Leadley. 7pm £8/5 concs. Saturday 28th May 2011 at The Ceramic House.

Organised by Joseph Young as part of Open Houses/Brighton Fringe Festival.

pictures from aural detritus shows in march 2011

daniel and simon taken at komedia show in brighton 31 march 2011.

aural detritus uk tour 2011

Ongoing throughout 2011, collaborative and solo performances from Simon Whetham, Daniel Jones and Paul Khimasia Morgan around and about the UK. Starting with Manchester St Margarets Church (tbc) (26 March), Brighton Komedia (31 March).

Seijiro Murayama review

We're trying out new venues around Brighton this year for our improv shows. Nice to be able to have a range of good choices available. This time we were lucky to have the help and support of Elton at The Northern Tavern for this last-minute booking for the middle of the Brighton Festival. I was worried that i'd never find a venue at such late notice but thanks to Elton's flexible and open-minded approach to his pub's activities we found ourselves with a top little venue for Seijiro's show. I must also thank Richard Pinnell and Daichi Yoshikawa for their essential part in bringing Seijiro to Brighton.
The Northern Tavern is a recently refurbed cosy little boozer near the Level in Brighton; usually quiet, unassuming localish haunt for post-work locals, darts players, the occasional karaoke-ers etc which on the evening of weds 19th may became the unexpected hub of brighton's experimental / improvising community for a few hours.
The evening began with a quartet improvisation of around 20 minutes by Daichi Yoshikawa on speaker cones, overdriven digital mixer and electronics; Daniel Jones using contact mic's and electronics, Seijiro Murayama's snare drum and event organiser Paul Khimasia Morgan on autoharp, sampler and objects. This quartet fashioned a quiet and minimal set with the electronicists' complementary chirruping lashed together by Seijiro's occasional hard hitting snare blows.
The Vitamin B12 followed with an acoustic performance featuring saxophones, ms10 synth, flute, devices, tape machines and accordian. Nice flow and a very beautiful quiet section about two thirds of the way in. This is what i really love about VB12; the way they can sculpt something of very delicate beauty out of a seemingly chaotic free playing assault. Like how i imagine a free diver feels when s/he opens the oyster shell they have just plucked to find the most beautiful pearl inside...
But it was Seijiro's solo percussion set comprising four compositions played out variously on vocals, serrated tube, amplified snare and bowed cymbal which really stood out. Using two contact mics (one mounted on his wrist) to amplify his percussion and having recourse to a volume controller by way of a foot pedal, the range of different sounds and temperaments coaxed from his percussion seemed infinite. He created a truly immersive soundworld which despite the overall duration of the set (40 minutes) kept the audience on the edge of their seats (and some their eyes firmly closed in concentration)and earned a huge ovation at its end.
Seijiro's visits to the UK are brief and scarce, so it was a rare treat and a great priviledge to be able to host his music in Brighton.

Seijiro Murayama in Brighton!