PAST PRESENT FUTURE SPACE-TIME
Psychedelia is back. Forget about the Goth revival, all that paleness and blackness. Right now it’s all about tie-dye, crazy colours and acid (sounds, that is). Last 10th of September the Wysing Arts Centre held the ‘Past Present Future Space–Time’ music festival in collaboration with Electra, Strange Attractor, Bad Timing and Escalator Music. It was the culmination of the six-week residency of the artists Mark Essen, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Kate Owens and Damien Roach who, under the suggestive name of ‘The Department of Psychedelic Studies’, explored the links between psychedelia and art through text, film, sculpture and print.
Tye-dye workshop
On arriving to the festival I was greeted by the psych-pop set by The Doozer, a Syd Barrett-esque character from Cambridge that set an accurate tone for the things to come. I then went to the gallery to listen to a talk by the artist Liliane Lijn, the first female artist to work with kinetic text mixing light and text, and who used to hang out in the 1960’s NY with the mighty William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Declining participation on a yoga lesson held at the Wysing’s Stone Circle –a setting that made it all look more like a witchcraft ritual than some sort of sports– I returned to the gallery to catch the devilish performance of the duo 6666, which felt like a cross between a concert, a satanic meeting and a horror film.
Later that afternoon the band Diagonal played a fantastic set, one of the highlights of the day for me due to their geeky concoction of prog, acid and kraut rock. The band, hailing from Brighton and formed by six excellent musicians including a saxophonist/singer front man, sounded very tight while unfolding their long and hypnotic compositions that reminded me at some moments of both Can and Neu! At 6,30 it was time to listen to English Heretic, a music project/society which presented a series of song inspired by the writings of the London occultist Kenneth Grant, incorporating original recordings on witchcraft and Satanism. Part séance part gig, it was unlike anything I’ve seen before. By the end of it, all the spectators felt united in a sort cult. Throughout the day, as the music played all around the premises, artists Fay Nicolson and Oliver Smith performed a ‘manifesto-parade’ as well as creating poster display, part of the ongoing curatorial project ‘Constitution of the Damned’.
Alexander Tucker playing at the Boulder Stage
The night slot started with a live set by the post-dubstep lot Old Apparatus and reached its climax with the performance of Demdike Stare. Now, I might not be entirely objective here, since they are probably my favourite band these days, but the Manchester-based duo offered a truly mesmerizing performance. Accompanying their unique mix of dub and hauntological sounds with footage from European erotica and horror films from the 70’s, it was no doubt one of the best juxtapositions of music and image I have seen in quite some time. The festival, a ‘connoiseurs’ programme sadly a little wasted on a very small audience, ended with an unexpected hardcore-gabba techno DJ set by the artists Ed Atkins and Andy Holden. Psychedelia and the occult might be where is at, but it is –perhaps fortunately– still small business.
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An edited version of this review was published on this is tomorrow
Photo Credits: Ruta Balseviciute, courtesy Wysing Arts Centre
Seb Patane: The Hidden Alchemist
Entering an installation by London-based artist Seb Patane (born in Italy in 1970) is agreeing to play an intricate game of references, symbols and signs, which will touch different buttons depending on the viewers’ private contexts. Found images and objects, intervened drawings, sound and performance… Industrial music, Jodorowsky’s work on the Tarot cards, Christiane F and war iconography… Patane works through a wide range of media and references like a hidden alchemist, linking issues that appeared to be unconnected and that, subsequently, cannot be understood the one without the other. He is preoccupied with the physicality of materials, but it is not a concern with textures but, rather, with presence and absence. His installations trap the viewer in a game of rhythms and patterns: chaos, order; noise, silence; image, obliteration. An art practice infatuated with aesthetic nostalgia, sometimes of the very recent past, that explores how forgotten images operate subconsciously in our cultural present.
A New Winter Plan (2009). Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
Your last show at Mauren Paley’s gallery (London) consisted of two different parts: an installation downstairs and a video upstairs “Chariot, Fool, Emperor, Force”, which you re-enacted in a live performance during the private view. What is the relationship between them?
I worked in all the pieces at the same time. When I did the video, I was thinking about ideas of the formation of characters in the relation of narratives and then started meditating on the value of performance to address these particular issues. So I decided to create a situation where there would be four characters, each of them related to one of the songs I was working in. The bench with the red stripe in the video-installation addresses minimally the idea of theatre and set design, which I am also very interested in. And in both parts there is also the obliteration of faces and characters.
Chariot, Fool, Emperor, Force (2009). Installation view. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London
Why this fixation throughout your work with erasing identities: hiding heads, obliterating faces or eyes, using masks?
I am interested in performance and in performers, but not so concerned with their personalities or in portraying anyone. What is important to my work is the choreography and composition of things. I consider my pieces more abstract than figurative. And when I started working with found images, I guess the natural gesture for me was to obliterate the face, to remove that sense of identity, which makes everything quite confusing for the viewer, who is used to attach a face to a narrative, to a attach to a type of behaviour or personality to a type of face, say physiognomy. So it is like giving something to the viewer and then taking it away, like a game of contradictions. And that just grew and became more complex, more organic. And, finally, I think I am also reacting culturally, and probably unconsciously, against the whole cult of the celebrities, of the ego.
There is clearly a tradition in contemporary art of hiding faces, and we can find a well-known example in the work of John Baldessari. But in your practice I can’t help relating it more to that tradition applied to the music scene, say The Residents, Death in June or more recent examples like Daft Punk, The Knife or Fever Ray. Maybe this is because you not only apply it to your work but also to your own persona, like when you had your show “This song kills fascist” at Tate Britain in 2008 and you chose your hypnotherapist to re-enact your answers for the video interview on the website (watch the video below). And what usually happens with this kind of scheme is that you might distract temporarily people from your identity, but you only make them more eager to find out, to learn more.
Yes, it’s a game. I don’t expect people to not want to find out, there is part of that of which I am very conscious. However, it is not only about not being seen. It also relates with the idea of theatre, of devising a new reality, as it is the case with the Tate interview. It was something playful, even though the answers are completely real. I just felt I could do something a bit more interesting than just sitting down in a chair talking to the camera. And people really liked it. I think they liked it more than the actual show, which was a bit worrying! (laughs). But anyway, it was another piece of work.
You often rescue images from the past and re-introduce them in the present tense, which often charges them with a nostalgic-symbolic element that they lacked when they were originally produced. Why do you think this time warp, taking them out of their context, produces that shift?
I operate in the present, and so do the viewers of my work who are faced with the images I chose with their baggage according to their age, their knowledge of things and their personal understanding of history and culture, whatever level that may be. But we are all inevitably challenged when faced with past, faded imagery; I think it must be because our mind tries to fill the gap between our present life and the one that is depicted in those pictures; this void, and I hope my visual interventions on those pictures, create a blurred feeling of confusion and wonder that I find interesting.
March (2009). Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
So this show is about war, or uses images of the war, rather. And the one at Tate took as a premise the whole idea of protest songs. However, even if these themes are heavily political, you have always justified your interest in them as the product of an aesthetic infatuation, rather than a desire to make a political statement.
Exactly, my work it is not that charged with political meaning, and I don’t pretend that it is. The thing is that, eventually, I will research these issues and learn about them, but I rather use their aesthetics. I am very visual person and that is what I am interested in. I am not saying it is devoid of content, I am saying that it comes with it, eventually. It is impossible not to engage with it. But also I am very interested in the way we look at images and we can detach ourselves from their content.
Carpathian Walk (2009). Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
The video “Chariot, Fool, Emperor, Force” is inspired by the work of Jodorowsky with Tarot cards. Why?
Reading Jodorowsky’s books I have always been struck by his associations of concepts and ideas with a very vivid, complex and sometimes hallucinogenic imagery. This duality is very crucial to me. His tales and explanations of notions of life are packed with the most disparate images; swarms of bees, litres of honey, flying holy men, intricate, colourful rituals. It was this aesthetic, sensory overload that inspired me not only conceptually but also visually; the references to the Tarot cards are also important because I feel like they can retain (also in Jodorowsky’s study of them) at the same time a very specific, but also incredibly free, essence and identity, also since their origins are so ambiguous and never fully appertained.
Chariot, Fool, Emperor, Force (2009). Installation view. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London
What is your relationship with the body of work of Jodorowsky in general?
I started reading Jodorowsky when I was in hospital, a few years ago, after a really bad phase. A friend lent me “The Dance of Reality”, his autobiography. It took me ages to get into it, cause in the beginning it was too crazy for me. Then I read “Psychomagic” and then I saw him giving a lecture at the National Film Theatre, a Q&A after a screening of his films and that was it. I just thought he was totally genius.
The soundtrack of the video was composed by you and Giancarlo Trimarchi, with who you form the band Frontier, Frontier! It felt really fresh to me to enter a gallery and encountering these songs. Obviously there are a lot of artists incorporating sound to their work, but mainly using someonelse’s music, or field recordings, or abstract sound pieces. These industrial, almost dance songs were really unexpected and appealing for me.
Well, what I really don’t want to do with music in my work is doing something like “sound art”. I like those shows, I go and see them, but I am really not interesting in doing that myself. I don’t want to do Brian Eno. To me it’s more about music, and even though the tracks might appear to be very simple, they have been very carefully composed, every sound and rhythm has been thought over and discussed, and is there for a reason. For us very important the way you follow the narrative of the track to the extent that even if they are very minimal and repetitive, they almost become pop songs. There is a chorus, there is a verse. There is an intention, and I think that is what people liked about them, that they have a structure to follow.
Hunstscape mit Grandfather (2009). Courtesy Maureen Paley, London
What does your musical practice offers you in terms of language and expression that your artistic, visual practice doesn’t and vice versa?
I use music and sound where I feel the potential of the visual aspect of the work may have difficulties to go any further, in a way using music allows me to expand my idea of performativity, and helps me to reach to the audience in a more visceral way. Because of my interest in theatre and performance this is also true when I think about a work of art which may feel a bit more ‘complete’, and that it will go beyond a two or three-dimensional format. I think the intangible and if you like, sensorial aspect of sound makes the references to the subconscious, the performance and the deconstructed narrative a little richer.
You have used references to Alistair Crowley, Death in June or Jodorowsky in different pieces, and all of them have connections with the occult, the spiritual, magic forces. What is your interest in the esoteric territories?
I think people think that about my work, but I am not sure it is completely true. I mean, I am interested in mysticism and occultism, but I am by no means an expert. I have read Crowley and Jodorowsky, but I would say my interest is more spiritual than esoteric. And I also like using the word organic to describe it, even if it’s not really organic. I like going beyond the façade of things.
So This Song Kills Fascists (2007). Installation view. Art Now, Tate Britain. Courtesy Maureen Paley, London
Would you call it an “artificial or urban occultism” concerned with culture, instead of the supernatural?
Well no, I wouldn’t say that. I would say that my interest generally lies in the intangible, and the subconscious, and everything that goes beyond mere face value. But I don’t deny that I am a very visual person so, this interest in the otherworldly links perfectly with notions of occultism, however deep or shallow that connection may be, as I find that occultism is drenched in a very strong aesthetic, whilst at the same time maintaining an intellectual core.
To Fix The Gap In Your Head (2008). Courtesy Of Maureen Paley, London
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This article was originally published in Celeste magazine, March 2010.
Listen to Seb Patane’s music project:
http://www.myspace.com/frontierfrontier
Seb Patane is represented by Maureen Paley, London
The bitter-sweet harmonies of Barbara Morgenstern
Born in 1971 in Hagen (Germany), a small town near Düsseldorf, Barbara Morgenstern’s “affair” with music started quite precociously. She began taking jazz-piano lessons as a young girl and, after spending some time in Hamburg, in 1994 she moved to Berlin, where, after some musical projects and in few years, she would become one of the most influential and active musicians from the German electronic music scene.
Her name is linked with two things: one is Monika Enterprise, the Berlin based record-label run by Gudrun Gut (a fundamental figure of the Berlin scene since the very early 80′s), where she releases her records. The second, and most important, is her sound: a very personal mix of electronics with a pop attitude that often oscillates between the melancholic and the optimistic mood, all inmersed in a beautiful layer of harmonies, both vocal and instrumental. Besides her own releases, she is also well-known for her collaborations with prestigious musicians. One of her most frequent companion is Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot), also member of the Monika crew, with whom she released an EP and the splendid LP Tesri in 2005. But she also is part of project called September Collective, where along Stefan Schneider (Mapstation, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler) and Paul Wirkus, they work on the improvisation field. They released an eponymus album in the label Geographic in 2004 and next month, in May, their second album All the birds were anarchist will be released at Mosz Records.
Barbara’s life is the one of a musician, always open to an exchange of ideas and travelling from one end to the world to the other, playing live sets and discovering new places and stimulus than then she filters through her unique point of view. Barbara agreed kindly to be interview by Self Selector after her return from New Zealand, where she spent the month of March invited by the Goethe Institut and the Institut Français to play live set and compose with the French musician Fred Avril.
Barbara’s releases at Monika Enterprise: Vermona ET 6-1 (1998), Fjorden (2000), Nichts Muss (2003) and The Grass is Always Greener (2006).
What infatuated you first, composing or singing? How did your “love story” with music started and when did you know that music was going to be your way of living?
I started composing songs at the age of 16 . I was a singer in a pop band called “The Lovesongs” (what a creative name!) and took jazz-piano lessons. My dream was to become a jazz piano-player, but I failed because I’m really not keen on rehearsing tunes and scales. But I learned a lot concerning harmonies and since then, I started to get familiar with the jazz idea of improvisation as a way to compose songs.
Many musicians in electronic music tend to compose instrumental songs or feature someone else singing, but you do both. What comes first when you are composing, a vocal melody or musical base?
Mostly the musical base, because I’m such a big fan of looking for uncommon harmony structures.
You work in several projects: your own, your collaborations with Robert Lippok and September Collective. What is your approach, your input, to each of them?
With Robert Lippok we compose together, which means the composition is divided in two halfs and the final output becomes the quintessence of Robert and me. September Collective is based on improvisation. There my part is looking for good melodies and harmonies, playing piano and organ. I just came back from New Zealand where I was invited to compose with the French musician Fred Avril. With him I composed songs, wrote lyrics together and sang a lot, which was new to me after all that instrumental work. So collaborations always open up a new musical side of me.
Tesri (2005), her joint album with Robert Lippok and the Aus Heiteren Himmel single, one of her most famous songs.
You form part of the Berlin scene but, because of the sound of your music, as well as for your usual musical partners, it reminds me more of the Düsseldorf scene. Is there still a difference between both cities? What city you consider more interesting in musical terms?
Berlin is much bigger and so is the music scene, which does not mean, that it’s necessarily more interesting. In Düsseldorf are still a lot of things happening (Kreidler, Mapstation… etc.), but I would consider Berlin more interesting, because people from everywhere are constatly moving here, so we have musicians from all over the world and a few more good places to listen to interesting music.
You are one of the most fundamental artists on Monika Enterprise, run by the fantastic Gudrun Gut. How is your relationship with such an historical figure of the Berlin scene and why was Monika your label of choice to develop your musical career?
Gudrun and me really became good friend through all the years and she’s very important for me, because of her long-term support. She has just released her new album (“I put a record on”) and we will go on tour in the USA in September 2007, hopefully driving a nice cabriolet from town to town to rock all the public! Monika actually “chose me” and I’m really happy about it! In 1994 I was part of the so called living-room scene. We used to organize concerts in our own living rooms and it reminded Gudrun a lot of what she used to do in the 80′s, so she asked me if I would like to release an album on Monika and so it all started.
Tell me your process to make a record. What instruments and tools you usually use. Do you prefer more analogic tools and field recordings, a more organic sound, or are you infatuated by the possibilities of having “an orchestra within a computer”, programming and all that?
Actually, I didn’t use so many analog tools for the last albums, so I’m programming a lot and using virtual synthesizers. Every once in a while I record some strings, guitars or drums. But it’s true, my old east-german organ called Vermona ET 6-1 was my best companion during the last 10 years! For my last album, “The Grass Is Always Greener”, I used a lot my piano and I’m moving more and more into the direcction of analog instruments. I think the next album will be mostly based on piano, but you never know! I’m working a lot with my computer as well.
I wish I could, but I can’t understand your lyrics (as I dont speak German!). What are they usually about? Are they an important issue to you (writting another important means of expression) or you privilege the music and the words are just a way of filling in the best way the vocal melodies?
The lyrics are quite important to me. They are very personal, but I try to put my experiences on a more general level. Most of my lyrics – I hope – can work as poems as well. I try to find good formulations. Lyrics are a good way to draw a conclusion of topics that are concerning me, periods I went trough or experiences I’ve had.
To me, you are a master of mixing intimist, introverted music with a certain pop touch. Your songs are sometimes melancholic but with an optimistic essence. How would YOU define your music?
Oh, that´s hard to say! I always say (if people ask me) “I’m composing songs with German lyrics and arrange them electronically”. But I guess that is too general! My music is a bit strange and very personal, bitter-sweet is a word that fits quite well. I hope I can touch people with my music and say something in-between the lines, even music-wise, because to me that is the great power of music: It can communicate topics and emotions without words. And that is proved to me, when I see that I can reach people in foreign countries, where they do not understand German.
I read that the “The Grass Is Always Greener” is about how happy and sad moments often happen next to each other. How everythig can change completely (in both direcctions) which I think is a beautiful concept that I can relate completely to. You are already working on your new album, I think. Do you already have any sort of concept for it? When it will be released and what can we expect from it?
The next album will be based on piano, because I love to play the piano right now and I want to escape from loop-composing with the computer, which can be a huge trap. But I’m at the beginning of the album right now, so it’s hard to say what it will be like. I can only tell about the rough idea I have. Also, I was asked by the “House of World Culture” in Berlin to form a choir, which is a big, new challenge. This new task takes a lot time at the moment, so I can’t say anything about the release date yet. Hopefully it will be out next spring.
You remix songs for other artists and have yours remixed as well, what does that intercourse provides you?
It is interesting to play around with the tracks of other people. Sometimes real new things happen, and the other way round, with my own music remixed by someone else.
Where do you usually find your inspiration to compose?
I get a lot of inspiration from conversations and walks . I’m a passionate walker. And of course records and concerts inspire me a lot.
So what music do you listen to? What are your favourites musicians from now and always?
I brought back a wonderful album from New Zealand from a woman called Bachelorette, she’s doing electronic music with wonderful harmonies (www.myspace.com/bachelorettepop ). Because of the work for the choir I listened to different music styles during the last weeks, which was totally interesting and inspiring. I have listened to old soul-classics like Al Green, Nina Simone, Jimy Cliff and tons of independent music. Stina Nordenstam, Feist and Radiohead impressed me again. And I can really recommend the last album of LCD Soundsytem, fantastic dance music!
Her “music cave” in New Zealand and cover of the first September Collective album.
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More info at: http://www.barbaramorgenstern.de/
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