Sunday, October 31, 2010

Last chance for special pre-order price

Artefacts volume II is officially available to stores from Australian distributor Fuse Music from 8 November 2010, although it may take an extra week or so for the double CD to actually hit the shelves. Nevertheless, this is the last week Shame File Music will be offering the special pre-order price of AU$30ppd for the Artefacts volume II double CD (besides at the CD launch on 27 November), so put your order in quick to take advantage of this special price. All pre-orders are being shipped this week, so you'll have your copy before it is in the shops as well.

The Artefacts Volume 1 & Volume II AU$50ppd special deal will continue to be offered for the time being.

If you've already ordered one of these, expect your discs in the mail within the next week.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Artefacts volume II media release

In 2007, Shame File Music released the landmark compilation CD Artefacts of Australian experimental music: 1930-1973, to critical acclaim. Praised variously as one of the first serious investigations into the sparse recorded history of experimental sound practice in Australia, and its historical importance is as palpable as the often exciting and exhilaratingly experimental sounds it contains, the compilation and its extensive liner notes opened Australia’s (and the world’s) ears to a vibrant history that most previously thought had never existed.

Now that story continues, with the release of Artefacts of Australian experimental music:volume II 1974-1983 double CD. Volume II documents the explosion of Australian experimental music practice from the mid 1970s; from the use of synthesisers and computers, through to the radical fringes of post-punk, and to the beginnings of industrial and dark wave. This double CD set complete with 16 page booklet features one of Warren Burt’s first compositions completed in Australia, the Loop Orchestra’s first performance, South Australian industrial noise/punk cabaret, Melbourne post-punk minimalism, mid-1970s Brisbane Dadaist noise/audio collage, early Sydney aleatoric electronica, and much more.

Artefacts volume II’s release will be marked by a special launch event in Melbourne featuring artists whose work is featured on the double CD, including:

- Jon Rose performing on violin and interactive bow
- Dark Wave/electronica pioneer Browning Mummery
- Composer, performer & instrument maker Sarah Hopkins
- And a very special performance of Ron Nagorcka’s seminal tape recorder opera “Atom Bomb” re-imagined by Melbourne New Music trio Golden Fur.

IWAKI AUDITORIUM, SOUTHBANK BOULEVARD, MELBOURNESATURDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2010, 7:30PM
TICKETS: $20 (AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR)

Artefacts of Australian experimental music: volume II 1974-1983 is out on Shame File Music on 8 November 2010, distributed through Fuse Music in Australia and Metamkine in Europe. Special pre-order prices and deals available at ShameFileMusic.com

Full track listing and audio samples.
Cover art - hi res jpg, lo res jpg and details.
Media contact, interviews, etc - Clinton Green: mob 0414589405, cdgsham AT gmail DOT com

Thursday, October 14, 2010

David Chesworth's Richter/Meinhof-Opera at the Melbourne Festival

David Chesworth has been an integral part of experimental music and related activities in Melbourne since the late 1970s, as a founding member of Essendon Airport and a director of the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre. Essendon Airport's "Do the Flowerpot" opens the second disc of Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: volume II 1974-1983, and is taken from their very first live performance.

Chesworth continues to be an important player in Melbourne music. His Richter/Meinhof-Opera opened last night at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art as part of the Melbourne Festival. There is another performance Friday 15 October and Saturday 16 October only.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Grain of the Voice

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square, Melbourne, is hosting through four Sundays in October a retrospective of Arthur and Corinne Cantrill’s 50 years of cinema entitled Grain of the Voice; a unique opportunity to view the Cantrill’s films.

I first came to Arthur and Corinne Cantrill’s films through their soundtracks rather than their images, specifically Arthur’s early work with electronic/tape techniques, whilst researching the first volume of Artefacts, and then earlier this year when putting together Arthur’s CD Chromatic Mysteries: soundtracks 1963-2009. I subsequently discovered further the sublime manipulation of natural sound in Cantrill soundtracks that to me are a hallmark of Cantrill soundtracks, particularly in their landscape films. For me, the sound just as much as the images are parts of the landscapes these films convey.

The soundtracks for films like The Second Journey (to Uluru) and Corporeal contain subtle development of themes and motifs, almost as if they were painstakingly composed in advance. Whilst composition in some form (if not dots on paper) is no doubt a part of Arthur’s sound work, it is his choice of field recordings and their subsequent juxtaposition against other sounds and the accompanying imagery, that is one of the most extraordinary aspect of my experience of Cantrill films.

In several instances, including Meteor Crater – Gosse Bluff, the aural source materials used come from different times and locations to the images. Yet as the films screening as part of the Terra Australis programme (screening at ACMI on Sunday 17 October from 3pm) are testimony to, the Cantrills seamlessly fuse the visual and aural elements together to give us an experience of place that is alternatively impressionistic and yet steeped in the stark realism inherent Australian landscapes.

Arthur Cantrill’s sound work is featured on both volumes of Artefacts:
Volume 1 – Soundtrack for “Eikon” (1969)
Volume 2 – The Second Journey (To Uluru) excerpt (1981)

Arthur Cantrill’s Chromatic Mysteries: soundtracks 1963-2009 CD is available from Shame File Music.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Artefacts Volume II - launch concert

The release of the Artefacts of Australian experimental music: volume II 1974-1983 double CD will be celebrated with a special one-off concert in Melbourne on Saturday 27 November. Music and artists from the CD will be featured including:

- Ron Nagorcka's seminal tape recorder opera "Atom Bomb" (1977) performed by Golden Fur


- The Godfather of Australian industrial/dark wave, Browning Mummery

- Visionary composer/performer/instrument maker, Sarah Hopkins.

Saturday 27 November, 7:30pm


Tickets $20 (available on the door).

This event has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory board.