Dancing Meltdown

Another new video - 1st improvised composition using Audio Mulch processing software.

http://www.youtube.com/user/henricoreed?feature=mhee

Cross Country

 

Trying out new camcorder/software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mClbr18BQ8k&list=UU47ZL1ZaKJNrWJjo69Al9Gw&index=1&feature=plcp

Faust @ ICA

FAUST - New Films, Book, & CD Launch @ ICA London 1/2 December 2006

Press Release from Ankst Records :

This event will also see the launch of the new cd box set of Faust live in the UK, Autumn 2005.

EVENT TITLE - KINO ANKST

DATE - FRIDAY DECEMBER THE 1ST 2006

LOCATION - ICA , THE MALL , LONDON SW1 ( Cinema 1 +2 / BAR )

VENUE + BOOKING INFO - WWW.ICA.ORG.UK Tel : 02079303647

ICA PRESS OFFICE – EMMA PETTIT - Tel : 02077661406 EMMAP@ICA.ORG

SCREENING TIMES/PRICES :

Fri Dec 1st – CINEMA 1 – 8.30 – FAUST : NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED (2006) + Q&A + ENTRY INTO CLUB NIGHT (KOSMISCHE DJ’S)
£9 Full / £8 conc / £7 members.

Fri Dec 1st – CINEMA 2 – 6.30 – Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) (2005)
Sat Dec 2nd – CINEMA 2 – 6.30 – Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) (2005)

ANKSTMUSIK will be premiering their new film about German Krautrock legends Faust called NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED (2006) at the main cinema in The ICA. JEAN HERVE PERON from Faust will be attending the screening, and doing a Q+A session with ANDY WILSON, author of the newly released book FAUST : STRETCH OUT TIME 1970-1975. The film NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED is a concert film, featuring the band at the height of their powers playing an explosive concert at The Garage, London, in December 1996.

After the screening in the bar DJ’s from London’s KOSMISCHE Club and Radio Show will provide post screening musical entertainment - this includes the promise of brand new Faust music. The band will be releasing an album of new music in 2007. The film will be premiering at The ICA exactly ten years to the day of the actual extraordinary concert featured in the film. Earlier in the evening ANKSTMUSIK will also be showing their award winning debut feature production Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) in Cinema 2, with a second performance on Saturday.

This BAFTA award winning bi-lingual (Welsh and English) first feature from EMYR GLYN WILLIAMS (ankstmusik boss, and producer of both Y LLEILL and NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED) is a contemporary tale about music and other less important things.

FILM DETAILS :

FAUST: NOBODY KNOWS IF IT EVER HAPPENED ( 2006)
A concert film / 90 minutes / colour / ankstmusik productions.

‘In the midst of FAUST’s music time ticks like a bomb!’
Faust manifesto - 1973.

STARRING…
Jean Herve Peron
Werner ‘Zappi’ Diermaier
Hans Joachim Irmler
Steven Wray Lobdell
Insa Winkler

On Sunday 1st of December 1996 legendary Krautrock pioneers Faust played an explosive concert at The Garage , London. The film is faithful to the sound, fury and disorientation of their performance as it takes the viewer into the thrilling ‘here and now’ of that packed venue on that winter evening. The band’s usual instrumentation was augmented on the night by amplified power tools, arc welders, hay threshing machinery, and in an evening of action painting, nudity, destruction and creation the band more than lived up to their promise of creating more of a happening than a standard concert.

Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) 88 mins (15)
Welsh with English subtitles/Colour

WINNER ! BEST FILM BAFTA(CYMRU) 2005
WINNER ! BEST FILM SWANSEA BAY FILM FESTIVAL 2006
RUNNER-UP! AUDIENCE AWARD CARDIFF SCREEN FESTIVAL 2005

Y LLEILL (THE OTHERS) is a bi-lingual film about music and other less important things. The lives of a group of young aimless musicians (Y LLEILL) are examined as they play two concerts over a wintry weekend in North Wales. The importance of music to the individuals and the society they exist in is examined in the film. Music is played, recorded, stolen, attacked and censored. As Y LLEILL play their music, the hypocrisy and deceit that exists between the young characters and the resistance to their music that exists in the wider Welsh society is revealed. Manipulative guitarist and singer Pati (Rhian Green) starts the film by stealing the records she can't afford and sets Y LLEILL on a collision course with the established order.

Meanwhile lead singer Rob (John Reynolds) is a different kind of thief who blindly follows his own desires oblivious to family and friends. These fragile relationships are set to explode on stage as the band edge towards one last truly 'revolutionary' performance.

A contemporary tale shot through with politics, small town paranoia, and rock 'n' roll.

ANKST RECORDS: http://www.ankst.co.uk
FAUST-PAGES: http://www.faust-pages.com
KLANGBAD: http://www.klangbad.de
ZAPPI: http://www.zappi-w-diermaier.com
ART-ERRORIST: http://www.art-errorist.de

Mice in alien cat-raps?

I'm really pleased to say that the first ever "proper" (= not a bootleg) record I played on has finally been rereleased - "Mouseproof", by Gerry Fitzgerald. It has a special place in my heart, not just because "it was my first", but also because it was my introduction to the world of avant-rock typified by 70's groups like Soft Machine, Gong, and Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention. Through Gerry I met Daevid Allen, Didier Malherbe, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, & many other strange & experimental (for want of a better word) musicians, and last but not least....some very beautiful women of course! You can get the CD directly from www.sunbeamrecords.com or by simply typing "mouseproof" into a Google Search, which will lead you to quite a few other distribution points. The quality is not really 100%, (+/- 85%?), but after an initial pressing of 500, the next batch will be mastered from a better source copy. But whichever way you look at it, it's a nice album - Sunbeam have done a good job on the cover and artwork - almost the same cover as the original vinyl release, a very readable and informative booklet, details of the musicians playing, some new photos etc. Unfinished in many ways (thanks once again to the original record company, who pulled the plug at a crucial moment, and screwed up big-time on the promotion/distribution!), but pretty out there for the time. Check it out.......

My Personal Mental Zirkus

Berlin Berlin ------ I'm in love with you again. You can smoke almost everywhere, eating out is cheap (strong £?), nobody gets on your case for wearing an ex-East German Army hat to keep the cold war/wind out, the drug dealers usually fuck off when you tell them to.....yeh it's ok there. The Mental Zirkus came to town - something wicked this way comes said Ray Bradbury, and he was dead right, although in the increasingly fast ageing ancient-speak of the time, he certainly meant something quite different. Needless to say in time honoured fashion I spent so much time out I didn't get to see much of the action - setting up, taking down, painting, gaffering, installing, networking but mostly blabla-ing, eating, sleeping, getting totally smashed, chick-checking etcetc. But there are a few memories, mostly of my own experiences of course (?). Fast Faust man Jean-Herve Peron First kicked off the proceedings on the main stage with a solo performance involving a cement mixer, which almost blew out all the juice, so he couldn't use it anyway (a good thing probably!), a sewing machine, some power tools, and a large bin of pretty organic matter consisting mostly of old hay used for cow-bedding, corn husks, and some other smelly slightly gooy but definitely moist verging on wet bits, which of course he dutifully threw handfuls of over the audience! (Twice). Using a loop sampler he built up layers of bass, guitar, horns, voices, and machines. Very powerful - take it or leave it. Then he was also invited to join myself, Tom Zunk, Gunter Schickert and Elke Postler - unfortunately Tom got sick from some meat he ate and didn't play, but the show went on anyway - we were there to improvise, so it wasn't a major disaster - the music was fine, the audience liked it. No probs. Spent the rest of the night checking out some of the dvd/lighting/visuals/installations/artists - missed the other couple of groups that played. Next day I spent 5 or 6 hours setting up for my "Art is not a Mirror" performance. Full title (which was only "made public" on the day) "Art is not a Mirror, it is a Hammer" - involved a lot of painting, gaffer tape, metal wire, mirrors and hammers. But before that Tom (now fortunately recuperated!), Gunter, and myself played while Elke did her "Pink Salamander Dance". This was mostly a nice warm atmospheric 45 minutes on the smaller stage, so more intimate. We finished at around 9pm - theoretically I had an hour and a half to set up the whole stage/place for the mirror/hammer gig. As usual there were suddenly major changes to the programme - nobody seemed quite sure what was happening - remember I did get to see Scapex from Rotterdam, with Zirkus organiser Ron Lageweg on vocals - this was the Real Rotterdam Vibe of the whole weekend! Mean and dirty, spacey and trancey! Back to the schedule ---->> I was supposed to start at 11.30 pm - ended up as the final act, hitting the stage at 3.30 am. And why not I asked myself? Yeh I'm a fucking star man! (Well actually a previously unemployed but now self employed ex-underground cult hero). I went on stage with only 4 definite ideas - music at the beginning, the middle, and the end, and breaking a mirror. A great opportunity to wind people up in a friendly way - the packed-out waiting room captive gotcha where I want you scenario. Why am I here? Why are you here? Hours of waiting and waiting for what? And then maybe totally bored after 5 minutes or halfway through? In other words I really took my time! I wasn't there as a "performer" - this was no act, no theatre, this was me being me the crazed human part musician part performance artist at 4 in the morning, wandering around mumbling, what should I do, so many possibilities. "If you can't just sit there for 45 minutes without getting bored, there's no hope for you!". In a way I guess it's one of the best bits of "anti-art" I've done in quite a while. And the 3 pieces of music were fine - first Indian style flute to relax the place, then very spikey electronic vocals and flute, and to end some wild soprano with Tom on bass drum and Gunter on trumpet. No point in trying to explain the whole thing in detail, although I might give it a go later, but there should be a dvd of it available, and if not then certainly some photos - when that happens you'll be the first to hear and see about it. In the meantime though - many thanks to the Supamolly Club people, who were very helpful with the sound, lighting, and food (very nice!) - also Ron Lageweg who conceived the whole thing - another one maybe next year?

Berlin Up Data Bass

X-TRA Info Berlin.

Go to : www.mentalzirkus.net for final line-up 3 + 4 March '06.

3rd - Ghetto Raga / Echodrive with Tom Zunk, Gunter Schickert, Jean-Herve Peron, + myself.

4th - "Art is not a mirror" - Audio Visual Performance/Installation, with me and the crew.

I'll do my best to write a review when I'm back @ HomeBass.

My Bloody Valentine

St.Valentine's Day 1978,

Lambeth Town Hall,

Brixton, London.

www.mccbglobal.com

(Red Balune - Reviews and/or New CD Pages)

Live Update

Private House Party - Saturday 18th February - Hastings area.

By invitation only. Email for details.

HomeGrown dishing the dirt with live musicians, realtime processing,

vocals, beats, loops, scratch, tunes, extreme free electronics, and visuals.

Mental Zirkus @ Supamolly Club, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th March.

Mini-mixed-media-festival with many artists from Berlin & Rotterdam.

Music, performance, words, visuals, installations etc.

Ghetto Raga / Echodrive are

Tom Zunk (waterphone, percussion, devices)

Gunter Schickert (guitar, trumpet, electronics)

Geoff Leigh (soprano sax, flutes, voice, bits & bobs, electronics)

Elke Postler (dance, performance, slides, video)

and will be playing on Friday.

Special Guest Jean-Herve Peron (Faust).

On Saturday I'll be performing "Art Is Not A Mirror",

an audio-visual-x-traver-gender incorporating

music, lights, a mirror, & a well-known tool.

Full details to be announced on the day.

Why give away the whole story in advance?

Always expect the unexpected.

How many anagrams can you make from "Ghetto Raga"?

The Black Sheep

Photo below - Left > Right ---> Rock Steady, Daddy Longlegs, Red Phantome and Lamron (collectively the infamous Black Sheep) sit around planning the downfall of absolutely everything & everyone they don't like, which doesn't leave much room for anything else because they don't like very much, and they want to keep it that way thank you very muchmuch. Reformed in 2005 having not played together since 1982, nothing has really changed, except it now takes us a lot longer to get ourselves organised - gone are the days of communal living/playing/working, (our home-base is still in the old Quarantine Hospital in Rotterdam, an official squat in existence since 1980), now replaced by geographical separation & at last maybe a few other more interesting things to do. Working on a new album in fits & starts & getting the old (al) chemistry together has been successful to the extent that we neither repeated our original unrepeatable formula, or fell into cliches (apart from our own unique personal collection) - the death of creativity lords are still on holiday where we're coming from.
The only major problem we now have is a delicate affair of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
Who are the REAL Black Sheep?
And can we prove it? (Because we know we are the black sheep). There are people out there who've stolen our identity & used it for their own nefarious purposes - total surrender or legal action remain our only demands. We have been using the name since 1980.
Watch this space.

Veggies@Hamburg

Left > Right : Lucianne Lassalle (voice), Geoff Leigh (piccolo),

Tom Zunk (waterphone), live at Avant Garde Fiestaval

17/09/2005 near Hamburg.

A really great mini-festival out in the styx - 2 days of avant-rock and more, including performances by Faust, Charles Hayward, Chris Cutler, Uli Trepte, Ectogram, Stella Maris Drone Orchestra, etc.

Catalysed by original Faust multi-instru-mentalist Jean-Herve Peron, this was an object lesson in "how to organise a festival"! A similar event is planned for autumn 2006, and promises to be even more eclectic than ever.