MORSONATA

Mobile Radio in action with Haco. Susan Matthews also joined us for part of the show.
A big thanks to all Octopodes for making this piece possible. It will shortly be available for download under an Octopus licence.
Photo: Jack Boulter

Bill's 'Bencher straight key'

MORSONATA will be broadcast live on the 23rd October from 20:00 - 21:00 on in London on Resonance 104.4FM, also available on the internet at: Resonancefm.com

Coding the Ursonate

We were very happy to work with Morse code operators Bill Jenkins and Mike Cumming. They bravely got stuck into Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate for us. The text is extremely repetitive; we used it to create rhythms in code. This will form the backbone of the Mobile Radio work tonight titled 'MORSONATA'.

Hope nobody needs the loo...

Mobile radio recording our jingle in the ladies with Susan Matthews.
Photo: Haco

Playing "Jimmy"

Mobile Radio have been collect- ing stories and sounds for our live show tonight. On Wednesday a local actor, Damo, stepped in to help us dramatise a day in the life of a submariner, a prisoner of war.

The Fragile Air

Images and sounds of Barrow...

Wavy Bench

Day one in Barrow for Mobile Radio.
We join a trip to the store rooms of the Dock Museum to seek out sounds and stories. Outside is a wavy bench, oh, that looks like a submarine shed in the background.

In Residence at FON: Haco

Video clip of Haco from the 1990 Fred Frith documentary 'Step Across the Border'.
Octopus are hugely excited to have Haco working in and around Barrow Island this week to create a multi-channel sound installation as part of FON!
Haco's residency has been made possible with support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and the Japan Foundation.

Big FON

The Octopus team have been busy this week transforming the Canteen in readiness for next week's FON festival.

















John puts the finishing touches to a set of giant hand made banners (above). Additions to the main performance space to be made over the next week include a giant floor-mounted circuit diagram, the raising of the main stage ceiling to accommodate a cinema screen and a series of printed posters to decorate the wall space.














The empty street-facing room adjoining the main hall has been transformed into a temporary workspace for FON's visiting artists in residence. Thanks to Sue for the flowers and Alys for the musical alien.














Alex and Fern hard at work in the FON space earlier this week (above).

Join us on Wednesday 21st October, 7-10pm at the Canteen for a series of presentations from resident artists Haco, Susan Matthews, Knut Aufermann and Sarah Washington (Mobile Radio) plus education partners Owl Project.

This is a free event. Please RSVP to: info@fonfestival.org

FON ON THE WIRELESS. ENTER THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

FON resident artist Susan Matthews informs us that the Milton Keynes radio show Garden Of Earthly Delights will be broadcasting an exclusive mix from Susan which you can download from the stations site. Over FON weekend the Head Gardener ( seen above) will be mixing music by several of our artists including Faust and Pram. The show goes out live on CRMK at 10PM every friday, but The Head Gardeners site is itself full of great music and unexpected detours ..among the heap of fine sessions (Malcolm Middleton.. 2 tracks from Cat power recorded on cassette in 1998!) and mixes you can check out the Blog for an illustrated tour of the HG'S local charity shops ( I would've bought those 50p folk ep's HG, hope you don't come to regret it) and read how he upset Sting in the 90's with a simple act of mistaken identity. This is what we want. FON is in good company.

http://www.gardenofearthlydelights.com/NEWS.html

Octopus at the Merzbarn

Octopi John Hall and Glenn Boulter made their way up the A590 last Saturday to discuss FON at the annual Kurt Schwitters Herbst-Schule. The art/architecture conference took place in and around Kurt Schwitter's 'Merzbarn' at the Cylinders Estate near Elterwater. The event included a seminar on artist led learning projects, performances and discussions on the future of the Merzbarn.
Glenn and John performed on Saturday evening at the Merzzzoom Cabaret, employing laptops, amplified mixing bowl, buddha machine and a mangled Patti Smith cassette. Other acts included the Lakeland Fiddlers and East Lancs. band Funnel whose set included rousing renditions of Ursonate and Anna Blume.

Kurt Schwitters and David Medalla preside over the closing buffet at Cylinders Estate.

We'd like to thank Ian and Celia of Littoral for inviting us along to KS09 and look forward to collaborating in the future!

More from the FON Launch Night

More pictures, courtesy of Will Miners, from the FON launch night at the Storey: Zun Zun Egui (above) and Fuck Buttons (below).


Look out for an imminent report on Octopus' field trip to the Merzbarn at Elterwater...