Graham Dunning
Writing a track from scratch with Mechanical Techno
updated
Graham Dunning plays extended turntable.
Performance of new electromechanical pieces, following a week’s residency working on new collabrative recordings and performance. Residency and performance hosted by Galerie Paradise, Nantes, France.
https://www.galerie-paradise.fr/
mrunderwood.co.uk
grahamdunning.com
Graham Dunning - extended turntable, records of machine sounds, walkman, tapes of field recordings
"TACO! presents an evening of live musical performances by artists working within experimental music. Each has an approach to performance that employ self-made instruments or sound making devices in the production of their work, fusing electronic, acoustic and analogue sounds and textures, often in improvised sets. The evening has been curated by sound artist and muscian Kate Carr."
cathrobots.co.uk
http://grahamdunning.com
taco.org.uk/DIY-Experimental
Analogue video synthesis visuals by Leon Trimble / Chromatouch.
TELESCOPE
Dislocated, becoming-cosmic thorough manipulation of virtual reverberant spaces, via the no-place of the studio. Reflections across time - the sounds of birdsong played back from 100-year-old shellac disks overlaid with 1970s ornithological recordings from vinyl records. Electric guitar parts referencing popular music from UK, US and Germany through decades of recording.
Sascha Brosamer is a sound artist, curator and researcher based in Berlin. Recent work has explored shellac records and their intrinsic links with colonialism and place, including a residency and workshops in Sri Lanka in late 2022. Sascha founded the Cologne-based record label Total Silence releasing new music and conceptual art recordings.
saschabrosamer.com
Graham Dunning is a musician, producer and artist living in London. His work explores sound as texture, timbre and something tactile, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects. Graham has a monthly show on NTS radio and releases tapes and artist editions via his label Fractal Meat Cuts.
http:/grahamdunning.com
Leon Trimble is a VJ, filmmaker and audio visual artist who performs live and installs work in the UK & internationally. Leon works with live animation, digital beats, motion graphics, photography and glitch art using nascent and rehashed technology.
https://linktr.ee/chromatouch
cathrobots.co.uk
grahamdunning.com
Live sound by Isa Ferri. Binaural room recording by Jeff Arden.
Mix and edit by Graham Dunning.
This was a practice for our second gig, at 10 Years of Algorave, Corsica Studios, London on 31/3/22 - the recording of which is available here: fractalmeat.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-10-years-of-algorave-corsica-studios
Heavy Lifting: heavy-lifting.github.io
Graham Dunning: http://grahamdunning.com
TidalCycles: tidalcycles.org
Troop: github.com/Qirky/Troop
fortevilfruit.bandcamp.com/album/silo
Artwork by Calum Storrie - Isometric 06
instagram.com/deliriousmuseum
Music made with Tidal Cycles
http://TidalCycles.org
fortevilfruit.bandcamp.com/album/silo
Artwork by Calum Storrie - Isometric 06
instagram.com/deliriousmuseum
Music made with Tidal Cycles
http://TidalCycles.org
fortevilfruit.bandcamp.com/album/silo
Artwork by Calum Storrie - Isometric 06
instagram.com/deliriousmuseum
Music made with Tidal Cycles
http://TidalCycles.org
fortevilfruit.bandcamp.com/album/silo
Artwork by Calum Storrie - Isometric 06
instagram.com/deliriousmuseum
Music made with Tidal Cycles
http://TidalCycles.org
Graham Dunning: turntable, additional tone arms, synthesizers & effects
Additional amplification via mobile devices using Grainfield by CoSiMa / IRCAM
TRANSNATIONAL PHONOGRAPHY
makes an alternative and complement argument by broadening (and decentring) the understanding of phonography beyond the notion of inscription. It frames phonography as a dynamic and multivalent socio-material practice of recording, collecting, retrieving and passing on sound – involving a vast variety of intermediaries, materials, machines and localities. It will be a a multidisciplinary format that brings together industry, science, art, music and pop, because we believe that engaging with a topic that is so closely interwoven with the most diverse cultural practices involves performance and artistic positions as well as lectures and discussions. Thus, we not only want to provide a complex survey of the current situation, but also create interfaces that open up new possibilities for engaging with this topic. Hardly any place that could be more suitable for such an endeavour than the Phono Museum in St. Georgen in the Black Forest, where the history of the German phonographic industry is closely intertwined with the brand name DUAL and the Phono Museum, 140 years of recorded sound history at 53, boulevard de Rochechouart in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.
Additional amplification via mobile devices using Grainfield by CoSiMa / IRCAM
TRANSNATIONAL PHONOGRAPHY
makes an alternative and complement argument by broadening (and decentring) the understanding of phonography beyond the notion of inscription. It frames phonography as a dynamic and multivalent socio-material practice of recording, collecting, retrieving and passing on sound – involving a vast variety of intermediaries, materials, machines and localities. It will be a a multidisciplinary format that brings together industry, science, art, music and pop, because we believe that engaging with a topic that is so closely interwoven with the most diverse cultural practices involves performance and artistic positions as well as lectures and discussions. Thus, we not only want to provide a complex survey of the current situation, but also create interfaces that open up new possibilities for engaging with this topic. Hardly any place that could be more suitable for such an endeavour than the Phono Museum in St. Georgen in the Black Forest, where the history of the German phonographic industry is closely intertwined with the brand name DUAL and the Phono Museum, 140 years of recorded sound history at 53, boulevard de Rochechouart in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.
Made for Tusk TV / first released by Tusk Editions: tuskeditions.bandcamp.com/album/tusk-editions-7
Made for Tusk TV / first released by Tusk Editions: tuskeditions.bandcamp.com/album/tusk-editions-7
Performed live 13th May 2022
Deutsches Phono Museum, Sankt Georgen im Schwartzwald, Germany
TRANSNATIONAL PHONOGRAPHY
makes an alternative and complement argument by broadening (and decentring) the understanding of phonography beyond the notion of inscription. It frames phonography as a dynamic and multivalent socio-material practice of recording, collecting, retrieving and passing on sound – involving a vast variety of intermediaries, materials, machines and localities. It will be a a multidisciplinary format that brings together industry, science, art, music and pop, because we believe that engaging with a topic that is so closely interwoven with the most diverse cultural practices involves performance and artistic positions as well as lectures and discussions. Thus, we not only want to provide a complex survey of the current situation, but also create interfaces that open up new possibilities for engaging with this topic. Hardly any place that could be more suitable for such an endeavour than the Phono Museum in St. Georgen in the Black Forest, where the history of the German phonographic industry is closely intertwined with the brand name DUAL and the Phono Museum, 140 years of recorded sound history at 53, boulevard de Rochechouart in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.
youtube.com/mammothbeatorgan
'At Home With The Mammoth Beat Organ' single released by Pearl Home Records on lathe cut 7" and digital, on 19th May 2022.
pearlhomerecords.bandcamp.com/album/at-home-with-the-mammoth-beat-organ
Melodica, 4x tape players, 2x low-pass filter modules and multi-lfo, korg monotron duo and monotron delay, korg volca bass and volca sample, 2x eq pedals, 2x delay pedals.
download/tape/minidisc: thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mindscape-from-the-7th-level
Music by Graham Dunning - http://grahamdunning.com
Painting by Chris Clover - http://www.chrisclover.com
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Graham Dunning returns to Third Kind for an exhaustive collection of dance floor creations that reveal a romanticised longing for the return of the euphoric, the psychedelic, but also irrevocably, the grimey club night. The tracks draw heavily from classic underground house and the homemade sci-fi futurism of Detroit techno. Graham Dunning made a name for himself in experimental music through his famous mechanical techno performances, analogue hauntology, live coding and tape-based sound art. His music regularly makes use of the expected sound pallets of dance music but in new unexpected ways. On ‘Mindscape From The 7th Level’ Dunning commits wholeheartedly and relentlessly to the transcendental dancefloor form.
“The basic thought is I wanted titles that are quite cosmic, futuristic, positive, escapist, but also a bit sort of crappy and mundane. I think of this music as very outward looking and pining for the cosmic plains of expansion accessible through the dancefloor at a rave, but it's also solidly bedroom recorded and claustrophobic because of the old pando.”
download/tape/minidisc: thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mindscape-from-the-7th-level
Music by Graham Dunning - http://grahamdunning.com
Painting by Chris Clover - http://www.chrisclover.com
- --- - --- - --- - --- - --- -
Graham Dunning returns to Third Kind for an exhaustive collection of dance floor creations that reveal a romanticised longing for the return of the euphoric, the psychedelic, but also irrevocably, the grimey club night. The tracks draw heavily from classic underground house and the homemade sci-fi futurism of Detroit techno. Graham Dunning made a name for himself in experimental music through his famous mechanical techno performances, analogue hauntology, live coding and tape-based sound art. His music regularly makes use of the expected sound pallets of dance music but in new unexpected ways. On ‘Mindscape From The 7th Level’ Dunning commits wholeheartedly and relentlessly to the transcendental dancefloor form.
“The basic thought is I wanted titles that are quite cosmic, futuristic, positive, escapist, but also a bit sort of crappy and mundane. I think of this music as very outward looking and pining for the cosmic plains of expansion accessible through the dancefloor at a rave, but it's also solidly bedroom recorded and claustrophobic because of the old pando.”
The idea was to make a monotonous and repetitive bombardment of information, moving too fast to be able to take in, coupled with repetitive and stumbling music.
The full video is 19’30” long, above is an edit.
Made as part of a residency at Galerie Paradise, Nantes, France, 2017.
Exhibited:
Schèma, Galerie Paradise, 2017
Drift: internal clocks
Each of these two videos is an experiment in creating patterns through error.
--
In Drift: turning out of sync, each note is created by a rotating record which triggers a synth note to play. Each of the four panels shows the turntable playing at a slightly slower rotational speed.
Normally when mixing records together the intention is to beatmatch: to keep the rhythms in sync. Here the mismatched speeds create the patterns.
--
In Drift: internal clocks, each note is played by a person hitting a drum pad. Each player was initially given a short click-track and asked to keep that beat with the guide track absent.
Ordinarily musicians would be expected to keep time with each other. Here, the patterns that emerge are caused by variations in the musicians’ internal clocks.
The videos were made at Access Space in Sheffield as part of a residency with AlgoMech Festival 2019.
Exhibited at:
– Patterns of Movement, Sydney & Matilda Gallery, Sheffield, 17th – 19th May 2019
Many thanks to Alex, Aruma and Toni for appearing in the video playing the beaters!
The video consists of graphs made in a spreadsheet software, scrolling across the view. The audio is made of 16 drone sounds, each generated by a graph of results from one of the questions. The drones were pitched digitally then fed through oscillating analogue synth filters and left to run for the duration of the recording.
Exhibited:
– 2017: Schéma, Galerie Paradise, Nantes, France
– 2017: Tusk Festival, Workplace Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Me and Sam Underwood worked remotely to each make a new instrument (Sam made a siren disk organ!).
Find out more on the Mammoth Beat Organ channel: youtube.com/mammothbeatorgan
Lauren Sarah Hayes is a Scottish musician and sound artist based in Arizona who builds and performs with hybrid analogue/digital instruments. She is a “positively ferocious improvisor” (Cycling ‘74), her music refusing to sit nicely between free improv, experimental pop, techno, and noise. Over the last decade she has developed and honed a deliberately challenging and unpredictable performance system that explores the relationships between bodies, sound, environments, and technology. The Wire described her most recent album MANIPULATION (pan y rosas discos) as “skittering melodies and clip-clopping rhythms suggesting a mischievous intelligence emerging from this web of wires”. She is a member of the New BBC Radiophonic Workshop. @elleesaich
http://www.laurensarahhayes.com
remifoxnovak.bandcamp.com
surfacing.bandcamp.com
Remi Fox-Novák is a member of electronic experimentalists Surfacing. Away from the group, his music solo leans harder into the sounds of club music, whilst still informed by Surfacing's spontaneous industrial growl.
The set, beamed directly from his home studio, will be a showcase of Remi Fox-Novák's experimental exploration of audio technology as well as his approach to techno.
remifoxnovak.bandcamp.com
surfacing.bandcamp.com
Jonathan Higgins is a composer and performer based in London who focuses on finding different ways of utilising noise to create music. He music often looks to communication systems and the noise inherent within them as tool for manipulating and creating sounds.
This set will be performed on hacked sony discman players and a CD recorder. Sounds from the CD players will be re-recorded to CD and reused, degrading the sounds on each recursive loop. This is a live interpretation of the process used to make the EP Bootlegs, released on Fractal Meat Cuts last year.
http://jphiggins.co.uk
A mesmeric voice pours into your ears, atop mellotron violin, fingerpicked guitar, omnichord drones, bowed chimes, field recordings & glitchy electronics. Drawing on psychedelic, free improvisation and folk influences, Bell Lungs creates transcendental atmospherically shifting soundscapes interspersed with snippets of songs, musing upon rural idylls, post-industrial heartlands and online dating.
bell-lungs.com
SERF: is a group that plays with melody and experimentalism, they play with the dynamics of storytelling. This 40 minute set has found sounds from summer solstice 2020 as well as the narration of the artists. Making a trippy headspace somewhere between there, space and here.
Miri Kat is a Livecoder / AV Artist / Producer from London. Interested in music tech, web technologies, hacking, creative coding, algorithmic music and generative visuals.
mirikat.bandcamp.com
London based saxophonist Colin Webster is quickly establishing himself on the European avant garde scene. Collaborating with some of the key figures in improvised and experimental music, Webster is known for working from extreme sonic palettes – from minimal to maximal, constantly pushing boundaries.
This set is based on the idea of 'textural studies' - taking single sonic statements, and exploring them to the fullest extent, and deliberately avoiding notions of structure or development. The idea came off the back of the duo LP 'Terrain' with Graham Dunning.
More info: webstology.wordpress.com
Tom Mudd enjoys working with digital processes for music making. Recent work has explored synthesising sound in ways that mirror acoustic processes in different ways: from direct simulations of guitars and brass objects, to more abstract systems.
This set is a live performance with the Gutter Synth: a digital synth that explores networked feedback between nonlinear oscillators.
The synth is available for free here: github.com/tommmmudd/guttersynthesis
More info: http://tommudd.co.uk
Ain Bailey is a sound artist and DJ. She facilitates workshops considering the role of sound in the formation of identity and recently held a residency at the ICA, London. Exhibtions in 2019 included ‘The Range’ at Eastside Projects, Birmingham; ‘RE:Respite’ at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, and ‘And We’ll Always Be A Disco In The Glow Of Love’, a solo show at Cubitt Gallery, London. Last year, Bailey was commissioned by Supernormal and Jupiter festivals to create and perform a new work, ‘Super JR’. Currently, following a commission by Serpentine Projects, she is conducting sound workshops with LGBTI+ refugees and asylum seekers.
http://www.ainbailey.com
Credits
Green: For Grenfell
Black: For Black Lives Matter
Images from The MichaelDouglas Kollketiv dance company: Here Is You And Not Me. Photography: Martin Miseré
Ain Bailey by Christian Nyampeta
This episode of Noise Quest is supported by University of Warwick:
Connecting Cultures GRP and Innovative Manufacturing and Future Materials GRP.
Me, Claudius
Experimental music.
Some Welsh, lives in England.
Hates all her clothes.
The dog, very displayed,
The dog displayed a chance.
A chance birthday, the dog attentive.
We all tasted chance,
You can eat outside.
soundcloud.com/meclaudius
Twitter: @claudius_me
Facebook: facebook.com/ClaudiusMe
Instagram @theonlymeclaudius
This episode of Noise Quest is supported by University of Warwick:
Connecting Cultures GRP and Innovative Manufacturing and Future Materials GRP.
The Yorkshire Programming Ensemble (TYPE) is a collection of humans: Lucy Cheesman, Laurie Johnson, Ryan Kirkbride, and Innocent Granger, that meet IRL and URL and enjoy exploring rhythmic music in a collaborative virtual space and generally making a lot of noise.
typeensemble.wordpress.com
This episode of Noise Quest is supported by University of Warwick:
Connecting Cultures GRP and Innovative Manufacturing and Future Materials GRP.
Sharon Gal is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, experimental vocalist & composer, with experience of free improvisation and large group participatory compositions.
Her work explores explores presence, listening, embodiment, and the relationship between space, people and sound.
Her music was released by various labels, including five solo albums and many collaborations. Past performances include The V&A, Science Museum, ICA, The Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Modern & Tate Britain and Colour out of Space, Borealis, Supernormal and Supersonic festivals.
sharon-gal.com
This episode of Noise Quest is supported by University of Warwick:
Connecting Cultures GRP and Innovative Manufacturing and Future Materials GRP.
Available on tape and download: fractalmeat.bandcamp.com/album/play-it-today
Shelly Knotts is an improviser who performs with computers and other humans. Interests in code, data and networks have lead her down strange and diverse musical paths from electroacoustic composition, through jazz and noise music to algorave. She experiments with generative and AI techniques and opinionated algorithms to make music. She has performed at numerous Algoraves and other live coding events worldwide, solo and with collaborative projects including algo-pop duo ALGOBABEZ. In 2017 she was a winner of BBC Radiophonic Workshop and PRSF ‘The Oram Awards’ for innovation in sound and music. By day she is a researcher at Durham University working on the research project ‘Musically Intelligent Machines Interacting Creatively’.
http://datamusician.net
TVO is Ruaridh Law; a sound artist and musician based in Paisley, Scotland; over 20 years he has performed in groups, in collaborations and solo across a wide range of festivals, arts spaces, venues and clubs as performer, improviser, DJ and artist, as well as hosting radio shows and writing.
He runs the Broken20 multimedia label, which has been releasing experimental music, DVD, cassette, vinyl and mixed media works over 10 years and 50+ releases; he has also recently set up further_in, an online streaming channel dedicated to platforming art from artists who have lost bookings, gigs and opportunities due to the global COVID-19 epidemic.
ruaridh law / tvo / broken20 / further_in
tvo.broken20.com / broken20.com / furtherin.live
http://rk.1bpm.net
Andrew Lisle is a drummer/composer based in London. He works in the fields of Free Jazz and improvisation, performing with the likes of Colin Webster, Alex Ward, John Edwards, John Dikeman and Rodrigo Amado. This performance will be a solo improvisation playing with the concepts of the fluidity and rigidity of time, a subject which has been an extensive study of Andrew's.
from the album 'Panopticon' - everycontactleavesatrace.bandcamp.com/album/panopticon
Cassette and download by Every Contact Leaves a Trace
'Half-Life', all in-game sounds replaced with samples from 90s rave tracks and sample CDs.
“The research consists of four main phases: The first phase involves extraction of the silhouette of an individual. Calculating the gait period or gait cycle of the individual follows this. Finding the sum of silhouettes is the next step. Finally, similarity score computation and matching process is performed for recognition. Any two images when compared using root mean square value are said to be similar if the value falls under the given threshold.” 1
“Spend a little bit of time with neural networks, and you realize that anyone holding something in their hand is likely to be identified as someone ‘holding a cellphone,’ or ‘holding a Wii controller.’” 2
credits
releases May 16, 2020
Concept & execution by Graham Dunning
Mastered by Angel Marcloid
Album art by Alex Bertram-Powell
'Half-Life' by Sierra Studios
1 ‘Human Gait Recognition And Classification Using Similarity Index’, Nahid A Makhdoomi et al 2013 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 53 012069 - iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/53/1/012069
2 ‘Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You)’, Trevor Paglen, The New Inquiry, December 2016 - thenewinquiry.com/invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-at-you
from the album 'Panopticon' - everycontactleavesatrace.bandcamp.com/album/panopticon
Cassette and download by Every Contact Leaves a Trace
'Half-Life', all in-game sounds replaced with samples from 90s rave tracks and sample CDs.
“The research consists of four main phases: The first phase involves extraction of the silhouette of an individual. Calculating the gait period or gait cycle of the individual follows this. Finding the sum of silhouettes is the next step. Finally, similarity score computation and matching process is performed for recognition. Any two images when compared using root mean square value are said to be similar if the value falls under the given threshold.” 1
“Spend a little bit of time with neural networks, and you realize that anyone holding something in their hand is likely to be identified as someone ‘holding a cellphone,’ or ‘holding a Wii controller.’” 2
credits
releases May 16, 2020
Concept & execution by Graham Dunning
Mastered by Angel Marcloid
Album art by Alex Bertram-Powell
'Half-Life' by Sierra Studios
1 ‘Human Gait Recognition And Classification Using Similarity Index’, Nahid A Makhdoomi et al 2013 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 53 012069 - iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/53/1/012069
2 ‘Invisible Images (Your Pictures Are Looking at You)’, Trevor Paglen, The New Inquiry, December 2016 - thenewinquiry.com/invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-at-you
Li Yilei (b. China) is a London/Shanghai based multi-disciplinary artist and musician working primarily with sound, performance and installation. As a gender non-conforming individual with Asperger's, the experience fluctuates between chaos and sometimes painful stillness. Their body of work is plagued with the polarity of minimalist subtle moments that are translated into abstract sonic languages.
Leon Trimble is an Audiovisual Performer currently researching the implications of the performer/conductor/magician through the livecoding of analogue audiovisual circuits and card tricks.
performance: Wizard Woden - choose your own (Livecode) adventure!
Leon will be using polls to create performance - choose letters from the name of the gravity synth and The Wizard will livecode with those letters. The Wizard will then turn these into glyphs to livecode with, and animate the corresponding runes. choose wisely, some of them will not produce sound!
Dephnellc: Drum machine techno made for dancing.
https://linktr.ee/LarryCrywater
Annie Tådne is a Swedish artist based in London, working within the intersection of art and technology. Her interests lie in the synthesis of art, media, technology and architecture, where music is paramount in all of her creations. She explores spatial and embodied cognition through audiovisual and performative modes of expression.
https://tadne.se/
Slim Vic is one of Sweden's leading innovators of the DJ and turntable culture. Studio recordings cross dark ambient, soundscapes and techno. He also DJs with portable turntables and novelty 7"s from across the globe. Viktor runs Lamour records releasing ambient, electronica and conceptual techno on vinyl, cassette and digital, plus sub labels Tape Lamour, Acid Lamour & Knaften.
slimvic.net
https://www.lamour.se/
Graham Dunning's live work explores sound as texture, timbre and something tactile, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects. He runs Fractal Meat Cuts, a label releasing tapes and artist editions across experimental electronic music, process-based sound work and improvisation.
http://grahamdunning.com
http://fractalmeat.wordpress.com
https://www.lamour.se/akb/
Bredbeddle aka Rebecca Lee is a musician, composer and artist based at Primary, Nottingham, working across performance, installation, scores and broadcasts. Her work explores processes of making and forms of listening, drawing from experimental, early, electronic, chamber and improvised musics. Bredbeddle is a project in which Rebecca uses turntable and other playbeack media to collage existing recordings into new compositions.
http://www.rebeccalee.info


