Dave Birchall invited us [Takahashi's Shellfish Concern] to perform at a Tubers Music event held on November 5th, 2011 at St. Margaret’s Church in Withington.

TSC, was just Rod and I for this performance. On these occasions, when he and I improvise one on one, we tend to invite more space and silence.  It is a different dynamic. (Unfortunately, Anton wasn’t at this performance as he was recording an album with his big band, Beats & Pieces.)

On November 24, 2011. We played an event hosted by the Liverpool-based improv group, Frakture.

August 2, 2011 – We performed at the ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) held this year at Huddersfield University. Because our sound check was at 1pm and the concert didn’t begin until 10:30pm we had a lot of time to kill. This was a good place to kill it. We attend the Unconference where the use of gesture and visuals were discussed with some interesting people who said some insightful things because of reasons.
(Here are some of those people: Freida Abtan, Adrian Freed, and David Wessel.) We also had a walk around the poster/presentation area, while filling up on coffee and smart cake to keep us going for the rest of the day.

We hung out for a long time with Scott Hewitt. One of the things we discussed was the tool Rod and I want to build that’ll allow me to live sample & synthesize sound via the gestures I already make while painting. He encouraged us to build the hardware, just hunker down, and figure out some of the programming so we’ll have a better understanding of what the thing will do. He said it could be a 10 year long project. That’s both exciting and induces and incredible sense of laziness in me.

But I digress…

The concert was really well attended. It was held at The Graduate, the university’s on-campus bar. Believe it or not, this crowd of academics got a little rowdy, but people were just having a good time (and were probably very drunk). There were four acts and we went on third. While Rod wasn’t too crazy about it I really liked seeing this one guy do some live coding, projected large on a screen, so you could see what he was doing. It was fun to watch.

Our performance went so-so. Rod and Anton think it went better than I think it went though. I just couldn’t get into it and kept repeating myself. The venue itself was really hot (Miami hot), and this was exasperated by the fact that I perform in front of two friggin hot-ass work lamps not four feet behind me. After 15 minutes I was dripping sweat and black paint. Niiiiice and griiiiity.

The painting is now owned by P.A. Tremblay and can been seen in his office at the university.

You can listen to the performance here:

TSC @ ICMC2011 by Takahashi

The way this event came together was a really great experience.  From the beginning, Mark Devereux (blank media’s director) really drove the point home that he wanted it to be artist-centric.  It was an exhibition showcasing our work, as well as that of Naomi Kendrick, and Barcelona-based group, Ephemeral Eggplant Intervention.  All artists that explored the merger of sound/music and visual art.  What was really great was that everyone’s input was welcomed at the ground level.  Those of us here in Manchester (TSC and Naomi) met several times before the event, and Mark acted as a conduit, communicating to us EEI’s ideas (and visa-versa) throughout the process. In the end, in addition to a static work exhibition, there were live events, a Q&A session, and a collaboration event with the improv organization The Noise Upstairs (which is run by Anton and Rod).

Opening night was really well attended. The place was packed.  It was a really good atmosphere to which local Spanish restaurant, Sandinista, contributed to by supplying free tapas! It was great seeing people stood looking and discussing my work.  This was the first time I exhibited any work in a gallery so and it was all a really satisfying experience.

Here’s a video made by Castles Built In Sand

Performed at Sheffield University as part of an event coordinated by Small Ideas.

I lost a black hoodie there.

At The Noise Upstairs in Sheffield, on January 12, 2011.

The Innie and the Outie I was performed at NUStival in Manchester on Nov. 14, 2010.  It was the first time I strung a wire onto the canvas as part of the performance.

We were invited to perform at Lancaster University’s Experimentality Conference, on July 8th, 2010.

and part 2:

This performance took place in Birmingham.

We played right before Goodiepal, or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose real name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester.  His is one of the most inspirational performances I’ve ever seen.

Performed May 2010, as part of the The Week of Speakers at Huddersfield University.

Angie also lead a workshop which included the Crim Collective (and others), where the audience/participants explored ways in which live drawing and painting can interact with improvised music and sound.

This performance we premiered a new palette of sounds.  Two piezo microphones were attached to the back of the canvas. The only sounds heard were the processed sounds of the painting being made.  This, in combination with the stripped down, only black “color” palette, made for a very simple, focused, and much more singular expression.  The results were good, and I will be looking forward to using this sort of set up much more frequently in the future.

This gig was well attended and awesome. It was our first gig with Mauricio Pauly.

ANTON’S FOOD TOUR DIARY

Manchester (2) – All three of us had nice home-cooked meals by ourselves (I forget exactly what I had but I’m sure it was delicious), and as anyone knows, Christians make good cakes, so before we played I made sure to sample the chocolate cake and wasn’t disappointed.  In the end the gig was a good way to round off the tour, perhaps not as good as Edinburgh or London, but definitely enjoying the home comforts of cake and hot chocolate.

Painting owned by Sam Andreae.

This was the 2nd date of the tour that was booked (the first one being Dry Bar), and it was also the only date of the tour that wasn’t an existing night/event. Scott agreed to put us on in Huddersfield, then found the venue, then some opening acts etc… It was a great venue, and one of the best attended dates on the tour.

We setup our usual gear, and usual arrangement, but because of the shape of the venue and performance space, very few people in the audience could see Angie’s painting straight on. Most so it from the side. Anton and I were able to see it perfectly, so that didn’t impact the performance itself any.

The improvisation, for the most part, was very good. Great ebbs and flows, and Angie’s painting was working very well in the ‘mix’ of things. The first improvisation came to a natural conclusion, and given the opportunity to play one more short piece, we took it. Unfortunately it wasn’t very good, further proving the adage “when you have an ending, take it”.

This was originally the last date of the tour. We were a last minute addition when an act pulled out of the MANTIS Festival.

-Rodrigo

ANTON’S FOOD TOUR DIARY

Huddersfield – this is the slight anomaly in my good food=good music thesis, as my dinner was a Tesco sandwich, and, although the gig wasn’t one of our best, I don’t feel it was anywhere near as bad as the sandwich would suggest it would be.  I think maybe the food was counteracted partly by the welcoming folks from ‘inclusive improv’  If we’d be playing for strangers I don’t think the power of the Tesco could have been avoided.

We arrived in London hours early, as we expected heavy traffic that was, in the end, non-existent.  We set up and then headed to a Turkish restaurant that ended up serving some of the best food we’ve had in the UK. We even got a dessert on the house, surely because were were taking photos of our spread like tourist idiots.

Yadda, yadda, yadda…

This was the best performance of the tour. All elements were appropriate and in harmony.

-Angie

ANTON’S FOOD TOUR DIARY

London – this was the killer for me, had a leisurely time in a Turkish restaurant over the road from the venue called (I think) ‘Ates’  Rod had some Turkish pizza thing and Ang and I had kebabs with an excellent selection of onions and salad.  No idea what was on the onions but I’d have been happy with those alone, though the meat was excellent.  They even brought us some free desert (which is a sure fire way to win yourself a tip by the way), all in all a great feed which we followed up with my favourite gig of the tour.

Painting owned by Hugh Metcalfe.

To say we were dubious about this gig is an understatement, having spent a few weeks trying to get hold of the promoter, he eventually says two days before the gig “if you can find another band that’d be good” (in fairness to him, we had arrogantly asked to pick the other bands so we could play with people we liked, but that was a couple of months in advance).  We suspected, rightfully, that the actual promotion for the gig amounted to the square route of f-all so had very low hopes.

In the end, a small selection of our friends turned up and it turned out to be quite a nice atmosphere with support sets from Pete Mosely (solo guitar ambient loop drone stuff, good textures, makes me wish I still smoked weed) and Mark Pilkington (laptop plus Nord synth, not the best time I’ve seen him as his patch crashed so had to rely on backing tracks, but went down well anyways).  I’m never brilliant at analysing sets a while after the gig, especially with improvised stuff, but for me this one felt good and I liked the painting at the end of it.  Certainly after Glasgow it felt like a breath of fresh air and set us up nicely for our first trip to London.  Oh, and we sold a DVD for the first time, and a few porn comics, so all good on that front.

-Anton

ANTON’S FOOD TOUR DIARY

Trip to the Piccadilly branch of Bar Burrito for some, erm, burritos.  Good all round, bit of spice, not quite the high standards of Edinburgh but certainly more interesting than Glasgow’s food and the resulting set followed similar lines.

This performance was rushed and uninspired, and it reflected both the in music and in the painting.  Going into it we knew we were playing on an acoustic singer-song writer night, but we hoped that as long as we gave a good performance, the audience would remain open-minded, and perhaps found themselves enjoying the set though it didn’t really fit in with the night.  Unfortunately however, the night had been overbooked (6 performers in one night) and everyone’s sets were shortened to 20 mins. as a consequence.  Having just driven to Glasgow from Edinburgh and hearing that bit of information was demoralizing.

Performance-wise, it apparently effects me tremendously being so hyper-aware of the duration and feeling rushed.  I really felt like I had to get the work somewhere…and QUICK. This completely killed any subtlety or any organic, serendipitous, composition from occurring.  It looks like a train wreck, and felt like one too, as it was happening.  The boys agreed they too could not follow a thought, and so musical development and nuance suffered as well.  The first moment of silence was quickly filled by a clap–a sign from the audience that they were ready for yet another acoustic singer-song writer to take the stage. We packed up and rolled on back to Manchester, leaving that failure in Glasgow. This was the worst performance in the history of TSC.

-Angie

ANTON’S FOOD TOUR DIARY

Glasgow – walked round some dingy streets near the venue looking for somewhere we could sit down but that wasn’t too posh.  And we found Subway.  Rather uninspiring, predictable food that we had to have as we were on a time-limit.  Back to the venue and turned in an uninspiring, predictable performance on a time-limit.

First and foremost, Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and it was great having it as the first stop on our tour.  We were shown around by locals and I discovered how great Ellen Gallagher’s work is at the Edinburgh Museum of Modern Art.

Additionally, Promotor Lin Zhang’s (of Diva Abrasiva) hospitality was unparalleled and very much appreciated. He let Rod and I use his room during our two day stay, and allowed Anton to use the guest bedroom which came complete with a skylight!  Of course, it did give Lin an excuse to spend those nights at his girlfriend’s house, but that withstanding, it was still quite a generous gesture.

Regarding the performance, we played in a great space at Edinburgh University’s Alison House.  The room itself is quite large and two stories tall, with a balcony that overlooks the performance space.  It felt like a University too–very quiet, well built, and carpeted. It felt like a very appropriate space.  We saw the opportunity to set up a small collapsable stage for the painting area, which  was a great perk, and set the drums and guitar on either side. Having an elevated area that I could step on and off of is not something I’m used to, as most venues don’t have the facility, but I found it granted me additional mobility and positioning possibilities during the performance which were great.  I feel the visual work functioned beautifully within the context of the aural performance, and I also feel that it is quite successful in its final form.

-Angie

ANTON’S TOUR FOOD DIARY

Edinburgh – taken to Kebab Mahal, the curry house next door to the venue, by Nick and Lin from Diva Abrasiva.  I’ve known Nick for a long time, (www.myspace.com/pocketpockethelp) and have grown to trust him implicitly with any curry-based decisions, and this was no exception.  We all had different curries but all were excellent, I washed mine down with an Iron Bru and we kicked off the tour with one of the best gigs we’ve done…

Painting owned by  fit Matt.

Unfortunately, this performance was pulled off on rocky footing.  The act preceding ours decided to extend their set by my conservative estimate of 20 mins. (time lost all meaning as we stewed at their audacity and endless repetitions.).  To add insult to injury, only one of their band members stayed behind to clear their equipment off the stage while the rest were surely off date raping.

Rod and Anton angrily cleaned up after these inconsiderate fucktards, while I was filling my large orange bucket with water. Mark Devereux (of Blank Media) apologized for the position we were in, which was a nice gesture, but as expected the sullied mood colored the improvised performance.  After the wank-tastic, endlessly loud, ska set of the previous band, there was no room for good taste and subtlety left in the room.  As a response, the music lacked the dynamic range that Rod and Anton are capable of creating and both musicians felt very compressed.

I feel the final state of the painting reflects our frustration…in a wonderfully beautiful way somehow. I was able to work un-congested and used the crassness to apparently represent the music in a bold manner.  It was the only good thing that happened on a night that would have otherwise been a complete miss.

-Angie

Painting owned by Mark Devereux.