NEWS: 18 AND 19 MAY 2007
Clara 2.0 the polite robot thereminist: next stop the Brighton Festival Fringe
Clara 2.0, the robotic dolly thereminist.
Clara 2.0, the robotic dolly thereminist, stars in Spacedog's brand new Plastic Cabaret , Komedia Studio, Brighton. For the Brighton Festival Fringe. Book tickets online . Clara 2.0 is a servo-controlled, dolly robot thereminist, designed and built by me for live duetting on the theremin. Clara continually listens to my theremin playing and moves her arms to tune her own theremin to it perfectly, sometimes improvising the odd harmony.
On stage with Clara 2.0 (photo Emmet Spier).
SPACEDOG
Waterphonics
Based in Brighton UK, Spacedog creates and performs original electroacoustic music mixing laptops with curious instruments, including the theremin, waterphone, melodyphone, Edison phonograph, infrasonics (sub bass), recorder and saw. Spacedog is owned and run by Sarah Angliss, a performer, composer and engineer.
Playing the theremin, duetting with vocalist Jenny Dempsey (photo Emmet Spier).Clara 2.0 by night - let's hope her arms don't fall off
Musical saw
Trained a little in robotics as well as music and acoustics, Sarah regularly collaborates with other musicians, technicians and scientists interested in sound (for instance, at the National Physical Laboratory). Unafraid of English folk music, she has been playing and listening to this for many years and is known to use examples openly in her experimental, electroacoustic work (e.g. Winding Sheet - for piano and electronics). One of her current and most unfashionable projects uses live clog dancing to trigger found sounds and video loops (with Caroline Radcliffe).
Theremin
Sarah also has a growing interest in the history of teaching birds human-composed tunes - something musicians have been experimenting with for many centuries. She's been exploring this in her live performances and archive research. Her 2004 theremin duet Hello Baby was performed to a backing of 1950s parakeet training records.
Examples of work:
More info on the Spacedog website:
To Surrey Street with Love (see above) - an arrangment of sounds from Croydon's wonderful fruit and veg market. Croydon's open air market has existed, in one form or another, since the 13th century.
Reverb - busking in the reverb chamber of the UK National Physical Laboratory, a room with one of the longest reverb times in Europe. See a video of the waterphone performance (backwards) and other acoustic delights.
Playing the waterphone in a long reverb (backwards)
Sarah jamming in the NPL reverb chamber with Mike Blow and Stephen Wolff
Infrasonic - live music, laced with infrasound (i.e. extreme bass notes), produced by a generator designed and built in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory. This culminated in a concert in the Purcell Room, including Sarah's electroacoustic piece She Goes Back Underwater - ideally this should be heard with infrasound present. Infrasound is created by some of the largest pipe organs in the world. Some organists say it adds a sense of awe to the music. Infrasound has also been found at some ostensibly haunted sites (where it may be coming from mundane sources, such as faulty ceiling fans, but creating some weird physical and psychological effects).
Senster - a cabaret of artificial life and acoustic curiosity. In collaboration with Paul Attmere, Mike Blow, Jenny Demspey, Anna Kubelik, Colin Uttley and Stephen Wolff.
Dubiofossil - truly dreadful evolutionary music for the hurdy gurdy. Created for the BigBlip 2004, now safely locked away in the cupboard.
The Haunt - a live event in Brighton UK, in which Sarah's soundtrack leads you to something unnerving in an undisclosed site, deep under the city streets. The most recent Haunt included a live set from Sarah and friends, who for one night only were known as The Deathwatch Beatles.
Music for the butterflies at London Zoo - this responds instantaneously to the fluttering of their wings when they land on a feeding table in the zoo.
Revealing Deliah - music for contortionist Deliah du Sol, to accompany an experiment where Deliah's body was examined, during a contortion, in an MRI scanner. For psychologist Richard Wiseman, featured in Wiseman and Singh's Theatre of Science.
Afraid Astaire presents...
It's easier to prepare for Armageddon when you're stepping to that ragtime beat. According to Kofi Annan, 'the more that [nuclear weapon states]...insist that nuclear weapons are essential for their national security, the more other states feel that they too must have them for their security'. Despite this, the British goverment is pushing through plans for a new £25 billion trident missile. What would Gary Cooper say? This original footage comes from the Protect and Survive series, commissioned by the UK government to show people how to prepare for nuclear war.