THE
UNIDENTIFIED
FLYING
ORCHESTRA
SCHIPHORST
WAS A BIGBAND PROJECT
FOR THE
AVANTGARDE FESTIVAL SCHIPHORST 2007
and was staged there on July 29 with musicians from the festival´s line-up.
This Project was initiated, propelled, navigated and coordinated by
Tom Zunk

The following artists were members of the crew:
Uwe Bastiansen - e-guitar
Ben Bückenbacher - rhythm synth
Julien Chevalier - e-guitar
Benoît Delaune - saw, cello, bass-guitar
Muck Giovanett - sticks
Hans Hartmann - chapmanstick
James Hodson - oven & violin
Alan Holmes - e-guitar
James Johnston - e-guitar
Benoît Lauby - e-guitar & electronics
Paul Loiseau - electro-acoustic percussion
Ken Matsutani - e-guitar
Brian Mitchell - e-guitar
Mat Pogo - voice
Chad Popple - percussion
Elke Postler - voice
Zoë Skoulding - voice & effects
Geraldine Swayne - voice & accordeon
ARTHUR SWINDELLS - ENGINEER
Ronny Waernes - laptop & electronics
Tom Zunk - waterphone, flute, voice, NAVIGATOR
JOIN THE AVANTGARDE!
www.avantgardefestival.de
The U.F.O. SCHIPHORST was an orchestra of free improvising ROCK musicians compiled from the festivals line-up of participating bands and solo musicians.
On the basis of two ANAGRAMS by Berlin surreal artist UNICA ZÜRN (1926–1970) and their MORSE CODE conversions 21 musicians were guided by initiator and coordinating pilot, flutist and Waterphone virtuoso TOM ZUNK of SYNTRON and cellist and bassist Benoît Delaune of LaSTPO through an hour long flight of free improvised blast boosted after exactly timed half an hour by Benoît´s irresistable bass line. Vocalists were free to use all of the anagram texts or just a portion, even just single words but had been advised to stick to the given text (see below).

On stage: Sunday July 29 afternoon 5 pm.

1st ANCHOR were two anagram poems by Berlin surrealist artist Unica Zürn with initial lines by French poet Henri Michaux (see below and ANAGRAM blog). These were interpreted by four to six vocalists each in his/her own special way.
Unica Zürn´s anagrams are unique in literature. No writer has achieved such mastership. Her poems are surreal and dreamlike and elaborate to the extreme. Most were written in mental hospitals where she had to spend long periods of her life. She committed suicide.

Anagrams are words or sentences built from the same letters of a given word or sentence. No other letters may be used.

2nd ANCHOR was a faint memory of Tom´s of some music he heard on the radio at least 30 years ago: The beginning first part of METROPOLIS, composed by MIKE WESTBROOK and recorded by the MIKE WESTBROOK ORCHESTRA in 1971.
All of you interested in the more theoretical side of it will find all kinds of possible and impossible concepts in the blog space. Below are the anagrams that were spoken, sung, interpreted by the vocals.
TWO ANAGRAMS FOR SCHIPHORST by UNICA ZÃœRN (1926-1970)
from:
Unica Zürn, Gesamtausgabe Band 1: Anagramme
Verlag Brinkmann & Bose Berlin 1988
written Ermenonville 1957-59 and Ile de Ré spring 1964
both begin with a line by Henri Michaux
Dans l´attelage d´un autre age
Augen, Tage, Tuer, das alte Land.
Adleraugen, tausend Tage alt.
Sur les tapis des Paumes et leur sourire
So ist alles, des Eises Purpur - euer Traum.
So taut alles, dieser Reise - Spur um Spur -
Spuere das leise sourire aus Perlmutt.
Lippe des Terrores aus Samt - Ursus - Eule - Ei.

AND NOW...THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS AND LOOKED LIKE:
53 "terrifying" minutes "that blew my mind!"
(quote Jean-Hervé Peron - patron de festival)

Here´s Tom´s documentary recording, done by himself on MD via a tiny room mike attached to the piano´s open wing. Well, certainly not the best place but perfect to give you a first impression of how it sounded like from Tom´s position in the room (outer right next to the grand).
Alan Holmes (ECTOGRAM) filmed the show on DV. Here is the 126MB MPEG4 version.
last updated: Sept 27 2007