Its in the Old Church in Stoke Newington which is on Stoke Newington Church Street in Hackney, London, at the edge of Clissold Park.
Stoke Newington is a quirky part of Hackney, I lived here between 2002-2006 and again 2010-2015; Stokey as its often called is an old country village which was consumed by the growth of London. The Church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086 AD) but was rebuilt over the years but bombed in WW2. Its still a lovely space and I never thought I’d play.
Danial Defoe, Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Wollstonecraft all lived in Stoke Newington and it used to have a radical reputation even if its a bit gentrified in recent times.
Aphex Twin lived here in the 1990s and a few of his tracks he put out on Soundcloud a few years back had titles which referred to the area.
Really looking forward to the whole day, should be good fun!
Got my musical materials pretty much ready, the modular is patched up with various assorted sequences and noises, the BS2 has some new sounds created, I have some haiku in the pipeline… now I just have to get rehearsing!
I’m structuring the music around three haiku, with a track following each, and then there is an unashamedly cheesy and happy coda, just because that’s where the music took me
Warm air meets with cold.
Aging Summer’s fine white hair
foreshadows the storm
Rain brings clarity,
washing the mud from your eyes.
Seek the dreamer’s path.
Setting sun slips down.
Long shadows reach out to touch
the darkening skies.
I am doing around 30 minutes of music, a few pieces are looser versions of my previous Naviar Haiku submissions with room to improvise and add layers and perhaps beats.
A few other sounds I have sketched out but nothing feels to restricted in the way I am setting up my live set - I have left space to go some new directions and I have practiced over a few times to see where I can with elements and I hope to record it on the night.
I’m also at about 30 mins, lots of improv around a set of sequences and arps. It’s different to my usual way of working, which has a lot more sequenced and generative parts, because I want people to see and feel it is a live performance and not just a little bit of knob twiddling on a pre-programmed modular
This is the first full rehearsal from tonight - It is improvised on BassStation2, Streichfett, and modular synth. Will hopefully be a little smoother after a few more rehearsals… Getting excited now!
Oh- I have a spare PCM-M10 recorder, so I will be using one to play my haikus and cues, and the other can be used for recording. If we both have recorders, one could record the room while the other records the main desk output - that way we could mix them after and get the full experience!
Thanks 1234 for the picture of @ikjoyce above.
And this picture is of me…
It was a lovely day, there was a nice open session of poetry and music after the morning Haiku writing session. And then our gig in the evening.
Thanks to all who came.
Neil
My brother in law got a little video of a few parts of my set:
I recorded the full gig from the mixer, and AudioObscura recorded the “air” from the back of the room too - so watch this space for Naviar Records will likely be putting this out as a live album
The whole day was great, I really hope Marco arranges another one for next year.
