Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #209. Founded in 2015, Tears|Ov are sound artist/self-taught musician Lori E Allen, classically trained cellist/mixed media artist Katie Spafford and illustrator/prison psychotherapist Deborah Wale. Their debut long-player, ‘A Hopeless Place’, is now available to pre-order with its title track released to all digital platforms today. ‘A Hopeless Place’ was initiated by a commission from Wolfgang Tillmans to perform at the Tate Modern’s South Tanks, part of a concert series curated by the artist in parallel to his 2017 retrospective at the gallery. ‘We were asked to play a gig at the Tate in March 2017’ recalls Lori. ‘I’d already started on some of the tracks, but it gave us an opportunity to present them as a composition around their connected themes. Sometime after the gig we decided to capture the work and turn it in to an album.’ Read the full story below. Listen to the opening title track of the album.
Tears|Ov launch their album tomorrow night with a London performance at XWORM – The Tapeworm x Iklectik. Also appearing: Blood Music, Zeno van den Broek, Dale Cornish, Ken Hollings x Howlround and Savage Pencil x Barbara Frost.
A second Tapeworm show, “XWORM – The Tapeworm x Cafe OTO”, will occur on Sunday 29 September, starring Laura Agnusdei, Stefan Goldmann, Jay Glass Dubs, Philip Jeck x Jana Winderen (for the first time as a duo), Marta de Pascalis, Simon Fisher Turner and Zerocrop. Further details below…
WHO#14 | Tears|Ov “A Hopeless Place”
Gatefold LP in an edition of 200 / DL
Mastered and cut by Jason Goz at Transition Mastering Studios
Artwork: Deborah Wale. Photography: Wolfgang Tillmans
Release date: 8 November. The title track, “A Hopeless Place” is now available on all digital services.
A1: A Hopeless Place
A2: I Stand On The Cable
A3: All Else Is Bondage (For A.)
A4: Dancing Without
B1: Trapdoor Ant
B2: Overstimulated Arcade Rat
B3: Family Feudal
B4: A Hopeless Place
Founded in 2015, Tears|Ov are sound artist/self-taught musician Lori E Allen, classically trained cellist/mixed media artist Katie Spafford and illustrator/prison psychotherapist Deborah Wale. The trio first collaborated on Lori E Allen’s ‘Tears of the Material Vulture’ cassette on The Tapeworm, a re-imagination of a brief collaboration with Madame Chaos of cut-up cablecasts, 1995-1996, on Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Television in New York City. That release served to resurrect a hibernating creative practice between the three friends.
Their writing process takes the form of structured improvisation. Allen will create a bed of loops, field recordings or a full framework. She then shares this base with Wale and Spafford who embellish or delete, the three building the pieces through long improvised sessions in London, playing late into the night. During these sessions, the feeling of a songs’ words or the emotional tone of a sound can spark sudden mood changes, altering the arc of the compositions. ‘Crucially the music is improvised – it is never the same twice. There are triggers and moments that signal moving to another part of the music, but the timings and lengths largely depend on our moods and interpretation on a given day/performance. Because of this, the album was recorded with ambient mics capturing multiple instruments. It wasn’t possible to record all the instruments separately as we respond to each others improvisation. Even if the changes are very minor, they really affect the emotion of each piece’ Spafford says.
‘A Hopeless Place’ was initiated by a commission from Wolfgang Tillmans to perform at the Tate Modern’s South Tanks, part of a concert series curated by the artist in parallel to his 2017 retrospective at the gallery. ‘We were asked to play a gig at the Tate in March 2017’ recalls Lori. ‘I’d already started on some of the tracks, but it gave us an opportunity to present them as a composition around their connected themes. Sometime after the gig we decided to capture the work and turn it in to an album.’
Tears|Ov’s debut is presented as a continuous journey, devised to be heard as a whole. ‘Though I’m interested in attaining a peaceful hold on mixing emotions on a personal level, the compositions seem to come out all sideways, morose and capricious,’ Lori says. ‘I like to change the mood slowly and sometimes suddenly – like how it happens in your heart.’ [continue reading…]
Pre-order Tears|Ov “A Hopeless Place” on Bandcamp
Stream the title track from Tears|Ov’s “A Hopeless Place”
26.9.19 | XWORM – The Tapeworm x Iklectik
Blood Music
Zeno van den Broek
Dale Cornish
Ken Hollings x Howlround
People Like Us
SavFrost
Tears|Ov
Thursday 26 September
Doors 7.30pm / £8 advance / £10 on the door
Buy tickets from tickettailor.com
On Thursday 26 September, The Tapeworm celebrates its tenth birthday at Iklectik — AV performances from Zeno van den Broek and Blood Music, plus a People Like Us short. Splendid trio Tears|Ov premiere their forthcoming album on The Wormhole, ‘A Hopeless Place’. Savage Pencil and Barbara Frost launch their new Bookworm paperback, ‘Cuckoo Head Cool Dog’ with a book singing. Collaborating for the first time, The Howling is a Ken Hollings/Howlround soundclash. To end it all, Dale Cornish will be banging out a ‘Dale on 45’ megamix of his greatest worms.
Further details at iklectikartlab.com
Buy tickets from tickettailor.com
29.9.19 | XWORM – The Tapeworm x Cafe OTO
Laura Agnusdei
Stefan Goldmann
Jay Glass Dubs
Philip Jeck x Jana Winderen
Marta de Pascalis
Simon Fisher Turner
Zerocrop
Sunday 29 September
Doors 6pm / £13 advance / £11 Cafe OTO members / £15 on the door
Buy tickets from cafeoto.co.uk
On Sunday 29 September, The Tapeworm celebrates its tenth birthday at Cafe OTO — Jay Glass Dubs plays live, with a new tape titled ‘Two Devotional Songs for Spaceman 3 in the Style of Love Inc.’ available exclusively on the night. Philip Jeck and Jana Winderen will perform as a duo for the first time ever. Splendid saxophonist Laura Agnusdei premieres her forthcoming album on The Wormhole, ‘Laurisilva’. Marta de Pascalis will blow your mind, while Stefan Goldmann is gonna go all acousmatic. Simon Fisher Turner is playing piano and life-sounds. The interim minstrel will be Zerocrop.
Further details and tickets at cafeoto.co.uk
WHO#10 | “Vodou/Rara”
10” in an edition of 100 copies only / DL
Side A: ‘Vodou’. Head priest: Gran Sèvitè Jean-Daniel Lafontant. Vodou priests: Oungan Eddy Saint-Jean and Anperè Jean Céus. Vodou priestesses: Manbo Françoise Célestin, Manbo Christine Lamour, Manbo Marie-Marthe Similien and Manbo Jacqueline Thélus. Other participants: Ounsi and members of Sosyete Na-Ri-VéH. Percussionists: Ountògi and the drummers of The Sacred Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777.
Side B: ‘Rara’. All-female rara band: Forever Rara Fanm of Belair.
Grand Rue recordings made by Achim Mohné in front of the Atis Rezistans, Port-au-Prince on 21 December 2015, 4:54pm to 5:18pm. Vodou ceremony and all-female rara band recorded by AMé at Temple Na-Ri-VéH 777 in Port-au-Prince, 16 December 2015, 9pm to 1am. Edited by Philip Marshall with AMé in Cologne, 16 May 2016. Mastered by Zachary James Watkins at Stank House, 3 August 2016. Artwork by Stefan Fähler.
With thanks to: Ghetto Biennale, Leah Gordon, Atis Rezistans, Gabriel Toso, the priests and priestesses, the members of the all-female rara band, the percussionists, Clocktower Radio and all the Haitian People.
Buy “Vodou/Rara” on Bandcamp
Read Gabriel Toso’s introduction to Vodou Music and Rara
TBW#04 | SavFrost “Cuckoo Head Cool Dog”
192pp paperback book, 110mm x 171mm. Edition of 125 copies in “Papal Purple” cover and 125 copies in “Germolene Pink” cover.
SavFrost are two people who came together after drifting in opposite directions.
SavX was born was born in Leeds, moved South in the early 70s and now lives in South London. Frost (Barbara) was born in South West London and has drifted slowly north. She now lives in North West London.
He did art school, first in Essex then scoring a Masters Degree at the RCA. She did art school, first at St Martins then dropping out of a BA in Fine Art at Chelsea.
He has always been interested in drawing, making comics as a kid, pulling monsters out of thin air. She worked with her partner Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget) as photographer, lyricist, singer, tour manager, accountant, costumier and whatever else needed doing. Overlapping with having children. Overlapping with teaching. But always writing.
Many years ago they met thanks to an amazing woman – his wife, her best friend.
Then, last June, they decided to collaborate in a little project with no specific end in sight. Every night SavX sent Frost a drawing that he had done during the day. Every next morning she opened the email stared at the drawing, made a few notes then wrote a something.
They did ten. Thought about it. Then, because they were enjoying themselves, they did ten more.
Twenty drawings + twenty writings = Cuckoo Head Cool Dog.
Buy SavFrost “Cuckoo Head Cool Dog” on Bandcamp
Take a look inside “Cuckoo Head Cool Dog”
Guerrilla Audio
Guerrilla Audio is a new series of audio raids by Simon Fisher Turner, 64 and still working.
guer·ril·la
ɡəˈrilə/
noun
noun: guerilla
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.
Each audio edit will be posted for 14 days and then removed from the site, although the information about each guerrilla activity will be archived, but without the audio. There will be two postings per month with the first (also featuring Klara Lewis & Rainier Lericolais) on 1st August 2015, so please check in regularly to listen to the latest offering. We are well into the 3rd year and have just posted episode 101…
Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com
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