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BugBrand Audio Devices - Euro Travels Autumn 2005
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Seven gigs through five countries traveling by train for two and a half weeks with a suitcase of handbuilt electronic audio instruments. The preparation was hectic, but finally all the devices fitted snuggly into the flightcase. The picture of instruments was re-created at home - a few of the travel boxes are missing and not everything is connected quite right, but it gives an idea of the potential chaos of the system, although as the shows progressed a 'standard configuration' was arrived at. The devices included: 3-string lapsteel, delays, lofi sample looper, AudioWeevil & Postcard Weevil, circuit-bent VSS30 sampling keys, filter box, small instruments and other sound makers. All the devices run off batteries for totally portable sounds. The shows started off as improvised sonics, but along
the way a couple of songs were written. These were quite freeformed
- backing sounds would be built up and then lap-steel and voice would
fall in on top. The pictures on this page were taken
with a fine little Olympus XA2 and a variety of films. |
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The Postcard Weevil Eight Postcards were made for sale at shows on the travels. |
| Begin 25th Sept Megabus is cheap to London, National Express is not so cheap onwards to Standsted. Stansted is uncomfortable if you have to spend the night there. Early mornings become regular on the travels - the sky often burns. Cheap flight to Leipzig, a little wandering in sunshine and then a train to Chemnitz (used to be called KarlMarxStadt). |
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| Bright light on the flight. | Reflective banana. | An elephant out of place. |
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| Urban flamingo. | Pylons - first of many photos from trains. | Old hotel in Chemnitz. |
| Voxxx, the venue for the first show, is a great place, but sadly it
may be closing soon. It makes use of several parts of an old brewery building
with some machinery still hanging from the ceiling. Links: Voxxx |
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| A faded exterior | The old machines of Voxxx | The Voxxx sign |
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| Inside at the end of the night | Voxxx night lights | Leaving |
| 26th Sept Back to Leipzig to play at the tiny and warm Noch Besser Leben (trans. Even Better Living) - kind of like a front room with a little stage. |
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| Tom Bugs - DEFEKT | The morning after - time to leave |
| 27th Sept Up to Berlin for a show at NBI with the tape manipulator Marcel Turkowsky. Met John Callaghan who introduced me to the music of Hypnotique. Walked down to the Staalplaat recordstore. Links: Marcel Turkowsky, Goldmund, Staalplaat, Hypnotique |
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| Marcel Turkowsky at NBI | A perspective trick with the tower | |
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| Door decor | Some words |
| 30th Sept A long ride to Amsterdam. Visited the Get Records store and found Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds For Baby. An aftershow for an art exhibition opening, so not quite the place to showcase noise boxes, nor for the great Dan Geesin to play his harmonium. Links: Get Records, Dan Geesin, Consortium Gallery |
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| Metal iguanas | The sound room that didn't work | Art band - Oorbeek |
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| Shooting into the sun with boats | See the swallow |
| 2nd Oct On the night train all the way to Vienna, surrounded by Germans eating spam and pickled eggs, waking up arrived on a Sunday morning. The flea market in Vienna is on Saturday, not Sunday. It is apparently pretty good. The bar Rhiz was a great place to play and demonstrate on a Sunday evening. The sound engineer, Noid, was involved in some interesting sound projects including lloopp. Links: lloopp, Rhiz |
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| Slide film - comfortable cats | Night street from Rhiz | Early evening in Rhiz |
| 4th Oct By night to Hamburg and then straight on towards Copenhagen. |
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| Morning |
| The train rolls onto a ferry to go between Germany and Denmark. From this point on the weather is almost always glorious. |
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| In the sea there were jellyfish | On the shore there were wind turbines |
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| Molten fountain | Melted bike |
| In Copenhagen there is a very wonderful museum of musical instruments. Links: Music Museum |
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| There was sea mist in the morning | Music boxes | Miniature piano |
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| Glass harmonium |
| 5th Oct A great bridge provides quick connection between Copenhagen and southern Sweden. Many things happen in Sweden... Stay in Malmo at Nosordo Records HQ and meet Ljudbilden & Piloten. Nosordo is organising the upcoming FullPull Festival. Links: FullPull Festival, Ljuden & Piloten, Nosordo Records |
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| Big dog & baby | Exiting Malmo | Distorted turbines |
| 6th Oct Joachim is the king of Gothenburg. He runs iDEAL Recordings, organises shows at Nefertiti and organises a chunk of the GAS Festival that runs all week. The show is busy and wonderful. Daniel Skoglund, who builds wondrous electronic devices, plays outside to begin. Following the Bug show, there is Playdo (Lisa also plays in Midaircondo), then Lotta Melin and Ikue Mori, and finishing up with a powerful collaboration between Mats Gustafsson, Tim Barnes and Jim O'Rourke. Elefantkvinnan recorded and released a 3" CDr of part of the Playdo show. Lovely.!. Links: GAS Festival, Ideal Records, Midaircondo, Kning Disk, Nefertiti, Elefantkvinnan |
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| Daniel Skoglund plays outside | Gun | Goteborg |
| 8th Oct The final show is in the afternoon. Bla (trans. Blue) is in a little old industrial area which over flows with art. Links: Apartment Records, Bla, Salvatore, Amanda Steggell |
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| Further early trains | Scandinavian industry |
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| Overflowing art | Bla | John from Salvatore |
| Walking around the harbourside of Oslo with sunshine. |
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| Fountations | Norway water | A fish |
10th Oct |
