[Microsound-announce] The Topography of Chance

Mon Dec 18 12:00:40 EST 2006

The Topography of Chance, Curated by Stewart Lee

Format: CD & Booklet
Limited Edition: 1000
www.sonicartsnetwork.org

Sonic Arts Network is proud to present the eighth instalment of its
critically acclaimed CD series, The Topography of Chance, curated by Stewart
Lee; stand-up comedian, writer and director. Stewart Lee is best known for
being one half of the comedy duo Lee and Herring and for co-writing and
directing the controversial and successful stage show Jerry Springer - The
Opera. 

The Topography of Chance is a journey through chance elements that traverses
countries and cultures that range from the Golan Heights to Arizona and from
Hackney to Rome. After a surreal encounter with a Fluxus Group floating a
large portrait painting down a river in Cardiff, eating Borscht out of an
oil drum and learning more about late Fluxus artist Emmett Williams (the
face in the picture), Stewart bought Williams¹ the book An Anecdoted
Topography of Chance. The book documents in detail, objects left at random
on the desk of the artist Daniel Spoerri and it is this premise of chance
that acts as inspiration for this CD. The Topography of Chance brings
together an eclectic mix of artists, comedians and writers producing work
ranging from the beautiful to the bizarre.

An array of musicians, comedians and artists dominate the CD. Jem Finer
(sound artist and The Pogues) and Andrew Kötting delve into folk archives
with the beautiful John Barley Corn. It is said that Mark E. Smith could
read a phonebook and make it interesting, here he fulfils a lifelong dream
by reading the classified football results on BBC¹s Score. Rothko supplies
music to a darkly comic anecdote of comedian and writer Arthur Smith in I¹ve
Seen Your Arse (which features Caroline Quentin on backing vocals). Other
tracks include British free-improv legend Evan Parker jamming with birds;
The Late avant-garde guitarist Derek Bailey playing a duet with himself and
comedian Simon Munnery recording the sounds of a drunk outside his house.
Also featured on the CD are tracks from Australian fence player Jon Rose;
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow; Kombat Opera (Richard Thomas) composer of
Jerry Springer - The Opera and Giant Sand¹s Bird Song.

Stewart Lee has written for radio, television, newspapers and magazines and
performed as a stand-up comedian all over the world. Stewart is currently
working on a new stand-up show about mallards, a novel about angels, and a
play about folk singing soldiers in the Napoleonic wars.

The Topography of Chance is part of the critically acclaimed Sonic Arts
Network guest-curated CD series; a collection of themes and ideas that
explore the edges of music and sound. Past issues have been curated around
ŒPataphysics, a call for silence, Adorno inspired improv, outsider and DIY
music, impure poetry and the lost art of radio broadcasting. By becoming a
member of Sonic Arts Network you will receive a complimentary issue of the
guest-curated CD three times a year.  They are also available to buy
individually from the online shop at www.sonicartsnetwork.org

Sonic Arts Network is a national organisation that enables both audiences
and practitioners to engage with the art of sound in diverse, accessible and
innovative ways. The organisation believes in the unique capacity of
listening to enrich people¹s lives by unlocking creativity, promoting social
and environmental awareness and engaging a diverse range of communities. For
more information on Sonic Arts Network, please visit the website:
www.sonicartsnetwork.org

The Topography of Chance Track List:

1. Magnetic Migration Music - A Loch, Central Scotland, (Side A, Side B
Blank) 
2. Rodd Keith - How Can A Man Overcome His Heartbroken Pain?
3. Daniel Patrick Quinn featuring Duncan Grahl  The Burryman
4. Derek Bailey  Anecdote
5. Evan Parker, John Coxon and Ashley Wales  Evan Parker with Birds, Track
#1 
6. Giant Sand  Birdsong
7. Jem Finer and Andrew Kötting  John Barley Corn
8. Jon Rose  The Shouting Fence
9. Kombat Opera  Corby Trouser Press
10. Rothko with Arthur Smith - I¹ve Seen Your Arse
11. Simon Munnery  Allen Road N16
12. Tells  Roundabout
13. Thunderboy  (They) Called It
14. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players  Let¹s Not Have The Same
Weight in 1978, Let¹s Have More
15. Rooney  Into The Lens or In The Centre of The Image
16. Mark E Smith  Football Results
17. Magnetic Migration Music  Borough, Near Tate Modern, London (side b)

_____________________________________END____________________________________

For further information and press images, please contact Maryam Asghari,
Marketing & PR Officer. Tel: 020 7928 7337 or Email:
maryam at sonicartsnetwork.org

Website: www.sonicartsnetwork.org <http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org>

Additional Information

Sonic Arts Network

To receive the Sonic Arts Network information pack and press photos please
email: maryam at sonicartsnetwork.org <mailto:Maryam at sonicartsnetwork.org> .

Sonic Arts Network is a national organisation that enables both audiences
and practitioners to engage with the art of sound in diverse, accessible and
innovative ways. Sonic Arts Network fosters a culture of creative risk
taking and experimental approaches to sound through a cutting edge programme
of festivals, events, commissions and education projects.  The organisation
believes in the unique capacity of listening to enrich people¹s lives by
unlocking creativity, promoting social and environmental awareness and
engaging a diverse range of communities.
For more information on Sonic Arts Network, please visit the website:
www.sonicartsnetwork.org <http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org> .

Through the critically acclaimed CD series, Sonic Arts Network presents new
ideas and sounds that lie on the edges of traditional practice. The
guest-curated publications offer a new perspective towards sound, often
delving into unique and largely unexplored philosophies and themes.

The publication is released three times a year, engaging people who may not
ordinarily seek out and listen to some of the sounds contained in the
series. Accompanying the aural element of the publication is a richly
produced booklet that often underpins and contextualises the themes explored
on the CD. For more information on Sonic Arts Network please visit the
website: www.sonicartsnetwork.org <http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org> .

Artist Biographies

Stewart Lee

Stewart Lee is a stand-up comedian, writer and director and is best known
for being one half of the comedy duo Lee and Herring and for co-writing and
directing the controversial and hugely successful stage show Jerry Springer
- The Opera. 

Stewart Lee has written for radio, television, newspapers and magazines and
performed as a stand-up comedian all over the world. In the early 90's,
Stewart co-scripted the original appearances of Steve Coogan's Alan
Partridge character for BBC Radio, and the show he performed with Richard
Herring, The Fist Of Fun, transferred to BBC television in 1999.

He directed Simon Munnery's Golden Rose Of Montreux Nominated series
Attention Scum in 2000, and has worked as a script editor on TV shows by the
comedians Harry Hill and Al Murray, The Pub Landlord.

Stewart's first novel, The Perfect Fool was published to critical acclaim in
2001. He writes regularly about rock, folk and jazz for The London Sunday
Times and presents radio shows on London's community arts radio station,
Resonance 104.4 fm of which he is also a patron.

Stewart recently directed a production of the Eric Bogosian play Talk Radio
which premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival. Stewart also recently
appeared in Armando Iannucci's television programme, Time Trumpet and is
currently working on a new stand-up show about mallards, a novel about
angels, and a play about folk singing soldiers in the Napoleonic wars.
www.stewartlee.co.uk <http://www.stewartlee.co.uk> .

Derek Bailey

The late Derek Bailey was a free improvising avant-garde guitarist and was
born in Sheffield. Derek worked as a guitarist and session musician and
played with many performers including saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpet
player Kenny Wheeler and double bass player Dave Holland. These players
often collaborated under the umbrella name of the Spontaneous Music
Ensemble, recording the seminal album Karyobin for Island Records in 1968.
In 1970, Bailey founded the record label Incus with Tony Oxley and Evan
Parker, often said to be the first independent label owned by musicians.

1976 saw Bailey form Company, an ever-changing collection of like-minded
artists, including Anthony Braxton, Tristan Honsinger, Misha Mengelberg, Lol
Coxhill, Fred Frith and many others. Bailey died in London on Christmas Day,
2005. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease.
www.incusrecords.force9.co.uk <http://www.incusrecords.force9.co.uk> .

Evan Parker

Evan Parker was born in 1944 in Bristol and is a free-improvising saxophone
player. Parker is probably better known for his 1960s work, which rapidly
assimilated the American avant-garde ‹ John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders,
Albert Ayler and others ‹ and forged his own, instantly identifiable style.

Parker has recorded countless albums solo or as a group leader, and has
recorded or performed with Peter Brötzmann, John Stevens, Derek Bailey,
Keith Rowe, Joe McPhee and many others. Parker also has appeared in
pop-music contexts: on Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter, and on dubesque
albums with Jah Wobble, the adventurous drum n bass duo Spring Heel Jack and
rock group Spiritualized. He has also increasingly become interested in
electronics, usually through inviting collaborators such as Phil Wachsmann,
Walter Prati, Joel Ryan or Lawrence Casserley to electronically process his
playing in real time, creating a musical feedback loop or constantly
shifting soundscape.

Jem Finer

Jeremy 'Jem' Finer is a musician and composer who was one of the founding
members of The Pogues. He played a handful of instruments including banjo,
mandola, saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, and guitar. On the first of January 2000,
Finer composed Longplayer, a piece of music that is designed to last 1000
years without ever repeating itself.

Finer was "Artist in Residence" at the Astrophysics Sub-department of the
University of Oxford between October 2003 and June 2005. His latest band,
"The Big Eyed Beans from Venus", have just finished recording their (as yet
untitled) first album. http://elrino.co.uk <http://elrino.co.uk>  and
www.scoreforaholeintheground.org <http://www.scoreforaholeintheground.org> .

Jon Rose

Jon Rose was born in 1951 and is an Australian violinist. He consistently
performs at numerous music festivals, and has appeared on over 60 albums,
and worked with artists such as Derek Bailey, Chris Cutler, Otomo Yoshihide,
KK Null, Alvin Curran, Evan Parker, John Cage, Bob Ostertag and John Zorn.

For over 20 years, Jon Rose has been bowing (and recording) singular sounds
out of fences around the world, and since 2002 has been joined by Hollis
Taylor in playing The Great Fences of Australia, part of the results of
which having been presented Melbourne Festival 2002, and a future fence
planned to be constructed using Just Intonation and the Fibonacci series.
Rose also curates his own festival, String 'Em Up, which focuses on
innovative use of stringed instruments. The festival has travelled to
Berlin, Rotterdam, New York, and Paris. www.jonroseweb.com.

Kombat Opera (Richard Thomas)

Richard Thomas is a musician, writer, and comedy actor. He is best known for
composing and scoring the award-winning Jerry Springer - The Opera with
Stewart Lee. Thomas collected the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical
Score in 2004.Richard Thomas has appeared in Simon Munnery¹s Perrier
Nominated show, The League Against Tedium and was the Musical Director on
Harry Hill¹s First Class Scamp, 50 date national Tour.

For TV, Richard has been Musical Director on The Frank Skinner show (BBC1 &
ITV1), This Morning With Richard Not Judy (BBC2) and the Golden Rose of
Montreux nominated Attention Scum (BBC2) amongst many others. Richard is the
creator of Kombat Opera, a live performance ensemble responsible for the
critically acclaimed Tourette¹s Diva show, which aired at the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival and was also performed in the USA, Australia and Europe.

Arthur Smith

Arthur Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. Arthur was born
in Bermondsey, South London and describes himself as a "semi-professional"
comedian.

He was one of many stand-up performers on the alternative comedy scene in
the Eighties. He still performs today in much the same manner, regularly
attending the Edinburgh Fringe comedy festival, although has several
'serious' writing titles under his belt, including stage plays such as An
Evening with Gary Lineker.

In addition to stand-up comedy, such as his recent hit Arthur Smith Sings
Leonard Cohen (later broadcast on Radio 4), he is also a radio presenter on
such BBC Radio 4 programmes as Excess Baggage and Loose Ends. He took over
as narrator of the TV series A Life of Grime after the death of John Peel
and more recently was one of the Grumpy Old Men in the television series of
that name. 

Simon Munnery

Simon Munnery, also known as The League Against Tedium, is a British comedy
writer and experimental stand-up comedian. He performs mainly to an
alternative audience but has pierced the mainstream both with his BBC Radio
1 show in 1997 and his BBC2 television series, Attention Scum! in 2001.

Recently, Munnery has been working in radio, and hosted Simon Munnery's
Experimental Half Hour ("experimental in that it lasts an hour") and "Simon
Munnery Weakly Chats' on Resonance FM. He also wrote and performed two
four-part Radio 4 series called "Where Did It All Go Wrong?", which were
broadcast in the summer of 2003 and the spring of 2005.
www.leagueagainsttedium.co.uk <http://www.leagueagainsttedium.co.uk> .

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are an
indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow band. The Trachtenburg¹s are
a domestic trio (dad Jason, mom Tina Piña, 12-year-old daughter Rachel), who
play quirky indie pop and all the song¹s carefully rhyming lyrics come from
the vintage slide collections they¹ve found at estate or garage sales that
accompany their performances.

Tina Piña and Jason met at a Greenwich Village open-mic in 1989, and the
pair later relocated to Seattle. They had a daughter, Rachel which at the
age of six was recruited to play harmonica; (she later moved over to drum
duties), Tina was appointed projector operator/backup singer, and the
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were born. The groups latest effort is
Off & On Broadway, released by Seattle indie, Sarathan Records. It is a DVD
of performances and day-in-the-life footage that demonstrates exactly how
this one-of-a-kind band works. www.slideshowplayers.com
<http://www.slideshowplayers.com> .

Mark E. Smith

Mark E. Smith was born in 1957 and is the lead singer, lyricist, co-composer
and hub of The Fall, a renowned and idiosyncratic offshoot from the UK
post-punk/new wave music scenes. The Fall have continued for nearly thirty
years to produce unpredictable and challenging music, varying richly in both
character and quality, with the abrasive lyrics and half-droned, half-ranted
vocals of front man Mark E. Smith providing the one constant note through a
bewildering succession of personnel changes.

As well as his work with The Fall, Smith has released the spoken-word albums
and has supplied guest vocals for the Inspiral Carpets, Elastica, Mouse on
Mars, Coldcut and others. Smith has also appeared in an acting role in
several television programmes and films including a brief appearance as
himself in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People (2002).
www.thefall.info <http://www.thefall.info> .