Working on Sudden Infant

International Summer Course for New Music at the International Music Institute Darmstadt (IMD):

Please don’t kid yourself that things used to be better, that’s all utopian talk!”
Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1970

Presenter and network, center for documentation and information, operational center and initiator for new music since 1946 – the International Music Institute Darmstadt (IMD) is all of these things. With its International Summer Courses for New Music, its Archive, and its Library the IMD continues to make and document cultural history as a constant interplay of invention, performance, listening, reflection, and retention.

The Summer Courses are a meeting place for music makers and listeners. Creativity takes wing, ideas are passed along, and artistic positions are debated; they provide opportunities for interaction between cultures, and between the younger generation and internationally recognized composers, interpreters, and scholars. The extensive and extremely valuable holdings of the archive and library illustrate the ideas and creations of artists and scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries, made available for research in the form of scores, writings, correspondence, photos, press articles, and recorded media.


Working on Sudden Infant
Noise Music Lecture & Rehearsal - Jorge Sánchez-Chiong (JSX) & Collective (OS2)

Working - Improvising
Exploring and Instant Composing with records by the Noise artist Sudden Infant aka Joke Lanz

Jorge Sánchez-Chiong

was born in Caracas, Venezuela, to Cuban and Chinese parents, in 1969. He studied in Vienna under Francis Burt and Michael Jarrell. Sánchez-Chiong is a member of the NewTonEnsemble and co-founder of the composer group „Gegenklang“. His works, which take the vitality and spontaneity of improvisation as their point of departure, often transcend the bounds of the concert hall and find their continuation in the realms of experimental theater, video art, dance, and electronics. An emphasis of his work is close collaboration with artists from different disciplines and stylistic directions, including Joke Lanz, Christian Weber and Michaela Grill. He has also appeared as turntablist in various formations in the free improvisation scene. His stylistic openness shows in his oeuvre, which includes solo, ensemble, and orchestra works, chamber music and electronic music, multimedia projects and improvisation guidelines – using everything from classical instrumentations to formations such as electric bass and turntable. In 2009 he directed the multidisciplinary project „New Air“ at the University of Vienna.

2010 will be Jorge Sánchez-Chiong’s first stint as guest lecturer at the International Summer Course.

www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/index.php
http://edition21.at/Sanchez-Chiong.htm

The Phone People

Today I received a wonderful package from Ukraine. I had to go and collect it from my post office next to my house. Didn't really know what was waiting for me, but my presentiment between Ireland, Ukraine and Taiwan was not so wrong:




New release:

SUDDEN INFANT - The Phone People
C30 Tape (Quasi Pop / Ukraine)

Yet another cassette release in Sudden Infant's long crusade to save the world of tapes. Recorded May/June 2010 at SI studio Berlin, this cassette consists of 19 short compositions with/about answering machine messages from friends and relatives i.e. Christian Marclay, Daniel Löwenbrück, Donna Klemm, Céleste Urech, Allon Kaye, Christine Streuli a.o.

Artwork by Edward Solomykin.

Dedicated to Donna Klemm (1948-2008).

Limited and numbered edition of 100 copies!

www.quasipop.org

For tape/cassette lovers:

www.myspace.com/ssbtapes

Ireland!

Sudden Infant & Family Battle Snake // Ireland shows:

22nd June 2010 - Cork / Shandon Church Tower (private afternoon performance)
22nd June 2010 - Cork / The Pavillion
23rd June 2010 - Dublin / The Joinery


Some unforgettable impressions from my very first Ireland trip w/ Bill Kouligas.
All photos by JL except where noted:


On the road between Dublin and Cork

Shadowplay at the Pavillion

The Black Sun family: Dave, Sionnach & Vicky

FBS & SI with new band member Sionnach the fox

Joke & Bill at Shandon Church Tower (pic by Vicky Langan)

Drinking Beamish with Kev

Vicky & Joke

Sudden Infant live in Dublin (pic by John Kealy)

Are we not men?

Family Battle Snake live in Cork (pic by Titsh)

Meg, Mog & Owl

Sudden Infant live in Cork (pic by Titsh)


A huge THANK YOU to Vicky Langan for have made this all possible and for your incredible hospitality! We had a fantastic time! Felt like beeing a part of your family... Thanks Dave and Sionnach, you are such lovely ghosts.
Also many thanks to: Paul Hegarty, Aonghus & his girl friend, Kieran, Chloe, Patricia, Mick, Kev, Gavin & Andy of Toymonger, Max (great films), the cake Ladies, Joan Jett, Beamish, The Joinery crew, Eric, John Kealy, Dolorosa, Julia Shnappy Healy, The Pavillion crew and everybody who came to the shows in Dublin and Cork - you were a fantastic audience. THANKS!!

Of Mice and Men

Photos by Philipp Hennig

Of Mice and Men

A performance by Joke Lanz based on fragments of John Steinbecks novel Of Mice and Men, held at Zwielicht/Farbfernseher Berlin on 20^th June 2010.

I seen hundreds of men come by on the road and on the ranches, with their bindles on their back and that same damn thing in their heads… every damn one of them’s got a little piece of land in his head. And never a God damn one of them ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of land. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.
-Crooks to Lennie

The predatory nature of human existence.
The destructive imbalance of social power structures in society.
Strength and weakness.
Loneliness and companionship.
Big things and little things.
Dreams and despair.

Thanks to Mareike Lee, Marc Sabat, Hans W. Koch

white witch way

Photos by Aniana Heras Cosín

white witch way!?

A performance by Joke Lanz held at NK Berlin on April 30th 2010.

Walpurgis has its roots in ancient pagan customs, superstitions and festivals. At this time of year, the Vikings participated in a ritual that they hoped would hasten the arrival of Spring weather and ensure fertility for their crops and livestock. They would light huge bonfires in hopes of scaring away evil spirits.
According to the ancient legends, this night was the last chance for witches and their nefarious cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring reawakened the land. They were said to congregate on Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains – a tradition that comes from Goethe's Faust. In the story, the demon Mephistopheles brings Faust to Brocken to consort with the coven of witches.

Many thanks to Rashad Becker, Julian Percy, Farah Hatam, Ute Waldhausen

Back in Blogland!

Dear friends,

After a long time of no time, of no internet, of no beer, of no here, of no jobs, of no knobs, of no warmth, of no kiss, of no miss, I’m finally back on my blog. At least I try to be back, to write down my experiences and adventures, to express and name all those little things which make this life so sweet, so sad, so happy, so dangerous, so exciting, so thoughtful, so beautiful. Things that normally disappear in the depths of my heart and the labyrinth of my mind.

Coming very soon: Ireland report of SI & Family Battle Snake shows in Cork and Dublin!