In the Mix was featured in this month’s UniLife (The University of Manchester’s monthly magazine) as part of a series of features profiling ‘Investing In Success’ projects. Investing in Success is £1 million initiative to boost staff development at University of Manchester. Read the feature here:
Listen to the soundscapes that Huw has created for Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and John Rylands Library on Soundcloud!
Here are some fantastic photos taken by photographer, Richard Manning:
Here are some videos taken during ‘Bunford & Kashiwagi in the mix’. Enjoy!
For the Bunford & Kashiwagi…in the mix, I will be re-appropriating my records with all sorts of materials from each venue’s conservation departments, including leather shavings, gold leaf, net, rubber shavings, Japanese tissue papers and non-slip rubber!!! At each performance you will be able to see these materials, find out how and why they are used in conservation practices, see how they have been used to re-appropriate records and also listen to how they change and distort the sounds, when applied to 78rpm shellac records!!
So, I have been starting to experiment and have some discovered some remarkable sounds, including the sound of playing a record and using Funori seaweed as a stylus!
Funori is 100% seaweed and is used primarily for repairs of old works on paper or textiles. By adding Funori to boiling water and stirring well produces a sticky substance and because the adhesive is weak, it will not damage original pieces. Listen to the algaerhythms!
Bunford & Kashiwagi…in the mix will be happening next weekend as part of Manchester Weekender! This wouldn’t have been possible without the Umbro Creative Industries Grant, that the project won back in 2010. In May 2012, In the Mix was awarded funding from the University of Manchester’s £1.2 million scheme, ‘Investing in Success: Developing Staff Potential‘ to continue to develop this project further: new commissions, remixes of sound loops by musicians, djs and sound artsist and a web platform where anyone can make their own soundscapes out of found sounds from the University of Manchester’s cultural wonders: Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, John Rylands Library Deansgate, Jodrell Bank , Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama and Delia Derbyshire (whose archive is part of University of Manchester’s archive) ! Thank you Umbro for supporting the project from the very beginning, when it was just an idea. Thanks to your initial funding the project will become more ambitious and connect with more people than initially thought! : )
Really looking forward to Manchester Weekender 2012! A weekend of art, music and culture across Manchester!
Manchester Weekender 2012
‘This autumn, the Manchester Weekender returns to the city for its third year, a weekend-long snapshot of the best of the cityʼs art and culture. From performance art to pop-up cinema, from music premieres to intimate gigs, from superstar authors to Britainʼs best bloggers, from art exhibitions to secret theatre, The Manchester Weekender features dozens of events and hundreds of artists – in some of the cityʼs most iconic and historic spaces.’
http://www.creativetourist.com/
For the listings for all of the events, click here !
I’m excited to announce that ‘Bunford & Kashiwagi…in the mix’ will be one of the Manchester Weekender 2012 headlining events!! Huw and I will be performing at Manchester Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery and John Rylands Library!
Bunford & Kashiwagi…in the mix
Musician, Huw Bunford (Super Furry Animals) and artist, Naomi Kashiwagi collaborate on a brand-new performance of unique soundscapes that tune into and crank up the volume of found sounds in three of Manchester’s most well-loved and atmospheric spaces: the Alfred Waterhouse-designed Manchester Museum, gallery-in-the-park Whitworth Art Gallery and the neo-Gothic, red sandstone wonder that is the John Rylands Library.
Come with us on an aural journey, and discover the sounds of the architectural icons of the city.
Event runs:
The Manchester Museum, Saturday 13 October 2012, 2pm-3pm, free
Whitworth Art Gallery, 7.30pm-10.30pm, free. Huw and Naomi will also joined by artist Naomi Kendrick in a live drawing performance – watch the artist respond to improvised music from Dave Birchall and Dan Bridgewood-Hill.
John Rylands Library, Sunday 14 October, 3pm-4pm, free.
On Friday 7th September, I will be able to announce a series of ‘In The Mix’ events that will be happening…..!!! It will be announced here first, so check out the blog a week today!!
Here is a sonic treat : ) Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO is my recently discovered and absolute favourite Delia Derbyshire piece of music that she composed and arranged for BBC’s ‘Out of the Unknown’. It was based around an Isaac Asimov story in which automata rebel against humans and worship God in an energy converter!!!
Punchlines welcome!!
Last Tuesday, after a day of recording found sounds at Whitworth Art Gallery for ‘In the mix‘, Huw and I ventured off into town to have tea at Tokyo Season. On our way we walked past a new Gelateria that was having a private opening before opening to the public the next day. We continued our journey to Tokyo Season and had an amazing feast of Japanese food. When it came to dessert time, all we wanted was ice cream!! We talked A LOT about ice cream and gelato- recalling our favourite flavours and ice cream & gelato places around the world.
We decided to walk back to the new Gelateria to see if we could pop in and as a back up plan, we knew we could go to the Froyo place on Whitworth Street to satisfy our frozen dessert cravings!! When we approached Fresco Freddo’s Gelateria, some of the staff recognised us and invited us in. WOW : ) We couldn’t believe the flavours that they had. Pistachio ice cream is one of my favourites, and one I associate with wintertime in Venice, when I studied there for 3 months! This one was particularly pistachio-y- the best one I have had to date! I LOVE passionfruit and to my utter delight, they had passionfruit ice cream- a blissful taste sensation. Huw had the dark chocolate sorbet and FF Gelateria special that had peanut butter and Nutella in it! Yum! : )
When they told us that their opening hours will be 8am – 10pm, I said that I would pop in on their opening morning and have an affogato before heading to work. Perché No!?! I did and it was delightful, especially having it in the morning! Their homemade cakes are also delicious- I had a slice of blueberry and coconut cake : ) Looking forward to sampling their other flavours from morning ’til night (but not always on the same day ; ) )
