Manafonistas

TODAY

Oh! kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!
You really are beautiful! Pearls,
harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! all
the stuff they’ve always talked about

still makes a poem a surprise!
These things are with us every day
even on beachheads and biers. They
do have meaning. They’re strong as rocks.

[1950]

Big Big Train is an English progressive rock band, founded in 1990. I’ve never heard anything from them, but I know now that Dave Gregory, known from his XTC-membership is part of this collective. I stumbled upon their name on the same day I found this photo. Maybe, if their music has a sense of humour and avoids grand gestures, this might be a nice cover for their next record.

More than 50 steam train-themed collectible objects and related artifacts are part of an exhibition to signify the widespread nature of railroading in popular American culture. An extensive variety of items is showcased, including a liquor decanter, cologn bottle, flower vase, ash tray, tea pot, bolo tie, candy container, to name a few.

Museum visitors might recognize an old Dylan song when entering the hall that repeats itself every thirty minutes: „Slow Train“ – Music critic Paul Williams has called it „the one track (on the album Slow Train Coming) that must be listened to again and again and again, inexhaustible, essential.“ Visitors might be inspired by it and challenged to examine these objects — often called „kitsch“ — more closely in an effort to understand how these items reflect popular culture and the period of time which they were created. No time travel activities requited, just find the right museum, and plan your next holiday. Manafonistas have free entry.

in which Joey and I were talking about the chance factor that lead to the quite weird name of this blog, manafonistas. He said, he sometimes dreamt of a more magical, sensual name, and so did I. Then the door bell rang, and the postman delivered a wooden box. We couldn’t open the box that looked a little damaged, because the dream ended when we saw the name written on it in old letters. We looked at each other, laughed out loud, and I woke up. The name was „Lonesome Fruit Company“.

 
les Belges … paff 4
 
 
 

 
 
 
Could be art but is reality … difficult for outsiders …, yes, …
 
 
 

 
 
 
but is part of daily live,
 
 
 

 
 
 
joie de vivre
 
 
 

 
 
 
garantiert fälschungssicher!!!
 
 

more of this HERE

Norwegian Grammy nominee, though unfortunately not a winner,
 
 
 

 
 
 
Arve Henriksen is thrilled to be awarded the Westerhus Award for BEST TEMPO 2014. The winner is awarded a full set of used strings.
 
 
© Westerhus Temptation Foundation

John Tilbury / Keith Rowe / Kjell Bjørgeengen: Worstward Ho, based on a text by Samuel Beckett (text recorded by Aleks Kolkowski) – **** (hard core minimalism, lacking some dynamics, but compensating this with gritty „Beckettism“, some people snorling, some enlightened in the dark – good trance induction!)

Streifenjunko + Sheriffs of Nothingness – **** (a wonderful exploration of instrumental possibilities, never academic, always with a beating heart, one  minor quibble: they seemed a bit afraid of melodies:)) 

Håkon Stene: Lush Laments for Lazy Mammal with Sigbjørn Apeland, Ellen Ugelvik and Tanja Orning – ****  (the spirit of Laurence Crane, Gavin Bryars and Eno’s Obscure records brought to life, one kind advice: no dry, shy announcements of the single pieces, better doing it all as one big piece) 

——

PUNKT SEMINAR (1)

Michael Engelbrecht: Storytelling for burning songs (Or: how to make radio magic) – **** (I was good:)) 

Jana Winderen / Mike Harding: From Punk to Punkt – **** (entertaing mix of the story of the british label Touch and Jana’s field recording adventures)

A meeting with Laurie Anderson – **** (very personal, the person Laurie replacing the persona, the dog episode heartfelt, even the technical problems added to the authenticity) 

——

Spacemonkey (Morten Qvenild / Gard Nilssen) – **** (a living beast, better than the Hubro record) 

Live Remix: Eivind Aarset / Samuel Rohrer / Jan Bang – *** 1/2 (this one grew from uncertainty to thrill!) 

Erik Honoré: Heliographs release concert w/Ingar Zach / Eivind Aarset / Jeffrey Bruinsma / Arve Henriksen – **** (a good introduction to Erik’s  brilliant solo debut „Heliographs“) 

Live Remix: Erik Honoré / Raffaele Casarano – ** (sorry, this was too much kitsch, sugar shock zone!) 

Fennesz: Bécs – *** (not coming close to the album’s subtleties, but nevertheless an immersive experience) 

Live Remix: Zapp 4 / Jan Bang / Erik Honoré – ****  (Sophisticated) 

—–

PUNKT SEMINAR (2)

Seducing the seducer: A conversational navaid to Bangsonics. Henning Bolte in conversation with Jan Bang – **** (informative and entertaining) 

Morten Qvenild: The HyPer(sonal) Piano – **** (informative and entertaining, too – a look into Morten’s laboratory, not without self-irony)

—–

Zapp 4 / Jan Bang – **** (very sophisticated, the seed of  a probably great studio recording) 

Maria Laurette Friis / Kresten Osgood / Dodebum – * (free improv boredom desaster) 

Live Remix: Nils Petter Molvaer / Hamid Drake / Eivind Aarset / Jan Bang – **** (the right medicine after the Danish exercise in going nowhere and never finding the exit:  Hamid Drake was the vital heart of this group’s fire!) 

An Evening with Laurie Anderson, Arve Henriksen and Fennesz – ** 1/2 (the big disappointment, Laurie Anderson  was much too reluctant, nearly no stories, no songs, a lot was left to Arve and Christian who could not create the suspense expected from a Laurie Anderson performance. And the music was much too loud in parts. A wasted opportunity. And Laurie should have followed her own advice of the lecture the day before: never trust punchlines! The end of the concert was exactly that: a series of punchlines!) 

Eivind Aarset – Dream Logic

 
Eivind Aarset, Gitarre, Elektronik
Audun Erlien, Bass
Jan Bang, Live-Elektronik, Sampling
Erland Dahlen und Wetle Holte, Schlagzeug, Perkussion

 
Aufnahme vom 6.9.13 beim Punktfestival in Kristiansand
Live im Studio: Michael Engelbrecht

In 1980, Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Sleazy Christopherson (then of Throbbing Gristle renown) travelled to New York City to meet up at the fortified apartment, known as The Bunker, of famed beat writer and cultural pioneer William S. Burroughs and his executor James Grauerholz to starting the daunting task to compile the experimental sounds works of Burroughs, which, up until that point, had never been heard. During those visits, Burroughs would play back his tape recorder experiments featuring his spoken word ‚cut-ups‘, collaged field recordings from his travels and his flirtations with EVP recording techniques, pioneered by Latvian intellectual Konstantins Raudive. Throughout the next year, P-Orridge, Christopherson and Grauerholz would spent countless hours compiling various edits, each collection showcasing Burroughs sensitive ear and keen experimental prowess for audio anomaly within technical limitations. By the time 1981 came through, Burroughs had relocated to Lawrence, KS in which to escape the violence and mania of New York City life. It is in Lawrence that P-Orridge and Christopherson put the finishing touches on the record that would be known as ‚Nothing Here Now but the Recordings‘. The album would come out in the Spring of 1981 as the final release for the shuttering Industrial Records, brought about by the dissolution of Throbbing Gristle. The album remained out of print for a long time.