Mira Calix obituary

Artist, composer and musician whose work ranged from electronica to opera and interactive sound sculpture

Mira Calix, who has died unexpectedly aged 52, was a composer, electronic musician and installation artist who started out working for indie record labels and organising club nights in the experimental hinterland of the 1990s rave scene. From the moment she arrived in the UK from South Africa in 1991 (then known as Chantal Passamonte), she was making connections and changes in the music world.

In 1996, she released her first record, the EP Ilanga, for Warp Records, becoming one of the first female artists to sign to the label. She came to prominence in 2003 when the London Sinfonietta premiered her work Nunu at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Warp Works/20th-Century Masters concert, a collaboration that was pivotal for her and the record label in expanding beyond electronica. From then on Calix was unconstrained by medium, creating work in sculpture, spoken word and conceptual art as well as musical composition and performance.

Continue reading...
by Joe Muggs via Electronic music | The Guardian

Nik Colk Void: ‘On stage is the only time I can let go and stop the worry’

From her first guitar to hyped post-industrial trio Factory Floor, the musician struggled to find an identity – but wild experimentation and parenthood have helped

“Full of carnage and tension,” is how Nik Colk Void describes playing with Factory Floor, the ferociously intense, wildly hyped group who created a clattering concoction of post-industrial electronic rock, noise and live techno.

That intensity contrasts starkly with Void herself. When she bought her first Fender Telecaster guitar, she sanded off the red paint because she felt it was too much of a statement. At a recent solo show, when playing her song Interruption Is Good – a crisp, bristling piece of electro-techno – the yelps and eruptive dancing from the crowd forced her to hide behind the desk to mask her reaction. Even in Factory Floor, her face was often hidden behind a curtain of hair.

Continue reading...
by Daniel Dylan Wray via Electronic music | The Guardian

Prison, lawsuits and a glovebox of fake cash: the film the KLF didn’t want you to see

The enigmatic rave duo refused to approve Chris Atkins’s documentary on them – and then he got five years for tax fraud. He explains how he channelled their anarchic spirit and made it anyway, Ford Timelord and all

In 2009 my long suffering producer Ian Neil sent me a text: “You should really make a film about the KLF.” This enigmatic and brilliant band were a mainstay on Top of the Pops in my youth, and were best known for burning all their money in the mid 90s, when I was a middle-class teenage anarchist and thought that torching a million pounds was by far the best thing you could do with it. “Aren’t they dead?” I replied.

It turned out that the two members of the KLF, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, were very much alive, but had gone to extreme lengths to destroy their legacy. They had deleted their entire back catalogue in 1992 and written a vow of silence on a car, which they promptly pushed off a cliff. A few enquiries revealed we weren’t the first people to suggest making a documentary, but the band had told everyone else to piss off.

Continue reading...
by Chris Atkins via Electronic music | The Guardian

XLR8R News and Features: Oakland’s Space Ghost Delivers New Album on Vancouver Label Pacific Rhythm

---

Oakland’s Space Ghost Delivers New Album on Vancouver Label Pacific Rhythm Vancouver label will Pacific Rhythm will release a new album from Sudi Wachspress (a.k.a Space Ghost), entitled Private Paradise. As Space Ghost, Wachspress purveys a soulful breed of deep house that's sure to make you move. A resident of Oakland, California, he grew up in a small town a few hours from the East Bay area, but his relationship with house music kickstarted through his teenage years while he studied at the California College of the Arts. As he became deeply engrained in Oakland's rich experimental music community, he launched Late Feelings, a series of all-vinyl dance parties, and began channeling a profound love for '80s funk minimalism and ambient lo-fi beats into releases for Sweat Lodge Guru and Astro Nautico. He signed to Tartelet in 2018, delivering 12 cuts which, with their sweeping sci-fi synths and twinkling sound design, recalled Lone's cosmic psychedelia, but the record still felt uniquely meditative. Aquarium Nightclub, a boogie album inspired by African and Brazilian music from the '80s, came a year later, then last year Wachspress delivered Dance Planet, an album of shimmering deep house "created to heal and energize." Private Paradise is an ode to Wachspress’ time spent at Sea Ranch on the northern California coast, a place he and his partner visit to refresh their spirit and regain optimism for the outside world. Like Dance Planet, Private Paradise possesses a “rare ability to restore, rejuvenate, and inspire through each listen.” We’re told to expect “deep, contemplative, and uplifting audio that compels its listeners to focus on the positive forces in the world and the power of being present in a moment.” Tracklisting 01. Virtual Age 02. Inner Focus 03. Save Point 04. Sounds of Peace 05. Time Station 06. Heal 07. Private Paradise 08. New Day

THE JAZZ CHILL CORNER New Releases: Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble; The Electric Jazz Room; Spirits Rejoice; Dennis Bovell

New Releases: Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble; The Electric Jazz Room; Spirits Rejoice; Dennis Bovell Posted: 03 Apr 2022 03:00 AM PDT Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble - Le Le (LP) Recorded in the 1980's and snapped up upon arrival in Europe by the Soho Boho's, Acid Jazzuals,Cuboppers, Jazz Massivists and Mojo Jazzmuziker, "Le-Le" by The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble is a unique one off Spiritual Soul-Jazz outing with Avant Garde touches and more than a hint of Afro-Cuban Orientalism.The percussion drenched title track has that special Worldwide Sound and the Cool Jazz Get Down Groove of "Wet Walnuts and Whipped Cream" is a DJ's delight, whether played over the Airwaves or to a crowded Dancefloor. An adventurous jazz outfit that has been playing around Philadelphia since its formation in 1979. The Ensemble was founded by Warren Oree, an acoustic bassist, producer and composer who continues to lead the band. Eclectic and far from predictable, on this album the Ensemble has embraced a variety of acoustic and electric jazz styles combining them with African and Middle Eastern influences and mixed together with the "New Thing" have managed to make a timeless underground classic. The Electric Jazz Room - The Electric Jazz Room E.P. (feat. Walpataca & Vienna Art Orchestra) (LP) Two Underground London Jazzfloor hits from Paul Murphy's Jazz Room Records.On the A side Latin Supergroup's wild and infectious "Caliente" with Paquito's Banging piano riff and heavy Bass Line action from Descarga originator Cachao overlaid with Driving vibes from Tany Gil and a Percussion Meltdown from Walfredo De Los Reyes. On the B side the Vienna Art Orchestra provide a dark and mysterious version of the Bud Powell classic "Un Poco Loco" keeping that Be-Bop Afro-Cuban vibe but adding that East of the Border darkness you'd expect from a sound recorded at the time the city was on the Cold War fault line. Gilles Peterson (Worldwide / Brownswood): "Paul Murphy found almost every jazz dancefloor classic. He is the original messenger of jazz. He opened the door to an alternative way of being a Dj. The rest is history. Spirits Rejoice - African Spaces (LP) A defining musical statement in South Africa's jazz canon – pinpointing the moment of social and musical ferment in which the country's terms of engagement with jazz were irreversibly changed. Forged when township kids were facing down bullets this is an electric mulberry funk – slick, intense and complex. Heavyweight 180g vinyl with remastered audio, inner sleeve with new photographs and additional liner notes by Francis Gooding. At a distance of more than forty years, the radicalism and significance of African Spaces can be seen more clearly. Ambitious, uncompromising, and resolutely progressive, it represents a unique high-water mark in South Africa's long musical engagement with the newest developments in American jazz – a response to the cosmic call of Return To Forever, and an answer to Miles' On the Corner. Spirits Rejoice drew together some of South Africa's most abundantly talented and forward-thinking jazz players and created  a complex and challenging jazz fusion that shifted the terms of South Africa's engagement with jazz towards new music being made by pioneers such as Chick Corea, Weather Report, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny and others. African Spaces, their debut recording, is one of the key documents in the South African jazz canon. Emerging in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and taking its place alongside the crucial mid-1970s music of Malombo, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Batsumi, it is a defining but unsung musical statement of its era.