Narc In March Pt 1: The AV Festival 2012

I had a busy old month for Narc, with all this in the March issue. Most of the copy appeared as submitted in the mag (which is ace), but I’m posting the entire interview with Chris & Cosey because limited space meant we had to leave loads out.

AV Festival 2012: As Slow As Possible

(the other half of this piece was written by the excellent Michael Hann, who covered the film, art and symposia).

Inspired by the title of a piece from minimalist pioneer John Cage, the fifth AV festival – As Slow As Possible – appropriately stretches out to cover the whole of March, with a programme taking in concerts, film, performance, talks, installations, radio and a lot of walking. Each of the 70+ events considers the passage of time in a bewildering variety of ways. Across the next few pages Michael Hann and Lee Fisher try to do justice to a fascinating and packed itinerary.

Music Programme:

The music programme for AV can be divided into two equally fascinating parts, split by scheduling and content. The opening weekend draws heavily on the minimalist tradition (appropriately enough, since the festival’s entire theme derives from a John Cage piece) and features a variety of contributions from Phill Niblock, Susan Stenger and Yoshi Wada. The centrepiece is Lament For John Cage (Mar 3^rd, The Sage), a celebration of the great man’s music, poetry and texts, taking in his own pieces and new works from Niblock and Wada. On the previous evening, Niblock presents The Movement Of People Working (The Sage), using film and music to consider the repetition of the workplace. The core trio discuss their work in the context of the NYC minimalist scene at the Tyneside (March 3^rd) and Wada performs live in his own sound installation at the Discovery Museum (Mar 4^th). The weekend comes to a close with the UK premiere of Requiem by Hanne Darboven, a minimalist, numerically-driven piece for organ, at St Thomas The Martyr Church (Mar 4^th).

The second part of the music programme takes place across the two weekends either side of the spring Equinox. The highlight of this is surely Wishful Thinking (Tyneside Cinema, March 17^th), a tribute to the late Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, who was working on a commission for AV at the time of his death. Contributions include a performance from fellow Throbbing Gristle members Chris & Cosey and the screening of Derek Jarman’s Journey To Avebury, with music from Sleazy’s other main project Coil. The event is preceded by a talk from Rob Young at the same venue.

The following weekend sees Stephen Stapleton performing an all-night Sleep Concert at Centre For Life (March 23^rd-24^th), reworking his Dadaist / industrial Nurse With Wound material to unsettle and intrigue an audience tucked up in beds provided by the venue. The following night sees the hauntology scene make its presence felt with Time Out Of Joint, a night of special performances from The Caretaker, Pye Corner Audio and Forest Swords (a one-off performance using local field recordings that will be destroyed afterwards) at the Star & Shadow (Mar 24^th).

There’s a trilogy of very rare performances from local pioneers :Zoviet*france across the two weekends (and across the area) and two performances of Enochian Scrying from Sunn 0))) vocalist Attila Csihar at Tyne Bridge North Tower (Mar 24^th-25^th). (Csihar also joins Susan Stenger for part of her Full Circle installation)

Chris & Cosey Interview

(the full version, lifted unedited from the email)

• Finally, the two of you are very active on Twitter (I feel like I’ve met Dexter!) – do you seen this as just a bit of fun, or is it a useful tool, both in terms of getting your music out there and maintaining a kind of artistic community at a remove?

COSEY:
Well I’ve always been very open and kept communication channels free as far as my life and work are concerned so Twitter is a pretty useful tool for me. But Twitter is many things to many people and I think that’s why I personally like it. It’s enabled me to reach out to people I don’t know but have empathy for and as far as a promotional tool of course it’s pretty good medium for that but it’s not my primary reason for using it by any means. It facilitates a great and swift exchange of information on a vast array of subjects. Of course it can be used for bad as well as good but that’s the world we live in and the good far outnumber the bad.

CHRIS:
I stated using Twitter on the final TG USA tour in 2009, to keep our fans regularly updated with titbits of tour info and photos. Which worked out really well. Actually too well once or twice, as we got intercepted by lots (LOTS!) of excited TG fans at a couple of airports and hotels because I’d left my geolocation on. Of course we also use it to promote whatever we’re doing but on a day to day level I think it helps you connect with fans and followers on a more personal level. Which I think people appreciate. Although lately I’m not using it so much while we’ve been recording the album as it can be REALLY distracting.

© Narc Magazine 2012