Using a specially composed text and sound, alienlike sensational subjectivities of human/tick transspecies encounters are explored, as inseparable from their environment-ing worlds and the ticks microbial cargos. Cross-kingdom relations are conducted via tick sensing of molecular, chemical phrases by which we betray our presence, through secreted volatile signatures. 

Arachnid - Tick sensing was inspired by the uncanny sonic textures developed by Antye Greie (AGF) who edited and mastered the TICK TALKs podcasts, her sound work I vs us, Kyla Schuller’s essay The Microbial Self: Sensation and Sympoiesis', and other readings. 

Text written and read by Kira O'Reilly
Sound and compositional elements by Antye Greie (AGF)

Best listened to with headphones

This work was made as part of TICK ACTs, SOLU, Helsinki June 2021
TICK ACTs presented contemplations and ideas from a collaboration between artists Laura Beloff and Kira O’Reilly on ticks, tick-borne pathogens and their environments. 
There is also a series of four podcasts, TICK TALKs which are available to listen to via the Bioart Society’s Soundcloud page
https://bioartsociety.fi/projects/biofriction/posts/tick-talks

TICK ACTs and TICK TALKs are part of Biofriction, a European collaboration project committed to supporting bioart and biohacking practices. Biofriction project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Arachnid - Tick Sensing

Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti have worked together on a powerful hybrid album, where taut rhythms fuse with haunted vocal melodies and spoken word, and field recordings meld with extended ambient pieces. Limited edition of 500 copies on Yellow Transparent vinyl LP, digital downloads and streamings.

As part of Umor Rex’s 15th anniversary, we here present an album that builds a dialogue between two lands and two unique artists. Mexico is the origin and conceptual residence of our label, while Germany is where we produce and manufacture our records (Berlin functions as the center of distribution and logistics, thanks to our friends at Morr Music). The intertwining imaginations belong to German producer Gudrun Gut (Malaria!) —a notable figure of the subculture and the German music scene since the early 80s, and also a founder of Monika Enterprise and recipient of the ‘Listen to Berlin’ Award in 2019— and singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Mabe Fratti (originally from Guatemala, now based in Mexico City). We knew about “Let’s Talk About The Weather” from the beginning, and since the moment Gudrun and Mabe made us part of their project, our excitement could not be greater.

The process started with Gudrun and Mabe having long distance conversations, asking about their whereabouts and discussing the weather. This might seem rather commonplace, but it works as a key thematic component for the entire album. The weather as the new great unknown, perceived through the optics of everyday life. Sound files were methodically exchanged, with Mabe exploring words and vocals, and Gudrun working with field recordings taken from each city. In the end, this joint musical venture would provide a healing effect for both artists during life in quarantine.

“Aufregend”, the opening track of the album, reflects upon a general lack of excitement in modern life. It wonders what the future might hold. Is it cold? Is it warm? Will it be the same? “Air Condition” is an eerie, dazzling collision of climates: the hazy warmth of Mexico City, the deep cold of Uckermark. The last track, which gives the album its name, is a long ambient piece composed of four parts: sound sculptures, field recordings of city life, news and weather forecasts, and private conversations about the climate. It’s kind of a collaborative diary, obsessed with a single, all-encompassing subject.

Produced and recorded by Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti between Berlin, Uckermark, Veracruz and Mexico City. Mixed by GGut at Stern Studio Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork & photos by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.

Special thanks to Goethe Institute, who contributed to the creation of this album with a Virtual Partner Residency support.

Let’s Talk About The Weather

Gudrun Gut + Mabe Fratti — Aufregend

Dublin avant-folk singer and instrumentalist John Francis Flynn shares an hour of experimental Irish traditional and folk sounds.  
https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/john-francis-flynn-17th-december-2023

John Francis Flynn 171223

I recently had the pleasure and honour of interviewing the fabulous Erin Manning, Research Chair in Philosophy and Relational Art at Concordia University and director of the SenseLab (among many other things)...

We discussed her beautiful new book, The Minor Gesture (Duke 2016), and our conversation ranged into many of the other fields and interstices where Professor Manning's thought unfolds and flourishes, including:

-The immanent choreography of weight lifting: volition, agency, effort
-Moving at edge of the symphonic, from movement to philosophy
-The potentialities of minor, as opposed to Grand, gestures of politics
-The tricky convergence of identity politics and the trans-subjective ecologies of individuation
-Neurodiversity and/or mental health: how to be a sensitive person in the world
-Supporting thought at its limits and surviving in the neoliberal academy

And a lot more!

Senselab: senselab.ca
The Minor Gesture: dukeupress.edu/the-minor-gesture

Radically Relational Radio

009: The Minor Gesture with Erin Manning

12 songs that embody the underground spirit revolution of the 60s and 70s. Directed by Jodie Wille.

Songs for Space Travelers

Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche chants the SaTer Ngondro offered by Rinpoche.

The Dudjom Tersar Ngondro Program of the Vajrayana Foundation wishes to thank Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche for offering his chanted recording of HH Dudjom Rinpoche's SaTer Ngondro.  

May it be an inspiration for our practice! 

ABOUT Lama Pema Dorje ~~~>
http://www.sangchenpemachholing.org/Includes/biography.shtml

WEBSITE ~~~> www.dudjomtersarngondro.com
eMail ~~~> ngondropa@dudjomtersarngondro.com

Namchak Pudri Trekchod 2016

Lama Pema Dorje Chants the Sa Ter Ngondro -

Gravetemple: Elavúlt Földbolygó (World Out Of Date)

"Customer’s Copy" is the debut LP of contorted cosmic jazz and eccentric minimal electronics by Exotic Sin. The duo of Naima Karlsson and Kenichi Iwasa first came together for a performance celebrating the art and music of Karlsson’s grandparents, Moki and Don Cherry, before continuing as an independent unit that still incorporates some of the Cherrys’ instruments as well as their synergetic integration of music with artistic practice.

Preferring the stark contrast of analog/digital, acoustic/electric, and natural/unnatural sounds, Karlsson contributes synthesizers in addition to piano, celesta, and bells, while Iwasa collides anachronistic 90s Yamaha keyboard and guitaret with contrabass recorder, drums, kalimba, and three of Don Cherry’s instruments: one of his trumpets as well as two of his “zen saxophones,” handmade woodwinds appending reed mouthpieces to plastic plumbing parts, also called Don’s kettles after their high-pitched sound. With such timbral juxtapositions, the spirit of Exotic Sin is reminiscent of a number of leftfield jazz-meets-electronics ‘70s duos from Don Cherry’s maverick collaborations with Jon Appleton and Terry Riley to Anthony Braxton’s work with Richard Teitelbaum, İlhan Mimaroğlu and Freddie Hubbard’s "Sing Me a Song of Songmy," and Muhal Richard Abrams’ electronic works. On album opener “Dot 2 Dot,” Karlsson’s measured, monastic piano sets an elegiac stage for kettle bends and absurdist electro-percussive filtering courtesy of Iwasa before a flourish of cascading ebonies and ivories together with restorative circular trumpet motifs bring the sidelong piece to a majestic resolution. Named after the character from Ridley Scott’s 1989 film Black Rain, the schizosphere of “Charlie Vincent” interfaces ominous, dystopian synthesizer with permuted organ swells before album closer “Canis Minor” sets gentle sail for a distant bed of lonesome stars.

A visual artist as well as an archivist and coordinator for the Cherry estate, Karlsson continues to learn and study Don’s compositions and approach to piano with her uncles Eagle-Eye and David, who were taught by Don himself, and his use of short piano compositions as loose scaffoldings for improvisation is prevalent across the record’s three otherworldly unfurlings. Improvisor and multidisciplinary artist Kenichi Iwasa is also known for his legendary Krautrock Karaoke night, his contribution to Beatrice Dillon’s 2020 album Workaround, and collaborations with visual artists and musicians from Linder Sterling to members of Can, Neu!, Faust, Cluster, and Wire. Recorded and mixed, with additional alto flute, woodwinds, and contrabass recorder by Robbie Lee.

Exotic Sin - Canis Minor

forthcoming in Feb 2021, contact abby@cafeoto.co.uk

Double CD documenting the magic meeting of one of the all-time great rhythm sections in jazz: percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker, with London’s brilliant Black Top (Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas) and Elaine Mitchener. Across two sets the quintet are infectiously energetic and inspired, striding from synchronised heavy groove to star bright solos, whilst incorporating dub effects, guimbri and sumptuous blues piano playing. 
 
Formed by Orphy Robinson and Pat Thomas but always realised with an ever changing number of invited musicians, Black Top's blend of lo-fi samples, dub effects and experimental electronics has been daring free improvisation since 2011. Their virtuoso performances draw on their Afro-Caribbean roots with delicious spontienty and humour; the histories of Ridley Road Market, the LIO and Islamic West Africa are sounded out side by side on iPad, marimba and vibraphone. Having met in 2006, Black Top played with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake as part of their residency at Cafe OTO in 2016; forming a quartet grounded in transatlantic kinship but which looked outward to the Carribean, calypso music and Saharan gnawa rhythms. When Parker and Drake returned to OTO in 2019 Black Top reformed again, but this time with the brilliant addition of vocalist Elaine Mitchener. 
Over the last few years the clarity with which Mitchener has explored vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde has been stunning, but here the range in her influences is manifest, moving effortlessly between phonetic and poetic experimentation and spoken word, all the while at ease with soul soaked jazz and dissonant free fall. A hand drum duet with Hamid Drake astonishes before being laced perfectly with cosmic theremin and Parker’s fantastic acid shehnai. 

Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Sunday 28th July 2019 by Paul Skinner and mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photos by Dawid Laskowski and artwork by Oliver Pitt. 

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Hamid Drake / percussion

Elaine Mitchener / vocals

William Parker / double bass, guimbri

Orphy Robinson / marimba, electronics

Pat Thomas / piano, electronics

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OTOROKU
18-22 Ashwin Street
E8 3DL

ROKU025

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CD1
Put the Brakes On - 50:08

CD2
Some Good News - 56:43

ROKU025 "Some Good News" [sample]

visual artist
I write, teache, mentor and collaborate with humans of various types and technologies and  non-humans of numerous divergences including mosses, spiders, the sun, pigs, cell cultures, horses, micro-organisms, bicycles, rivers, landscapes, tundras, rocks, trees, shoes, food, books, air, moon, and ravens.

Arachnid - Tick Sensing

Kira O'Reilly

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