A live recording of a performance by Andy Abbott for the Art Licks Weekend Saturday 4th October 2014 at Bermondsey Square (Tower Bridge Road side), London. SE1 3UN

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Mashing together two classic instructional performance scores from the 1960s - Alison Knowles’ Proposition No. 1 (‘Make a Salad’) and John Cage’s 0’00” (‘In a situation provided with maximum amplification, perform a disciplined action.’) - with a dash of Vegan Black Metal Chef, Andy Abbott will perform a contact-miked improvisation for kitchen utensils, loop pedals and voice with (hopefully) edible outcomes. 

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Recorded and broadcast live by Radio Anti. Art Licks performance programme curated by Eva Rowson. 

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http://artlicksweekend.com/performance/
http://radioanti.blogspot.co.uk/
http://andyabbott.co.uk/


Andy Abbott - Proposition 0’00" (narrated)

Preview track from ADRA - Music For Psychiatric Wards and Fluid Structures

A compilation of recordings inspired by my experiences as a creative practitioner performing ambient music in psychiatric wards across Yorkshire in 2023, and soundtracks to a film about an embedded arts organisation in East Lancashire. - Andy Abbott

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When Abbott entered the psychiatric ward, he did so with an open mind.

“I was going in there with loop pedals and little handmade kalimbas and acoustic instruments,” he recalls. “From these experiences I then designed, with input from the staff and service users, an ‘Ambient Music Board’. It’s a bit like a musical fidget board that combines various instruments including thumb piano, guitar and harp strings, chimes and other tactile parts like rubber bands and springs.”

So for three months, once a week, Abbott would enter these wards and play music for six hours.

“If it was a flat day, I may decide to do something a bit more upbeat or if it was a very chaotic day or people were agitated, I would play ambient music to calm things down,” he says. “I was playing into that space and trying to respond to the physical and social context and provide something that was levelling.”
credits
releases November 1, 2024

Tracks 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 recorded by Joe Osborne at The Garage, Brierfield.

Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7 recorded by Mark Simms at Electron Studios, Sunderland.

Mastered by Joe Osborne.

Ambient Music Board fabricated by Sam McLoughlin.

Thanks to Everybody Arts, Creative Minds and In-Situ.
license

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