1st workshop

Having been away in Mooste and Riga - and being really busy in Riga, with a late night radio performance, a visit to a disused power station, a night of 6 performers at the Goija Tea Rooms, and then having to get back to Tallinn to meet Doug Benford Sunday night - I have been appallingly slack with updating the blog.
Before I go any further, details of the performance event tomorrow night can be found here: http://artcontainer.ee/.
So, here I am, back in Tallinn for a couple of days, flying back to the uk on Friday. The first presentation and listening workshop ran today and seemed to go down well. After a brief introduction to me and my work, I demonstrated the equipment I use. We then walked to a quiet spot - quite hard to do in Tallinn - and half the group donned blindfolds, with the other half acting as guides. We walked up streets away from traffic, stopped on corners to hear the trolley bus cables sing, walked through the park to the old town. Then blindfolds were removed and back to the park to hear what a hydrophone does. Also I demonstrated my contact mic's and how different things sound through objects. This time the second half of the group wore the blindfolds, guided by the previous group members. This time we walked through the train station, across to where the trams make fantastic sounds through the rails, then around the russian market and back to the Polymer Factory.
Although most participants said they didn't hear anything they hadn't heard before, their sense of time was distorted, and passing objects (cars, bikes) seemed a lot closer.

So, now I sit and wait for Mr. Grzinich to drive up from Mooste. We're taking a trip to a penninsula to watch the sunrise and do some recording, then hopefully visit the area where Stalker was filmed - I'm really looking forward to that...

Here are a couple of links to sound clips from the visit to the power station - please note, no processing has been carried out on either.
http://www.archive.org/details/DoorSpringContact
http://www.archive.org/details/SmallAeolianPipe

Looking back I realised I haven't added anything since at Moks! We drove to the nearest train station at 9:00 on the Thursday morning, and just missed the train by minutes, so had to drive into Latvia and get a bus. We arrived in Riga around 14:30 and after meeting Max (Maksims Shentelevs) we were on our way to the now infamous disused power station.
We were wandering around the building and climbing places we probably shouldn't have been until gone 20:00! It's a recordist's dream!

Then Jez had an interview on late night radio, so we tagged along and after he played a set a bunch of us started playing - i haven't listened back to the results yet, but it was pretty full-on...

The next day I was one of 6 artists playing the Goija tea rooms - I played early, and through not being announced, and through playing a quiet-LOUD-quiet set, I think most people only realised someone had played by the ripple of applause that started inside and gradually meandered outside, where a set of speakers enabled those who didn't want to lay down on rugs smelling of incense were hanging out... After some technical problems Jez played a lovely set, then I think John was up - and he's mesmerising! It was great to watch him work! After Evgeniy Droomoff, whose work wasn't my cup of tea, Sound Meccano (Rostislav Rekuta) played a really nice electronics and environmental sounds set. Max and his buddy Kaspars played last and also did good work - field recordings and amplified driftwood...

The following day - this was another day where we got up around midday because the previous night went on into the early hours of the morning - we hung out, went to the junk market, where i picked up a crappy old mic that's identical to one John found in the power station, then John, Rostislav and I attended the Touch Spire event that was running as part of Sound Forest in Riga. I have to say, there's a reason why organs and churches were built, the two fit each other perfectly... Amplified music/sound using a straightforward pa setup doesn't work. It sounds flat and lost, or in Philip Jeck's case, just harsh, although that may have been the volume he was playing at. Hildur Gudnadottir's composition, played on the organ by Charles Matthews while she moved the stops incrementally, was so good - inspiring in it's simplicity.
The three of us, not being able to gatecrash the Touch aftershow party, hit the theatrebar, where we somehow managed to get free drinks all night!! Fantastic!

The bus trip back to Tallinn the following day (Sunday) was uneventful until we stopped at the border and officials got on asking to see passports.... guess who'd left his in Tallinn...? I got away with stern looks, rather than being kept in Latvia, but I won't be doing that again.
And got back just in time to have a well-needed and overdue shower and run out to old town to meet doug Benford at another church and listen to the Highgate Choir, to be followed by the best food i've had since arriving here - wild boar cooked in a juniper sauce.

Yesterday was laundry day, and another excursion around a disused building, this time part of the polymer factory, and meeting a lovely guy called Shawn Pinchbeck in the evening at Noku. Shawn, I didn't stay on for that extra drink, tempting though it was I didn't really want to sit in the place on my own!!