interesting sounds

This is by way of floating an idea. I wondered if we could get together an interesting sounds, in the same ad hoc way we did interesting2007, except this time I don't even have a venue and a date. It came to mind when I realised that there were quite a few people who came to interesting who'd built their own musical instruments, or done musical stuff with odd toys, or generally made, you know, interesting sounds.

What I was thinking is:

I'd organise a venue and a PA system, and that would be attached to a mini-jack.

'Performers' would get 10 minutes (or is that too short?) to bring their sound-maker along, plug into the mini-jack and entertain us all.

We'd do it in the evening, so there'd be beer and chat too. I'm thinking it'd be good to do it in Brighton.

And we'd try and keep the tickets as cheap as we did for Interesting2007.

And I'm hoping for interesting sounds, not necessarily 'music'. It's not about plugging your guitar in and singing. And hopefully it's more than just laptops and  ambient noodling. It's got to be, you know, interesting. Too look at as well as to listen to.

Does that make sense? At this point I'm just trying to gauge interest and find potential performers. Anyone fancy coming? Anyone want to perform? Anyone got suggestions for good venues? Answers to these and other questions would be most welcome. Drop me an email (russell at russelldavies.com) or comment below if you fancy. Ta.

(Also, what do we reckon about doing Interesting2008 proper in the summer? Fancy that too?)

Comments

[James Greig]

Yes let's have Interesting2008. A tall order to beat 07.

InterestingSound, InterestingMelody, Interesting for Ears - could be great.

The first thing that came into my head is that it would be dark, like Le Trois Garcons, but with sound instead of food for a more 'Interesting' experience.

Just a (bad) idea.

[Curtis]

Love the idea - and you chose my home town, even better.

I think their really needs to be some limit on 'laptop jam' type stuff - of course there is good laptop stuff, but I'd like to hear people using weird strange crazy things to make cool interesting sounds.

[Ben]

Interesting 2008, yes definitely.

Personally I'm not into the music thing (too worried about the laptops and ambient noodling bit). But I still think you should do it. It will be good and the eveningness will make a nice change.

[Curtis]

ps: idea for venue in Brighton - Duke of Yorks Cinema - http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_home_date.aspx?venueId=doyb

[Mark]

Brighton's St George's Church is a lovely venue. http://www.stgeorges-church.org/venue.htm

[Rob Mortimer]

Yes to both, though I think the sound thing might need to be a smaller type of event. :)

[Rob]

Interesting2008? Yesssssssssssss. (Have a feeling you'd've been bullied into doing it even if you hadn't suggested it, since the 2007 one went down so well.) Put Nonsense down for some as-yet-unspecified help.

The sounds thing sounds great. Wish I was more musical - always fancied one of those funny keyboard/guitar hybrid things like the Les Rythmes Digitales guy uses live.

[Mark Hadfield]

Yep to both on my count, Russell. I think the sound thing could be really interesting - but how to document it? Take a soundboard recording of everything and film peoples responses? That's a cool project in itself. Brighton would be cool. For us London dwellers it's ok too - stay over on the evening then train up to London the next morning? Is it going against the grain of Interesting to suggest the music has themes, or trains of thought that bring them together?

[Ashley Brown]

Sounds like a great idea! maybe somebody could master how to play a Tenori-On?! - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_SGwDhKTrwU

[Charlie Gower]

Yes to both although I would love to hear people talking about sound as well, maybe that won't work. Dunno... The psychology of sound does fascinate me so...

[Rory Lindsay]

Interesting Audio, and Interesting 08? Yes please. (Rhodri and his saw would be worth the admission price alone)
Come on, let's do it...

[Andrewh]

Yes to both!

[Andrew]

I'm in if you want me, but I have a tendency towards ambient laptop noodling as you know; I'd have to come up with something special for this!

(And Interesting2008 sounds great. Yes please.)

[Tom]

Yes to both Russell. I play the introductory version of the bagpipes if that qualifies.

[Diego]

Like 'em both. Sign me up. This time I'll try and make it!

[zeroinfluencer]

ooOoooOooooh. Nice. I've just nudged the ixi-software folk (who are in Brighton) to see if they would be up for playing along.

Slub would be interested too, I'm sure, they do Live coding in Perl to generate sounds.

[Roo Reynolds]

Yes and double yes.

10 minute slots are quite reasonable (some might even want only 5 minutes ?). I'd volunteer, if my noodling wasn't so painful.

Clearly Rhodri playing his saw and the Electroplankton Quartet were just a taste of things to come.

Interesting 2008++

[matthew]

yum - yes to both

I was stuck in Ireland* so missed intresting 2007 - but count me in for 2008

* sticky mud thing - long story.

[Mark McGuinness]

Sounds interesting.

[Andrew Smart]

Are you familiar with circuit bending? Worth considering?

http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/

Also, would it be too much to hold such an event in complete darkness? Probably. It would certainly make the refreshments complicated.

[mark Earls]

Yesireeboob. Twice.

[Alistair Vince]

You've probably all seen this but its worth looking at again.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/science/tesla-coils-playing-the-mario-bros-theme-are-unsurprisingly-awesome-319384.php?autoplay=true

[Phil]

Brighton's my home town too so I'd have no excuse for not coming this time.

In the film '32 short films about Glenn Gould' there is a scene where the composer is in a cafe (like Interesting meets egg, bacon, chips and beans) He is tuning into different conversations which gradually merge together and we have a piece of music made purely of voices. It would be nice build something out of that.

[Peter]

You might want to connect with dorkbot ("people doing strange things with electricity"), who organize a monthly event in London, and many other cities:

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[Iain]

Interesting 2008; yes, definitely!