Gonk Noblige drones forth into geopsychosis. Is this the end for Gonk Noblige?

Quite excited to be a part of this It involves a switch to purely Oak branches and it’s totally off-grid so something of a challenge. We’ll see if it all works out and an update will surely arrive here…

A shameful lack of bloggery going on here but here’s a story worth telling.

For Coastal Currents 2018 i was approached by artist Becky Beasley to add some music to a project that involved Wow & Flutter record shop

In years gone by the shop had served as HQ of the suffragettes and an unusual outlet for ornamental seaweed. I had just completed a watery music project concerning Romney Marsh, which Becky felt the sound was ‘seaweedy’ enough to use on her ambitious take-away object; a 12” vinyl record with an information booklet about the previous lives of the shop.

I made a 2o minute mix condensed from Sewer Songs which i also performed* in the shop for the exhibition opening.

You can buy a copy directly from Becky Beasley here www.beckybeasley.com

* laptop and live ephemera

Gonk is the nom-de-nom-de-plume-de-Ted, responsible for purest drone music. So shameful a practise is this that extra anonymity is called for. Especially as Gonk makes all the ‘music’ with the aid of a computer (OH NO!). However this stuff is worth sharing as it can transport the mind, heal it and provide a useful backdrop for meditation (UH OH).

Gonk refers to this work as a musical drug and suggests everybody try it:

Hopefully ‘performances’ will be arranged at some point. Gonk is rehearsing a Max Wall routine to project into the minds of the audience.

Part one of a cathartic film score to road rage. A hard thing to admit to the world but maybe we’ve all been there at some point. Enjoy?

Assembled golden oldies and newies by way of an intro to the new thismachine album – coming soon(er or later). Apart from that no other Intentional Self Promotion®

Link Road to a Canterbury Ritual part 1 by Ted Versicolor on Mixcloud

From 11:30am – 5pm. I will sit atop the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill on Sea for a few hours re-creating foghorn sounds with pine branches and maybe a bass guitar. If i find anything else i will use it. I intend to be LOUD when i get the chance.

DLWP page here. Scroll past Hypnotized and Anneka Warburton till you get to Last Station Located: Bexhill on Sea.

See also the 2013 LAST STATION post below

Update: Well that’s what i thought was happening. In reality i was dragging my gear around to different parts of the building and blasting out wooden fog signals for a few minutes at a time. A fun day was had by all though.

Framework radio very kindly put out the piece i made with six art & design students at Sussex Coast College. The recordings were mostly made in one day in and around the Station plaza campus, save for a little bit i recorded of the nearby power transformers for the adjacent health centre (see if you can pick it out!). We had access to some nice top end gear and some really nice low end magic in the form of Izabela’s 1970’s cassette recorder.

We’d gathered a few hours of raw material and over the coming months i set about remixing it for the programme. There’s a lot of mashing and reconstruction going on but i tried to balance it with a few untreated recordings. Some of it is synthesised using pictures of the building as ‘punchcards’. All nice and industrial. You can listen to it on here and read all about it or go the framework site.

Concept and production by Yumino Seki

Initially presented over two nights at St Mary in the Castle, Hastings in 2014, where the evenings were split into three performances with the various sketches alrernately rearranged into sets of 3. The dancers performed in semi darkness using neon lights and a specially built raised platform. I composed some new pieces for it, edited the soundtrack and controlled the live sound during the shows.

The follow up in 2015 used some of the existing scenes and added some more. Performances were changed to a single programme format and run at Rye College, Stade open space (Coastal currents 2015, Hastings) and Leeds Light night 2015.

September 2013 at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery as part of the Coastal Currents festival

“Conceived and performed by Yumino Seki, Aisa Boaa and Mai Nguyen Tri.  Lighting Jim Roseveare, Soundscape Nick Weekes and Costume Anoushka Athique.
HYAKKI YAKOU is a site-specific Butoh dance performance.  The piece was inspired by  the Durbar Hall at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.

Hyakki Yakou literally translates to a night walk of a hundred demons. In 17th century Japan objects were believed to be given lives after nearly serving 100 years and the demons were the spirits of deserted objects.”

A perfect opportunity for sampling and wild dance focussed music which was a joy to work on. I mostly confined myself to my partner’s flat as a sound source but also miked up the wooden staircase in the Durbar hall during the performance.

I took some recordings of the rehearsals in the hall as well and a few during a normal day with people wandering around, school visits and so on. One important sample was an old recording of a clockwork musical box/bird that rang out “born free” over and over. I used some of the notes and rearranged them into a tune that runs through the piece.