Well dear friends

The last month has been something of a musical whirl and I’m only just catching my breath before (gasp) another set of shows, most particularly a performance art show this coming Tuesday in Nottingham with my good friend John Callaghan. It’s not really a musical event this time but more of a conceptual art event (or general silliness, depending on how it transpires) as we mark time waiting for the arrival of Bono (from U2). A combination of electronic humour, pathos, and the potential for all kinds of unexpected shennanigans. Please throw us your ideas for general debauchery and who knows? Maybe Edinburgh will call next year.

April 17 was the rather amazing Hands Off event at Sound Bank Centre in London where 20 of us thereminists gathered for a concert of classical and experimental theremin music, including an amazing 20 piece theremin orchestra improvisation incanting the spirit of the great Icelandic volcano. My Etherwave Pro theremin, usually resplendent in its uniqueness felt like the girl with the matching dress in company with about 10 other etherwaves on the day. Lucky folks got to try there hands at the theremin too in the amazing setting of the Clore Ballroom amongst mechanical and electronic sound installations. An amazing events – check out some of my live videos from the day (HD video to follow soon).

April 24 was ‘Theremin Day‘ in Birmingham – an afternoon of making optical theremins followed by an event performance organised by Sam Underwood (who I’ve recently collaborated with on a surf track for his Glatze project) who did a version of Steve Reich’s pendulum music for theremin, and my very old friend Pete Ashton played his Thingamygoop. Due to the outstanding contribution of bloggers and reporters in the room, the event has been extraordinarily well archived:

- Phantom Circuit (my former compadre from Rhythmicon) did a great radio show with interviews and recordings you can stream with an extensive interview with me.
- Nicky Getgood captured video of my set: Talking about theremin’s history and playing Vocalise
- Hello Catfood snapped photos and blogged the day, as did
- Nicky Pugh, who shot some video of me playing a graphic score and the Dr Who theme
Thanks to Sam, the Fzzpop hack space gang and all the bloggers for creating, making and sharing in such a fantastic event!

May 14th was the Poliphiloprogenitive event in Bedford, curator Gerry Paci’s radical move to bring extreme art culture to the English provinces. Performance artist Luci Fiction emerged from a bed of soil to welcome the underage nighclub attendees of Bedford, and I started my set with two catchy numbers about Dictators and Genocide. Artists Philip Diggle (the brother of he of The Buzzcocks, and the guy who gave The Stones Roses et al the ideas about live art painting) performed a live art painting spilling on to Lurke Street, which I captured in my live interview with him. It was a bold evening of scrumptious Berlin performance art, sculpture, decor and film which we’re hoping to take back over to Berlin. I had a fantastic time and thanks to all the kind folks I spoke to who were either a) from Bedford and amazed or b) had come from London and were totally in the zone. We need to do more events like these.

So coming up for me:

- We’re a good way into Babyslave’s third album, and we’re about to unveil our rather amazing new website too and news on releasing the back catalogue too.

- July I’ll be doing a show in Colchester, details TBA

- September shows in Germany TBA

- Over summer I’ll also be unpacking more video, audio and album material from Hypnotique, which is pleasantly brewing…

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