CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

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gazatthebop
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CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 26 Jun 2014 18:24

Join two fearless innovators as the Barbican Theatre is transformed by a brand new audio-visual collaboration.

Musical pioneer John Cale believes so strongly in the power of sound that he once thought it was possible to alter the weather with musical frequencies. Now, for this world premiere performance, he joins forces with speculative architect and technology storyteller Liam Young to re-imagine another, increasingly pervasive, industrial innovation.

LOOP>>60Hz offers an unprecedented experience as John Cale and his band perform music from across his catalogue, expressly adapted to durational forms, unusual tunings and unorthodox audio delivery. Liam Young?s collection of drones escape their associations with surveillance and the military, becoming instead choreographed, disembodied instruments which take flight in the auditorium to create a profoundly immersive live music performance.

Set to explore and extend the link between art and technology like never before, LOOP>>60Hz will mark the final weekend of Digital Revolution ? the Barbican?s immersive exhibition of art, design, film, music and videogames which will take over the Centre from Thursday 3 July.

?Drone: a bleak tapestry of unholy noises, searing into the listeners ears and ? with any luck ? transporting them to a place they'll not want to leave for long while? John Cale

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 27 Jun 2014 05:58

Former Velvet Underground star John Cale is set to use flying drones in a performance to showcase his latest work in London.

The 72-year-old musician, who has often delved into the avant garde, will perform the new "audio-visual collaboration", called LOOP@@60Hz: Transmissions From The Drone Orchestra at the Barbican in September.

The project will see the drones carrying speakers to project the sound, as well as making mechanical noises as they hover over the audience.

Cale, who collected an OBE from Buckingham Palace in 2010, will work with his band, along with architect Liam Young, for the performance.

He has rearranged songs from his extensive back catalogue using different tunings to fit the new format.

Cale has said he aims to free the drones from their usual associations with surveillance and military uses to make them "choreographed, disembodied instruments which take flight in the auditorium to create a profoundly immersive live music performance", according to the Barbican.

The gallery reassured potential concert goers that the performance would be safe.

A spokeswoman said: "We've already been through a lengthy planning and approval period with this project to ensure there won't be any risk to audiences attending the performances in September."

The drones will not all be in flight at once but will have choreographed entries and exits through the performances on September 12 and 13, using their own landing point on the stage.

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DavidH
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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by DavidH » 27 Jun 2014 11:14

A nice pun on the word 'drone'.

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 27 Jun 2014 23:52

Velvet Underground's John Cale Will Conduct a Drone Orchestra for New Show
By Gerald Lynch on 27 Jun 2014 at 12:30PM
John Cale, formerly of revolutionary rock band The Velvet Underground and now a performance artist, is to conduct a fleet of drones for his new show LOOP@@60Hz: Transmissions From The Drone Orchestra.

Taking place at the Barbican in London over September 12th and 13th, the 72-year old musician has rearranged songs from his back catalogue with alternate tunings to accommodate the mechanical whirr of the flying craft into each piece. A number of drones will fly over the heads of audience members equipped with speakers, playing back the re-worked songs.

Cale is looking to reclaim the drone from its dubious association with surveillance and warfare, using the craft as "choreographed, disembodied instruments which take flight in the auditorium to create a profoundly immersive live music performance", according to the Barbican.

Those worried about getting a knock on the head from the hovering drone players needn't worry -- fans looking to attend are being reassured that a lengthy safety approval process has been carried out before Cale's performance takes to the stage. Though the show will use many drones, only a few will be in flight at any one time, each given a specific landing zone on the stage

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by peppergomez » 28 Jun 2014 00:20

Sounds awesome. Cale is a treasure.

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by simonm » 01 Jul 2014 00:29

peppergomez wrote:Sounds awesome. Cale is a treasure.
great press photo too

Imagejohn-cale-liam-young-loop60hz-transmissions-f-L-d87LZm by simonm1965, on Flickr

I'm going!

gazatthebop
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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 07 Sep 2014 08:56

Cale interview about his London show next week and how Lou wasted his career https://audioboo.fm/boos/2454332-john-c ... he-velvets

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 07 Sep 2014 09:04

Its nothing new Cale having a dig at Lou's career. In 2003 he said "A lot of the things Lou does. I don't think he knows what he's doing with his life. He's his own worst enemy". I am pleased JC has been stoic since Lou passed

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 09 Sep 2014 09:31

In a time of ever-present creativity, nothing is more exciting than the result of a collaboration between two seemingly opposite artists, and next week we will be getting a glimpse of exactly that. The Barbican Centre will be hosting LOOP>>60Hz, the world premiere of musical pioneer John Cale?s latest creative adventure with speculative architect and technology storyteller Liam Young.

Described as a ?swarming drone orchestra,? these fearless innovators will be creating an immersive live musical performance, combining forces to explore and challenge the link between art and technology. While Cale and his band will perform music from his entire oeuvre, Young?s collection of flying drones will become disembodied, choreographed instruments, hovering above the heads of the audience.

LOOP>>60Hz?marks the end of the Barbican?s Digital Revolution exhibition, an incredibly successful collection of art, design, music, film and videogames. The event is set to be the absolute pinnacle of the three-month show and we cannot wait to see what wonder will unfold. Don?t miss out on what we?re sure will be the most intriguing, innovative performance of the year.

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Re: CALE MAKES A DRONE RETURN TO LONDON IN SEPTEMBER

Post by gazatthebop » 09 Sep 2014 09:32

Droning on ? the Velvet Underground (l-r) Nico, Mo Tucker, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed and John Cale. Photograph: Steve Schapiro/Corbis
This weekend Velvet Underground founding member John Cale will unleash an art installation that tries to redeem the word ?drone?.

Drones are today synonymous with war and surveillance. They are autonomous flying objects that can fire weapons at (presumed) terrorists, or film city life for the security services. It appears drones are going to become an ever-more visible part of our lives. No wonder artists are intrigued by these robotic aircraft. A video installation at this year?s Edinburgh festival combined the image of the electronic drone with the ?drone? of Scottish bagpipes.

Cale has a different artistic take on drones and drone. In collaboration with architect and techno-visionary Liam Young, he has devised an installation for the Barbican in which drones hover above an audience as part of a performance by the Drone Orchestra. The hope is that the fear of drones will evaporate in a wall of mesmerising sound from above and around the stunned audience.

Drone has been a part of Cale?s music since the beginning. In the 1960s, this classically trained Welsh musician played in La Monte Young?s Theatre of Eternal Music before meeting Lou Reed and experimenting with dark rock songs in what became the Velvet Underground. Art and music are inseparable in the avant garde tradition that formed Cale. At La Monte Young?s Dream House in Manhattan, a permanent sound and light installation deranges the senses and uncouples you from the ?reality? of the outside world. In the performances Andy Warhol helped stage for the Velvets, light shows and cinema heightened the music?s onslaught.

?Drone?, a mesmerising repetitive sound, was introduced into the Velvet Underground?s music by Cale, then freshly schooled in the most radical innovations of the minimalist avant garde. From Mo Tucker?s pounding drum beat to the colourless rhythm guitar in I?m Waiting for the Man to Cale dragging an amplified chair across the stage in European Son, the lyrical drive of popular music has never been so brutally undercut by the toneless repetitions and grinding chaos of advanced modernism.

The American avant garde is essentially an art of acceptance. John Cage creating collages of tape-recorded everyday sounds was seeing modern life itself as music. Robert Rauschenberg did the same in his Combines of found stuff and sensual paint. In embracing the beauty of drones and connecting it to his drone soundscapes, Cale is doing what modern art must do, and finding beauty in the most ugly and monstrous novelties of our time.

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