Ethiopian Legendary Artist Legesse Abdi

Henry Flynt Exhibition Aktion

Hello all, Just a brief one. I stumbled across THIS this morning. Most interesting to those of you concerned only with the aural is a link there to the soundtrack Henry Flynt has made for the event. Excellent as always.

For anyone in the Brisbane area you'll be able to catch me playing live on two occasions this weekend with The Scrapes

13 December, The Scratch Bar, Milton 8pm EVENT PAGE

14 December, The New Globe, Fortitude Valley, 5pm. EVENT PAGE These will be my final performances for 2014.

Happy Yule to all,
Adam.

Pagan

My All Too Brief Time Among the Clapping Diamond Cult

Take note of the extraordinary sounds of JooHee Yoon's Haegeum (Korean fiddle).

Mike & Cara

Essential

Silvia Tarozzi's "Virgin Violin" album is extraordinary. I needn't say more.

LISTEN HERE

Radical Violin Theory

Dear readers,

I've decided I might start sharing, from time to time, more serious discussions of my theories for violin performance practice - what I term Radical Violin performance at my main web HQ which you can get to by clicking HERE. This won't detract from my usual posting of sporadic videos and what not here at Underground Violin, but will make for the occasional more serious read from anyone out there who is interested. I very much encourage discussion and participation with this stuff so please feel free to comment and argue with me. I may or may not care. I might even try to post larger more analytical writings on some of the best renegade fiddlers I come across here at Underground Violin as well if I get inspired enough.

Anyway while I thoroughly recommend you go HERE to read this I have decided to share the most recent post outlining the premises of the Manifesto of the Radical Violinist below here so you get a taste and get all excited and keep coming back for more....

In 2012, as part of my PhD thesis, I wrote a manifesto, The Manifesto of the Radical Violinist. This as yet unpublished work poses a challenge to the 21st century violinist to take our very specific and often rarified art to new places. Further it calls for violinists to make their practice part of a resistance against the current climate-change-denying, 1%-worshipping madness of our present status-quo. Certainly it deeply informs my own work. Furthermore the Manifesto, and many of my other writings, are intended (while being serious theoretical works) in the end to be performative and ultimately are well-suited to being read as part of a Radical Violin performance. This element of the work has yet to be aired publicly...but hopefully this will change in the future. Anyway here is a write-up of it all that I've been using of late:

The Manifesto of the Radical Violinist is a declaration of progressive violin performance practice that is unprecedented in the history of the instrument, and furthermore is the only such work to emerge out of violin performance discourse in the 21st Century. Drawing from various 20th-century cultural manifestos – such as Luigi Russolo’s ‘Art of Noises’, Leon Trotsky’s ‘Literature and Revolution’, Jaques Derrida’s ‘Spectres of Marx’, various writings from ‘American ethnic’ violinist Henry Flynt, and more obscure writings such as those of Anarchist and artist Ben Morea – The Manifesto of the Radical Violinist serves as a call for a new approach to violin performance practice that openly challenges the current performance practice hegemonies and shatters homogeneous notions of the instrument and its place in society.

 List of what could be referred to as the premises of the Manifesto:

1. Radical Violinists must be radicalised and part of an Underground resistance centred on insubordination to all forms of authoritarian power.
2. Radical Violin Performance Practices are heterogeneous and embrace heterogeneity in culture.
3. Radical Violinists are manifestations of Marx’s spectre – haunting the hegemony of Western culture.
4. Radical Violinists must embrace elements of Futurism: science, elegance and violence.
5. Radical Violinists must embrace electricity.
6. Radical Violinists are Acognitive Realists.
7. Radical Violinists can NOT be genre/market musicians. Their techniques must embrace and reflect the Diversity of reality and NOT the Hegemony of tradition.
8. Radical Violinists embrace DIY methods of production and presentation where necessary.
9. Radical Violinists must ultimately use their music as a weapon against ‘moribund capitalism’, a radical subversion of the descendents of Imperialism.
10. Concluding Statement of the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Radical Violinist

Throughout the Manifesto these premises are broken down and explored in detail and then concluded within the final declaration. While not wanting to give away the conclusion I can hint at its general sentiment with a quote from Henry Flynt:

THE FIRST CULTURAL TASK IS PUBLICLY

TO EXPOSE AND FIGHT THE

DOMINATION OF WHITE, EUROPEAN-U.S.

RULING CLASS ART!

Since writing this Manifesto I have embarked on further writings that explore collectivisation, new decolonised forms of instrumental music, guerilla cultural activities and so on. I'll share more about this soon. I hope this clarifies some of the mystery surrounding the Radical Violin concept and opens up some discussion among those of you who stumble across this blog, as well as those of you who read it regularly. More soon... 

Finally...

Freeman Etudes by John Cage, performed by Irvine Arditti (excerpt) from John Cage Centennial Festival on Vimeo.

I lied....

Me, Tony Irving. Tim's kitchen in Annerley, Brisbane 25/10/2014

Broken Silence

Greetings, Just a quick post. Here's a write-up on the Duskdarter release by Tony Irving and I from earlier this year. Have a read and download the record if you haven't already. REEEEEAAAAAAAADDDDDDDD You should also download Kahl's release while you're at it as it's also fantastic. I promise to post something that isn't about me soon. Adam

Ceaseless Self-Promotion

Hello all, Just a quick post to inform those who stumble across here of some performances I have coming up in various capacities. 26 September - with The Australian Art Orchestra and Bae Il Dong - Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns. DETAILS 16 October - with Kupka's Piano @ Crossbows Festival - Ian Hanger Recital Hall, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, South Bank, Brisbane. Repertoire by Eotvos, Glerup, Cardew, and more. 6:30pm. 28 November - with Kupka's Piano "Absent, almost Absent" - The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. 7:30pm. DETAILS Leading up to the Tanks concert with AAO I will be participating in the innaugural AAO Creative Music Intensive. The public can attend the workshops at a minimal fee. DETAILS HERE. If you're in Cairns or visiting you should consider checking it out. Check out the fantastic movie Intangible Asset No. 82 for some inspiration.... There will also be some Scrapes gigs towards the end of the year, but as always you're best bet is to visit THE PLANET OF THE SCRAPES for details on our aktions. And we are getting very close to compiling a new album that will be sure to melt brains as always. That's all for now. Keep your ears peeled for some more Radical Violin recordings surfacing as I entered the QLD Conservatorium studios on Saturday morning armed only with my violin, some paperclips, a rubber band, steel mute and a little red Buddha machine with nothing but a book of Australian Bush Songs as my guide... Some writing publications are also coming up in December...more on that as it unfolds. Adam

New/Old Improvisation Available For Download Now

Fiddling For the People

An interview...

Hello readers, A very brief post for you to check out. An interview I conducted over email with Danish composer Rune Glerup on behalf of an ensemble I've worked with regularly this year Kupka's Piano. Performed the Australian premiere of his work La Rose Pulverisee with flautist Jodie Rottle a couple of months back. Here's the interview. INTERVIEW In other news I will be performing quite a bit in August as one half of The Scrapes: 22 August at the Bearded Lady, West End, Brisbane, Australia with Primitive Motion for the Brisbane Fringe Festival, FREE. 8pm and 23 August at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia for the Brisbane Fringe Festival, $9. 7pm. This will be part of a collaborative performance installation piece in the shop front curated by Melody Woodnutt. Love and Other Ecologies. We will also be performing at the annual Brisbane Psych Night on 30 August at an undisclosed venue in well...Brisbane. More to come on this one over at PLANET OF THE SCRAPES no doubt. In other news I've been recording a lot of solo violin stuff...almost every day. This will no doubt be used in some sort of strange invention and fed to you via the bandcamp format or via another willing label (if you have one don't hesitate to get in touch). And I've been writing A LOT. Publications are pending in some journals so when they are to be published I will point you in the right direction fear not. I will also be heading north for some interesting intensive collaborating which I will report on in the future. In the meantime look up there and click on the "Works" tab where you will find some new pieces and collaborations that you can listen to right there and then. Adam

New Old Improvisation Now Available For Listening

Hello all, A quick announcement that an improvisation for solo violin I performed live on the brilliant Ears Have Ears programme on Sydney's FBi radio in January of this year is now available in recorded form for your listening pleasure on the programme's SOUNDCLOUD PAGE and for your ease here it is embedded like a tick into this here blog. And last but not least please remember those of you in the vicinity that myself and guitarist Ryan Potter as THE SCRAPES are performing this Sunday the 13th of July at The Bearded Lady in West End, Brisbane. First set at 4pm second one at 6:30pm but come for all...if we get the chance we'll DJ some strange and wonderful sounds between the sets and will generally be making trouble around the bar area in our own slow, deliberate way. Come and greet. This same event will be occurring every Sunday for the rest of the month so don't miss a beat...or lack thereof. Adam

Collaboration with Tony Irving OUT NOW!

Out NOW on Duskdarter records the aforementioned collaboration with legendary non-linear drummer Tony Irving (known for his work with Stefan Jaworzyn in Ascension/Descension, and for other ensembles such as Unity Gain, Cyclone Trio, The Impossible, not to mention his own excellent solo works). All the details about the release can be found at the DUSKDARTER site. Best of all it's a free/pay as you like release! The launch for the album will be held this Saturday 5 July at the Waiting Room, Browning St, West End, Brisbane. 8pmish. $10. Come along and see Brisbane's cutting-edge underground new music community at its best with a co-launch of Kahl Monitcone's brilliant new recording, also on Duskdarter and an appearance from Built From Sticks, the solo project of Jamie Curran of Ghost Notes and Secret Black (another ensemble in which I also play). Definitely not to be missed!

Amplifiers for 'No Names'

Just recently discovered THIS very interesting article about Gondze/Gonje musicians in Northern Ghana and their desire for better amplification etc. What really makes it interesting is firstly the musical samples he has implanted in the article and secondly the fact that the article does not focus on Gonje/Gondze players associated with the chieftancy and other traditional stations, but rather with players working in the field of free lancing, or even just working in the field and playing some "reggae" on the Gondze with mates after work. This is a world of Gondze music I suspected existed while I was in Ghana but never came across it, my teacher being one of a long lineage of players associated with the chiefs of Savilugu and surrounding areas, and my southern location keeping me largely far away from the epicentre of these innovations. This ARTICLE is well worth a read and listen.

Crust Strings

Recently discovered this very interesting blog CRUST/PUNK/HARDCORE WITH STRING INSTRUMENTS featuring lots of links and streaming audio etc. of crusty bands with strings...basically as the title suggests...not sure of the quality of a lot of the music as I haven't had the time to listen, but an interesting thing regardless with a very nice logo in the banner...the way the world's going we might all be practicing and playing dressed like that in the not-too-distant future! Perhaps I should refrain from talking like that. Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will!

More Self Promotion

Good evening readers, Once again I'm afraid this post is about my own work. As previously stated here at Underground Violin I will soon be bringing out a new album of a new duo, that of myself and non-linear drummer Tony Irving. The album is coming out on the incredible Duskdarter Records as an online only, free, creative commons release. That's free free improvisation for the people. As any of you who drop in here regularly would know I play most regularly in The Scrapes and have released plenty of stuff through my own bandcamp and through labels such as Wood & Wire. Tony has jammed, performed and recorded with the likes of Stefan Jaworzyn, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, Lol Coxhill, Alan Wilkinson and more. With Jaworzyn he worked as Ascension and later Descension, and has also recorded with other ensembles including Unity Gain and his locally-based ensembles The Impossible and Cyclone Trio. So anyway enough talking us up. I think this list of words above here should give you a solid idea of what it all should sound like, but even better for you Duskdarter have put up a sample that you can listen to here! The project is named...well....after us....Tony Irving & Adam Cadell, and the album is titled "Some Shards For The Void". The album was recorded in a very unique and industrial space for a suitably cavernous resonance by The Scrapes/The Maryettas guitarist and singer-songwriter Ryan Potter. Ryan is also responsible for mixing and mastering this beast just as he has been for a lot of incredible underground sounds in Brisbane including our The Scrapes collaboration. Then there's the fantastic and utterly unique art, a film photograph by Melbourne-based artist (and one of my dear comrades from my time in Ghana) and activist Tom Reddington of one of his installations, with layout and design by another Melbourne-based artist, and Tom's housemate, Meagan Wyke. Here it is in all its glory:

So while that beast is unleashed on 3rd July 2014 the launch performance will be that weekend, the 5th July, at the Waiting Room in Brisbane's West End, a dual launch it shall be with Kahl Monticone who is also releasing a new album through Duskdarter on the 3rd July. His work is also well well worth checking out. The opener will be Built From Sticks, the project of Jamie Curran known for his fine keyboard playing in local group Ghost Notes, and also for his fine playing in Secret Black, an ensemble featuring myself as well. Complex and incestuous isn't it. Here's the poster for the launch:

OK that's all the info you need for this one. Get along to the launch if you can and don't hesitate to come and say hi. If not then head over to Duskdarter on 3 July and download aaaaalllll. Finish, Adam

New Album Out 5 July

Dear readers, So here I am self-promoting again. Firstly for anyone who's interested in my work in The Scrapes please head HERE and have a look at the Gig page for info on our many upcoming performances, including one as yet unlisted gig for the Brisbane Fringe Festival in August. But as the subject heading here suggests this is not about The Scrapes, rather this is about a new album coming out through DUSKDARTER. A duo free improvisatory meeting in a warehouse dungeon between myself and Tony Irving (Ascension/Descension) on drums. Tentatively titled "Some Shards For the Void", this album consists of around 7 blistering improvisations for violin and drums that bare some resemblance at times to the wild meanderings of the Revolutionary Ensemble or the messy exploring of the Rashied Ali & Leroy Jenkins duos. But really, comparisons aside, this is a meeting between two blokes blasting out sounds from the heart and guts, and captured by The Scrapes' eagle eared and Soviet microphone-toting Ryan Potter. Excitingly this album will be released as a creative commons online only release at this stage...ie. FREE! On 5 July 2014 with a launch performance, along with Kahl Monticone (who is also releasing an excellent new recording on the same label) at The Waiting Room, West End, Brisbane. This is not to be missed for anyone who can get there. Not least of all because the Waiting Room is a very special venue, a converted Old Queenslander - for those reading not from these parts they're old 19th century wooden houses on stilts - which, like many such buildings, has beautiful acoustics and nice soft floor boards to sit on...and as always it's BYO so you avoid atrocious booze costs at other live venues...I could go on for a long time about what makes this event appealing, but more than anything it's the music. So be there or be irrefutably square. Best, Dr Adams.

Jon Rose takes on Tchaikovsky and finds a place for Australian music

Man deserves a monument....a huge one...dropped onto parliament house from a sizeable height. "Australia...it's a frustrating place".

Violns of Doom

This post is just a heads up.

Hopefully soon enough I'll find the time to write up some more detailed stuff on this from my own perspective, but I stumbled across this excellent post over at The Day After The Sabbath blog. An odd one to run across, this fine heavy rock fiend has posted a post specialising in doomy prog rock of the 70s variety that features violin. Some seriously obscure stuff there. I honestly can't wait to listen. There's a long history of it written out there too. Anyway read and download the accompanying compilation HERE The violin features in a lot of the most out-there heavy rock of the 60s and 70s and it's very good to see this blogger giving this world of music some attention. I'll join them in that endeavour soon. Meanwhile. Listen in. PS. for anyone in Brisbane who may read this I will appear as violinist in new music ensemble Kupka's Piano tomorrow night at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art in Fortitude Valley. That's 23 May 2014, 7:30pm. Tickets are $30. I will be Australian premiering a piece by Danish composer Rune Glerup in duo form with flautist Jodie Rottle as well as performing pieces by Brett Dean and Gyorgy Kurtag with the rest of the gang. Be good to see you there. Adam

Til It All Melts Away....

Apparently all the tracks from my Wood & Wire release 'Til It All Melts Away are available for streamage on YouTube. Had no idea! Makes sense as it's Creative Commons. If you haven't already check them out and phase out to the excellent Kim B. Cadell painting as it's displayed on the screen. The album is still downloadable for free on CC licence HERE and HERE and probably a whole bunch of other places. Download it, bootleg it, use it in your movie. Do as you will! OK enough self promotion. More obscure fiddling advocacy to come sooooon. Adam

Township Violin Jive...Serious... Part 1

I know very little about this sort of music other than that it has a strong rockabilly vibe to it yet is distinctively different from it...sawing violin like no other this music is predominantly Zulu and comes stomping out of the Townships of South Africa. Incredible music. For anyone who hasn't yet best go check out a previous post of mine about the brilliant Jive fiddler Noise Khanyile...

Toure Playing N'jarka

There's nothing noted here to explain it but I'm pretty sure this is the legendary Malian griot Ali Farka Toure playing a bit of fiddle while he hangs out...incredible.

Some Serious West African Fiddling

Now here's a find. Some incredible one-string spike-fiddle shredding somewhere in West Africa (maybe The Gambia?) from 1989 apparently. Enjoy.

Violin and Kora

This video is interesting...not exactly my cup of tea approach-wise though. Definitely could be a lot grittier and dynamic...the violin more seriously mimicking and then transforming and subverting the Kora lines and vice-versa...perhaps that did happen - this is only a snapshot after all. Most importantly I thought I was the only white guy violinist other than Thomas "Kwame" Woernle who rocked traditional West African dress when playing! Nice one Max.

Samara Lubelski

Cathedral Vibrations

Plastic Bottle Ethiopian Mountain Scraping

India Cooke

Improvisation #3, April 3, 2009, OPCM from Bill Crossman on Vimeo.

Upcoming Performance and Release

Hello there, Just a quick post to let all know of two important upcoming events. Firstly I will be performing live on Fbi Radio, on the Ears Have Ears programme, for their soundtracks series. It will be a solo violin performance of an anti-colonial nature. 30th Jan Fbi Radio, Sydney Australia Ears Have Ears Ears Have Ears is a weekly experimental radio show featuring original soundtracks. 9-11pm Thursday nights on FBi Radio 94.5fm 9-11pm AEDT - can be streamed online and the performance will be put up on the Ears Have Ears site after the performance if you miss the broadcast. Here's a previous Ears Have Ears soundtrack performed by yours truly and Ryan Potter as The Scrapes a few years ago: YUNNAN BUDDHA MACHINE In other news. A NEW ADAM CADELL SOLO RELEASE to be released on the ADAM CADELL BANDCAMP 1st March 2014 No Address Adam Cadell - gonje and electronics Recorded live at Audiopollen, Brisbane, December 2013

The Archdrude Speaks on Adam Cadell Solo + Gig Tonight Brisbane

Hello all, We definitely have some things coming up in the New Year! New releases and performances and all sorts of things no doubt to announce when the time is right. There will definitely be a new live recording up on the Bandcamp soon...will be a document of a gonje exploration I did at a recent meeting of Audiopollen. Interesting indeed... So there is a gig happening here in Brisbane tonight with yours truly Adam Cadell and the down downerhome cuntry of Mr. Jackson Reid Briggs of Nikko and The Maryettas infame. 2 Jan The End Up From The Swamp - Adam Cadell + Jackson Briggs 8pm FREEEEE Don't fucking miss it. And here's another reason why. Mssr Julian Cope el Archdrude supreme has run across my solo works which you can find HERE for a small donation or even free if you're a cheap bastard (this is until 25th Jan after which they return to a standard price and you'll just have to pay OK). He's given me a very nice little write up in his New Years Drudion over HERE Here's an excerpt: "Anticipate instead the rural joys of Henry Flynt’s bucolic hoedown-a-thons but enlarged into La Monte Young levels of monotony, or imagine even an unaccompanied Tony Conrad embarking on a Faustless OUTSIDE THE DREAM SYNDICATE. For this single meditation remains at all times on course, even when Mr Cadell’s instrument takes on a curious French horn timbre." Julian Cope, Head Heritage Here's the poster for the gig tonight:

Happy New Year to all and sundry! Adam adam-cadell[dot]com