We’re very pleased to confirm that as well as performing with Bill Nace as Body/Head, Kim Gordon will be presenting her installation Reverse Karaoke at Supersonic Festival. This collaborative installation by Kim Gordon and Jutta Koether consists of a painted Yurt style tent housing a lo-fi rehearsal set-up with guitar, microphone, bass, and drums. The visitor is invited to play the instruments and record their own music along with a pre-recorded vocal track of Kim Gordon’s voice. The track is recorded live by a sound engineer who burns two CD copies of the track, while the visitor decorates two CD sleeves using materials in the gallery. One copy of the CD becomes part of the piece itself on display in a record box, and the other the visitor takes home.
Another new highlight includes Modified Toy Orchestra , festival alumni who first performed in 2005 (some may remember the set that was cut short due to the bomb scare) and again in 2006. In 2012, Modified Toy Orchestra continue to explore the hidden potential and surplus value latent inside redundant technology; a process creating sophisticated new electronic instruments from abandoned children’s toys. The results of this process can be shockingly beautiful, funny and also extreme.
In partnership with Sound and Music, Supersonic present a half-day extended panel discussion exploring contexts for the presentation of sound works and performances and approaches to listening. Bringing together artists, academics and industry professionals Counting In: The Art of Listening is an opportunity to discuss how artists and producers can best stage work, how audiences can be best encouraged to enjoy it and how we can all become better listeners. Participants in the panel discussion include artist Lucas Abela (aka Justice Yeldman), music writer Frances Morgan (deputy editor at The Wire Magazine), curator Irene Revell (Electra) and Dr.Simon Hall (composer, sound engineer and academic).
In-keeping with tradition, Supersonic proudly announce the Kid’s Gigs programme which will this year feature Flower/Corsano Duo and Islaja, the sole aim being to create big sounds with little people. Though really, this is fun for all the family!
Other programme additions include:
Grey Hairs – The kind of raucous grunge that can only be created by kids from the 90s
The Outcrowd’s Festival of the Rea – An exhibition exploring the lost myths and pagan rituals of Digbeth
Moonn – A haunting performance inspired by the Heavens Above, featuring Conny Prantera and Mark Wagner of Sunday Mourning
Wildman Life Drawing – A drop in drawing session featuring a semi tame Wildman
SOUNDkitchen – Electroacoustic composers perform in the Theatre Space
Scratch ‘n’ Phase – Come and destroy some CDs and needles in the name of noise in this sound work where you control the volume.
Blood Harvest – A collection of films looking at the wild stuff that happens way out on the back roads. Curated by Network Awesome.
Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine’s 2009 drama centred around an elderly cult in Nashville, Tennessee
Black Mass Rising – A lo fi experimental film exploring visions of the darkness, The Mystic, The Occult, The Religious and The Apocalypse.
