STEWART EASTON: THE NEXT VERSE
A3 Project Space | Unit A3 2 Bowyer Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B10 0SA
Sat & Sun – Sat 13 June & Sun 14 June, 12pm – 5pm

Breaking the traditional boundaries of craft, Stewart Easton’s latest work, The Next Verse, fuses together hand embroidery, sonic art and music.

Collaborating with sound artist, Gawain Hewitt, and musician Michael Tanner (Plinth, United Bible Studies), Stuart’s stitch work forms a meter square of interactive embroidery that follows the lifecycle of a fictional family. The major plot lines of The Next Verse are hand stitched by Stuart using conductive thread and a soundtrack composed by Michael is triggered by touch, each person creating their unique soundscape. Stuart will also be developing a site specific wall drawing in the gallery during the exhibition.

Stewart Easton is a visual storyteller based in London who works in thread, ink, paint and digital. www.stewarteaston.net

A3 Project Space is an art venue in Digbeth run by Trevor Pitt, who curates an evolving programme of projects, exhibitions and events.
www.a3projectspace.org

Please note that A3 Project Space is in a slightly different location to the other organisations taking part in Digbeth Delights; it is not part of Minerva Works but is only a short stroll away.

Sunday 14 June – 12.00 – 17.00
admission free
Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5RT

Start your Supersonic Sunday at Minerva Works. A host of Birmingham’s best independent spaces present an afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks. Expect brutalist composition, contemporary improvisation, punk protest art and poetic robotics.

DISSIDENTS AND DREAMERS: ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN ART FROM THE EAST AND WEST
Centrala Gallery / Unit 3
Gee Vaucher/ Oskar Kasperek /Radosław Włodarski

Centrala Gallery presents a selection of punk protest art and documents, produced before the fall of the Iron Curtain from the East and West, including works by Gee Vaucher, Oscar Kasperek and Radosław Włodarski. Gee Vaucher’s iconic imagery made with Anarcho-punk band, Crass, was inspirational to the ‘protest art’ of the 1980s and still resonates today. Vaucher has always seen her work as a tool for social change.
From the same period but on the other side of Europe and under a different political system, Oscar Kasperek’s work is equally provocative and thoughtful, from his portraits of fellow prisoners, to his use of stamps, which leave small traces in the environment to present a dialogue with the surrounding world. In conjunction with the exhibition, Centrala Café will be presenting the contemporary work of Radosław Włodarski.
14.30 -16.00 Talk
Centrala will host a talk with artists Gee Vaucher, Oskar Kasperek and Nic Bullen, discussing their experiences in punk counter-cultural production. Chaired by John Robb, editor of Louder Than War.

[TO]FASHIONFISSIONFUSION – TADAS STALYGA
AND MATTHEW SPRINGER
Home For Waifs And Strays / Unit 9

[to]fashionfissionfusion is a flux of bodies, soundscapes, projections and languages. It is a meeting point for the cinematic, theatrical and performative. It can be seen as performance (or, in a sense, a happening) as performers negotiate the present moment, which enters the work and forms its backbone. It can be seen as theatre, but not one where the border between the performer and the audience is reinforced, where the lines, movements and sensibilities are rehearsed beforehand. It can be seen as cinema, but without a priori script, narrative or conclusion; one where editing, filming, acting, soundscape, narration happens simultaneously. There are no shots, actions or sounds which are unfit; knowing, not knowing, clarity and confusion trade places.
www.hfwas.co.uk

FIZZLE PRESENT REACT
Stryx / Unit 13
An exciting programme drawn from the best of Birmingham’s thriving improvised music scene. Featuring British improv legends alongside talented young musicians making their mark on the national circuit, expect cutting-edge electronics, immersive string duets and acoustic free jazz at its best.
www.stryx.co.uk

SARAH ANGLISS, TRACE: MUSIC AND POETIC ROBOTICS
JOHN CAGE: VARIATIONS VII (SCREENING)
Vivid Projects / Unit 16
In this short performance devised and presented by Sarah Angliss (composer and roboticist) and Emma Kilbey (actor), breaths, gestures and other human actions seem to be echoed in changes to lamps, cups and other objects. You can choose to observe these events as they unfold, or influence them further by hooking yourself up to the set.

In 1966, ten New York artists and thirty engineers and scientists collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music, and theatre performances, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering. The ten artists included John Cage, whose Variations VII was the next to last in his series of indeter- minate works begun in 1958, and which made increasing use of electronic equipment and systems to capture and manipulate sounds present at the time of the performance. Don’t miss your chance to see this rare and historical film, consisting of archival footage of the performance and documentary interviews.

Vivid Projects is a collaborative agency and project space, exploring all forms of media arts practice.
www.vividprojects.org.uk

BEND YOUR TARMAC THROUGH MY EARS:
HONOR GAVIN PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST TALK WITH AIDEEN DORAN
Grand Union / Unit 19
Musician and writer, Honor Gavin, talks to artist, Aideen Doran, about their shared interest in Birmingham’s architecture and the influence it has had on their artistic endeavours.
They will talk from within the setting of Im Bau, an experimental research space devised by artist Aideen Doran. Im Bau brings together Aideen’s research on Birmingham as a space for artistic, economic and ideological production.

The talk will be followed by Honor Gavin performing sounds from Yes Manzoni, a sonic celebration of Birmingham’s twentieth century urban transformations.
Grand Union is a gallery and artists’ studios that supports the development of artists and curators through provision of high quality work space and an experimental programme of free exhibitions and events.
www.grand-union.org.uk

We’re Delighted to finally be able to share with you Richard’s Dawson’s Supersonic Special Delight is Right Podcast. Thanks to The Quietus for hosting. Enjoy it with a twix twix twix twix twix twix.

Don’t miss out on Richard Dawson’s Delight is Right – a limited capacity afternoon of performances from Richard and some of his favourite artists from the UK around the world – on Sunday 14 June as the finale to Supersonic. Tickets available now.

Last weekend Circumstance’s ‘pedestrian symphony’, A Folded Path, took place at Bristol’s Mayfest, receiving rave reviews and much Twitter fanfare.

@ofcircumstance Thanks for letting me be a part of #afoldedpath last night. Such a beaut experience. @mayfest pic.twitter.com/3sBfg6cUGg

— Charlotte Newman (@Newnaan) May 24, 2015

Described as a soundtrack for a city, 40 custom built speakers are carried through the streets by a participating audience of strangers. The music and spectacle is experienced by everyone they pass.

What an unbeatably captivating experience. Meandering thru #Bristol swith an ensemble of strangers #AFoldedPath @ofcircumstance #mayfest

— Aliya Mughal (@AliyaMughal1) May 21, 2015

Working it’s way through Bristol’s streets, A Folded Path encouraged the inhabitants of the city to hear and see their familiar landscape differently.

#afoldedpath is a beautiful experience! #mayfestbristol Hearing the city differently, shaping the way we might respond to it tomorrow

— Jane Faram (@FaramAuFait) May 20, 2015

The next instalments of A Folded Path take place as part of Supersonic Festival 2015, following a super secret walking route throughout Digbeth.

"Why are all of them carrying boxes?" @ofcircumstance #AFoldedPath made me think differently about the city. Special. pic.twitter.com/LqWfck7mQz

— Jonathan Harper (@jojoharper) May 20, 2015

As a Supersonic Festival weekend ticket holder, you can sign up for this immersive and stimulating performance by emailing russell[at]capsule.org.uk

Sessions are as follows:

. Friday June 12th – 7.45pm
. Saturday June 13th – 2.45pm
. Saturday June 13th – 5pm

Please specify which session you would like to attend when emailing to register.

Supersonic tickets are on sale now.

The usual: peace, love, the environment and getting rid of the Tories.

Rhodri Davies is no ordinary harpist. He pushes the instrument into previously unchartered territory, building fire and ice installations and exploring the cultural associations of the instrument through solo works, improvisation and frequent collaborations. His project with Richard Dawson, Hen Ogledd, is a true meeting of souls. Rhodri has also recently performed on Jenny Hval‘s new record, Apocalypse, girl.

Our friend Poppy Twist of fine Birmingham two-piece, Table Scraps asked Rhodri some questions. Here is what he wrote back:

Supersonic is proud to be based in the Home of Metal. What is your hometown the ‘home’ of?
My hometown is Aberystwyth. Pen Dinas hill, just south of the town, was the home of Maelor Gawr, the early Celtic king and giant. When he was caught and sentenced to death by his enemies, he was allowed his final request to blow on his horn three times before his execution. The first time he blew the horn his hair and beard fell out. On the second blast all his fingers and toenails fell off. On the third blast, the intensity of the sound broke the horn into tiny pieces.

Describe your favourite piece of visual art

Ben Patterson’s “Questionnaire”

please answer this question carefully.

yes ☐

no ☐

Plug an artist, artwork or idea you think deserves more recognition

I can’t big up Emma Hart and Lina Lapelyte’s work enough!

www.emmahart.info

www.linalapelyte.com

Who – or what – do you stand for?

The usual: peace, love, the environment and getting rid of the Tories.

You’re curating a dream festival line-up and can pick any artists living or dead. Who makes the cut?

Maryanne Amacher, Albert Ayler, Derek Bailey, Captain Beefheart, Bow Gamelan Ensemble, John Butcher, Laura Cannell, Philip Corner, Datblygu, Richard Dawson, Baby Dee, Julius Eastman, The Ex, Chris Forsyth, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, HOSE, Jenny Hval, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Kan Mikami, Phill Niblock, Bill Orcutt, Oceans of Silver and Blood, Ben Patterson, Crisialau Plastig, Sun Ra, Eliane Radigue, Otomo Yoshihide and Neil Young.

Ela Orleans (HB Recordings, Parental Guidance) is a Polish musician now based in Glasgow, UK. She was a member of pop collagists Hassle Hound, has played with various luminaries of the New York experimental and noise scenes and is a composer for the screen and theatre. Over the course of Orleans’ music career, her tagline and brief description for her music has always been “Movies for Ears”. In the work Orleans pushes her pastoral pop roots into more cinematic terrain, experimenting with carefully considered sound art segments, complex electronic textures and orchestral flourishes.

“She is Moondogmatic in her intransigent commitment to producing compositions of subtlety and incongruent beauty. These are polysemous confections which make you feel that you are listening to pop music for the first time again”. Time Out NY

Chicago based experimental musician, Circuit des Yeux (aka Haley Fohr), has created a wonderful mix of Acid Folk music, which we thought we’d share with you as a sound track to the Bank Holiday. Circuit des Yeux released her debut album for Thrill Jockey last week. Called In Plain Speech, it showcases Fohr’s expressive baritone voice and her complex song writing, which is influenced by her deep study of Ethnomusicology.

The mix is available to stream at Kit Records. Thanks, Circuit des Yeux, for introducing us to the talents of Thomas Mera Gartz, amongst many other extraordinary tracks. We recommend that you definitely do not miss her at Supersonic! Tickets available now.

Happy Bank Holiday, one and all.

Friday 22 May
Eastside Projects
Doors 6.30pm
Tickets £4/5 on the door

We’re delighted to be partnering with Ideal to host long time friend and supporter of all things Capsule, John Doran the editor of The Quietus. Doran is celebrating the publication of his first book – Jolly Lad – by going on a 31 date reading tour called An English Trip. He is teaming up with other writers, poets, film makers, musicians and DJs over the course of a month and putting on nights in prisons, churches, libraries, record shops, book stores, village halls, warehouses and cinemas and his musical support on every night of the tour is Kjetil Nernes aka Arabrot, the Norwegian noise rock musician.

The night they have planned at Birmingham’s Eastside Projects is a real cracker. Anglo Trinidadian wordsmith Roger Robinson (King Midas Sound, Techno Animal, Attica Blues) is performing dub poetry from his new album Dis Side Ah Town (Jahtari Records). Twisted Leeds party starters Chrononautz are bringing the live techno vibes. John Doran is reading passages from Jolly Lad and also performing various incantations and rituals concerning black holes, the dismemberment of Dapper Laughs, ghosts and Birmingham bus timetables while backed ably by Kjetil Nernes from Arabrot.

“When I came up with the idea for An English Trip I wasn’t very well. I was not, let’s say, in my best state of mind. I’d just had a nervous breakdown and my doctor had advised that I spend some time as a voluntary inmate in a psychiatric facility. Normally when people have lengthy manic episodes terminated by a crash they are given medicine. I was given an Arts Council grant, a road map of England, a friendly Norwegian noise rock savant with his own van, a Stonehenge-looking assemblage of amplifiers, a BOSS Space Echo pedal, some print outs of poetry about black holes and a copy of JB Priestly’s English Journey. I talk a good game when I’m out of my fucking mind you see.”

Tickets are available from www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-english-trip-tickets-16433586299

We’ve been blogging an awful lot about Holly Herndon lately, which reflects her emergence in recent months as one of the most exciting artists and thinkers working right now. Every week there’s a new media treat from Holly, including killer quotes like this, which get us very excited indeed about her appearance at Supersonic:

We need new fantasies, new archetypes, new strategies and new ways to love. All of the power we need to make something special happen may well be found in the rooms we dance in

This week, Fader have released a fascinating article highlighting 10 radical ideas that Holly has woven into her new album. It offers an insight into the highly collaborative way in which Holly creates, and the rare density and complexity of her work.

Don’t miss the chance to see Holly Herndon, who plays on Saturday at Supersonic:

Tickets – weekend tickets priced at £60, and newly released day tickets as follows: Thursday £15, Friday £27.50, Saturday £37.50.

With the weekend of Supersonic Festival 2015 drawing ever nearer, there’s yet more tantalising activities and opportunities to share,  and today, we can welcome in the following.

All Ears, an exhibition, curated by Supersonic Festival, that has its basis in the music boxes that can be found in the Birmingham Museum’s rarely-seen collection of artefacts and instruments. These fascinating and charmingly archaic music boxes will be on display during All Ears, where artists including Owl Project, Sarah Angliss, Morton Underwood and Paul Gittens have also created new works in response to the innovation of early technology and programmable music machines.

On Friday 12 June, Supersonic in partnership with Many & Varied will host Bees In A Tin, a day of presentations and demonstrations by artists whose work crosses between the arts, science, technology, and games. Knowledge will be imparted from the sound philosophisers Robert Curgenven and Duncan Speakman, as well as Farmers Glitch, Owl Project and many more exciting thinkers and tinkerers who are out to challenge and champion their fringe fields of interest and areas of expertise.

One of the most exciting prospects for the festival is the arrival of the internationally renowned Moog Sound Lab, which will be housed at Birmingham City University’s Parkside campus for four weeks, with artists in residence invited to explore, experiment and compose on these iconic and revered instruments.

Gazelle Twin (the twisted Cronenberg-inspired persona of producer, composer and artist, Elizabeth Bernholz – who is also performing a set at Supersonic Festival), Sarah Angliss (an award winning composer, roboticist and historian of sound) and Free School (Birmingham retro-futurist, mask-donning disco duo, exploring a unique fusion of Electro, House, Balearic and Kosmiche), as well as a number of academics and students from Birmingham City University, will immerse themselves in the Moog Soundlab.

Here’s a quick recap of last week’s extra curricular activities which were announced – The Memory Band’s British Library Commission, Children Of The Stones, John Doran’s reading from his debut book Jolly Lad, Ben Chasny’s workshop explaining his Hexadic System, a talk with Rob Chapman about his new book Psychedelia and Other Colours and as an extension of the Digbeth Delights exhibition at art space Centrala, there will be a panel discussion with Gee Vaucher (known for her iconic imagery with the punk band Crass), Nic Bullen and artist Oskar Kasperek, chaired by John Robb to talk about outsider art and music.

Tickets can also be bought at the Supersonic website, with weekend tickets priced at £60, and newly released day tickets as follows: Thursday £15, Friday £27.50, Saturday £37.50. Richard Dawson’s Delight is Right is limited capacity and only available to those with 3 day passes.
Digbeth Delight is a free afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks located in artist-led spaces based in the area

Birmigham duo Steve Alcock and Andy Porteous take retro-futurist disco as a starting point, which we think is a pretty great beginning for anything, frankly. Their sound develops from there into a unique fusion of Electro, House, Balearic and Kosmiche. A couple of rubber lamb masks are the proverbial icing on the cake for a fun trip for all.
www.soundcloud.com/free-school

An exhibition of new works responding to innovations in early music technology.

Monday 1 – Sunday 14 June | open 10:00 – 17:00 daily | admission free

Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XE
www.millenniumpoint.org.uk

The mechanisation of sound creation began as soon as technology allowed it. In the 19th century, mechanical musical instruments such as barrel organs, symphonions, orchestrions, euterpeons and miniature music boxes proliferated. Equally marvelled at and loathed for their tinny, repetitive reproductions of classical pieces and show-tunes, these programmable machines can be seen as the ancestors of today’s electronic and digital instruments. Birmingham Museums’ collection of ornately decorated mechanical instruments, on display in the All Ears exhibition, reflects on the transition of music from real-time, human generated sound to the myriad ways in which technology shapes how we produce and consume music today.

Optikit  – Owl Project
www.owlproject.com/

Owl Project are combining ideas from the Symphonium music boxes in the museum collection, with more experimental techniques of optical sound developed in Russia during the early 20th century, such as the Variaphone and the ANS Synthesiser.

The Symphonium was very fixed in its musical remit. The notes were set to a Western scale and the sequences on metal disks, which were hard to change. In response, we are developing an unfolding music box that can be reconfigured in a multitude of ways. Assembled from a bespoke kit of paper discs, synth modules, motors and fixings, the Optikit will generate endlessly changing beats and rhythms throughout Supersonic Festival.

Owl Project is a collaborative group of artists, Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. Drawing on influences such as 70’s synthesiser culture, DIY woodworking and current digital crafts, they work with wood and electronics to create music making machines, interfaces and objects.

New Automatic Party Organ
Sarah Angliss Colin Uttley + Eve Warren
www.sarahangliss.com

This five-octave pipe organ has been designed as an automatic party instrument. People can call up tunes by placing RFID-tagged request cards on the lid. The pipes come from two scrapped Welsh chapel organs. They’ve been stripped, rewaxed and regilded, then arranged in an asymmetric sweep that’s reflected in the shape of the new windchest (the box of air under the pipes). The paintwork is inspired by an 18th century harpsichord cabinet but uses soundwaves as a decorative motif. The air inlet, for example, is cut in the shape of a wavefront.

Sarah Angliss is an award winning composer, roboticist and historian of sound whose music reflects her fascination with European folklore and long-forgotten machines. In performance, Sarah mixes theremin, saw and ancient instruments with live electronics, with an ensemble of musical automata of her own design and construction.

Amplification
MortonUnderwood
www.mortonunderwood.co.uk

Amplification is a stereo acoustic amplification system, developed to encourage deep listening to environmental sounds within a space. Users of the system can augment their listening through two large ear trumpets. They will also be able to adjust the stereo field of what they can hear by swivelling each horn.

MortonUnderwood were struck by the developers’ efforts to amplify the sound output of the music machines on display in the museum collection. In a world where we can easily dial in more electronic amplification, many of the innovative approaches seen in the collection are now obsolete. Through Amplification, MortonUnderwood hope to highlight the beauty of passive, acoustic amplification systems.

MortonUnderwood is a musical instrument design and sound art duo made up of equal parts David Morton and Sam Underwood. to amplify the sound output Their work mainly explores acoustic systems and sub-bass.

Oak Apple Orchestra
Paul Gittins
www.modernshadows.com/oak-apple-orchestra.html

A collection of instruments and objects played by clock motors. Oak apples, attached to the secondhand, hit the strings at two second intervals and then strike and fall back. Each instrument has several clock motors, positioned to select specific notes. This selection then repeats to create an endless rhythm. The structure of intervals between the notes is essentially random, producing an infinite number of variations, and the clock motors can be switched on and off using a bluetooth control, changing the shape of the rhythm. The instruments produce a continual stream of minimal music with a two second beat.

Paul Gittins works with a variety of media, producing interactive shadow shows with screens of paper pixels, in theatres and outdoor festivals. He is currently developing an orchestra of self playing instruments that will be attached to trees in woodland locations.

All Ears is a Millennium Point Trust commission, curated by Capsule and delivered in partnership with Birmingham Museums Trust. The exhibition is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

www.millenniumpoint.org.uk

Our buddies, Supernormal host a DIY Paper Turntable Workshop to test your new vinyl purchases from Supersonic’s Market Place. Come along to learn how to make your own portable, manually spun turntable and take it away with you. Materials provided – just bring records! Supernormal folk can also be found playing some tunes from their upcoming music programme and other obscurities over the weekend.

www.supernormalfestival.co.uk

Bunny is an artist, illustrator and obsessive fanatic, raised in Birmingham and currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Her work is heavily inspired by popular culture and fanaticism, with recurring themes including music, teen angst, pro wrestling, animals and idols. Previous collaborations with Capsule include exhibitions, t-shirt designs and infamous trading card sales at Supersonic 2009, 2010 & 2012, as well as creating the ‘Home of Metal’ project family tree. Bunny returns to the festival selling prints, zines, badges and stickers in addition to vintage trading cards, cult memorabilia and treasures from Japan.

www.bunnybissouxart.com

Roger Clarke, founder and creator of the Record Player Orchestra, will lead a workshop that will give you the opportunity to experiment with the record player as an instrument. Engagement with the stylus’s physical placement on the vinyl is key and no prior skill or expertise is needed. By discovering how to play the record player, participants can start to understand the qualities and particularities of this instrument, what kind of playing might be possible and what might be more problematic.

recordplayerorchestra.com

The Record Player Orchestra are brought to you in partnership with A3 Projects Space. Based in Digbeth, Birmingham A3 supports contemporary artists to develop their work and their relationships with audiences.

a3projectspace.org/

Rope Press, [RHP] CDRs

Rope Press is the home for independent printing and publishing in Central England. Following a residency at Rope Press, artist and curator, Ryan Hughes, presents a performance-lecture on the subject of production and distribution within the digital age. Ryan works under the banner [RHP] CDRs, a limited edition record label and research unit. He will discuss his work, incorporating examples of music he has produced or released via [RHP] CDRs.

www.rhpcdrs.wordpress.com

I must leave behind trying to dominate a room with just my voice and guitar, because a sea of people will always overpower one woman, and I can’t afford to be slaughtered night after night. I no longer want my guitar to be used as a weapon.

Chicago-based experimental musician, Haley Fohr, aka Circuit des Yeux, plays Supersonic on Saturday 13 June. Haley is one of those artists whose talent and vision is so complete that it feels as if you are being drawn in to another world. We’re hugely excited that she is joining us this year and we think we’ll be talking about her for many years to come.

You can now stream Circuit des Yeux’s new album, In Plain Speech at FACT.

Individual day tickets for the festival are available from here

Holly Herndon’s hotly anticipated first release for 4AD, Platform, is now streaming. The electro innovator will play a headline set at Supersonic Festival on Saturday 12 June.

Listen at NPR music now.

Day tickets for the festival just went on sale, so don’t miss out.

Tickets – weekend tickets priced at £60, and newly released day tickets as follows: Thursday £15, Friday £27.50, Saturday £37.50. Richard Dawson’s Delight is Right is limited capacity and only available to those with 3 day passes £80, Digbeth Delight is a free afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks located in artist-led spaces based in the area.

Following our most recent announcement about the debut of The Bug vs Dylan Carlson from Earth headlining Saturday night of Supersonic Festival, it’s now time to turn to reveal more treats we have lined up for the audience to partake and participate in across the four days.

The net has been cast wide while choosing the following guests and artists, who will be presenting visual, literary and live entertainment to ensure that the senses are stimulated from beginning to end. The festival, broken down across four day and nights, commences on the Thursday with the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble opening concert with special guest Stuart Maconie of BBC 6 Music.

Friday has performances from The Pop Group, Gazelle Twin, Happy Meals, Ravioli Me Away, Sex Swing, Apostille, Wildbirds and Peacedrums.

On the Saturday: The Bug Vs Dylan Carlson, Liturgy, Six Organs of Admittance, Eternal Tapestry, Dirty Electronics, Woven Skull, Circuit Des Yeux, Slow Magic, Flamingods, Liima, Holly Herndon, Selventer and Tomaga! can all be found across various venues.

Sunday plays host to Richard Dawson’s afternoon of curation, hailed Delight Is Right and featuring Afework Niguisse, Jiri Whele, Rhodri Davies, Phil Tyler, and Angharad Davies.

Alongside the wealth above we can announce these welcome additions…

Supersonic Festival are delighted to be partnering with the British Library Sound Archive to create a new commission as part of the Capsule Labs, an artist development and commissioning scheme devised to create more opportunities for commissioning experimental, cross-disciplinary art. Stephen Cracknell, founder of The Memory Band, has worked with selected material from the Library’s archive to create a new work, Children of the Stones, intended as a sonic celebration of British Primitive, mixing archival recordings, natural and industrial sounds, traditional melodies and original field recordings alongside a new acoustic score.

Talks, workshops and films…

Supersonic is partnering with Faber Social to present acclaimed author Rob Chapman talking about his new book Psychedelia and Other Colours, that explores in crystalline detail the history, precedents and cultural impact of LSD. From the earliest experiments in painting with light and immersive environments to the thriving avant-garde scene that existed in San Francisco even before the Grateful Dead and the Fillmore Auditorium. Sitars and Sergeant Pepper, surfadelica and the Soft Machine, light shows and love-ins – the mind-expanding effects of acid were to redefine popular culture as we know it.

Ben Chasny from Six Organs of Admittance will give a workshop on his Hexadic system.  Charts and diagrams will be provided for audience members to document and leave with their own compositions. Ben will also give a talk on the Hexadic System and how it relates to the 13th century monk Ramon LLull. Llull’s influence on serial and combinatorial thought, poetics and hermeticism will be addressed. In addition he will be demonstrating the system in a dual with fellow guitarist Rick Tomlinson of Voice of the Seven Thunders fame – not to be missed!

John Doran is celebrating the publication of his first book, Jolly Lad, by reading passages from the book and also performing various incantations and rituals concerning black holes, the dismemberment of Dapper Laughs, ghosts and Birmingham bus timetables.

Friday 12th June marks the Birmingham Premiere of the Made You Look Documentary, a film about creativity in the digital age, exploring the landscape of the commercial art scene in the 21st Century, followed by a special Q&A session will follow the screening, Made You Look features interviews with leading creatives including: Hattie Stewart, Ian Stevenson, Sam Arthur (Nobrow), Sophie Dauvois (OKIDO Magazine), Anthony Burill, Ben the Illustrator and Kate Moross.

On Sunday 14th June as part of Digbeth Delights, a host of Birmingham’s best independent spaces present an afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks. Expect brutalist composition, contemporary improvisation, punk protest art, and poetic robotics. Highlights include Dissenters and Dreamers at Centrala, a new gallery, café and venue with a particular focus on Central and Eastern European culture, presenting an exhibition of Anti Authoritarian Protest Art and Music from the East and West. The exhibition is a selection of Punk protest art  and documents produced before the fall of the Iron Curtain from the East and West, including works by Gee Vaucher and Oscar Kasperek. Gee Vaucher’s iconic imagery made with Anarcho-punk band Crass was inspirational to the ‘protest art’ of the 1980s and still resonates today. From the same period but on the other side of Europe Oscar Kasperek’s work was equally provocative. Gee will be in conversation with Nic Bullen co-founder of Napalm Death.

Apostille / Afework Nigussie / Angharad Davies / Circuit Des Yeux / Eternal Tapestry / Flamingods / Gazelle Twin / Happy Meals / Holly Herndon / Jiří Wehle / Liima – Efterklang + Tatu Rönkkö / Liturgy / Phil Tyler / Ravioli Me Away / Rhodri Davies / Richard Dawson /  Selventer / Sex Swing / Six Organs of Admittance/ Slow Magic / The Bug vs Dylan Carlson From Earth/ The Pop Group / Tomaga / Wildbirds and Peacedrums / Woven Skull

More live music, and further details about the Moog Sound Lab + Bees In A Tin + All Ears still to be revealed in the coming weeks…

Tickets –  weekend tickets priced at £60, and newly released day tickets as follows: Thursday £15, Friday £27.50, Saturday £37.50. Richard Dawson’s Delight is Right is limited capacity and only available to those with 3 day passes £80, Digbeth Delight is a free afternoon of avant-garde performances, workshops and talks located in artist-led spaces based in the area.

I’m interested in communicating with people, I’m interested in getting ideas across and not alienating people. I’m interested in introducing alien sounds, and alien aesthetics, but I’m not interested in alienating people.

Few artists seem as attentive to exploring the present moment than Holly Herndon, a fascinating electronic artist, originally from Nashville but now based in LA and at Stanford University. We love the way she combines a love of pop music and culture with a cerebral, challenging and fearless edge. Read her in depth conversation with art music imprint Infinite Greyscale, who released her previous LP, Body Sounds, at Kaput Magazine.

Tickets to this year’s Supersonic Festival are available now so don’t miss out – via The Ticketsellers/See Tickets/Milque & Muhle and Plugd

John Doran is celebrating the publication of his first book, Jolly Lad, by reading passages from the book and also performing various incantations and rituals concerning black holes, the dismemberment of Dapper Laughs, ghosts and Birmingham bus timetables.

“This is not a ‘my drink and drug hell’ kind of book for several reasons – the main one being that I had, for the most part, had a really good time drinking. True, a handful of pretty appalling things have happened to me and some people that I know or used to know over the years. But I have, for the most part, left them out of this book as they are not illuminating, not edifying and in some cases concern other people who aren’t here to consent to their appearance. Instead this book concentrates on what you face after the drink and the drugs have gone.”

Celebrating Supersonic’s occupancy of South & City College Birmingham, local historian Ben imagines what would feature on the syllabus and what would be created in the workshops were Capsule to become permanent vocational fixture here. This visionary academy excels in Fine and Applied Skulpture, intricately crafted by students under the tutelage of Digbeth’s skilled precision engineers, to striking effect. Even with a skeleton staff, the course promises to transform even the least promising bonehead to fully qualified artisan. That is, if students are prepared to bone up: dead heads need not apply.

‘The florid filigree reanimates the skulls from grotesque to elegant and the results are showcased in display cabinets to attract trade and inspire commissions. The college is keen to boast the ancient traditions of Digbeth: the skills, customs, rituals and bone-lore unique to the area. From here, they are exported around the world to collectors of anthropological oddities and industrial wonders. This perpetuates the legacy of the craft and ensures that it never dies out.…’ Skulls Out Forever!

Dissenters and Dreamers at Centrala, a new multifunctional space in Minerva Works run by PEA, it’s a gallery, café and venue with a particular focus on Central and Eastern European culture. Centrala Space presents an Exhibition of Anti Authoritarian Protest Art and Music from the East and West.  This particular exhibition is a selection of Punk protest art  and documents produced before the fall of the Iron Curtain from the East and West, including works by Gee Vaucher and Oscar Kasperek. Gee Vaucher’s iconic imagery made with Anarcho-punk band Crass was inspirational to the ‘protest art’ of the 1980s and still resonates today. From the same period but on the other side of Europe Oscar Kasperek’s work was equally provocative.

Gee will be in conversation with Nic Bullen, founding member of Napalm Death as part of Digbeth Delights on Sunday 14 June.

Ben will be giving a talk on the Hexadic System and how it relates to the 13th century monk Ramon LLull. Llull’s influence on serial and combinatorial thought, poetics and hermeticism will be addressed. In addition he will be demonstrating the system in a dual with fellow guitarist Rick Tomlinson of Voice of the Seven Thunders fame – not to be missed!

Over the last two years, Ben has assembled a comprehensive system of musical composition. Designed to free sound and language from rational order and replace calculation with indeterminacy, THE HEXADIC SYSTEM is a catalyst to extinguish patterns and generate new means of chord progressions and choices.

THE SYSTEM builds all of the tonal fields, chord changes, scales, and lyrics on this record, creating the framework for the songs with which the musicians engage. Yet THE SYSTEM is open; within the framework,
 Chasny’s own personal aesthetics—such as the production mode of loud guitars, the order of songs, the editing of length—were all conscious decisions made to communicate the pieces. The ex- act same combinatorial patterns used on this record can create infinite results, depending on the choices of the individual. Ben’s years of study have produced an operational agent that has not only built all the songs on Hexadic but is also a system anyone can use to restructure their ways of habit.