Kassettenkopf ; then Brussels, Montreuil, Amsterdam

january 15, 2009.

There's another nice idea that I recently came across, but that I forgot to mention in the previous post. Maybe that is because in fact it is an old one, but one that - happily - continues to resurface in different guises (though some variations are more interesting than others, of course). A categorical description of the idea that I mean would be: "leave something somewhere behind for someone to find it".

A relatively recent project in that category is 'I left this here for you to read', a collaborative magazine-art project initiated by Tim Devin, a Boston based artist and founder and former member of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra. ILTHFYTR is appearing 'every month or so' and is compiled from the stuff that is sent in answer to the project's open call for contributions. 50 copies are made of each edition, and then left in public places.

I sent Tim a one-page found tapes story as a contribution. Because also the tapes I find were left behind. Though I guess that nobody meant anyone to find them ...

This reminded me of Kassettenkopf.

In the summer of 2007 Kassettenkopf began to leave behind artfully decorated mixtapes in public places in Dublin. The one you see in the picture (right) was left "on a ledge beside the side-door into Connolly Station on Amiens Street, Dublin 1, at approximately 9.10am on Thursday 12th of June, 2008".
The Kassettenkopf-blog's latest entry dates from august 1st, 2008, and is a description of the eleventh tape set free in the streets of Dublin.
The blog contains a picture of each of the 11 tapes, as well as a detailed description of where it was left. With a little map. I have not seen any mention in the blog of one of these tapes being reported found. Since the last entry almost half a year went by, so I wonder whether maybe Kassettenkopf stopped making and placing his her ( * ) mix-tapes? Though I suppose the chances that all of the tapes are still out there in the streets of Dublin are pretty slim, some of them might still be there. Or somewhere near. Or maybe they wandered, and ended up somewhere else in Dublin alltogether ... I have never before in my life been there, but might just go to Dublin later this year. I then will pass through the city like a latter-day Leopold Bloom, and look for the 11 cassettes by visiting all spots where a mix-tape has been left behind. I will take their pictures with me, and will ask the people I meet whether they have seen them. It is thus that I will get to know the city. Let me start looking for the last one in the list, which Kassettenkopf "sellotaped to railings outside [...] the School of Cosmic Physics, 5 Merrion Square North". From there I will work my way back ...

More, but different, tapemania: in Brussels. I will set up a week-long expo and installation in Käämer 12, a gallery in Saint Gillis, in the rue Crickx straat, opposite - and related to - Les Ateliers Claus. The opening is on monday january 19th, at 19h. If you're in Brussels, consider this an invitation ... It will be a pleasure to welcome you there.
Until saturday 24th, the expo in Käämer 12 is open daily from 11h till 17h, while I will be working on new acquisitions for the Found Tapes Exhibition.
Ben Roberts might come over from Madrid, later in the week. If he does, we will try to do in Brussels what in july, in Berlin, we could not: use handheld tape heads to 'play' the sleazebag quote, 'written in tape' ...

In the wake of "? Footage or Fetish", of course, there'll be music. Jonas Kocher (who took his accordeon and second-hand electronics from Biel/Bienne to Amsterdam for a recording residency at STEIM from january 12th and 19th) and Raed Yassin will come over from Amsterdam to Brussels. With Jean-Jacques Duerinckx and myself we are going to perform as a quartet (accordeon, bass, sopranino-sax and dictaphone). First on friday evening (january 23rd), on the occasion of a 'soirée privée' organised by Zahava Seewald. On saturday afternoon (january 24th) we will do a studio session for Nico Bogaerts' Sounds and Emotions, on FM Brussel, and in the evening we end our four-piece adventure with a concert at Les Ateliers Claus.

Well, it is not really the end, because on sunday (january 25th) you may come again to see us play in the rue Crickx straat. Then we will animate an afternoon in Les Ateliers Claus's Siësta Session Series. Jean-Jacques and me will present an edition of 'A Table!', our ongoing series of post-alter free style performances dedicated to Daniel Spoerri. The picture (left) was taken by Patrizia Lugo, during our performance late october last year, also in Brussels, at the Sons Liberés festival. (Oh, almost forgot: you can now find "A Table!" also on MySpace ... we welcome friends ;:-) ...) Also Jonas and Raed will play again, duo and/or solo ... And we are looking forward to one other performance that sunday afternoon, by the belgian trio Onde, with Timo van Luijk, Marc Wroblewski and Greg Jacobs.

Meanwhile Rien à Voir, the visual arts program curated by Guillaume Constantin, with presentations preceding each of the concerts at the Instants Chavirés in Montreuil (just outside of Paris, France), this month features the ookoi. January 2009's Rien à Voir will be alternating projections of our 1024 (on january 18th, 23rd and 31st) and of l'Ecoute (on january 17th, 21st and 30th). Projections are from 20h30 till 21h.

On the occasion of ookoi @ 'Rien a Voir' we are giving away a (limited) number of free entrances to this january's events at the Instants Chavirés. To obtain one of those, email me, indicating for which date you'd like to be invited ...

Here's a picture of the ookoi at work in Amsterdam, sometime mid-december of last year. This was during our Winterland sessions ...

Winterland is the title of an upcoming ookoi audio release. It also is the title of Dick Tuinder´s new feature film, a 'psychological roadmovie' in which fictional (cartoon) character Sally Dewinter - played by the young Dutch/Japanese actress Kiriko Mechanicus - suddenly finds herself part of our (real?) world. She is trying to get back to where she came from: Winterland. Her quest is complicated by many things, among which there is the fact that when in search of Winterland, it is not so much for a place, but rather for a time that she should be looking ...
The Sally Dewinter character has been a focus in the work of author, filmmaker and visual artist Dick Tuinder already for many years now. Sally is his alter-ego, aged about 11, but with the intellectual capacities that come with young middle age, much like that of Dick himself. On her way to Winterland, Sally meets actress Tara Elders in a forest near the set for "Icarus", an experimental science-fiction film in which Tara is acting.
The recordings we made during our Winterland sessions will be part of the soundtrack for precisely this "Icarus", a film within the film ...

Together with «l´Ecoute» and «2525» (which is a 50 second videoclip with 2.550 ookoi guitar-hits that we shot during our Razende Bol-residency in the Archipel medialab, end of may last year, on the beach of the island of Ameland as a present for Rob Scholte, on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday), you may catch a sneak preview of "Icarus" as part of the visuals at Raudio's ookoi@E@rport, a 5 hour long media-extravaganza in the afternoon of saturday 31st, 2009, in the Theaterzaal of the Amsterdam Conservatory, that recently moved from the van Baerlestraat to a new building on the Oosterdokseiland, right in between the PostCS building and the Amsterdam public library, not far from the Central Station.
In the "Winterland" part of this Raudio event, ookoi will play a live soundtrack for "Icarus", and perform its "Winterland Aria", sung by mezzosoprano Cécile Zylberajch.

"E@rport" is a project initiated by young dutch composer Paul Oomen, who conceived of an ongoing post-fusion symphony, which, during the last weekend of january, will take shape as a 10 hour musical marathon: on friday evening january 30th, and saturday afternoon january 31st, Oomen will stage a chain of musical meetings between Amsterdam musicians and ensembles from a great many different stylistic persuasions and part of a great many different (sub)cultures (Mahgrebjazz, Jalliya Ensemble, Raphaella Danksagmuller, Fra Fra Sound, Eboman, Han Bennink, Babak Maddah Group, Mark Tongeren, the Zeedijkkoor and many, many more) in the Conservatory's Bernard Haitink zaal.

During the second part of the event, on saturday, Raudio will take the music, while it is being performed in the Haitink zaal, underground (literally, as the Theaterzaal of the Conservatory is situated on the -2nd floor of the building ...), only to, from down there, bring it via the internet all over the world. We will use it, alongside live performances by Tim Benjamin, Aris & Niels, ookoi and others, and streaming contributions from Lausanne (Blinde Kinder), Berlin (Radio On - Adrian Shepard & Rinus van Alebeek), Paris and elsewhere, as a building-block for Raudio's 24/7 E@rport webstream.

Check bagback, to read and hear more.
Later ...

notes __ ::
(*) [ corrected september 17th 2009 ] "Dear Kassettenkopf. Yes, I stand corrected, blushing and naked - in a matter of speaking - before you ..." [ ^ ]

tags: Brussels, Montreuil, Amsterdam, Dublin, ookoi, cassette culture, found tapes, E@rport, Raudio

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