A signed DOUBLE CD containing 1 hour 58 minutes of music we’ve selected through the years since we started releasing music. Contains remastered solo audio works from the past 30 years, and collaborations with our friends Ergo Phizmiz, Wobbly, Matmos, Mr Rotorvator and Gwilly Edmondez.
We’ve not released a retrospective since 2002 (Recyclopaedia Britannica), and we are aware that we will not be releasing the new album until early 2024 since we’ll not be working on that in full after we’ve made a new performance (in progress!). And we want to do something NOW! PLUS this will also help keep things ticking over for us later this year when the Indiegogo funds run out.
Cafe OTO is proud to announce a new artist residency, featuring multimedia artist Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us. Vicki has collaborated with a wide range of artists and musicians; some are joining us for this 3-Day residency, both solo and in collaboration. The residency includes a preview of the new People Like Us audiovisual performance The Library of Babel.
PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ – Rhapsody in Glue Limited edition 12” lathe cut clear vinyl LP & download Release Date: 26 November 2022 Pre-order on Bandcamp from Friday 7 October 2022
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz are pleased to announce the release of a new limited edition vinyl album, “Rhapsody in Glue”.
Rhapsody in Glue began its journey as part of the Codpaste podcast on New York tri-state area radio station WFMU in 2008. With Rhapsody in Glue we find a unique approach to constructing a record. People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz decided to publicly tear apart their respective practices and create an album “in the open”, presenting on a seafood-filled-platter the process of collaborative collage composition – informally discussing and jabbering nonsense to one another, resulting in the Codpaste free podcast series. Rhapsody in Glue was the culmination of the ideas explored in the podcast series.
The album was initially released as an online-only release on Bleep in 2008, and now for the first time ever we are making it available in a Limited Edition of 100, hand numbered copies on 12” high quality remastered stereo lathe cut vinyl, hand cut by Bladud Flies! It comes with 300gsm inserts, lyric sheet, digital download codes, both for this, and also the original digital album release from 2008. The vinyl will ship with a polylined inner sleeve.
The vinyl will ship within a polylined inner sleeve. Includes a ‘lathe cut’ care card. Limited edition of 100, hand numbered.
An extended, taking-a-line-for-a-walk remix of People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz “In the Waking”, created for one of the opening concerts of King’s Place, London in the late 2000s. The song, a lullaby of a summer place, was created through the Codpaste podcast sessions which led to the collaborative album “Rhapsody in Glue”, and was later released as a 7″ on Touch. This unreleased version lets the song twirl off into a gentle polyphonic fantasia.
A programme of film shorts by People Like Us Q&A Vicki Bennett & Emily Bick (The Wire) Live performance to a new film score by People Like Us with Gwilly Edmondez & Ergo Phizmiz
THE WIRE 40: An Evening with People Like Us @The Cube Microplex (01/07)
Perhaps better known for her audio work, the opening night of The Wire’s 40th birthday celebrations focused on Vicki Bennett’s (aka People Like Us) films.
The evening started with an overview of the artist’s work including maximalist explosions of old industrial documentaries, tongue in cheek pop culture mashups, and recent immersive experiences. For me the extracts of longer works didn’t work so well, never having enough time to fully get into what was going on, but many of the short films were brilliant – from the hilarious mashup of The Hills Are Alive from Sound of Music and This Is The End from Apocalypse Now (The Sound of the End of Music), to the really quite moving combination of depictions of the moon in early experimental and comedy films, with music by Ergo Phizmiz (Moon). What was surprising and delightful was the lack of any cynicism – throughout, Bennett celebrated films from commercials to classics, with an obvious love of the moving image, and the people who made them.
The night really started to come alive with the Q&A with Bennett. The way she talked about her work confirmed her genuine joy in working with existing material. ‘Films want to be friends,’ she replied to questions about how she got things to fit so well together. ‘You do one thing for a long time and magic happens.’
Crowning the evening was a new work, with live performance by Bennett, Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez. It fulfilled the promise teased in the earlier clips, and showed the excellence of Bennett’s work when allowed the space to stretch out, by turns joyous and strange and beguiling. It seemed almost like a celebration of her own career, with clips returning to repeated motifs from earlier work; corridors and cameras, doorways and dreams. As a final encapsulation of the magic Bennett talked of we saw a satanic ritual mixed with a Dadaist poetry exercise; art as a demonic summoning, drawing something from the ether and binding it to yourself.
For this evening Bennett has put together a programme of her rarely-seen short films from the current century. The films will be followed by a discussion between the artist and Wire Deputy Editor Emily Bick, and then the premiere live performance to a new specially-made film score by PLU by the trio of Bennett, Gwilly Edmondez and Ergo Phizmiz.
Emily Bick is Deputy Editor at The Wire magazine.
Gwilly Edmondez is a performer whose primary aesthetic is Wild Pop, active both solo and in numerous collaborations. As Gustav Thomas he is one half of the duo YEAH YOU with Elvin Brandhi. Originally from Wales, he is mostly based in the North East where he has been on the staff of the music department of Newcastle University since 2004.
Ergo Phizmiz is a composer, writer, collagist, radio playwright, opera designer and director, who has created a vast body of work across media since 2000. They are currently designing moving images for The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Academy of Music, and working on the opera Adapting Don Quixote as a PhD at the University of Bristol.
The Wire 40 @ The Cube is a weekend of events marking The Wire magazine’s 40th anniversary. Other Wire 40 events are happening in London, Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow and streaming online during the month of July. See The Wire for more details.
We are very pleased to announce that Gone, Gone Beyond will be screening in it’s home town San Francisco in May 2022 at Gray Area. We say it’s the “home town” because although we live in London, the piece was originally commissioned by Recombinant Media Labs for CineChamber, the structure which we then built a replica of in 2021 and have existing in the UK.
All press inquiries should go to Gray Area, and if you have questions for People Like Us or Gone, Gone Beyond you can directly ask us.
Gone, Gone Beyond will screen at 6.30pm and 8.30pm each night. On the 25th there will be an artist talk followed by one screening – tickets can be bought combined or separately: https://grayarea.org/event/vicki-bennett/
SCREENING DATES:
12, 13, 14, 19, 20 & 21 May 2022 (two screenings per night) —- these screenings will be introduced by Naut Humon, original commissioner of Gone, Gone Beyond and creator of the CineChamber that houses our work. 25,26 & 27 May 2022 (two screenings per night) —- we will be present for these screenings and therefore will introduce the the 26th/27th, and it will be an artist presentation on the 25th.
All screenings are at Gray Area, Grand Theater, 2665 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 | info@grayarea.org | 415.843.1423
Covid policy: Full vaccination (no booster) | Masks strongly encouraged but not required
People Like Us will be doing a fill-in slot for Station Manager Ken on WFMU on Wednesday 27 December 2017 from 9-Noon NY Time (2pm UK). Gwilly Edmondez will be joining Vicki to sing some selections from the LP box set Now That’s What I Call Music. Ergo Phizmiz PLC will also be popping in to sing a handful of songs. Tune in at http://wfmu.org – live playlist and comments here.
Monday, July 3rd, 6pm – 7pm EST on DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU
Dominic Robertson aka Ergo Phizmiz One Summer’s morning Vicki Bennett was visited by Dominic Robertson aka the composer, writer, theatre director and collagist Ergo Phizmiz. He brought with him stories of political prophecy, homemade opera, and laments on the death of the internet-of-dreams.
ALL COMMISSION ENQUIRIES OR BOOKINGS FOR GONE, GONE BEYOND ARE TO BE DONE DIRECTLY WITH US THROUGH OUR CONTACT PAGE.
In-progress: live AV performance collaboration with Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez, Cafe OTO / Arts Council England [2023] In-progress: solo live AV performance “The Library of Babel“, IndieGoGo crowdfunded [2023] CuratorSpace Artist Bursary [2022] “Changing Your Mind” radio commission for Deutschlandradio [2022/2023] 108 radio commission for Radio Art Zone [2022] Mind Maps: The Art of Vicki Bennett Sheehan Gallery, Walla Walla, USA | [2022] Global Eyes video for THE THE [2022] PRSF Open Fund For Music Creators recipient [2021] Gone, Gone BeyondCommissioned by SPILL Festival of Performance, presented in partnership with Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA) and Barbican. Supported by Recombinant Media Labs (RML),DanceEast, nyMusikk, Gulbenkian, TouchDesigner, PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund and Arts Council England. Developed as part of Sound and Music’s New Voices Programme. [2021] a-n Artist Bursaries 2019 recipient [2019] I Can Fly new radio work for WDR3 [2019] Hallwalls Artist in ResidenceProject (HARP) artist [2019-2020] Sound and Music New Voices award recipient [2018-2020] New live AV performance “The Mirror” ACE Grants for the Arts [2018-2019] 8 speaker / 10 screen audiovisual installation “Gone, Gone Beyond” with Recombinant Media Labs and Cinechamber [2016++] Video editing/production for The The Comeback Special [Spring 2018] Can’t Stop What’s Coming video for THE THE [2017] Curation of radio station and artist residency (with John Kilduff) Optimized! on WFMU funded by National Endowment for the Arts [June 2016] No One Is An Island radio commission for WDR to be broadcast 9 April 2016 on WDR 3 [Summer 2015-Winter 2015] Curation of films for Concert of Collage, Watershed, Bristol [September 2015] Nothing Can Turn Into A Void, editing a feature length doc film by Carl Abrahamsson about Vicki Bennett/People Like Us [Spring 2015] Arts Council England award creating a new live AV performanceCitation Cityand new short films with artist soundtracks pdf [Spring 2014-Spring 2015] Book collaboration with Gregor Weichbrodt The Fundamental Questions[Summer 2014] Those Who Do NotT Shirt Commission [Summer 2014] Printed in a light blue and white on an electric blue T-shirt with The Wire logo and Vicki Bennett Those Who Do Not printed in light blue on the back of the neck. Limited edition of 100 shirts. Solo gallery show Shutter at Leeds College of Art pdf [Winter-Spring 2014] Touring award from Sound and Music for Notations[Autumn/Winter 2013] Two short animation films for Animate Projects/Channel 4 television, UK as part of their Random Acts Series [March 2013-July 2013] broadcast on national television in Autumn 2013 pdf Creation of online film with 7 artist soundtracksGesture Piece, commissioned by Pixel Palace at Tyneside Cinemapdf [Spring/Summer 2013] Creating a new live AV performance Consequences (One Things Leads To Another, commissioned by Arts Council England [August 2012-January 2013], supported by transmediale [January 2013] Music for live performance piece Lost and Found by Anne Juren [Summer 2012] Archiving Radio Boredcast on WFMU, commissioned by AV Festivalwfmu.org/playlists/ZZ [May-June 2012] Curating an online-radio station Radio Boredcast for AV Festival 12pdf [Sept 2011-March 2012] Sound and Music commission to make AVlive performance Horror Collage for The Sound Of Fear (later changed to The Magical Misery Tour Southbank Centre, London [September 2011] The Doors of Perspection at Vitrine Gallery London [July/August 2011] Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival commission to create a new live AV performance The Keystone Cut Ups with Ergo Phizmiz [2010] Curation of Nothing is New, Everything Is Permitted. as part of AV Festival 10 at the Star and Shadow, Newcastle [2010] Edinburgh Printmakers commission to create audio and artwork for a picture disc LP “This Is Light Music”, as part of their group exhibition “Prints of Darkness” to be shown at Edinburgh Printmakers in Summer 2010 then touring venues [2010] Grants For The Arts commission to create new AV performance Genre Collage [2008-2009] Great North Run Moving Image Commission 2009 – The Great North Run Cultural Programme – to create a film using the archives of the Great North Run, Paradepdf [July 2008-October 2009] Grants For The Arts commissionto release Rhapsody In Glue with Ergo Phizmiz on bleep.com – an album created with audio collage sourced from the podcast Codpaste (May 2008) Retrospective solo exhibition of People Like Us AV work, entitled We Edit Life at alt.gallery Newcastle curated by Rebecca Shatwellpdf [May 2008] Curation of CD Smiling Through My Teeth – Sonic Arts Network [May 2008] Forma/AV Festival commission Breaking Waves to make Bluetooth audio compositions for mobile phone [January 2008] Lecturing Music and Other Media at Goldsmiths [2006-2008] Wandsworth Film Awards commission to make short digital film Skew Gardens, exploring the boundaries of urban land use – [September 2007] Lovebytes commission in association with Millennium Galleries, Sheffield to make three screen AV film Work, Rest & Play [June 2007] Grants For The Arts commission to make podcast series Codpaste on WFMU, where People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz explore the working process of creating music from scratch [September 2007] Radio session for BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It [February 2007] Artist Residency at BBC Creative Archive with “access all areas” to work with their archive – Arts Council England (Interdisciplinary Arts) with BBC, White City – [March 2006] Grants For The Arts commission to create 10″ record to be given away for free in selected international record stores Honeysuckle Boulevard [August 2006] PRS Foundation award to create a new live performance (with artist Ergo Phizmiz) using dansette players and self-pressed vinyl compositions Boots! [June 2006] Sonic Arts Network / Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studio (EMS) commission working with Daphne Oram’s sound archive [Summer 2005] Grants for the Arts commission to create new live AV performance – [April 2005] LUX commission to make digital short film sourcing the LUX archive collection Resemblage [October 2004] Residency at FACT to make radio play Molaradio in collaboration with artist Felix Kubin and Croxteth school children [January 2004] Sonic Arts Network commission to make short film and subsequent DVD release – Story Without End [June 2004] Live performance with Wobbly for radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It, London Spitz [May 2004] BBC Radio 1 session for John Peel [January 2003] Future Physical commission to make digital short film The Remote Controller [June 2002] Baby Zizanie (JG Thirlwell and Jim Coleman) live video for BZ performed at David Bowie’s Meltdown at QEH, London (June 2002) Lovebytes commission to make short film We Edit Life[December 2002] Curated line up for Humour in Music event, Ether Festival at Purcell Room, London [May 2002] Year of the Artist Residency, Lighthouse, Brighton with Brighton & Hove Music Library, teaching sound collage [June 2001] Year of the Artist Residency, Hull Time Based Arts, making AV collage – [January-April 2001] Live session and BBC Radio 3 broadcast for Mixing It, Dingwalls [March 2001] Work & Leisure International commission to make new AV live performance – [September 1999] Ars Electronica – The Sound of Music live collaboration with Negativland and Barbed [Summer 1998] Various radio commissions for De Avonden on VPRO, The Netherlands [early 1990s]
From 6-10 June 2016 Vicki Bennett and John Kilduff were Artists in Residence at freeform radio station WFMU in Jersey City, NJ, USA.
NEW! Documentation Video:
This residency consisted of “Optimized!” – a week-long online a/v radio station which experimented with ideas of what radio might be in the world of high speed internet broadcasting.
The content included 26 new a/v artist commissions selected and programmed by Vicki Bennett, where people were invited to respond to the word “optimized”, John Kilduff’s live “Let’s Paint TV” daily video show which combines, painting, cooking and exercise, and an evening at the station with an in-house studio audience.
John Kilduff and Vicki Bennett Artist Residency – Expanded Radio at WFMU
WDR 3 Open Sounds presents : No One Is An Island by Vicki Bennett Vicki Bennett was commissioned by WDR (German Radio) to make a 28-minute radio work called No One Is An Island. This will premiere, alongside 3 other separate commissions (Iain Chambers, Ergo Phizmiz and Lucinda Guy) on Saturday, April 9, 2016, 22:05 to 00:00 (Mainland Europe – that’s 21:05 UK time). Background info http://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr3/programm/sendungen/wdr3-open-sounds/from-britain-104.html
Thanks to the following for taking their time to give me their thoughts about ideas: Ergo Phizmiz, Ava, Savanna, Rowen, Mathilde, Lila, Andrew Sharpley, Cameron, Katja Seltmann, Rick Prelinger, Iain Chambers, Jeff Carey and Falco, Graham Duff, Kenneth Goldsmith, Charlie Lewis, Henry Lowengard, Tim Maloney, Kevin Hamilton, Akāshamitra, Dorian Jones and Lenny, Marcus Boon and Jesse, Saraka, Suddhaka and Sunayaka.
No One Is An Island Where do ideas come from? Are they our own or are we channeling some spark from a larger flame? In this programme we examine the relationship between artists, writers, scientists and philosophers and the receiving, possession and transmission of ideas. Culture is a complex process of sharing and signification. Meanings are exchanged, adopted, and adapted through acts of communication. The tools we use – the photocopier, camera, computer, encourage, in fact insist upon the act of cutting, copying and pasting – it is second nature. Through mimicry and repetition we learn.
