New People Like Us album – Copia

“COPIA” by People Like Us (Cutting Hedge SNIP003)
CD & Digital Download

https://peoplelikeus-vickibennett.bandcamp.com/album/copia

People Like Us, the project of artist Vicki Bennett, announces the release of “COPIA” on June 7, 2024. This album marks the first new musical material since “The Mirror” in 2018, delving into the profound realms of existential collage and sampling, celebrating these forms as expressions of timeless connectivity.

The title “COPIA,” meaning ‘abundance’ and ‘copy,’ reflects the essence of collage and sampling — art crafted not in isolation, but as a connective thread through time and space, linking ideas across generations in a seamless tapestry. By reconfiguring preexisting sounds and images, Bennett highlights the non-dual nature of creation — where distinctions between past, present, and future possibilities blur, revealing a shared foundation beneath. The album marks a return to not just solo works but collaborations with notable artists.

Drawing from the new People Like Us live AV performance, “The Library of Babel,” sampling and edited sound collage, electronic music, combined with Ergo Phizmiz’s lyrics and melodies, “COPIA” weaves and recombines a timeless blend of diverse elements that transcends traditional musical boundaries. This creative process unfolded through the exchange of multitracks across both water and ether. Collaborating with the voices, instruments and editing timelines of Matmos, Hearty White, Gwilly Edmondez, Lottie Bowater, Buttress O’Kneel, Douglas Benford, Irene Moon, Jon Leidecker, and Matt Warwick, the work evolved exquisite corpse-style. 

“COPIA” will be available on Bandcamp as both a physical CD and digital download. Accompanying the release, live performances of “The Library of Babel” will continue both in the UK and abroad in the coming months, including potential live collaborations with Ergo Phizmiz and Gwilly Edmondez.

“Bennett has proven herself an alchemist of popular music, able to push her source material into fresh and engaging places. Where some artists hack existing instruments and technologies to create their new sounds, Bennett has circuit-bent the songs themselves.” – Spenser Tomson, The Wire Magazine

Listening to “Copia” is like hearing music for the first time, as if the concept was completely new. You keep creating art that feels like that first shock-of-the-new you get when you step off a plane after you’ve landed in a new country. Something that wasn’t known, or knowable, somehow appears.”  – Charles Powne, Soleilmoon

About People Like Us

Since 1991, People Like Us has been at the forefront of audio-visual collage, opening up endless opportunities to experience results that are more than the sum of the parts. Embedded in her work is the premise that all is interconnected and that claiming ownership of an “original” or isolated concept is both preposterous and redundant. Vicki Bennett’s project serves as a modern-day continuation of the collage tradition, highlighting the interconnectedness of all artistic creation.

For further information, promotional materials, or to arrange an interview, please contact us.

Video of our Cafe OTO residency!

We’ve made an edit of the video that we shot of our Cafe OTO residency, here it is.

edit by Vicki

Thanks to those of you who managed to attend the event, and all of you who’ve helped fund my IndieGoGo campaign this year, along with our Patreons who help us on a day-to-day basis to pay for our rather steep usage of computer-related electricity power, and Café OTO for being totally brilliant. And of course, my friends, the artists, my inspiration!

Now we will return to making more of our solo performance The Library of Babel (which you see an excerpt of in the above video), continuing to make a new album.

People Like Us Residency at Cafe OTO

PEOPLE LIKE US Cafe OTO ARTIST RESIDENCY 
27 / 28 / 29 OCTOBER 2023

PEOPLE LIKE US | MAGGIE NICOLS | ERGO PHIZMIZ | GWILLY EDMONDEZ | POREST | IRENE MOON | ERIK BUNGER | HEARTY WHITE

Vicki edit of our residency!

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.

Changing Your Mind

Changing Your Mind is a new 50-minute crowd-sourced radio collage work by Vicki Bennett. It will be broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on 14 April 2023 at 0:05 (German time).

Meditation is a means of transforming the mind and has been practised for thousands of years. It encourages concentration, and clarity, and can have a transformative effect that can lead to a new understanding of life, and be used as a creative tool. This is a crowd-sourced audio collage by Vicki Bennett, where 48 participants respond to questions about the subject of meditation and consciousness and their experiences and relationship to this.

LISTEN:

List of participants:
Abhayadevi, Akashamitra, Rahne Alexander, Tim Atkins, Vicki Bennett, Marcus Boon, William Boon, Liz Bot, Leanne Bryan, Falco Carey, Jeff Carey, Leon Clowes, Stephen Coates, Will Edmondes, Diane Farris, Jem Finer, Louise Gray, Maya Gürbüz, Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, Phil Hallett, Kevin Hamilton, Dan Hayhurst, Mark Heath, Pea Hicks, Seth Horvitz, Peter Jaeger, Felix Kubin, Henry Lowengard, Tim Maloney, Lasse Marhaug, David McConville, Alex McKechnie, Irene Moon, Karen Oates, Kira O’Reilly, Ratnadeva, Sanghasiha, Saraka, Vic Scarborough, Nikolas Schreck, Adrian Shephard, Vanessa Sinclair, Sue Slagle, Suddhaka, David Toop, Vidyadasi, Pete Wallace, Richard Whitelaw

30 Years of People Like Us – Cafe OTO gig with PLU and friends

30 YEARS OF PEOPLE LIKE US – PEOPLE LIKE US + POREST + GWILLY EDMONDEZ + IRENE MOON + ERGO PHIZMIZ at CAFE OTO London

CAFE OTO, LONDON
TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2021, 7.30PM
£16 DOOR | £14 ADVANCE | £8 MEMBERS

An evening hosted by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us), featuring live performances from Porest, Gwilly Edmondez, Irene Moon, Ergo Phizmiz and People Like Us.

Get tickets well in advance here because Cafe OTO gigs are selling out quickly.
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/30-years-of-people-like-us/

Supporting Negativland in London

(L-R) Mark Porest, Jon Wobbly/Negativland, Mark Negativland, Vicki PLU and Irene Moon

People Like Us will be on the same performance bill as Negativland for the first time in 22 years at London’s Cafe Oto on 27 October 2019, performing The Horror!! An a/v concert which selects from the more scary (and funny) segments of Vicki’s work, newest and old. Also on the bill the following night will be our friend Irene Moon.
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/baba-yagas-hut-presents-negativland/
(update – 27th has sold out, tickets still available for the 28th, no PLU, but Irene Moon instead)

Stage times :
Doors 7:30
Yuko – 7:50 – 8:20
People Like Us (27th) / Irene Moon (28th) – 8:40 – 9:10
Negativland – 9:30 – 10:50

OPTIMIZED! Expanded Radio Stream on WFMU!

OPTIMIZED! Expanded Radio Stream on WFMU 6-10 June 2016, Noon-3pm (EST)
Playlists & archives: http://wfmu.org/playlists/UP
Documentation: https://peoplelikeus.org/2016/optimized-wfmu/

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

optimized-schedule
Noon-2pm: 10 hours of new/exclusive recordings, radio & video by 26 participants. Programmed by Vicki Bennett / People Like Us
2pm-3pm: Daily video shows live from WFMU’s Monty Hall by John Kilduff / Let’s Paint TV – Mr Let’s Paint will take your calls! skype: letspaintwfmu
3pm-5pm: repeat of noon-2pm schedule
9 June 2016: A live expanded radio event at Monty Hall with Let’s Paint TV & People Like Us / DIFM (Do It For Me) with Pseu Braun

Pseu Braun DIFM (Do It For Me) at Monty Hall

Continue reading “OPTIMIZED! Expanded Radio Stream on WFMU!”

Radio Boredcast is now a 24/7 Radio Stream!

boredcastlogo

People Like Us have revamped the DO or DIY radio stream, and as of Noon EDT on 3rd April 2013 it is now streaming Radio Boredcast!

Radio Boredcast is a 744-hour online radio project that celebrates all things SLOW.  And fast too, actually.  Crank it up to wind down and enjoy this selection of specially made radio shows by 100 different artists and some WFMU DJs too!

Click and listen to the 24/7 Radio Boredcast stream here.
(Download the little file linked to above – the stream works through iTunes so let your computer launch this application if prompted.  If it doesn’t launch then find the small file that you downloaded and double-click on it)

Those of you who already have the DO or DIY stream bookmarked, it will automatically switch over to the new stream for you.

Matmos: M.C. Schmidt, Drew Daniels

You can also listen to Radio Boredcast shows on demand here.
More on the history of Radio Boredcast here.

28March-Kawara

Irene Moon on DO or DIY

Wednesday 17th August 2011, 8pm – 9pm (NY time) on DO or DIY with People Like Us
Irene Moon

Irene Moon and the Auk Theater love drama, insects, crime, and examinations. All of these elements make great theater and all occurred at Princess Anne High School documented in the record yearbook created to archive the 1963-1964 school year. Irene found the record in a thrift store in early 2011, but had no idea the demon she uncovered! Of course, these elements could only be discovered in the recording by reading between the lines, backmasking, and interviewing people who know a lot about many things. The new historical drama is filled with music from Nine Fingered Thug, Juules Trakker, Yellow Tears, Secret Boyfriend, Kites, Kevin Blechdom, and, naturally, Lawrence Welk. 
Irene Moon is an entomologist at North Carolina State University who participates in music and theater. She has the duel focus to advance appreciation of art in the halls of science; as a means of connecting the public to entomology and increasing awareness of the art and creativity intrinsic to the scientific process.
Find out more information about Irene Moon, Auk Theater and the Begonia Society at www.begoniasociety.org