Tag: live

Posted on

Tectonics Festival, Reykjavik

18-20 April 2013
TECTONICS FESTIVAL, Reykjavik

Curated by Ilan Volkov, Tectonics brings together musicians from different worlds and backgrounds for an audience that’s open and ready for new experiences and surprises. The festival will include young composers and pioneering figures, chamber music, orchestral music and electronic performances.

People Like Us are currently creating a new work entitled GESTURE PIECE*, which will premiere at Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik.  This is a film created for accompaniment by live improv musicians, who in this case will be the following performers: Skúli Sverrisson, Davíð Þór Jónsson, Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir, Hlynur Aðils.

Earlier that same evening, People Like Us will perform CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER).

Full festival schedule here.

**Please note: The film for live improvisers Gesture Piece has now changed its name to Notations

Posted on

The Magical Misery Tour now on UbuWeb!

We are very pleased to present…

Our audiovisual performance from 2011, THE MAGICAL MISERY TOUR on UbuWeb.

http://ubu.com/film/plu_misery.html

This concert was created between June and September 2011 and premiered at “The Sound of Fear” at London’s Southbank Centre on 3rd September 2011, under the working title of “Horror Collage”. Now that the full length live set has been completed we have changed the name to something more fitting with the content. The source material is 95% from horror movies, with the content portraying not so much a scary nightmare but a journey through the underworld of everyday human experiences. It is not true to say you do not relate to this kind of horror movie. Truth is stranger than fiction. Having said this, People Like Us, as ever, see the positive and sometimes humorous side of the most ghastly scenerios, and by accompanying the edited found feature film footage with new sample collage pop songs, elevate you from the swamp.

More media from this project here.

Thanks Ubu!

 

Posted on

CONSEQUENCES (ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER) performance by PEOPLE LIKE US

Introducing the new People Like Us audiovisual performance:
Consequences-press-image_web5

“Consequences”, has two definitions; it is the result of some previous action, and a game (called Exquisite Corpse by the Surrealists) in which a larger picture/narrative is created by assembling subject matter “blindly” in relation to a small amount of information made visible before it as a continuation point.  As a result, content surprisingly and sometimes magically changes over a short period of time or space, with every part still connected to that which goes before or after it.

This new audiovisual performance by People Like Us places similar but emerging subject matter side by side to construct the narrative, where a story emerges as a sum of the parts that came before it yet digresses on a tangent.  All actions have consequences, and here we see them played out, to wondrous and catastrophic effect!

“The subject of authenticity, the “original” in relation to the “copy” (coming from the word “copia”, meaning multitude and abundance) interest me as an artist working in the field of collage and appropriation.  “Original” has limited connection with “quality” or “engaging”, and (at least in the past 300 years) nothing created as an object or product can be traced 100% to an origin – everything is relative, literally – it has a mother and father.  Much like speed, dimensions, size, the terms are reliant upon the conditions of the person experiencing it, where they are and when, there is NO absolute.  This is reflected when very similar creative works and inventions occur at the same period by people who have no knowledge of each other’s works existence.  In Consequences we reflect that no man is an island, but the island has lots of mirror mazes… in fact some mirrors can be walked through.” — Vicki Bennett

People Like Us “Wonderful” [2012]

Trailer and Excerpt:

Performances:
Transmediale, Berlin – 31 January 2013
La Casa Encendida, Madrid – 15 March 2013
XOYO, London – 19 March 2013
Tectonics, Reykjavik – 20 April 2013
Colchester Arts Centre – 4 May 2013
Nuits Sonores, Lyon – 8 May 2013
Only Connect Festival, Oslo – 8 June 2013
Lab Festival, Augsburg – 25 & 26 October 2013
Newcastle Star & Shadow – 31 October 2013 (part of NOTATIONS Tour)
Sound of Stockholm Festival – 8 November 2013
Manchester Kraak – 14 November 2013 (part of NOTATIONS Tour)
Leeds Hyde Park Picture House as part of Leeds International Film Festival – 16 November 2013 (part of NOTATIONS Tour)
London Cafe Oto – 29 November 2013 (part of NOTATIONS Tour)
Bristol Arnolfini – 30 November 2013 (part of NOTATIONS Tour)
L’Embobineuse, Marseille, France – 15 March 2014
Hamburg Hörbar – 9 May 2014
Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre Here To Go Symposium – 31 May 2014
Now retired but available as film screenings:
Recombinant Festival 2017, Grey Area San Francisco – October 2017
Other Cinema, San Francisco – 7 April 2018

Press images:

Consequences at Colchester Arts Centre
Consequences at Colchester Arts Centre
Consequences Live in Madrid
Consequences Live in Madrid
Posted on

3 New Releases! DVD! 7 inch! Digital Download!

PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ BRING YOU…
THE KEYSTONE CUT UPS DVD / MOON MAGIC 7″ / THE KEYSTONE CUT UPS DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
DVD and Digital Download Release Date: 31 October 2012
7 inch Release Date: 13 November 2012
Label: Illegal Art IA131 illegalart.net
https://peoplelikeus-vickibennett.bandcamp.com/merch/the-keystone-cut-ups-dvd

We’re very pleased to announce the release on Illegal Art of a DVD, 7″ single and digital audio album!

When People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz premiered The Keystone Cut Ups at the Berwick Film and Media Art Festival in 2010, it was met with praise and wonder. Invoking a dreamlike atmosphere from the pairing of surrealist avant-garde cinema and silent-era comedy films with the quirky, yet emotionally resonating soundtrack carved out a unique sector of musical entertainment. This project stands tall as a statement against an industry that often flounders in its own creative bankruptcy.

Until now, this experience has only been available to those fortunate enough to see it performed live. But this October, people all over the world can see what all the hype is about for themselves when Illegal Art releases The Keystone Cut Ups on DVD, as well as just the musical portion as a digital download and as a 7′ single.

The festival commissioned the project in July of 2010 as an attempt to achieve something that would excite audiences in ways they were never expecting. People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz composed forty-five minutes of music that is simultaneously whimsical and poignant. Once the soundtrack was in place, visuals were assembled around the audio in order to create a stimulating assault on the mind that evokes a sense of the surreal and fantastical.

Tracklist:
1. Orchestra 2. Hats 3. Statues 4. Thelma Todd 5. Machines
6. Aquopalypse 7. Chess 8. Magic 9. Spinning 10. Moon

The Keystone Cut Ups will play all regions, worldwide.

MOON MAGIC 7″ SINGLE by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz
Available to purchase from 25 October 2012
Actual release date: 13 November 2012
Illegal Art IA702 http://www.illegalart.net

“Moon” and “Magic” is a AA side 7 inch single, also on the Illegal Art label. Both tracks are taken from The Keystone Cut Ups DVD.

DOWNLOAD THE KEYSTONE CUT UPS AUDIO IN MP3 OR FLAC FORM
From the Illegal Art Shop
http://illegal-art.net/shop#release131

 With this release, Illegal Art continues to embrace a pay-what-you-want business model for high-quality downloads. All label releases over the last five years have been issued (or reissued) under a the flexible payment system. People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz also have a history of offering free downloads of entire projects, both new and old.

REVIEWS so far

The Wire
Feature in WIRED
God Is In The TV 

Posted on

John Cage at BBC Proms

Prom 47: Cage Centenary Celebration
7.45pm, 17 August, Royal Albert Hall, London

To mark the centenary of John Cage’s birth, Ilan Volkov has curated a programme that reflects the composer’s iconoclastic thinking, fertile imagination and arresting humour.
John Tilbury, who has for decades been associated with Cage’s work tonight plays the exquisitely beautiful Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra. Cassette players and plucked cactuses are just two examples of the blindingly original yet almost naively simple thinking that saw Cage – wittingly or otherwise – upturn practically every musical rule in the book.

The following pieces will be performed over the course of the evening, and Vicki Bennett will be one of eight participants performing “Improvisation III” and “Branches”.

Cage – 1O1 (12 mins)
Cage – Improvisation III (12 mins)
Christian Marclay – Luggage 2012 – improvisation for orchestra (c5 mins)
Cage – Atlas eclipticalis/Winter Music/Cartridge Music (30 mins)
Cage – Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra (20 mins)
Cage – Four2 (7 mins)
Cage – But what about the noise of crumpling paper … (15 mins)
Cage – Experiences II (3 mins)
Cage – ear for EAR (Antiphonies) (2 mins)
David Behrman, Takehisa Kosugi, Keith Rowe & Christian Wolff – Quartet – improvisation (c25 mins)
Cage – Branches (20 mins)

More information here: bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2012/august-17/14218