Join us on Wednesday, 26th June 2024 from 9-Noon (NY time), artist and WFMU DJ Vicki Bennett, aka People Like Us, appears live on Ken’s show on WFMU. She’ll discuss her new album, COPIA, being a WFMU DJ, and presenting her latest audiovisual performance, The Library of Babel. You can watch the performance on Ken’s playlist page and through the WFMU front page.
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.
Happy to announce that we will return to our weekly radio show DO or DIY with People Like Us on WFMU for the Summer Schedule 2023 :). Mark your calendar for weekly shows through the season starting Wednesday 7 June, 7-8pm NY Time (that’s midnight-1am Wednesday night in the UK). Shows are, and have been archived in perpetuity for over 20 years now, which is exactly how long DO or DIY has been on WFMU, and is returning to its original slot after Seven Second Delay.
Follow the Listen link at the time: wfmu.org and then listen to the archive(s) here.
People Like Us return to WFMU for 3 hours on 28 December 2022, filling in for Station Manager Ken. It broadcasts live from 9-Noon NY time, that is 2-5pm UK time. Live playlist and comments here when it’s on.
People Like Us fill in for Station Manager Ken this Wednesday 17 August from 9am to noon, NY time (that’s 2pm to 5pm UK time) on our favourite radio station, WFMU.
DO or DIY with People Like Us will fill in for Station Manager Ken on WFMU on 22nd December 2021. NY time 9am to Noon, that’s 2pm to 5pm UK Time. Listen live locally on the radio in the tri-state area of NY, or online at WFMU.org
The People Like Us radio show DO or DIY returns to WFMU for the 2021 Summer Schedule starting Monday 7 June, every Monday night right through to September – 7pm EDT (that’s midnight Monday evening UK). https://wfmu.org/peoplelikeus
Hour 1 Vicki and Jon in conversation (recorded May 2021) Hour 2 Live Session with PLU, Wobbly and Don Joyce on Over The Edge, KPFA (2002) Hour 3 Live Session with PLU, Wobbly, Irene Moon and The Evolution Control Committee on WFMU (2002)
People Like Us host Aloha Fridays Friday, January 1st, 2021, 11am – 2pm on Aloha Fridays radio show (on Sheena’s Jungle Room Stream) Live Playlist: https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/99690 Join People Like Us who are hosting Aloha Fridays radio show for one week only… playing three hours of NICE THINGS on WFMU’s alt stream Sheena’s Jungle Room.
People Like Us have returned to the radio on WFMU for a 3-hour radio show from 9-Noon EST (that’s 2pm-5pm UK) for 4 CONSECUTIVE THURSDAYS filling in for DJ Trouble.