I am delighted to present the film of Hymn To The Manhattan Bridge.
On June 21st 2011, I played a theremin under the Manhattan Bridge for 24 hours, starting and ending at midnight. Sensors on the bridge above me registered the passing of each cyclist, creating a moment of silence for everyone who cycled over the bridge that day. This film is a record of that day.
I have been looking at photos of DUMBO, this area of Brooklyn, preparing for the approaching hurricane Irene. I am struck how different it all felt when I was there, only a few weeks ago.
I thought I was going to do a quick retrospective of Hymn To The Manhattan Bridge, but I haven't - mainly because it took me quite a bit longer than I'd expected to get back to normal after the excellent but exhausting New York experience. And then other things came along that had to be dealt with first. However... the good news is that one of those things has been the film of Hymn To The Manhattan Bridge; it's finished and ready for public perusal. It's a big file that's uploading now, so once that's happened I'll put it up here, most likely tomorrow.
In the meantime, here is a short my-eye experience taken during my 24 hours playing music within the Archway under the Manhattan Bridge.
The road digger had an air horn alert thing that killed all sound around it - it was quite painful to walk near it. Someone said it was my nemesis - how can you make slowly developing textural music with that racket going on? - but it really captured something of the manic buzz of the area for me - the trains, the trucks, the roadworks. Here's a little two-part film - the digger doing its skraaark! thing, then my theremin-created musical response.
This phone camera video is in no way a taster for the full film.
Click here to go to the Hymn to the Manhattan Bridge connectivity page, where you'll be able to listen live to the piece as it runs, and even see what I'm looking at from time to time as well. If I remember to turn my phone camera on, that is. The piece is going to run from midnight to midnight Eastern Daylight Time throughout June 21st 2011, which is 5am on June 21st until 5am on June 22nd in the UK. Connections will come online close to midnight in New York. It's a noisy, buzzy place, New York. Going to be interesting.
A WEB PREMIERE!
I am thrilled to present Bevis Bowden's remarkable film of my 24 hour theremin performance under London Bridge.
This film is 17 minutes long. Watch it in HD and full screen for best effect. A three minute excerpt can be viewed just below.
Enjoy!
Adrian Larkin from the brilliant 6 Music was the only journalist who came while we were rigging the equipment for London Bridge, and stayed an admirably long time into the wee hours, especially when you listen to what sounds I was making during the setup. "This is not usual music." Adrian, I salute you! Earlier today he sent me a copy of his report. I love the pedestrian he found - "Have I done anything wrong or anything?"
It’s more than a week since Hymn to London Bridge. Yesterday was the first showing at the Thames Festival of Bevis Bowden's film of the performance, and this tight deadline meant we had to go straight into putting the film together the moment the event had finished and the theremin was packed away. The irony of doing a 24 hour performance and then having to listen to the whole of it again, immediately, was not lost on me. It reminded me a bit of that couple who videoed their front garden every day while they were at work, and then watched the video every evening in real time, hoping to catch the neighbour flytipping. A self-perpetuated loop of unreality. Despite feeling quite tired I couldn’t be any happier with how it all turned out. The technology worked perfectly, especially the Soundbeam muting system; you really did feel the presence of the passing pedestrians above as the blips of silence occurred, and the character of the piece developed exactly as I’d hoped it would throughout the day. In the middle of the night the theremin drones were almost continuous. There was one 30 minute spell where no one walked across the bridge at all. These early hours of Thursday morning were very beautiful, a real memory to be cherished. It was a warm, very still night, the river glassy. I built up a rather beautiful, simple loop that I was happy to let run, unaltered, for the couple of hours until dawn. I felt a genuine connection with the few solitary people who cut the sensor beam.  London Bridge at 4.30am The dawn was really quite something. It crept up on us quite slowly, and still no one was around. Here's a view of dawn, looking towards HMS Belfast and Norman Foster's City Hall, next to where the film was shown last night.
Armed only with a theremin, Nick Franglen is hymning London's commuters, and they'll be helping - whether they know it or not.Next Thursday, I am going to be playing a theremin under London Bridge for 24 hours. I will be starting and ending at midnight, in a slowly developing collaboration with the thousands of pedestrians who cross the bridge. I'll be situated on the walkway beneath the arches, feeding the output of the theremin into a series of loop and effect pedals to create continuous, complex washes of sound that will be audible on the walkway around me. Pedestrians crossing the bridge above will unwittingly affect this output: as they pass by, they will cut a hidden beam on the bridge that will momentarily mute the music I'm making, a little blip of silence imprinted by each passing pedestrian throughout the 24 hours.
At some point in the mid-90's I went to a big music gear trade show in Los Angeles. Erroneously walking up one of the dead ends, where they put the acoustic foam and insulated cable ties manufacturers, I came across, stone me, Bob Moog at a stand no bigger than a 6ft square. On his own with a theremin. I knew that he had been making theremins, having just seen the (essential) Theremin documentary in which he features heavily, but it really did come as a surprise to see him there. We got talking, and even played his theremin together with headphones on. I really should add that to my CV. When I got back to the UK I ordered a theremin from his company in North Carolina. They are now 'fully assembled with a beautiful ash cabinet', but not back then - it came as a partial self-assembly kit, a bit of soldering, that kind of thing. I sprayed it silver metallic so it would look all space age, but I did it quite badly so it also looks a bit car on its third respray. I've never screwed the lid down because the insides are slightly out of alignment so the power cable doesn't fit where the hole is. It's number 100 or something so I guess they had only just started making them. When I had my photos taken on Monday the wind blew it out of my hand, and it fell apart on London Bridge. I've got it back together again, but I hope that's not a bad omen. I was meant to be playing a custom built theremin made by Fred Mundell of Fundamental Designs, but unfortunately he suffered an injury so couldn't finish the instrument. I hope that's not a bad omen too. It surprises me that some people don't know what a theremin is. This film should make it clear.
Everything in my Theremin Practice In France clip is produced by a theremin played through a Line 6 delay pedal and three Lovetone pedals - Cheese Sauce and Meatball before the delay, and Ring Stinger after. The first half is a build of single theremin notes in an augmenting loop sampler loop, with a touch of Cheese Sauce to give it some grit and a wee bit of Meatball to give it a touch of awwawaugh. The second half is the Lovetone Ring Stinger pedal taking over and doing what it does best. Quite frankly I could have been playing the spoons in the second half and it would have sounded pretty similar, the Ring Stinger takes no prisoners. I also had a Line 6 filter pedal in line after the Ring Stinger, but didn't use it until about half way into the second half - you hear it clunking the volume as I switch it on. The whole lot recorded line in into a Zoom portable digital recorder.
I'm excited to announce the upcoming performance of my Hymn To London Bridge, a duet for Theremin and Soundbeam, taking place on Thursday September 2nd 2010.
I'll going to be playing a theremin under London Bridge for 24 hours, starting and ending at midnight. I'll be feeding the output of the theremin through all my loop and effects pedals to create continuous, complex washes of sound that can be heard on the underbridge walkway around me. Pedestrians crossing over the bridge above will unwittingly affect this output : as they pass by they will cut a hidden beam on the bridge that will momentarily mute the music I'm making. This long form piece will slowly change character as it's affected by the flow of pedestrian traffic on the bridge - in the middle of the night it'll be almost continuous sound with only the occasional blip of silence as someone passes, and at rush hour it'll be a very percussive experience, or maybe even silent as the masses of commuters rush by. That's the theory anyway.
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