live-tempera started in London during summer 2001, strongly supported then by chellist and SOUND 323-founder Mark Wastell, welsh harp-player Rhodri Davies and the remarkable inventor of the legendary Relay-concept, guitarist John Bisset. The basic idea was to start an exhibition just with immaculate white canvases and, during the week, converting them in public into visual artworks the interdisciplinary way.
What does the painter remember? "... myself - after the first gig - complaining fiercly about my incompetence to make a digital recording of a concert at all [as i'd just failed], when Tom Chant turned around and pointed straight at the still wet painting: "There is the recording!". Two days later we had to show John Wall the door, as Mark Wastell didn't plan to do his session in any puplic... Wall's Out obviously had to be the title of the artwork, but Mark was really surprised, that it came up in his secret favourite colour combination."
Grabbing a chance to attack prejudices: yep, John Bisset and John Edwards warmed up with Elvis' It's Now Or Never. There also happend to be a cookin' session in [a kitchen in] Clapton, which wasn't planned. So lack of material was compensated with a semi-rotten fibre board found in the streets and selfmade rye-glue to fix the last piece of jute... and Knut Aufermann's piezo-speakers. Believe it or not, this painting can whisper to you the sound that made it.
Derek Bailey in concert at SOUND 323, London, in front of Mark Wasn't Tellin'
The London exhibition stayed for three months. Meanwhile the experience was continued in Berlin during the 9th Long Night of The Museums: a strange venue [The Hemp-Museum] and an unconventional situation for improvised music, as about 2.500 visitors [not what you seriously would call an experienced audience] were passing this night. No doubt, one of them stepped into the first painting, but instead of getting dumped it became linked to Joseph "Everyone 's an artist" Beuys by title. Do not underestimate your step!
According to this, seitenwechsel is a lame name [and worse was considered], but in 2002 Annette Krebs and Michael Renckel played a true masterpiece of some what later was labelled "Berlin Style". Cologne, the next month, was different and rough [is this a baritone painting?] and CD-released, titled with a Freudian slip by the sax player's son. Four days later in London... again different, again CD-released: Friendly Faces with a passionate Simon Fell and the wonderful Lol Coxhill. There was this short moment, when "Three Eggheads" was considered to be a great bandname.
Axel Dörner put aside his trumpet and came close with his video camera, while the early Kai Fagaschinski benchmarked a pair of expensive microphones and reflected on his playing as being "too dramatic". And then the 12th of August 2003... We Call It A Day... it must had been an outstanding premiere in radio history: the live-broadcast of a painting! Still not clear, who forgot to contact the GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS...
"London's Best Kept Secret" hosted a great session [listen here] with Tony Wren and Chris Cundy, who is maybe still working on a "practice based PhD exploring the compatibility of drawing and music" at DARTINGTON COLLEGE OF ARTS.
Unforgotten the original Hugh Davies at The Arthouse venue at GOLDENSMITH'S COLLAGE, speaking german without the slightest hint of an accent [although in the mid 60s being Karlheinz Stockhausen's assistent in Cologne for just 1½ year], explaining why: "Corresponding in foreign languages improves my hearing abilities." Steve Beresford [improved hearing abilities?] seemed to remark a german "Notfunk" in the painter's statement, that he and Tom Chant had played "funky, but not funk." That's why you name a painting Emergency Radio.
Brass met brush in 2004 delicately through Axel Dörner and Tokyo minimalist [and frog fetishist] Toshihiro Koike, who also blew a hefty trombone in the legendary free-jazz big-band Shibusashirazu [hey yo, labelers! How minimal is that?!]. Extended by Butoh dancer Mayumi Fukuzaki, this line-up became another project: niwa.
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niwa
live at AUSLAND, Berlin, on 10th of March 2004 | ||||||||||
2005 was dominated by colaborations with Knut Aufermann. One [which is of the painter's favourites] came along with a Zulu from Stockholm, the irreplaceable Jair-Rôhm Parker-Wells [listen here]. Another one happend to be live on air at RADIO COPERNICUS in Berlin [again, can listen here], a temporary radio art-project at the university... Marcus Heesch was announced as Shark MacGull, so here you go with sharkey onAir [and yep, it can whisper too]. Oh, by the way... rumours were, their whole airing-project didn't went very well, although somebody smart suggested to contact the GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS.
 | 21inch got started, as 2 years before Jonathan Bohman had a point, when he asked for an encore-canvas after the "funky, but not funk"-thing. There was a quartet feat. Martin Speicher, Margret Trescher and the interdisciplinary most experienced Wolfgang Schliemann in Wiesbaden, that suddenly went totally free-jazz. |
 | In 2006 live-tempera faded slowly into hibernate mode after a fantastic set in summer, competing hopelessly some mass moving worldchampionship of soccer, although featuring a rare line-up with two of the most interesting Berlin musicians. |
Now 2 years ago there had been some explicitly experimental meeting, one might guess by the instrumental set-up: diatonic bluesharp met castanets and flamenco shoes. Actually no tengo miedo is the only mind-set to cope such a constallation: "I have no fear".
 | So, as a student of Howard Levy, Gerald Bambey was going to blow the harp by what is called 12 on 10. Once during a video chat last year, Howard spotted a &-painting behind Gerald, commenting that "it looks like what goes on through my mind a lot of the time." Well, who couldn't agree more? |
Somehow Knut Aufermann and Sarah Washington [who knows building ready-made instruments as much as finest bridges to stop a crap one] accidently had a chat with Howard Levy months later, but that's another story. Just the thought, they have some musically linked visuality in common, although their kinds of music are differing so very, very much, is a very sweet one.
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Sarah
Washington's amazing self-made equipment in Hunolstein with
21inch | |
Looking back, there had been rare combinations, different approaches, unexspected tensions - it all worked kinda well, as the common sense was usually based on improvisation and [what you might call] best will. Just as London poetess Ephra once beautifully stated: "It's all live-tempered, isn't it?" And it shall be...