I’ve been so remiss in posting lately that I’ve not only had the honor of contributing a photograph to Touch Radio 64, but the just-released Touch Radio 74 as well. The former is a fascinating field recording of the songs of wolves by Yannick Dauby, whilst the latter is a piece by one of my favorite electronic musicians, CM von Hausswolff.

Please take the time to listen and enjoy these recent instalments in a fantastic podcast series. You can subscribe to Touch Radio via iTunes or you can stream all episodes directly from the Touch iPhone app (which I helped make—sorry that I still haven’t posted about that!).

Many thanks to Mike Harding for his continued encouragement of my artistic pursuits as well as to Jon Wozencroft for always having been a visual inspiration to me.

Do you like pubs? I like pubs. Who doesn’t like pubs?

When I lived in London, I spent most of my time in them. As you do.

The good people at Touch have just released the latest installment in their exceptional Touch Radio podcast series, Pub. They were kind enough to pay me the honor of using the above photograph of mine as the visual counterpart to this episode. As a longtime follower of their always brilliant releases, I am massively thrilled to have my work presented alongside theirs.

The recording is of secret origin, but I do know one thing that I am permitted to tell you: it was recorded in a London pub. It’s Friday, so have a pint of ale, listen to Pub and allow yourself to enter this pub. It’s a friendly, lively place.

Another pint of Adnams, please!

Tristan Perich

October turned out to be quite a busy live music month for me. Covering more than two gigs in any given week is a bit overwhelming, but this past month had almost the perfect amount of activity: enough to make me feel like a healthy, socially functional member of society, but not so much so that I fell behind on Boardwalk Empire.

From the classic indie sounds of The Vaselines to the plodding terror of Swans and from the dark new wave pop of Gary Numan to the 1-bit electronic minimalism of Tristan Perich, a diverse range of talent passed in front of my lens. Although I shot all these events for Gapers Block: Transmission and my photographs appear in the respective reviews there, here’s a quick look back at the highlights:

Gary Numan

Christoph Hahn of Swans

Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines

Frances McKee of The Vaselines

Michael Gira of Swans

It wasn’t long after returning to Chicago that I found myself wanting to shoot gigs again. Whilst living in London, I had the pleasure of reporting on a wide range of music events, including the Melvins, Fennesz, Dan Deacon, Gravetemple and Philip Jeck. Some of these I covered in words and all of them I covered in pictures. The main focus of my photography isn’t gigs by any means, but as a life-long music lover, it inevitably became a part of it.

I’ve always been a fan of the venerable Chicago blog Gapers Block, so when the opportunity arose to join the staff of their music section, Transmission, I jumped at it. Technically I’m part of their photography staff, as I joined to shoot gigs and let others write about them. When there are, however, events about which I’m so passionate that I also must say a few words, I wear both caps. Such was the case with the first annual Sónar Chicago this past weekend, where in the end I produced three reviews and a handful of snaps. They are all up on the site now, so please do have a read and a look. Cheers!

The reviews:

Sónar Chicago, Day One @ Pritzker Pavilion, 9 September 2010
Ben Frost @ Chicago Cultural Center, 11 September 2010
Rangda @ Empty Bottle / Appleblim, Cosmin TRG @ Smart Bar, 10 September 2010

The photos:

Sónar Chicago 2010 – a set on Flickr

London fans of minimal electronic music will find themselves spending much of this week in Dalston, as Cafe Oto hosts a three-day residency featuring two of Japan’s preeminent improvisers. Each night, Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M will play with a different experimental luminary and as well as collaborate with each other in what is easily one of 2009′s most exciting series so far.

Equally skilled on both turntables and guitar, Yoshihide draws as much on cut-up sound technique as free jazz, while Sachiko M’s work centres on the most basic building block of synthesized sound, the sine wave generator. I recently listened to her Sine Wave Solo CD from 2000 and was shocked by how alien it still sounds nine years later. Whereas most experimental electronic music from the turn of the century sounds dated with too much garish glitch, Sine Wave Solo sounds positively fresh and timeless. If you’re hoping to hear her undiluted sound, Monday night is her only solo set, so don’t miss it!

The special guest each night will undoubtedly influence the direction the performers take. While Otomo Yoshihide will probably explore the jazzier side of his guitar with Evan Parker in the spotlight on Wednesday, I can’t imagine he’d miss the opportunity to hop behind the decks and spin alongside Technics virtuoso Christian Marclay on Tuesday. I’ve seen Marclay and Yoshihide collaborate once before, each manning their own set of turntables, and it’s nothing short of amazing.

With the stunning set of sounds Marclay and Yoshihide can extract from the much abused vinyl in their crates, augmented by Sachiko’s sine waves, if I had to pick one event to see, it would be Tuesday’s trio. Since each gig only costs £10, and a three-day pass can be had for £22, choosing just one seems a bit silly, really. It’s not every day you get some of the finest noisemakers in the world together in one place for the better part of a week, so arguably you have a moral obligation to attend at least two of these stellar gigs.

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If you’re not sold yet, here’s a small sample of the sort of sounds you can hope to hear this week. It’s the first track from Sachiko M’s Sine Wave Solo, “Don’t Move”. Not only is it one of my favourite pieces of hers, but it’s among my most loved works of experimental electronic music in general. It’s a proper mental palette cleanser, a bit like giving your brain an acid bath so it comes out all shiny and new again.

Right-click here to download or stream below:

Download audio file (SachikoM-DontMove.mp3)

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Full schedule:

Monday, 9 March 2009 at 8pm
Otomo Yoshihide – Solo
Sachiko M – Solo
Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M and Eddie Prévost (AMM) – Trio

Tuesday, 10 March 2009 at 8pm
Filament: Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M
Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M and Christian Marclay – Trio

Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 8pm
Otomo Yoshihide and John Butcher – Duo
Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Evan Parker, John Edwards and Tony Marsh – Quintet

In the past few years, photography has become one of my main hobbies, but only recently have I started submitting my snaps to photo competitions. I entered the following picture in last month’s EcoTrotters contest and I received word today that they’ve chosen it as a finalist.

From now until the end of March you can vote for me to win. You’ll have to register as a user on their site, but that’s fast, free and easy. Once you’ve got that sorted, you can go directly to my photo page and click the little thumbs-up icon to vote. Thanks in advance!