Another Ambient / Experimental Music call out

A call out from Aural Films who Ocean in a Bottle had a track on our their various artists albums earlier in the year which has another project call out which I feel looks really interesting. 

They describe the project as a homage to John Hassell as "Jon Hassell has joined the harmonics on June 26, 2021. His legacy as an innovative artist, musician, and visionary has enlightened and inspired the world to embrace our past and present experiences by expressing them in what he defined as the "Fourth World". Explained by him as follows:

FOURTH WORLD IS

A KIND OF PHILOSOPHICAL GUIDELINE, A CREATIVE POSTURE, DIRECTED TOWARDS THE CONDITIONS CREATED BY THE INTERSECTION OF TECHNOLOGY WITH INDIGINOUS MUSIC AND CULTURE.

THE UNDERLYING GOAL IS TO PROVIDE A KIND OF CREATIVE MIDWIFERY TO THE INEVITABLE MERGING OF CULTURES WHILE PROVIDING AN ANTIDOTE TO A GLOBAL "MONOCULTURE" CREATED BY MEDIA COLONIZATION.

THE UNDERLYING PREMISE IS THAT EACH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' MUSIC AND CULTURE - THE RESULT OF THEIR UNIQUE RESPONSE TO THEIR UNIQUE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - FUNCTIONS IN THE SAME WAY AS, AS AN "ELEMENT" IN THE PERIODIC TABLE OF CHEMISTRY: AS PURE BUILDING BLOCKS FROM WHICH ALL OTHER "CULTURAL COMPOUNDS" WILL ARISE.

IN OTHER WORDS, THESE CULTURES ARE OUR "VOCABULARY" IN TRYING TO THINK ABOUT WAYS TO RESPOND TO OUR PLACE IN THE NEW GEOGRAPHY CREATED BY OUR MEDIA WORLD, AND MUST BE RESPECTED RELATIVE TO THEIR IMPORTANCE TO OUR SURVIVAL.

Jon Hassell 


Aural Films will be releasing a "FOURTH WORLD IS" compilation as a tribute and continuation of his vision. Artists are invited to submit their new or previously recorded Fourth World compositions for inclusion in this tribute collection by following these guidelines:    

+ One past or new Fourth World composition per artist.

+ Tracks should be final masters ready to publish.

+ AIFF, FLAC, or WAV file formats only. 

+ 200 MB max file size. 

+ Submissions must include artist name, track name, country, and ONE site URL.

+ Send files via services like Dropbox, etc - NO ATTACHMENTS! 

+ When complete. Send submission via Email to - s4grecs@gmail.com
 
NOTE - All submissions must be received before July 26th, 2021 to be included in the release."

The art in finding that right Podcast for you

 

A common mistake I am starting to encounter with booking guests for either my major two Podcasts ‘Spoken Label’ and ‘Reading in Bed’ is not the lack of suitable guests but the fact that people sometimes who get in touch hasn’t researched the Podcast they are contacting.

As a writer and ambient musician, I have found personally the best chance of acceptation is by simply researching the publication or label in question before submitting. 

Take for example with my ambient / drone band Ocean in a Bottle – if you look at my official Bandcamp you will notice releases on all kinds of labels, one for example “Camembertelectrique” has released two of my albums to date and several other tracks simply because I made a point of listening to a number of releases and sent a covering letter exampling how I felt my work fitted in with the label.

The same also applies to my Podcasts Spoken Label and Reading in Bed. I have pages on matchmaker.fm for example and if you look around you can get in contact with me about both Podcasts. While I have being some really good approaches from writers and poets I don’t know previously, the amount of approaches I get for Reading in Bed about interviews on this Podcast is staggering in particular since Reading in Bed is a book review Podcast not an Author interview Podcast.

There was one occasion on matchmaker.fm where one person got in touch asking to be a guest on Reading in Bed, and when I declined them stating this is not a guest Podcast they turned round and said to me, well what kind of Podcast is this? I then explained to them out of kindness what kind of Podcast Reading in Bed and advised to read the profile describing the Podcast.

They then submitted what perhaps is best described as an erotic fiction meets a S & M love story. I remember showing the blurb for this book to Amanda (my co-host for Reading in Bed) and was left shocked like me as neither of us had ever reviewed like that in over three years and had no interest whatsoever.

I politely declined again, and then received a proposal straight after from the same reader asking would we review ether of her other two books, one was a very poorly drew children’s book aimed at six to eight years old (she said) and also a even more racey romance book you could say. 

There has other authors who have claimed they have listened to certain episodes of Spoken Label and in one case even claimed to personally know one of my guests. The problem with this second aspect, the guest they referred to was a writer friend off mine I had known personally for over fifteen years and they said they had never heard off him. 

I don’t want this article to be a constant bad mouthing of contacting Podcasts, as over half of my guests on Spoken Label and books reviewed on Reading in Bed are by writers and poets I have never spoken with before rather a suggestion for everybody to be careful who you are approaching.

Rejection hurts I know from experience but it is pointless wasting both yours and somebody else’s time with bad or no research.

Spoken Label and Reading in Bed Podcasts are available on all of the usual networks and has a central database at spokenlabel.bandcamp.com and readinginbed.bandcamp.com and are always open to suitable submissions. 

Poetry Reading tomorrow night Online

 

I am due to read at this night tomorrow night online here

A promo for the night can be found here 

New Ambient / Experimental Music Submission call out

 

Not mine but my band Ocean in a Bottle has had a few releases on Camembert Electrique and therefore recommend this.

Hello,

This is an invitation to a compilation dedicated to Cicadas BroodX. It will be published on the Bandcamp on three labels simultaneously: 

Attenuation Circuit (DE) http://emerge.bandcamp.com 

Alfa00 (IE) http://alfa00.bandcamp.com 

Camembert Electrique (FR) www.camembertelectrique.com 

for free listening and download (name your price). The proposed compositions must be around the theme of “Requiem for Cicadas BroodX”. To create this piece, you may use provided samples (to be evolved-processed-recycled to your liking) or your own sounds / instruments.

Suggested samples are either here https://unisol.bandcamp.com/album/requiem-for-cicadas-broodx-samples (recorded and generously offered by David Michael and Stephen Bradley in Maryland, USA) or/and here: soundctuary.bandcamp.com/album/cicada-17-tribute

Send your track in WAV / 44.1 kHz / 16 bit / Stereo or Mono format, no longer than 17 minutes of duration to : uni.solar.event@gmail.com with a Wetransfer type platform. You can send multiple tracks. Send an picture (jpeg) corresponding to the track, in square format 1400px by 1400px, text is not necessary though welcome.

Don't forget to include: your or project name,the title of your composition, improvisation or field recording and your website, please.

Attention : Deadline is August 17th, 2021.

Thank you in advance! 

Do not hesitate to distribute this invitation!

Yann

Zack Pieper on Pierce Brown

 

* Also now printed on the Sunday Tribune *

As I have said before on my writers influences frequently, part of the beauty of this series wasn’t just the beauty of letting the writer introduce an influence off to everybody but me sometimes too.

Pierce Brown, the writer in question today certainly is not a writer I have heard off previously but Zack Pieper, today’s guest describes his major influence on his own work as “I would say my primary writing inspiration comes from Pierce Brown. If you dont know, he wrote this epic science fiction series 'Red Rising'”.

“I was handed an ARC of his book outside of PAX seattle, in 2017 I think it was. “ He describes how he first became of the work of Pierce Brown “And I was instantly hooked. Pierce Writes First person present tense, until his work I had not even been exposed to that. But it instantly drew me in and held me with the hard hitting emotional reality of living life from his hero's viewpoint. There was so much about his style and the way he structures his sentences that I found refreshing and new. He keeps it short, avoids transitional words where he can, and he hammers home emotional realities with hard hitting imagery and symbolism. Frankly I respect him as an author to the extreme, and I am unashamed to admit after reading his first novel, I rewrote the opening chapters of mine.”

“But even beyond his style, I find his personal story to resonate with me, I dont know to much about his life.” He concludes “But I know that at one point, he was living at home, with not much going for him. and then he sat down and cranked out red rising in a few short months. Which is a similar story in some ways to my own. His story is a reminder that if your work is truly great, it can pull you out of obscurity and allow you to make a living of your passion. That is my dream, to write full time. And If Pierce can do it, so can I.”

Bio:

Zack Pieper is a big city man, with a country boy heart. An eccentric creative with eclectic tastes. He loves being exposed to new things, learning new things, going on adventures, and making new friends. Hobbies include, fitness, gaming, anime, hiking and outdoors activities, and howling into the abyss.

His book ‘The Garden of Lies’ can be found on Amazon under the name of Zachary A Pieper.

His Youtube channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/Zackthedalj

His page on good reads is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21368809.Zachary_A_Pieper

*

Pierce Brown is an American science fiction author who writes the Red Rising series, consisting of Red Rising (2014), Golden Son (2015), Morning Star (2016), Iron Gold (2018) and Dark Age (2019). 

Jupiter's Moons Part 1 (New from Ocean in a Bottle)

 

Jupiter’s Moons is a trilogy by Andy n’s Ocean in a Bottle project with his most ambitious project to date with ‘Jupiters Moons’ a three part series of albums taking its listeners on a three part journey into space towards Jupiter’s, the 5th planet in our solar system and all of its moons. 

Composed of three separate albums all containing ten tracks, Jupiter’s Moons is a series of three albums with each one of the three albums a study of ambience and sound counter spaced with a mood embracing each one of the moons.

Each volume of Jupiter’s Moons will take the listener on different journeys in space with each piece of music breathing new life into some moons which have being known off for hundreds of years to recently discovered moons hiding in the shadows. 

Each volume of the series will open up shards of emotion in the drone like sounds / ambience waves of its music taking the viewer into a trance like journey to the large planet in our solar system and a selection of the moons taking its listeners on a long quest to penetrate the workings of space.

Available from https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/album/jupiters-moons-part-1 (Pay what you want / free stream)

Dyslexia and Poetry with Helen Kay

 

(This article was scheduled for publication on the Sunday Tribune at the start of June before the online magazine was by all accounts discontinued)

A few people know I was registered with Diabetes in August 2011, which is a story for another day over the impact it caused over both my health and my lifestyle, but what is less known is the fact I am also Dyspraxic.

While Diabetes I feel over the last few years has gained the awareness it deserves, less is know about both Dyspraxic and its close cousin Dyslexia.

In my case, I first got registered as suffering from it all the back in 2000, and it has to be said when I got told this at university, my reaction to was like ‘What?’ and it took years for certain members of my own family to accept this, let alone understand it.

After university, although I have seen the occasional project be mentioned which is perfect for people with dyslexia and dyspraxia, today’s feature on dyslexiapoetry which is described as a platform for dyslexic poets and artists is the first I have seen that directly covers this topic.

Helen Kay, a dear friend of my Podcast series ‘Spoken Label’ describes the history of this further by starting “In 2018 Dyslexia Poetry Imagination (DPI) was formed by a group of people living with or working with dyslexia. DPI aimed to raise awareness of the importance of creativity to develop confidence and create a positive link with dyslexia. Research has found that on balance dyslexic people are more creative with an ability to think differently. “

“In 2018-2019 the DPI team organised an exhibition of artwork, video poems, needlework and poetry by neuro-atypical creators, which was toured to different venues. (fb page Dyslexia and Poetry).” She carries on explaining bringing back my own memories of the said exhibition at Manchester Central Libary which was simply a wonderful experience “Based on the success of the tour, DPI has also run live poetry evenings and a college-based competition and has taken part in a range of dyslexia and dyspraxia-based events. The project, which aims to attract at all stages of their writing has been supported throughout by award-winning poet, Mark Pajak. One of the founder members of DPI, Helen Kay, has supported dyslexic learners for 20 years and has written a pamphlet of poems about her experiences entitled This Lexia & Other Languages (v.press). “

“The group is particularly keen to encourage and support neuro-divergent adults and to celebrate their creative strengths. Often people feel supported and encouraged to create while in education, but there is less support for adults, especially when it comes to developing skills outside those required to survive within the work place.” She discusses next which mirrored the problems I had with a ex employer I worked for some years before “Many older adults have not had any support and even remain unaware that they are dyslexic. Many have experienced stress, humiliation and discrimination both in education and outside of it. “

“In March 2021, despite the constraint of the pandemic, the DPI members were thrilled to launch its own website, dyslexiapoetry.co.uk. “ She brings the story up to date “Designed by martynbristow.co.uk, the aim of the site is to showcase dyslexic poets and to share their achievements. The site will post one poem a month plus photos and profiles of artists and other creators. The site is particularly interested in capturing poems which reflect the diverse experiences of dyslexia dyspraxia and other co-occurring neuro-atypical conditions. “

“DPI would love to hear from anyone who would like to be involved and/or wants to share their experiences. “ She concludes “Poems, flash fiction artwork images and details of other similar projects. Please contact us via the website or directly to hekay1958@gmail.com or via Dyslexia and Poetry on facebook. We look forward to contributions, constructive feedback, sharing of experiences and other projects that raise awareness and ideas of how to develop the project. “

Their website which I recommend you check out is: dyslexiapoetry.co.uk    

The Breakup Monlogues with Rosie Wilby

This short feature is with the lovely Rosie Wilby.

Rosie is an award-winning comedian who has appeared on BBC Radio 4 programmes including 

Woman’s Hour, Saturday Live, Four Thought and Loose Ends, TV shows including Good Morning Britain, podcasts including The Guilty Feminist and in the finals of several major comedy competitions. She has performed at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Green Man, Wilderness, Port Eliot festival, How The Light Gets In and Latitude and has had articles published in The Sunday Times, the Guardian, New Statesman, Cosmo and more. 

Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and followed her TEDx talk of the same name. In 2018, Rosie created The Breakup Monologues podcast, which is available on iTunes, Spotify and all good podcast platforms and also the name of her second book which I am talking about with her below. 

Andy N: 

I know the breakup monologues started off as a Podcast series, can you tell us about where this came from?

Rosie:  

The Breakup Monologues podcast launched in early 2018, inspired by a trilogy of comedy shows about the psychology of love and relationships that I had toured around the world over the last decade or so. The trilogy began with a show called The Science of Sex and ended with a show called The Conscious Uncoupling. This last show was all about my breakup story. 

After the show, friends and fellow performers would chat to me about their own breakup stories. So I decided to start a live chat show where other people shared their stories with me and we compared notes about how we had recovered from heartbreak and the more bizarre things we had done in failed attempts to woo partners back and so on. 

I was working on the age old premise that tragedy plus time equals comedy. When the live show started going really well, I decided we should record the conversations for a podcast. 

Andy N: 

And what has now made you want to develop this further as a book?

Rosie: 

The idea of writing a second book was always in the back of my mind. I’d already written one called Is Monogamy Dead? 

That was based on the middle part of the aforementioned trilogy. 

It made sense to continue writing about relationships and follow that one up. 

Andy N:

How did writing you new book compare to 'Is Monogamy Dead?'

Rosie: 

The new book, The Breakup Monologues, follows a similar sort of narrative nonfiction format where my ideas and discoveries about the real science underpinning how our relationships work (and sometimes don’t) are embedded within my own story of trying to apply this learning in my real life. The first book ends with me meeting my current partner. 

Andy N:

Was your new book a easier book to write?

Rosie:

In some ways, the second book was harder to write because I’m writing about a relationship that I’m still in and one that I want to stay in. But one that I also want to write about critically. Relationships are really hard work once the initial honeymoon phase is over. And I wanted to represent that realistically. 

Many times it can feel like it would be so much easier to break up and walk away. But then you remember that you have built something really important with someone you love and trust and you should probably stay. 

Andy N:

What plans do you have next? 

Rosie:

It’s been a bit hard to make concrete plans during a pandemic because so much of what I’ve traditionally loved doing professionally involves performing onstage in front of an audience. As outdoor events start to happen again this Summer, 

I’ll be touring the live version of the podcast to some of those. Cambridge Comedy Festival and Primadonna Festival are confirmed so far. Eventually I hope to write another book. 

But, realistically speaking, there’s at least a year of hard work to do promoting this one before I can think about that. 

Andy N:

Where can people find this book?

Rosie:

People can buy the book from all good bookshops, either online or in person. If your local bookshop doesn’t have it, then they will be able to order it. Alternatively you could ask your local library to get it. As well as the hardback and the kindle versions, I have also narrated an audiobook. 

Yet More Speak Easy news

* Speak Easy News *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tft5K2frvDA

Thanks to everybody who attended Speak Easy (our Spoken Word Open Mic night) last night. We had a blast as always as can be seen above.

For July we are doing the following events:

1) Thursday 1^st July – We will be making our return to the live circuit at Chorlton’s Dulcimer (567 Wilbraham Rd, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 0AE) on 1 July 2021.

We will be taking bookings for this Sunday coming 06 June 2021 from mid-day either by email (aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk – ensuring the email is marked Speak Easy please) or a message by facebook (To my AndyNpoet facebook account).

2) Weds 14^th July – We will be running a online poetry show under the name of Speak Easy Online on Zoom.

We will be taking bookings for this on Sunday 20 June 2021 from mid-day either by email (aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk – ensuring the email is marked Speak Easy please) or a message by facebook (To my AndyNpoet facebook account).

3) Possible news to follow regarding Chorlton Arts Festival in September.