Author: Spirit of Gravity

New release on the Spirit of Gravity netlabel: Works from Home 2: Rhizomes by Andrew Greaves

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The next release on the Spirit of Gravity BandCamp label is “Works from Home 2: Rhizomes” by Andrew Greaves.

“Rhizomes; horizontal plant shoots, emerging elsewhere as new lateral stems.”

This engaging set of pieces, constructed during the pandemic, feature samples from recordings of Andrew’s father Frank, a classic lead tenor. These have been edited and collaged, and are accompanied by Andrew’s signature keyboard tones. This process triggered memories which informed the directions taken by the work.

“Rhizomes” is available to stream and download now at spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/works-from-home-2-rhizomes

I think we’ll be seeing a lot of this

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December 2021

The Rossi Bar

So Dolly Rae Starcore stands in at the last minute for someone laid low by The Rona, for which we are grateful, and happy. Starting with a stroke of the Zither and a massive boom off the mic. Arrayed before her on the table a selection of small percussive objects, two large brass singing bowls, her book and the sheath of papers from which she will read. She reads, pings the Flexatone shakes the shakers and reads, she gently strokes the singing bowl which booms beautifully. One of the singing bowls is a quarter full of water which modulates it when swirled. She reads, pings the percussion. The atmosphere builds, some unaccompanied sections, some densely swirled about. Chimes.

Andrew Greaves filling the middle slot, playing through his latest release, songs and improvisations based on loops of his father singing that were recorded on cassette before he died. The set starts with a manipulated loop of the singing all the consonants lost, murky, monkish. Over this a crisp rhythm track starts up. Slow organ rolls out and back, arpeggiates, the voice wanes. The organ parts thicken, overlap. The voice returns. The second part is structurally the same, it floats more. There is a lot more space and what sound almost like guitar parts. Dogs. A Casio organ solo emerges, the whole thing slowly dissolves into space winds.

The last time Xylitol played for us it was a set of DNW inflected fun played on toys and cheap synths, this time Catherine turned up with a laptop for a set of kosmische drum and bass. It’s got the same sense of fun as before but the tempos are ramped up. There are hints of Harmonia, pointillist interlocking rhythmic keyboard parts fix inside the drum parts before it gets abstractly into resonant pitch shifting frog drums. We nod our heads. The next track almost starts like an Irresistible Force remix, before getting into some serious rhythm scrambling and deranged bassline before allowing the piping melody line to whistle through. The last track starts with a high level of scrambled drums and repeated pinging keyboard parts, repeated to the point of delirium. All the melodic parts steamroller while the movement is all in the drums before eventually the melodic parts all break down into new patterns and the drum cycling starts again.

Thursday 2nd December at the Rossi Bar: Xylitol / Andrew Greaves / Dolly Rae Star

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Xylitol: gutter kosmische
Andrew Greaves: album launch show – found recordings, Casio improvisations, layers analogue sequencer patterns.
Dolly Rae Star: Sound, Poetry & Magic
Ingrid Plum is unfortunately unable to appear

Xylitol: gutter Kosmische from East Sussex
www.facebook.com/xylitolmusic
xylitol.bandcamp.com

Andrew Greaves is a Brighton based musician and artist, who combines intense combo organ improvisations within minimalist and sound art contexts. A member of the Spirit of Gravity collective, Andrew has performed live film soundtracks with Broken Star and collaborated with the massed fuzz organs of Himmel and the Indian master musician Deobrat Mishra.
Andrew has performed text based scores as member of the New Interpretations Orchestra and contributed to large ensemble performances of Terry Riley’s In C and works by John Cage. His previous Spirit of Gravity releases included 2 “Octabeast” albums; featuring modal organ improvisations within minimalist compositional forms. His “Entartete” and “Halftone” releases, combined Indian and Ethiopian scales with sound collages built from a collection of found, home recorded, cassette recordings.
During lockdown, Andrew has focussed on studio composition and sound art for film, as well as 2 new releases for the Spirit of Gravity label. The first of these albums “Works From Home”, includes passages of analogue sequencer work and simple improvised melodies; recalling both Suzanne Ciani and Roedelius.
With this performance (his first in almost 2 years), Andrew launches his latest release “Works from Home 2: Rhizomes”. Here, each piece utilises  archive cassette recordings of his father (Frank). An operatic tenor singer; he was recorded mostly in unaccompanied rehearsal. Starting from these primitive artifacts, Andrew has built entirely new pieces, utilising the existing tonal and harmonic content as a basis new contexts.
Andrew plays a Casiotone MT400V mini keyboard, Electribe ER1 & EA1 groove boxes, Korg Monologue synthesiser and a Boss RC-202 Loop Station.

Dolly Rae Starcore plays in sound, poetry, and magic. Movement, play and transcendence.
Let’s dance!
Dolly plays percussion and electronics in God’s Teeth and the Interstellar Tropics and the Beam Eye Babies and holds gong bath sound adventures. Over 2020/21 they held these in local parks, embracing the beauty of ambient sounds (and positioning away from angle grinders).
Their book Play Stance, came out on Polyversity Press this year.
A poem of theirs was once described as “a bold anthem” in The New Statesman (wtf). Their book / sound piece Quest)ion) is out soon on Veer after five years of live ritual exploration and international collaboration.
They also perform as drag king act Will Helm Rightly, who recently graced the Cockpit stage at Journey to Nutopia’s night on Wilhelm Reich.

Thursday 2nd December 2021 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5
Downstairs @ The Rossi Bar
8 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3WA

Next radio broadcast on ResonanceExtra FM: Sunday 28th November – 8.00 to 10.00pm

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Gravity Waves and the Spirit World

Sunday 28th November 2021 from 8.00 to 10.00pm on ResonanceExtra FM, DAB radio or online at extra.resonance.fm/

This month we have a guest mix from Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), Dan Powell‘s set from Spirit of Gravity night in October, plus lots of good stuff from Spirit of Gravity land.

Stephen Mallinder Mix for Gravity Waves: Abul Mogard – ‘Tumbling Restlessness Heaps’ / Demdike Stare – ‘Ishmail’s Intent’ / Rod Modell – ‘Outro’ / GH – ‘Albedo’ / Wrangler – ‘Peace & Love’ (Holy Mix) / Pye Corner Audio & The Advisory Circle – ‘November Sequence’ / Mika Vainio – ‘Sub Atlantic’
Dan Powell – Live at Spirit of Gravity October 2021
Stephen Mallinder – Black Frank Spectre

Nad Spiro – Spiaire; Misha Begley – Walking home at night; Strands (Ronan) – Loebawn artist; Audio Union – unknown title; Mi Cosa de Resistance – The things we have forgotten; Frost – Until it makes sense; Nad Spiro – Tunnel records; Deepkiss 720 – unknown title; Frost – Slippery Bricks; Noteherder & McCloud – The corner by the cemetery; Mi Cosa de Resistance – A song to sleep and dream

The October edition of the Spirit of Gravity Radio show is available on the ResonanceFM Mixcloud page:
www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/gravity-waves-and-the-spirit-world-october-2021-sunday-24th-october-2021/
This months’ show included tracks from the Bang the Bore compilation ‘Here’, and more from the Radiant Heretics label.