Concave Scream launch gig

Concave Scream's new album 'Horizons' will be released tomorrow (28th March) at all major record stores.

They will also be having a launch performance on April first, 8.30pm.

The gig will be at Zouk and tickets are selling fast for $15 (includes one drink) at HMV Heeren and Citilink.

Support!

For more info, visit their site and blog site.

I have escaped even myself

I have escaped even myself.

I am the escaped one,
After I was born
They locked me up inside me
But I left.
My soul seeks me,
Through hills and valley,
I hope my soul
Never finds me.

"I am the escaped one"
Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)


How did I come to be this, the person I suppose I am? I am merely
myself. So who asked the question? In the mirror, I see that which the
others call "me". Hello. Are you there? The only true thing that I can
completely trust. Or should I? If only you were me. Or if I were you.
Though I also believe I truly were you. Am I not? I have not escaped. I
have escaped.

"I have escaped even myself" is the second in a series of experimental
music/sound art events presented by the Singapore Sound Art Collective
(sporesac). Building on the success of "I have lost friends" in
Februrary 2005, the series continues to showcase a range of local and
global artists in their attempt to ground abstract experimentation
through the immediacy of sound. Turning a reflective eye inwards upon
the personal psyche, "I have escaped even myself" attempts to address
the elusive nature of the self.

In the realm of performance and art, what defines the artist as self?
Is this his or her undertaking alone? Is the artist not a fiction, one
fashioned by an audience, even a non-existent one? Featuring six solo
sets of sixteen minutes each, a continuous collage of sound with five
bridging segments is presented, each a brief improvised collaboration
between the artists, allowing a flow of processes that dissolves the
idea of singular performances.

This ongoing series is conceived by Yuen Chee Wai, researched by Alex
Goh and produced by Harold Seah. Presented by sporesac / Flux Us, with
the strong support of 72-13.

"I have escaped even myself" will feature Zai Kuning, Evan Tan, George
Chua, Yuen Chee Wai, Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre (Jazzkammer)

The evening will conclude with a panel discussion with the involved
artists, and their thoughts about the idea of solo performances and
composition will be discussed.

25 March 2006 (Saturday), 8pm
at 72-13 ( www.72-13.com)
$15 tickets available at the door and Flux Us.
For details, please email info@flux-us.com.sg

sporesac

sporesac (singapore sonic arts collective) is an open-ended assemblage
of like-minded musicians and event organisers that seeks to create
greater awareness of experimental music and sound art in Singapore and
its region. Made up of diverse individuals who nevertheless share a
passion for avant-garde sounds, the collective has set its mind on
strengthening the emerging experimental music scene in Singapore with a
number of ongoing initiatives.

72-13

A converted rice warehouse, 72-13 is the new home of TheatreWorks
( www.theatreworks.org.sg). Its primary purpose is to encourage
collaborations, house residencies from creatives around the world and
to encourage hybrid creative expressions from young Singaporeans.
TheatreWorks, responding to the needs of the creative scene in
Singapore, has consciously created 72-13 to have a wider and a more
inclusive agenda.


This event is made possible with the partnership of 72-13 and Flux Us.

Playing in the Playden

see you there!

Tom waits for Nobody

10 Mar 06 - Tom Waits For Nobody - A Soundtrack For An Animated Film They Can't Afford

Presented by: Onistudio & The Arts House
Featured Artists: Zai Kuning, Leslie Low, Yuen Chee Wai, and Koichi Shimizu (Bangkok)
Venue: The Playden @ The Arts House
Date/Time: 10 March 2006 / 8.00pm

Synopsis: Tom Waits For Nobody - A Soundtrack For An Animated Film They Can't Afford is a collaboration between veteran sound artists Zai Kuning, Leslie Low, Yuen Chee Wai, and Koichi Shimizu (Bangkok) as they create a sound track for a story of a boy who ran away from home to see the circus and only discovering his special talent moments before he dies. The sound exploration is based on a structured composition by Zai, Leslie and Chee Wai using acoustics and electronic musical means while Koichi, through manipulation of live sound feeds, will contribute to different layers of sound texture.

The performance will also be accompanied by Zai Kuning's inspired drawings of the story. For more information, please visit onisstudio.blogspot.com.

FALSE SECURITIES 5

Hi everyone,

We have come to the last in our series of 'False Securities'. It has been a tiring but nevertheless rewarding and fruitful experience for us. A big thank you to the kind people who sponsored their spaces and to those who attended the past 4 performances.

For the final performance, we have invited fellow sound artist Chong Li Chuan to collaborate with us. This will be outdoor at the Fort Gate at Fort Canning Green. We have chosen Lewis Carroll's classic tale of Alice in Wonderland as the inspiration and theme for the night. Hopefully, it will be a nice and cool moonlit night as we walk you through the events and characters of the story in a non-linear fashion. Bring along your picnic basket and mats and share your wine with us ! We want to make this a memorable night for all who attend and for the final and last time, we would like to remind you to bring your headphones along.

See you there !

FALSE SECURITIES 5
Live sound performance by Evan Tan & Zul Mahmod
Experience binaural field recordings and digitally processed sounds in a 'headphone only' environment.

Guest artist : Chong Li-Chuan ( http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/phase/)
Friday, 24 February 2006, 8pm
Fort Gate, Fort Canning Green (view attached map)
Contact: zul @ 90278 444
http://www.falsesecurities.blogspot.com/

Tickets $10.00 at the door

Alice in Wonderland

"In Lewis Carroll, everything begins with a horrible combat, the combat of depths: things explode or make us explode, boxes are too small for their contents, foods are toxic and poisonous, entrails are stretched, monsters grab at us... Bodies intermingle with one another, everything is mixed up in a kind of cannibalism that joins together food and excrement. Even words are eaten. This is the domain of the action and passion of bodies: things welded together into non-decomposable blocks. Everything in depth is horrible, everything is nonsense... Alice progressively conquers surfaces. She rises or returns to the surface. She creates surfaces. Movements of penetration and burying give way to light lateral movements of sliding; the animals of the depths become figures on cards without thickness... We no longer penetrate in depth, but through the looking-glass, turning everything the other way round... But the world of depths still rumbles under the surface, and threatens to break through it. Even unfolded and laid out flat, the monsters still haunt us." -- Gilles Deleuze, "Essays Critical and Clinical", translated by Daniel W. Smith and Michael A. Greco .


Zul, Evan, and Chuan invite you to journey with them in the footsteps of Alice, following the White Rabbit. Venturing into "microsound" (Curtis Roads), "small sounds" (John Cage) and not-so-small sounds, together we shall trace the intricate linings of night time, sample the curious fruits of binaural recordings, and explore liminal spaces in granular synthesis.

Come join us in a mad tea-party and take advice from the caterpillar.


Uncovering False Securities by Ang Song Ming

http://www.substation.org/magazine/issue03/ft_FalseSecurities.html

This event is supported by National Arts Council of Singapore, The Substation, Monsoonasia Gallery, FluxUs, Spell7, ferret and National Park Board.

Concave Scream Website

Concave Scream website is back on again!

Their fourth album will also be out soon.

click here to go to their website for more details.

False Securities

Catch the 3rd installment of False Securities.

30 December 2005, 8pm

Spell#7, Little India, 65 Kerbau Road

click here for more info.

Quiet: The New Loud II

Quiet: The New Loud II
December 17, 2005, 7pm @ Singapore Art Museum
$8 at the door (from 6pm)

Leslie will be performing at this event at the Singapore Art Museum. Other acts include Ronin, Typewriter, Rushed and Amanda Tee. Do check it out if you can.

For more info, go to http://www.musicforgood.org

False Securities

Evan Tan & Zul Mahmod will be having their 3rd instalment of False Securites on the 30th, the last Friday of Dec 2005, at Spell#7, Little India, 65 Kerbau Road. Come with an open mind and experience digitally processed binaural field recordings in an headphone only environment.

For more information please visit False Securities

Dont forget to bring headphones!

ANDY YANG PAINTINGS FOR SALE

If you like the illustration on Blank Walls, then please come and check out Andy's exhibition. Having seen some of his work in person, Andy is a unique talent that is able to depict life's ironies in his paintings. Truly something to behold! Definitely worth the space on your empty and tortured wall!!! Also see www.andyyang.com

les.

ebb and flow

leslie will be officially launching his solo instrumental album, Volcanoes, this saturday, 1st Oct, at FluxUs with an instore performance at 6.30pm. The evening's line up will start off with leslie who will present a solo improvised set on laptop loosely based on material off his album. Following after is newly formed improv group Snake Blood Union. details in flyer below.

Did You Miss the SINKING OF THE TITANIC???

At TheatreWorks' soft opening of their new warehouse-style performance venue 72-13, with creaks and explosions and all, our dynamic duo, also our comic duo, Evan and Dharma presented their first foray into 'black ambient' delivered as a dark, sinister rendering of the most famous naval screw-up in history, also the most tragic example of man's pride and overwhelming ego.

Musically, it was a performance that stirred your insides and plunged you into deep dark waters swirling around this mammoth intrigue. In Evan's words, the sounds could become 'uncomfortable', something which listeners were cautioned about at the start of the gig. But there were many brave-hearted in attendance and many stayed to listen in the dark, and together with the musicians, venture farther and farther into an escalating wall of dramatic, multi-layered sounds that just got bigger and bigger. It was exciting hearing my own band budds doing something different and artsy as the event may be, i think the grand dame of all ships made quite an impact.

we recorded it all and will figure out a way to get it out there soon.

vi

Unreleased tracks for free

alright obs people,

we have uploaded the unreleased tracks which didnt make the cut on Blank Walls. these are now on our website as free mp3 downloads, 3 full tracks. The Absentee, Observations of Human Failure, Acid Pills outro (improvised jam). We really liked these but made the decision not to include them cos the album flowed much better somewhat. But as individual tracks, we hope you enjoy them. these ones are really for you all. spread the love...
__________________________________
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS: To download tracks, click on (listen). A small pop-up window will appear to load the mp3 for playback as Quicktime file but that's just for listening. For downloading, PC users can simply click on 'download mp3' and your computer should prompt you to "Save As". Mac users must hold down CTRL and click on 'download mp3' and select "Download Linked File As" before your Mac prompts you to save in your directory of choice.
__________________________________

also have some new pics of the gig, we'll be uploading more onto our flickr album soon. See link to Flickr on right sidebar under 'A Photo Diary...'.

THANK YOU!

To all who made it to our concert, we wanna say a BIG THANK YOU!

We had quite a few tech screw-ups, no fault of the engineering crew, just hantu lah... did you realise it happened just at the point when leslie was about to sing "flying XXXX"? hehehe.... someone doesnt like our lyrics lah... but having you guys there made a huge difference. as evan would say, "thens har".

Thanks to those of you especially for supporting us by buying our tees and CDs. Some of it will go to paying those dear friends of ours who helped with design and production and what not. If any of you didnt get to buy the tee or any of the CDs but would like to, please write us at info@theobservatory.com.sg, there would be some more tees coming, not many but we'll have more sizes in stock if you like. Also, Leslie's Volcanoes and Evan's Coast to Coast plus some Blank Walls tees will all be available at Flux-Us at #04-34, Peninsula Shopping Centre.

Thanks to you all! We hope to do another gig soon. Meanwhile, Olives should hopefully appear on radio soon. If not, we really arent too bothered. Just keep in touch and we look foward to seeing you lot again.

vi

Many Many Volcano

As said, there will be a new release by Leslie. A spanking new instrumental album by the name of 'Volcanoes'. Believe it that it is smouldered by magma !! During the hiatus of 4 months between the finished recording and the mix of blank walls, Leslie, who backside itchy decided to do an album where he could experiment and see what he can get out of it. And the result... a lava hot album of an interesting and progressive mix of noisy music that reminds me of the band Mandarin Movie. Played, recorded and mix everything himself somemore. One man band vibe. Steady lah. Do buy a copy at the launch. Support!

By the way, Les is wondering if he should name himself "Sonic Bacteria" for this album. That one he must decide for himself. Sonic Bacteria sial !! "Sonic Bacteria with his new album Volcano Amour " I think he's just kidding. Better be. Usual, the designer is the same dude who designed the Blank Walls cover Mr Ferret Yuen Chee Wai, purveyor of unusual designs and ultra small fonts. Don't ask me why his name is Ferret. Manimal scene maybe...

Anyway, Flux Us, the shop at Peninsula Shoppin' Centre will probably stock it after the launch.
They are the experimental nice guys. Experimental but nice. Or Nice and experimental...whichever. Which reminds me that on the 10th Sept there will be another in-store performance by 1) Minister 2) Sembawang Air Experimental Research Station, featuring Harold and Justin Seah, brought to you from the far off lands of Sembawang to a CD store near you and lastly 3) Li Chuan, a composer who has been doing all sorts of experimental music in the arts scene. And a jam session between the 3 after.
Ok lah..
Baik lah...


e

Reminiscing - our trip to Norway

finally sorted out all the photos of our trip to Norway. rather than bore you all with the whole lot at one go, i'll be trying to organise them in some sort of a recognisable order. we've hosted them up at flickr. simply click on this http://www.flickr.com/photos/theobsgallery or our side bar link and check in every few days for newly uploaded pics. first up, our 1st days in Bergen, where we got off to a promising start at Duper with Jorgen, our mixer. Bergen just had such a nice vibe, so laid back and physically a small town, yet with endless creative things going on. gigs, music, art installations, we were quite exhausted after the long plane ride on the 1st morning and had to go straight in to the studio to start. but mentally, the vibe of Bergen and Duper and Jorgen combined had a strangely focusing effect on us.

viv

new website is up!

the new website is up!

www.theobservatory.com.sg

also check out an obs audiocast interview in straydog scraps

Tees & CDs

hello...for those of you who've been inquiring about Blank Walls. here's a quick update. there will be a limited number of T-shirts for sale ($25) & the new album as well. If you purchase Blank Walls at the launch, early buyers will get a launch concert poster free until we run out. Also on sale will be some solo project CDs, Leslie Low's new album called Volcanoes available for the first time as well as a limited number of Evan Tan's EP, Coast To Coast.

Pic of our T shirt

new site under construction

hello,

just want to let you know that our official website www.theobservatory.com.sg will be taken down very soon as we are preparing to launch a new website...

a bit sad...but the new site will be more functional for you and me and just as nice.

it will be done by the same designer and good friend, Jason from Kinetic Interactive.

in the meantime, you can still find us here at blank walls...

victor

Blank Walls - Final Track List

hello everyone,

i promised a tracklist of our final songs that made it to the album. first and foremost, we'd like to make a note of regret that two and a half songs did NOT make it. Observations of Human Failure (the 'passing rain' song) and The Absentee were both cut as they just didnt fit in with the other tracks. We also had another instrumental outro at the end of the album we recorded as part of a jam that we really liked but it too, didn't fit in somewhat. BUT... the good news is we'll be putting these on our WEBSITE as soon as the album is launched as FREE DOWNLOADs!

Okay... here is the tracklist of our 2nd album BLANK WALLS:

1 acid pills
2 olives
3 my whole life
4 oddball
5 sea of doubts
6 failed recollections of a fool
7 finch
8 i didn't see her
9 a good thing
10 strength from the sun