ICARUS news
Since the release of 'I Tweet the Birdy Electric' in April last year, Sam and Ollie have found ourselves engaged in a number of quite diverse projects and releases.
'I Tweet...' continues to receive praise from the press long after its initial release, and was recently described by the BBC as "[opening] the door on a beguiling and original soundworld, at times frenetic, at times mournful, but fascinatingly detailed and frequently a lot of fun".
The Wire magazine, after initially meeting the record with a divided response (one of the tracks off 'I Tweet...' featured on the Wire Tapper, although the album received a confusing review) deemed it good enough to list in their top 10 Electronic albums of 2004.
Older Icarus releases have been belatedly popping up on
compilation albums: 'Benevolent Incubator', originally released on the 'Soviet Igloo' EP (Not Applicable 2002), features on the recent 'Late Night Tales' compilation, mixed by Kieran Hebden, while 'Moon Palace', from Icarus' debut album 'Kamikaze' (Hydrogen Dukebox 1998), appears on Amon Tobin's 'Solid Steel Presents Amon Tobin: Recorded Live'.
The duo have been commissioned to remix several tracks recently, something they haven't done since 1999's Creatures remix for Hydrogen Dukebox.
Here's a guide to the new mixes:
Four Tet - 'My Angel Rocks Back And Forth (Four Teas On English Time – Icarus remix)' - Domino
Murcof - 'Maiz (Icarus mix)' - The Leaf Label
Lunz - 'Murmerring Mermaids (The Tecil Tempotrope Remix by Icarus)' - Gronland
Polly Paulusma - rejected, but it's a killer!
PLANS FOR 2005
Current plans for new material begin with the release of a new EP in 2005, which will be based around a 20 minute epic edited down from live recordings.
The release will also feature several collaborations with filmmakers which will appear alongside the EP as part of Icarus' first DVD release. The DVD will present the work Icarus realised in collaboration with filmmakers premiered at London's Lux Cinema in 2001 and also feature a new 20 minute film made in collaboration with filmmaker Laurent Duriaud.
Another new film made in collaboration with filmmakers Squint/Opera will appear on the Leaf/onedotzero DVD collaboration alongside work by Caribou, Colleen and Murcof in the autumn.
ICARUS-RELATED WORK
OLLIE:
Ollie is working towards a PhD at Goldsmiths College, London, where he is a member of the Intelligent Sound and Music Systems group; a component of the College's new Centre for Culture, Creativity and Cognition.
His research is focused on the computational study of musical social systems from an artificial life perspective, which brings together his mixed background in mathematics, social anthropology, and evolutionary and adaptive systems.
Whilst scientific in orientation, like any research into musical behaviour this work naturally feeds back into approaches to musical production, and Ollie is engaged in more immediately production- and performance-oriented projects such as the new Live Algorithms for Music group, based at Goldsmiths.
Since gaining programming competence over the last two years Ollie has also begun coding objects for Max/MSP for his own live work, and for others to order.
Ollie's other performance projects include a computer-improvisation collaboration with London-based trumpeter Tom Arthurs which will be gaining further momentum in 2005.
SAM:
2004 saw Sam's own approach to composition take shape in a number of ways, under the alias Isambard Khroustaliov, he worked closely with Joji Koyama (AKA Woof Wan Bau of Nexus Productions) on the MESH/Channel4 award winning animation 'Watermelon Love', which aired on Channel4 in September (you can see the final results at: www.watermelonlove.com). An Isambard Khroustaliov remix also features (along with Woof Wan Bau's animation) on Four Tet's 'My Angel Rocks Back and Fourth' CD/DVD release.
Isambard has also been collaborating with architectural filmmakers Squint/Opera on a series of commercial works exploring the relationship between architectural process, film and music. This has notably resulted in collaborations with Will Alsop on his master plans for Bradford, Barnsley and Middlehaven.
Isambard's collaboration with architects inspired a number of musical works derived from adapting the process of architectural representation to entirely musical ends. These works (which will probably form the first releases by 'Buck' (Sam's middle name) in the not too distant future) explore themes of notation, metaphor and augamented meaning with relation to cognition.
'Buck' will, as a result of this work, be working at IRCAM
(www.ircam.fr/) in 2005/6 after being invited to attend the year
long course in composition and computer music.
NOT APPLICABLE:
Plans are forming for two releases on Not Applicable (The record label Icarus set up to release 'Misfits' and 'Soviet Igloo' in 2002 and which has since remained dormant). No schedule for the releases has been made, although the material is in the process of being finished.
Isambard Khroustaliov - 'Nostalgic Sighs Of A Formerly Wobbly Bridge', NOT004 (CD) - Recorded in 2003, this is a field recording of the
Millennium Bridge in Southwark (the legendary wobbly bridge) during a gale.
Isambard Khroustaliov and Alice Scott - as yet untitled, NOT005 (DVD) - filmed in 2002, this is a series of films tracing a two month journey through the sprawling 21st century metropolises of the far east, from Hong Kong to Tokyo, via Macau, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Osaka and Kyoto.
WEBSITE:
Peter Heslip, who helps run the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, has put together a new website for Icarus, which is online now.
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Posted by Tony on 20 February 2005 at 00:00
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