Sound Art Experiment number 11

Music can be a powerful force when used correctly.

Full of the joys of summer and the sounds of diplo I made my mixtape comeback with the latest instalment of Tayalarz, and the news of Dr Dre finally delivering on his long-awaited promise of a new album that fans have been waiting more than a decade for had prompted me to make a start on a 'Compton' influenced mix.

And even tho that creation may be in the extremely early stages and may eventually be lost to gestation, with the computer fired up and the hours growing small I chose to revisit a few neglected folders on the harddrive.

Lo and behold did Saturday morning creep up on me and shake me from my bed with a new desire.  

In this age of stealth albums nobody was expecting the penultimate SoundArt to grace the world with its presence.  Very few people were even wanting it.  But regardless.

The SoundArt project was a simple idea.

Instead of giving my brother my music and asking him to produce artwork influenced by the sounds he heard we would flip the script, he would provide artwork and I would be influenced.  12 images and 12 tracks produced over 12 months to create a full length experimental album within a year.

Track 1 debuted in December 2008....

(ahem)

SoundArt11 is a curious creature.  Staring at the stars and asking the ultimate questions as the artwork seriously suggests that we are not alone.

Other tracks have been much more of a sound collage, this perhaps could have been but now sounds more of a sound presentation... Taking it's musical cue and liberally borrowing Doorly's dubstep remix of Calvin Harris' 'Not Alone' as theories jacked from YouTube play out over it.

Previous instalments have heaved with creativity, either pulling things apart or putting them together, SoundArt11 was always intended to play out that way too, but the whole ethos of this expression of art was to let it find it's own way...

Only this morning was the majority of this track spun on its head to give it a more complete feel, choosing to play with a larger chunk of the original remix than originally intended and then swinging by the buena vista social club to provide a backdrop to a healthy discussion on the intelligence of our species that had been longing for a dancing partner for a long time.  The last piece of the puzzle fell from the sky, hailing from a planet that no longer exists.  I rented Man Of Steel two years ago in order to reuse a message that seems to resonate throughout this track, and also through the entire project.

cable spool & wooden pallets

'Found a cable spool down the road and brought it home if u want it'

....


'I don't tink so'


...

'But what about ur pinterest board?’


oh dear, after spending an afternoon turning an old unwanted wardrobe (from my brother's bedroom, replaced by a rather swish looking chest of drawers from a charity shop) into additional shelving for my kitchen cabinets, I could feel the creative impulses flowing through me...

sadly, mundane tasks have to take over and I have to nip to the co-op to pick up some bread, but one essential part of my lifestyle (hold on people, cos it's gonna get real crazy from here on in....) is to vary the routes I walk home, incase I may happen to stumble upon any random, discarded, unwanted crap that may just serve a purpose...

and as I make my way back with a 95p loaf of thick-cut white own-brand, I notice an idle cable spool stood in the middle of the path.... hey, that'd be bloody handy, since my uber-artistic little brother has got that pinterest board about cable spools and pallets, yet, to my knowledge does not have a great deal of cable spools or pallets currently at his disposal

I've picked it up, opting for carrying it home, rather than rolling it home, when I hear a familiar voice shout my name... shout my name quite angrily... shit... I've been rumbled!!

I turn around to see my girlfriend at the end of the path, I turn around and wave, trying to conceal the cable spool unsuccessfully behind me, I think on my feet, I set it down and it on it, acting casual.... 'I thought you wasn't gonna be home til half five?’

My girlfriend is already well aware of my habit of picking odd bits and bobs off the street... 'And what are you gonna do with that?'

'I'm gonna give it to my brother, he has a board on pinterest about recycling ol cable spools and pallets, I'm sure he'll make use of it'




afew hours later, and I find out that he probably won't....

but it's too good to throw away... right?

it's here: Teenaging, the debut single

finally, it's here...

the debut single, a four track package, is now available as a pay-what-you-like download via bandcamp

it has been a long time coming. the release of Teenaging, originally recorded in 2008, heralds the arrival of the full length debut album, Anubis Horror. a trip down memory lane and an industrial take on hip-hop elements, Teenaging follows the path travelled by many as their formative years at school gives way to an errant sense of identity and the prevailing person that we will ultimately become as life shapes us all. the title track of the single is also backed by a chopped up and tortured rendition of the poem 'The Dishonest Truth', the Kaoss pad created and long unavailable 'Base Element' that originally debuted in 2009, and a remix of Teenaging tackled by Tesla aka Matthew Sewell, guitarist and knob-twiddler with North-London djent-metallers UNX, whose debut EP was released earlier this year.



it's been an interesting journey that isn't over yet, but for this release i can't give enough thanks to my brother, Ian Byford, for providing inspired artwork, and to Matthew Sewell, who turned in an amazing remix that really changed the sounds that i have had swimming around my head for so long

so please, download, share and enjoy, and keep an eye out for the forthcoming full length album

I

storytelling

so let me tell you a tale

it is a tale that you may be familiar with

the young Hunchbakk was a bit of a geek (what do you mean, what's changed?) and used to frequent a couple of local-ish comic book shops, one of which was Krypton Komics in Tottenham, just a stone's throw away from Seven Sisters station, my dad would drive me down there pretty much every weekend so that I could spend my pocket money on the latest Bat-titles that had been released

this must have gone on for perhaps a couple of years, until i reached the age where being more social was becoming more important and me and my friends would be out playing football or going to the cinema or going into Enfield Town and buying extra value meals from McDonalds, I can't remember why exactly, but I was reading comics less, and weaned myself off my weekly fix

i'm not saying that I was solely responsible for a downturn in business, but somewhere in the intervening years Krypton Komics disappeared from the High Road, something I duly noted on one of many nightbus journeys home


as detailed before on this blog, my Dad reawakened my inner geek with a Christmas present a few years back, and in this time comics have become ridiculously expensive and I have to sate my appetite for all things superhero with the occasional bargain graphic novel if I am lucky enough to find such a thing, and whatever Enfield's libraries seem to be carrying (currently a couple of Batman/Superman collections and Superman: Secret Origin).

perhaps finally I am getting closer to the point I am trying to make...

as we return once again to Krypton Komics, that had long since carried on as an Internet mail-order service, and which my little brother reliably informed me had recently relocated to an actual old fashioned physical real-world shop in Walthamstow.

so one sunny afternoon earlier this year I impulsively decided that I needed to make a pilgrimage to this new store in search of a specific back issue, I dragged my brother along for the journey and I walked away contended

in my arms I carried Legends, Millenium and a UK reprint Superman comic that is older than I am (with it's free gift of a postcard still attached) which I had paid a meagre sum for considering

and as my brother walked away from Krypton Komics he noted the imposing and run-down building that dominated the opposite side of the road

he stopped to take a couple of photos of the dilapidated building that appeared to be home to some kind of church network,  and now it's image adorns the very first Giles Babel t-shirt

wear Hunchbakk

Or more accurately, wear Giles Babel.

as anyone that pays any attention to this blog will attest to, I have never ever tried to charge a penny for any of the wonderful and occasionally peculiar sounds that I have constructed and concucted.

and to that end, I would like to introduce something that you can actually shell out for if you so wished.

it is my pleasure to present the very first in a collection of Giles Babel t-shirts that accompany my latest EP, "programmed to prevent war", that is to say that there is one image, one t-shirt, per track, all designed in collaboration with my talented little brother, Ian Byford, who has really outdone himself this time.








I'll let you guys in on a little secret, i've seen the trends in topman/river island/burtons/delete as applicable, you know the type, and witnessing the widespread obsession with instagram, I briefed my brother to produce the artwork in a retro-filtered vein to include in my very own online boutique.

it took a couple of back'n'forths to tweak it, including putting a more psychedelic spin on it rather than just manipulating the image to be a simple faux polaroid, but in no time it was ready, and that is the wonderful image that you see before you right now....

I am afraid that, unlike my music, the t-shirt does require payment if you would like it for yourself, but I think you will find that they are very reasonably priced.... (compare to topman if you must) is available in a wide choice of colours, and if you didn't wanna wear it then it is also available to buy as art prints, canvases and all manner of other things, even as a cheap as chips sticker to stick wherever you wish.

but enough of the hard sell

how about a little bit of storytelling

Or perhaps I'll save the story of the this image until another day (what a tease, i'm sorry)

doing everything and nothing

well, i would like to introduce you all to my very first unemployed blog post...

for just over a week now i have probably been the most active bum on the planet, refusing to let losing my job bring me down too much, so instead i have been trying to fill my usual work hours with as much as possible

this means that i have more time to make sure that the house is always tidy, i have finished checking and editing my NaNoWriMo novel, i've finished reviving and painting the cabinet that i found flytipped and shall now use in my geek room, i've reorganised messy drawers, i've gone out for long-ass bike rides, heck, i've done bloody loads of stuff, including getting my CV up to date and starting applying for new jobs

all in an attempt to not feel mopey and useless and bored, in fact, i'm quite enjoying all this extra time to do things that matter more to me, the only problem is that paying bills and a mortgage are also pretty high up on my list of priorities, but my time as a house-husband is in fact rather liberating, now if only it would stop raining long enough for me to get out and do some gardening!

despite this extra time, there are a handful of things that i haven't spent enough time on yet.

the first is blogging (hey, i've been busy with other stuff!)

the second is my music (hey, i've been busy with other stuff!) but as i was telling my brother the other day, music is a hard beast to tame, a couple of hours sat infront of a machine with the intentions of producing a groundbreaking piece of music will more likely result in being sat infront of a machine for two hours and still not be much further than when you loaded it up, indeed today i have tried to complete the final track of a Giles Babel EP and found myself going almost nowhere with it, and when you are trying to get the most out of every hour it is hard to accept that time can just slip away alongside any further achievement... but i'm sticking with it, don't you worry, maybe i'll have another crack at it after i've put the dishes away...

and the third...  i've done nothing at all to draw your attentions to the t-shirts that accompany my currently worked on EP, four tracks are complete, four t-shirts are complete, and yet, as of typing, i've only loaded one t-shirt up and have not even mentioned it anywhere at all...

in my defence, i had a lot going on. and in my defence, i've still got a lot going on. but getting the Giles Babel collection up to date needs to be another task that i sit myself down to complete


so before i waffle on too much i think i may leave it at that, you've had a little update, and i shall now think about making myself some lunch, putting away the dishes, hoovering the front room, maybe doing a bit of polishing, uploading the next three t-shirts in the collection, tackling that fifth and final track again and then perhaps i shall see you on the other side to discuss the t-shirt in the next couple of days perhaps...

so why don't i leave you with the first track, Poptarts and Battleships, from "programmed to prevent war" and a little subtle link to follow if you'd like to view the tee right now, and i'll be back with more info soooooon

a second life for street furniture

those that are following this may be please to know that i am now the proud owner of a makeshift computer desk that used to be someone else's filing cabinet

it also handily doubles up as my filing cabinet now

i feel as if i am following in the ikea trend of life by having dual functionalities for my furniture

and i am also following the green way of living by rescuing a piece of furniture from the side of the road (with a lil help from my brother) and thus recycling it in my own home, meaning that not only have i saved this filing cabinet from becoming just another addition to a landfill site somewhere, i have also probably reduced my carbon footprint or something equally green and trendy to be doing by not having to buy a new piece of furniture

although i am in the market for some new furniture

probably from ikea

the home is slowly becoming a contrast of ikea products and stuff that other people no-longer seem to want (should i call it up-cycling, no, cos that sounds stupid)

a couple of our garden chairs had been discarded just down the road from me (although one of them does only have 3 legs, perhaps this is why it was no longer wanted), the extendable table was a bargain from a charity shop and the same goes for a couple of the chairs around it, other chairs in the house have also been chucked out of their old homes for no good reason, our tv unit has been up-cycled (hmmm) from its original purpose as bakery trays, in the spare room there is a, frankly, quite stunning re-upholstered chair that my brother up-cycled (arrgggghhhhhh) and gave to me as a present for my birthday aaand there is still a rather fetching trunk in the shed that i still haven't found a use for just yet, but i shall.

oh, and perhaps lets not mention the horse (or the dog).

sound art experiment number 9

also known as the much delayed SoundArt9


i took the decision not to tinker too much longer and call it a day on this track last friday, and debuted it on my family's hub of creativity, Byford365.

my brother then gave it a spotlight on his own blog on monday, and since this blog right here is supposedly about me and my music, it appears that i am doing you a great disservice by not mentioning it until now...

SoundArt9 by Hunchbakk

i was rather shocked to find that it had been two years since i'd touched this track at all, but given time to think it other and then check back over previous blog entries it appears that the data connected to this was out by a whole year, but regardless, a year away from this is rather disapoiting, although in that time i had been busy moving and setting up home and i have managed to knock out a handful of other tracks in the meantime

but back to the SoundArt project!

the image supplied to me by my brother for inspiration was a photoshopped view of a boarded up old pub in Enfield Lock, the very same pub that i actually spent the night of my 18th birthday at, and now here i am, ten years later with a musical composition inspired by the decrepit look of the place as it is today

i'd been listening to a lot of dubstep around the time i recieved the artwork, and the image instantly connected with my sense of darker music, whilst the throbbing bass would also be rather haunting, yet also a reminder of the parties and nightlife that Rifles will surely be remembered for among certain generations

i did intend to have the finished article as a much longer track, but after revisting it after a year, and in contrast to the two tracks that precede it, it didn't seem such a bad idea to leave this as a briefer moment in the project

the drums that open the track and the chiming guitar were found on my hardrive and may very well belong to Komakino, there are also tidbits of Jamie XX's remix of Florence and the Machine and Skream's remix of La Roux present for those with a sharp sense of hearing


SoundArt9 by Hunchbakk

finding inspiration

i haven't really made an awful lot of noise about the couple of other blogs that i either have on the go or am involved in, the first is still a little bit of a work in progress, while the second is more personal, although both are in plain sight for all to view if they know where to look

but lets shed a little more light on the second one shall we? the more personal one.

it is something of a digital trinket box perhaps, online, that me and my brother (and hopefully sometime soon, my dad) can all contribute to...

as all three of us are afflicted with the curse of spending time thinking and not spending enough time doing, i thought that it could be used as a prompt to spur us each into action, attempting to find or create something, anything, each day and share it

from my own perspective, i know that i often write either poetry or features, or sometimes have photos that i want to post, but i find that the timing is not write, not wanting to bump something else off of sitting at the top of my blog if i feel it needs to hang around a little longer to garner more attention, and ultimately not wanting the kind of blog that moves so fast that within a few days of being away so much could have been missed, it is these strange invisible limitations and restrictions that i wanted to free myself from...


and lo and behold, has it been an interesting experiment so far! i'll readily admit that some days i have had to purposefully look for my latest contribution, but more recently ideas have flown more freely, not only that, but the latest photo added by my brother (along with the few others posted on his own blog) were actually the catalyst for my latest poem, inspired by the desolate and intrigueing images of discarded memories and dumped furniture

(and yes, you are stepping on my toes slightly, but i'll forgive you.... this time)

the day we found grandad had been flytipped

it was just under the flyover that we found him

upturned and half-out of his usual chair

along with a handful of belongings

and photos that had addorned walls

he looked dazed, confused by it all

the poor old sod

with remote control in hand and a furrowed brow

eyes fixed on the same telly that had seen him through the past fifteen years

now smashed and propped upon a pile of breezeblocks

and he greeted us with very little fanfare

merely stating that the reception for channel five was the worst it had ever been

premiere

it has been an unbelievably busy and rather productive few days for me.

i've been working on new music for a new little project that is likely to take over my life and become the only thing i care about if i can ever ween myself off the addiction to reading comics that i seem to have picked up again (but i guess there are worse addictions to be afflicted with).

so, yes, making music, reading comics, finishing my first ever music video (which is why you're here, right) as well as writing (starting, middling and indeed finishing) the first short story that i have probably written since i was a kid, i've not quite decided what to do with it just yet, it feels far too momentous an occasion for me to just put it up as a blog post.

oh, and that's not including all the live music i have seen, i have witnessed The Television Personalities, Milk Kan, Akira The Don, Kele and Underworld all doing there respective things. So of course i'm already working on an article, even tho the Enfield Advertiser seems to be getting ridiculously behind again.

and all this obtuse over achieving and busy business has only been since about 12.20 pm thursday!! it's already looking to be another busy week this week too, tho possibly (almost defientley) not quite as productive.

but lets get round to that video i promised you, the video for my new new spoken word cover version of the xx's vcr, which supersedes the version that i actually attempted singing on!!

enough waffle.

video, now!



now, perhaps a little more waffle??

Hunchbakk - vcr (the xx spoken word cover version)

made on a budget of absolutely nothing at all

Directed, Edited, Filmed and Concept by Hunchbakk
Additional Filming by Ian Byford

filmed on location in my Dad's back room.

thank you

sound art experiment number 8

well it turned out to be quite a geek week over here didn't it.

let's remedy that by sorting you out with some free music, the latest installment in the much delayed SoundArt project.

we're up to number 8 and i have already recieved the artwork for number 9 and am brainstorming ideas at the mo, but lets not let this one pass us by too quickly.

may i present to you, the Art and the Sound of SoundArt8



SoundArt8 by Hunchbakk

and for those of you that aren't quite sure what you are looking at, the above piece of artwork was infact a CD case with cassete tape wound tightly inside, to give the impression of something resembling a Reel to Reel, but also looking like a CD at the same time.

which didn't exactly fill me with inspiration.

instead i decided that it would be a blank canvas for me to work with and decide what i was going to do, which was also rather fitting considering the nature of a blank cassete.

so i set about gathering ideas and even up until the last day working on the track i was still adding ideas as they came to me, much like a cassete tape would be recorded onto over and over.

so i sampled tracks that i heard that appealed to me most, i dug through a pile of minidiscs and snatched short snippets of audio from shows i'd recorded off the radio, i actually sampled a very worn out tape which has quite clearly seen better days.

and although the finished item may not exactly sound like a track that has been worked on for a number of months it still stands as an experimental piece drawing inspiration (and samples) from a number of sources and i would like to acknowledge Big Audio Dynamite, Instra:Mental, D-mob, David Rodigan, John Peel, Steve Lamacq, Eddy TM, Jo Whiley, Akira The Don, Thom Yorke, Bill Hicks and Paul Kaye who all unwittingly contributed.

talk with your hips

blogs!! it is all going on!

Akira The Don is dropping cartoon strips every day of the week, Faded Glamour is counting down the top british albums of the decade. ok, ianbyfordart has been a little sparse recently but even he noticed that Marvin The Martian dropped a new download before i did??!

and if you check back here in the next couple of days i'll be posting the full and unedited Milfield review that appeared in today's Enfield Advertiser.

so while i'm busy digging out a ton of old pop CDs for a DJ set coming up (i own too many CDs, i'm so thankfull of mp3s, for a start they take up a lot less room!!) why don't you track down these recent offerings that were posted respectively on devil in the distance and ian byford art

Marvin The Martian - Loose Change

Hunchbakk - SoundArt7 (incomplete)



credit where it's due:
photo by Ian Byford

Sound Art Experiment Number 7 (a work in progress)

ok, so i debuted this last night and my brother (and SoundArt collaborator) was quick to pick up on it and post it on his own blog.

so i thought perhaps i should shed a little more light on this track and explain the thought process behind it aswell as showing the artwork that inspired it



the initial look at the image brought with it ideas of medieval bloody battles, but i wanted to try something to bring it up to date

and with this thought buzzing through my head it struck me while listing to Notorious B.I.G's Ready to Die that the track Everyday Struggle threw up the right mentality that i intended to achieve with the track, when every day feels like a battle

so i set about disecting the track before moulding it back together again as best i could, but i didn't want to just regurgitate the beat, i wanted to add to it so i set about smashing a ferocious drum beat out on an old metal heater with a hammer to tie it in with the idea of fighting and the damage the shield would be subject to, and then threw in some chopped up gregorian monks just for good measure to realy hark back to the medieval imagery

and at the moment the track is mainly instrumental, apart from the choruses, and i idealy want a rapper or two to do a little something over the track based around the idea of their everyday struggles

i'm not sure if the harsh pounding metallic drum beat will remain in the finished version or if it will be too much of a distraction from any vocals...

so it needs a little working on and i need to recruit someone or sometwo (or possibly somethree?) to rhyme over the beat but for now i wanted to share the work in progress as a kind of first draft, just to show my ideas as they originally were as when it is finally completed some things may have changed

SoundArt7 (incomplete)
Free file hosting from File Den

light of day

so these early posts of this new year are about getting things settled, putting last year behind me before looking further forward.

i now know that my Shindig Addicts review will see the light of day in The Enfield Advertiser, my festive little write up of the festive little gig will be published upon the very festive date of wednesday the 13th of january 2010...

don't expect warm fuzzy feelings when reading it, the christmas experience will have long faded from memory by then

this also means my look at She Is Danger which would have been well suited for the first or second week of january when every other publication is touting new names for 2010 will be with us in two weeks time...

oh well, better late than never i guess


which does lead on very nicely to the main reason of this post...
the long delayed and still completely incomplete SoundArt7

SoundArt7? yes, 7! which in theory should have been available as of last july but the whole project is a little bit backed up, but i'll see it through - in fact i'm waiting on the next artwork before i can get started with the next piece

so SoundArt7 had been bothering me a very long while, it took ages to get it where i thought it was right and even then i was unsure, i've taken some advice on it and want to change it a little, try and get it as close to perfection as an amatuer possibly could and possibly get a collaborater to add vocals to it

and while the timescale of any of that actually happening is likely to be blooming ages i thought i'd post up the work in progress, just as a way of getting it out there and allowing myself to move onto the next piece instead of continually dwelling on this one

incomplete, ok?
work in progress

this is it...
SoundArt7 (incomplete)
Free file hosting from File Den

Sound Art Experiment Number 3 (revisited)

Last year Ian Byford Art posted a handfull of my tracks to download that he had designed the sleeve artwork for, this year for Blogmass he has been re-upping this years SoundArt tracks, the first of which originally debuted as part of 08's Blogmass Advent calender.

All the tracks to date are now online to download for a limited period, now there should supposedly have been a new track completed every month, meaning that a full 12 track collaboration album would have been available this december - but some things just don't quite go as planned, instead there are 6 tracks available, including the 'incomplete' SoundArt3



SoundArt3 (unfinished)

SoundArt3 is a short track that i intended to expand when i had got more material to flesh it out, it was conceived as a reflection on the links between music and art and included just a few interview clips cut up over a rather minimal backing

I was thinking that i would do more interviews to broaden the scope of the track and increase the running time, but in hindsight i now think it serves as a short aside, almost a brief interlude while some of the other tracks i experimented with have been surpassing the five minute mark (and then some...) which i very rarely cross with my usual tracks i produce, and this in turn has meant that the when the SoundArt project is complete it may be quite a long listen, so the brevity of the third track may be no bad thing

i may change my mind again, i may expand SoundArt3 to a 17 minute sonic symphony if the fancy takes me...

but in the meantime perhaps you should all be right-clicking and kicking back to enjoy the SoundArt project so far

SoundArt1
SoundArt2
SoundArt3 (unfinished)
SoundArt4
SoundArt5
SoundArt6
Free file hosting from File Den

The Sound of Art

not only am i letting you lucky buggers get your hands on my christmas single for absolutely no pounds and no pence at all (that is for free for the less mathematical amongst you) but as of saturday the previous SoundArt tracks are being uploaded daily over at Ian Byford Art



today being sunday means that both SoundArt1 and SoundArt2 are now available to download, and from around about midnight tonight you'll be able to get your hands on SoundArt3 (and so forth)



now i'm afraid that this can't last forever since at present there are only 6 entries in the SoundArt project available for public consumption... although i am considering rounding off the week with a sneak peak of a slightly incomplete SoundArt7 since i've kept you all waiting so long

www.xmas.com

SoundArt1.mp3

SoundArt2.mp3
Free file hosting from File Den


so don't forget to check Ian Byford Art for the latest downloads, and also for his current Blogmass that will run until christmas with a post every single day up til and including christmas day


and i'm also considering trying to get my arse in gear so i can have a little treat prepared on my blog for christmas....

it's the most wonderful time of the year

how polite, apt and indeed neccesary of my brother to point out the fact that 'newspapers are losing there power to bloggers, Twitterers and social networkers' in the same week that i wrote my very first article for The Enfield Advertiser

yeah, thanks for that.

and his response to this sign of the times is to produce his own online non-press release... hang on, it was only afew months ago i was knocking up a press release for him that got him exposure in The Enfield Gazzette!

anyways, while my little brother continues to undermine everything i'm doing i shall be supportive of my family unit and reprint his non-press release for you right here


young talented sexy artist Ian Byford (well someone must think I'm talented and sexy) is embarking on an advent blog fest he calls blogmass from december 1st -25th

Ian Byford will be blogging daily (unless my computer throws a wobbly) at www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com

in this period Ian Byford will be
- opening a new web shop at www.zazzle.co.uk/ianbyfordart*
- launch new products (well you can't have a shop without stuff in it)
- posting new festive stories from his distopeian scrapbook
- making mp3s by Hunchbakk, from their sound art project available for free download

Ian Byford's Blogmass will show you why this super duper artist with overwhelming talent and charisma (maybe I went over the top there) is making a name for himself with his art work taking to the street in the form of wearable products and taking to the air in the form of music crafted by the talented and innovative Hunchbakk based on original art work by Ian Byford, in there collaborative soundArt project.

aaah, there's a little praise, that was nice of him!

so keep an eye out for blogmass starting this tuesday, along with the return of my christmas single

and if anyone wants to repost or share the non-press release in an online viral fashion, please go ahead, aah, go on...

Sound Art Experiment Number 6

A number have things have crept up and kept the sixth installment of the SoundArt project away from you, i have been dealing with (among other things) being computerless, faltering mic inputs and most recently a lack of internet that stopped me from getting things updated around here properly

but now this is it.....

SoundArt6
Free file hosting from File Den




perhaps the first impression is that the Sound bears little in common with the Art that inspires it, and truth be told it was a tough one to translate and transform into music.

but the more i thought about it, the more i felt that the art was giving me a free reign over what i was to produce, and even deeper thinking resulted in coincidences and echoes that reverberated through my intentions as i began to join the dots that perhaps only i can see....

SoundArt6 in one form is a homage to the work of Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, from another perspective it is influenced by the myth of Icarus, it was also an attempt to free myself from the use of readymade loops and samples, i saw this artwork as an invitation to 'dust off my wings' and use some equipment that had been sat around for a while and use an idea that had also been gathering dust, and no matter what angle i looked at it from it all began to bring itself together

the end result was meant to be my magnum opus, but perhaps it was let down a little by my skills as a musician which still leave much to be desired, but it is still something i am proud of, and i intend to live my life as a revisionist, and hope to one day have the time and ability to improve upon my flaws

SoundArt6

and, of course, every intention was in place to get this SoundArt project back on track, only now i find myself with a computer that doesn't record, which may limit my options and stunt my creativity.....

so don't hold your breath

art: a slideshow

there isn't much to say now that hasn't already been said, today is the last day of the three day Form Fest at Bar Form, and those arriving from 6 will be able to view the sculptures created by my brother and a small display of my own photography, as i mentioned in yesterdays post

i'm hoping that is all the reminder anyone will need so i'll leave you with a slideshow that takes a little look inside the creative process my brother undertook as he began work on some new sculptures especially for Form Fest



and just like normal publications and newspapers, i need to print a retraction and apologise for my little moan about The Enfield Advertiser the other day...

for even tho it was the Advertiser that rang me in order to contact Ian, and it was the Advertiser that sent a photographer round, the article was actually printed in the Advertiser's sister paper, this week's Enfield Gazette!!!

a rather well informed and informative article! we got there eventually, eh?



click on the article itself for a larger view, and the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that one of the sculptures pictured with my brother in the article is the same one started in the above slideshow, it all ties together neatly in the end!

and to see the conclusion of all this hard work, displays of both my brother's scultures and my own photography can be viewed from 6ish til 8ish tonight at Bar Form, Enfield Town

so one last time, for luck, here's that familiar flyer



(click the flyer for a larger view)

read all about it...

Local artist, Ian Byford to exhibit his work at Enfield Town Bar
Sculptures on display at Bar Form on Sunday 2nd August

Ian Byford has been picked as one of a small number of artists to display their work at Bar Form, Genotin Road, as part of Form Fest, a three day mini-festival that will showcase music, art and fashion.

Born in Enfield and currently living in Waltham Cross, Ian Byford, 23, works in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, photography, digital art and writing. Often his sculptures are composed of materials either found or donated, or bought from charity shops and he has recently been working on a multi-media project entitled ‘Distopeian Scrapbook’ that tells the stories of individuals living in a not too distant future that is far from perfect.

The ‘Distopeian Scrapbook’ will be represented by a number of works that will be on display at Bar Form, including new sculptures that have been created especially for the Form Fest exhibition and a limited number of mini-comics have been written and produced that will be available free, exclusively at the event.

More art, works in progress and the Distopeian Scrapbook so far can be viewed on www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com


Ian Byford will be exhibiting his work from 6pm – 8pm on Sunday 2nd August at Bar Form, Genotin Road.

ok, so The Enfield Advertiser disapointingly overlooked my brother and his exhibition so i thought i'd use my initiative and publish an online article so you all know what's going on this weekend, actually it's more like a copy and paste of my press release which is pretty much what 'journalists' at local papers do anyway

and since Bar Form seemed to be coming up a little bit short on artists i decided that i'd exhibit some of my photography alongside my brother's sculptures (cos he's not the only talented one in the family y'know) to help em out, so i have been hastily putting together my own display, so head down to Bar Form this weekend for a three day mini-festival kicking off tomorrow, featuring the fantabulous Bubblegum Stomp DJing on Saturday and artsy stuff from both me and my brother on Sunday



(click the flyer for a larger view)