Jo Thomas Electronic Music Artist

Scratch

2012-02-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

I have a very special event coming up on the 16th of February at the Milton Keynes Gallery at their Scratch Night Event.
See web site link.

http://www.mkgallery.org/events/2012_02_16/live_music/

Hope to see you there and will be playing some great , warm, bold and beautiful , bass fissure.

2012 Sensorium

2012-01-03T12:40:00.001-08:00

New Year ...
I spent mine in east London and it was great .. ..
New years resolutions ...
not that many, just to keep doing what I love.
Exciting times ahead and evening of live sound performance in Milton Keynes Gallery 16th of Feb . Am writing it at the moment . Its going to be through three rooms and called Fissure. I'm working alongside a visual exhibition by Daria Martin called Sensorium Tests .
http://www.mkgallery.org
http://www.mkgallery.org/exhibitions/future/
Photo above Chapel Market, Islington the 2nd of Jan ,
more soon,
J

Crystal - Sounds of a Synchrotron

2011-10-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Since January I have been working with Diamond Light Source in Didcott on the sounds from their Particle accelerator.
Crystal is nearly 40 minutes long. It has been written for 5.1 DVD as a commission for Diamond Light Source. On the 20th of October it will be performed live in the space of the electron storage ring. You can down load it here from soundcloud. If you would like to come to the event please contact laura.holland@diamond.ac.uk as names and numbers are needed for entry.

Crystal Jo Thomas Diamond Light Source 2011 by Jo Thomas

Work and process
It is a sound work composed directly from frequencies generated by the electron storage ring, a particle accelerator. The work also uses binaural recording from locations inside Diamond’s experimental hall, storage ring and beamlines. Writing this work, my imagination was sparked from the start and my aim was to write a work of substantial length which reflected both the actual content of the spectrum of the space and also the metaphorical content of the sounds.
The Diamond synchrotron is a rich multi-spectral sonic environment, with a cacophony of sounds generated by machines which hiss pure nitrogen, pump air from vacuum chambers and cool high-powered magnets. There is never one time where any sound is exactly the same. It is a large space, circular; extremely reverberative, vibrating complex tones from the electro-magnetic and mechanical interfaces which generate the electron beam which travels at near the speed of light. The actual physical space of the synchrotron seems to capture pure human intelligence, concentration and the ability to look beyond what is currently possible. It is light, futuristic and like nothing I have ever seen before.
Most of the sounds you hear in this work are the sounds of electron injections into the particle accelerator at certain times of the day. This happens on a regular basis every 25 minutes; it is predicable and ever present. The sonic content of the injections is grainy and dry. I choose to listen to the micro tonalities captured in
the streams of injections developing detailed micro melodies which appear and disappear not unlike the atom injections. The injections are heard in full at the end of the work. I also took binaural field recordings from points in the synchrotron area and I used a selection of these within the work.
Crystal is designed both for concentrated listening and also for installation. One can walk into the work at any time and capture phrases “injections of a sonic palette” or simply sit down and listen to the whole work. It captures my experience of listening in on the inner workings of the synchrotron. The space itself captures a sense of timelessness, and my aim was to reflect this in the form of the music.
The work was composed in the Electro-acoustic Studios of the University of Wales , Bangor, with support from a research grant from the University of East London. Many thanks to all involved in making the work.
Jo Thomas, London October 2011

Cafe Oto Galvanised Festival 11th oct

2011-10-09T03:38:00.000-07:00

I am performing a solo set in cafe oto on the 11th of October.
Please come along if you are in the area , it will be great . Great artists involved.
Link below

http://cafeoto.co.uk/galvanised-2011.shtm

Details
11th of October
Galvanised Festival
Cafe oto
Dalston
London
Doors: 8pm
Tickets:
£6 advance / £7 on the door
Galvanised! presents the 5th annual festival of experimental sounds and music.
MUSIC vs THE UNIVERSE
JO THOMAS
ALEXANDER TUCKER
STANDARD PLANETS
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB
TEMPERATURES

Active Cross Over -28th of September 2011

2011-09-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Active Cross over last night ,

Thank you to everyone that was involved

I had a solo set and duo with Martin Clarke .

Small footage below is of the pont of cross over between Martin and myself

Many Thanks to all ,

Live London

2011-09-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

This week has been very good and next week will be equally so and the start of a role of performances and teaching in both the university and external work shops. I'll be doing a great live electronic sound workshop at the space studio's with Jennifer Cardinni from Kompact for the Alpha-ville Festival. So ladies who love sound , bring your gear and lets jam. I'll be going through my own work ,other's , ableton and different software available. We will have the opportunity to show each other's sets and play the on a system also talk about performance , share sounds , music and make something new .
The workshop is open to women of all ages.
Bookings http://www.alpha-ville.co.uk/tickets
25th of September , 12-5pm Space Studio's , Bethnal Green London.
You need to bring your Lab Top , cables and interfaces that you like using.
There will be opportunities to perform your own sets live and have feed back from an interactive group.
I've got some smashing gigs lined up on the LIVE page , so , hope to see you at one of them.
Jo
x

Live at the ICA Untitled Lines 21st July 2011

2011-07-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was asked to perform in the ICA as part of the Pablo Bronstein exhibition. I wanted to write a new work for the new space. What has resulted from the invitation is an electronic work which will be played live called Untitled Lines.The work explores moments of elegance in drifting borders of sound. As always with my works I score them before and during composition, visualising a raw physicality which then translates directly and indirectly into the finished works. The photo above is an image of my self surrounded by my own music. I find tracing paper a very beautiful media to work with because of it's sound and translucency, on this occasion I was wrapped in nearly four meters of it.
Untitled Lines is to be performed in the theatre space of the ICA at 8pm on the 21st of July.
Photo Green Lens Studio's London\
jo@jothomas.me

Jada

2011-06-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

A good , busy and very creative week. I've been doing music, scores and working with talented designers.
This thursday ( 16th June )I am performing with Astroid, an ensemble with very free electronics. We are doing two 15 minute sets. The performance is at the Other's on Manor rd. Starts at 7.30 onwards.

ASTEROID
live electronics
6 - 8 Manor Road
London

Working hard on the new piece for the ICA , looking forward and v excited,
entr'acte are releasing a limited edition tape cassette of the work for the performance on the 21st of July.

Pablo Bronstein at the ICA .http://www.ica.org.uk/

Have a very good week,

Jo
x

Light

2011-05-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

Photo by Emilia Temirkulovaite of me performing in Net Audio, Roundhouse a few weeks ago,
Looking forward to 30th of May , Red Gallery ,London
Jo x

New Lexicons of Dark 30th of May

2011-05-21T02:55:00.000-07:00

Summer is Here ,

London is Hot ,

Breeze is Fresh . Am just preparing my set for next Monday 30th of May in the New Lexicons of Dark Festival at the Red Gallery , London,

Looking forward

Link Below

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4284873

Mountains

2011-04-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

An amazing few days

It has been Easter ..

I have walked mountains and got truly stuck in them

Won a place to perform in the Roundhouse in May through public vote.

... marked nearly a hundred audio works ...

Bought a new record player

and relaxed after 4 months intensive music writing

Summer is nearly here,

Qwartz Award 7 Nomination

2011-01-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

I am very proud to say that the Entr'acte LP Alpha has been been nominated for the discovery section in the qwartz 7 award .
This is great. Thank you.
Jo
x

Nominated Artists

Alpha -E82 by Jo Thomas [United Kingdom] – Entr’acte [United Kingdom]
Eyelid Movies by Phantogram [United States] - BBE Records [United Kingdom]
Harmonic Ratio by v4w.enko [Ukraine] - Kvitnu [Ukraine]
It's dark but it's okay by Notic Nastic [United States/Germany] – Shitkatapult [Germany]
Peste by Sturqen [Portugal] - Kvitnu [Ukraine]
Shapes & Phases by Vertex [Norway] - Sofa music [Norway]
Unfinished Journey by Alexander Volodin [Russia] - Electroshock Records [Russia]

Snow and Simulation

2010-12-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

Words Jo Thomas 2010
Alpha Alpha Live Entr’acte Dark Noise Glitch Vinyl Ultra Tonal Rashad Becker Alpha CassetteTula Shine Ultra Full Time Go Bang Night Music Lets Go Swimming ICA The Wire New Web Site Angel Queens University Girl Fellow Mac Book Pro Chilly Gonzales Micro sound Whitechapel Gallery Strange Beauty Cassette Feature Length Film The boy who collected sounds Mark Knoop Accordion , Power-play Milan Deadlines Alpha-Ville Festival Ableton live Osmanic CentreArthur Russell Allon Kay Tim Lawrence
Volcanic Dust JTGallery Forward Bordeaux Digital Downloads Last Fm Stoke Newington Café Oto Dalston Sound and Music UEL Scrime

Angel James Taylor Gallery London C+R

2010-10-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

Angel (preview) by Jo Thomas

This week my work Angel is being performed at the James Taylor Gallery, London. It is part of a series of performances arranged by the new sound collective C+R.

http://callandresponse.org.uk/programme/

Angel is a very special work to me. It was my first major commission (INA-GRM Paris, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) The work was written in the Studio's of INA GRM in a duration of 3 weeks.

It is a long work with tonal and harmonic structures which evolve and disserpate over very short spaces of time. It requires a certain type of concentrated listening to make full musical sense I'm lucky ,the C+R Programme will have 8 channels of immersive sound and I think it will sound lovely.

'''Programme notes'''

Angel Jo Thomas

Angel is an exploration of sound and visual metaphors questioning the passing of time. The human body and the imagination are referenced closely together throughout this work as a means of exploring strange imaginary landscapes, fantasies of flight, timelessness and the extreme beauty of the human condition. Notions of landscape and the human body were essential components to the creation of the sound world.

When writing the music I wanted to reflect an atmosphere which was neither the ground nor the sky, night nor day, water nor air - a strange world, which stood in between worlds, - a multitude of spaces where one, could step into and perhaps, imagine and reflect.

Angel is also a work full of voice. Some scream with Arch strength, some sing with the warmth of Guardians and others simply call for peace.

Angel exists as both an audiovisual work and a piece of electroacoustic music. The work was written in 2002 as a commission from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, INA-GRM Paris, and Sonic Arts Network. The work had its world première in the Huddersfield Festival 2002 and was performed in GRM, Radio France with the acclaimed diffusion system.

http://soundcloud.comJo Thomas

New Work for Tape Cassette

2010-10-24T16:13:00.001-07:00

Above is a limited Edition Tape Cassette especially released for the Entr'acte Event of the 13th of October. Thank you to all who came. My work Strange Beauty was released on this tape.

Track listing as follows:

Side A
Filter Feeder – Paroxysm
Adam Asnan x ARAR – Combine I
Jacques Beloeil – Untitled

Side B
Lee Gamble – Screw Dislocations (ZQ Edits)
Giuseppe Ielasi – Untitled
Jo Thomas – Strange Beauty

Things in the Future . a live solo set in the Sapphire Lounge , London(27th of October set 10 pm )

and a performance of Angel organised by the new sound collective C+R 4-7th

Will post more about this soon

Filter Feeder Jo Thomas

2010-09-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

My Job at the University of East London means that term has started . I teach sound design, computer music and composition. The summer has been rich in music, art and research and I'm looking forward to what the change of season brings.

On Friday Filter Feeder came round to my Studio.We had a great session,his work is beat based , machine driven and very delicate . We are working together for the next three weeks for the Entr'acte event on the 13th of October in the Drop.

I'm looking forward to it very much.

Picture above from last week in Oxford with Tim Lawrence at Arthur Russell Event. Hold on to your Dreams.

Was lovely to do and everyone was great.So thank you Oxford and thank you Tim for inviting me.

Good week to all ,

Live at the Drop

2010-09-12T11:41:00.001-07:00

On the 13th of October I am performing live with the artist filter feeder at 'The Drop' in Stoke Newington. It is an event organised by the record label entracte. Other artists also performing are adam asan/ arar, jacques beloeil, giuseppe ielasi, lee gamble and severine serizy.
It will be a very good night so come along,
Jo

Hold on to your Dreams Moma Oxford

2010-08-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

On the 9th of September I have pleasure of working with the writer Tim Lawrence to do the piece “Hold on to your Dreams” in Moma. Oxford.
It’s a work based around Arthur Russell’s music, excerpts from Tim’s beautiful book about Arthur Russell and my own electronic music. It's touching extreme and full of funk. We first performed the piece at the ICA in February and it has since been to Milan, Berlin and now Moma, Oxford.

If you can come along. The piece is part of an evening about Arthur Russell, which includes film, discussion about Arthur Russell.

Enjoy the rest of the summer

Full details on link below,

http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/wild-combination/about/

Wire Review Ultra Tonal September 2010

2010-08-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

London based electronic composer Jo Thomas offers her new EP , Ultra Tonal as a free download via her website. Each of the three tracks, "Tula", "Ultra" and "Shine", feels like its energies are scrambling to break from the restraints that Thomas has put upon them. " Ultra" is especially impressive as her hyperactive bleeps keep getting dragged towards stasis, jamming the music spinning inside disorientating deja vu from which it can't escape. The stand out moment in "Shine" sees Thomas busy material abruptly fall through a structural trapdoor , as she opens a new space.

Phillip Clarke

The Wire

pg.69 September 2010

Glitch Fissure

2010-08-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

Excited, new work , start of term and new paper for peer reviewed journal.

'Hold on to your dreams' being performed in Moma Oxford on the 9th and will post information closer to the date. Will be fantastic to work with Tim again in Oxford, Looking forward.

Picture: Snowdonia,

Resonance FM Entr'acte Release Party

2010-08-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight around 9.30 a remix by Allon Kay of all the music played at the release event for Alpha was broadcast on Resonance FM.

I'm so proud to be involved in something that was so unique , and it's incredible how music can change and generate other music's and forms .

I went to see Evan Parker tonight at Cafe Oto , so I missed the recording.. but you will be able to download it from the Entr'acte site at the end of the month ..

Reading today :Simon Emmerson, the Living Electronic Music ; Ashgate Press. Beautiful book

and now I have to finish my proposal for November ...

Till next week have a good weekend ,

Alpha Live at the Alibi Live Recording.

2010-08-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

JO THOMAS: ALPHA LIVE AT THE ALIBI

Monday 9th of August.

Release Information

This is a freely downloadable live recording from the jothomas.me site. The live recording is being released as uncompressed AIFF and 320 VBR MP3. Recording by Joe Caramelo. To download the files please view the release page.

Alpha Live

This recording of ‘Alpha’ was performed on the 5th of May at the E82 Entr’acte record release event. The recording is a 21-minute performance made with digital sound files from the original electronic work Alpha E82. The artists Lee Gamble, John Wall, Oliver Fay, Piers Martin, Sheikh Ahmed and Filter Feeder all participated in the event.

Alpha Live to Digital Release

The original work Alpha was composed around metaphors of transformation and the ether. Based on the work of Donna Harrway’s Cyborg Manifesto Alpha strives to create a meta-body in digital sound. To release this live recording through the Internet seemed a natural musical and media progression. These files are available in uncompressed pure audio. This ensures all sonic and spatial qualities are kept extremely close to the original performance. The files are also available for people to share and edit.

Construction

This performance is an improvisation which works intuitively with the spectral shape of the sounds. It is based on an open form, it’s dynamic range, density and occurrence of gesture has similarities to the original electronic work on the LP. The openness of form allowed me work with the concept of absolute time , changing source material swiftly with no obvious connection to resonances of the past and using silence as a sound event in it’s own right. Real time sound transformations were paramount in this performance as regards to pitch centre’s, noise ratios, grain capturing a sense of a live performance.

The diffusion of the music should be warm and full enabling audio clarity to delicate passages of high spectral material and bass morphologies.

Fast Fingers

2010-08-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

So the week has been good and we are at the start of a new one.

Next monday 9th August a recording of a live performance of Alpha is being made available through my site jothomas.me and being linked to Entr'acte www.entr'acte.co.uk .

Allon Kay at Entr'acte has very generously made available the live recording for Aiff and Mpeg 3 download.

I'm working with Fail and Entr'acte to construct a downloadable package with Artwork and Pdf of information that should present the recording in the best way .The recording is beautiful. Very strong and delicate in places .. I really love it.

So , am looking forward very much to it's release .

Thank you to everyone who was involved in that evening and to everyone that came.

Girl

2010-07-22T02:56:00.001-07:00

A very busy week , music wise and it still hasn't finished . The week has been a combination of writing music, researching and swimming. The release of Ultra Tonal has been very exciting thanks to everyone involved for making it such. The company Fail was involved in the distribution design of the EP ,they worked for a fast down load speed of AIFF files Release page below ... Go and look at the release .It's lovely.
http://jothomas.me/en/releases/view/2

Yesterday I found out that my work Girl has been submitted by the British Jury for International Selection for the ICSM World Music Day. This is incredibly prestigious and I'm very happy . Please route for Girl ..
Girl is being released on Vinyl with another new work soon by Entr'acte .Exciting times.

Girl was written in the Studio's of the Djerresi art centre 2005 San Fransisco where I was composer in residance for a month. I worked for 4 weeks on this work . It's based on the first Chapter of the Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir. Within this text she writes about Girl being a force of nature with very limited boundaries.She is landscape, she is air and she is in search of experience. I wrote a small stream of text 'All is Air , All is world

So I'm going back to my Studio and carry on with some bass. Tim Lawrence is doing a book reading in Basso Berlin of Hold on to your Dreams on the 23rd. Tomorrow. We did it in the ICA in March and are doing it in Moma , Oxford in Sept. All good stuff.

http://www.catch-fire.com/2010/07/tim-lawrence-reads-from-%E2%80%9Chold-on-to-your-dreams%E2%80%9D-basso-berlin/

We hope to put the music up in the near Future so I'll keep you posted.
http://www.timlawrence.info/arthur_russell/2009/Arthur_intro.php
Speak next week,
J
x

We are Live Ultra Tonal

2010-07-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ultra tonal is Live .
Released Today .
So go forth and download the EP in AIFF Format.

http://www.jothomas.me/en/releases/view/2

I hope you enjoy , it's a sampler of my work. I think it pretty beautiful as a small collection of miniatures. But then , if I didn't I wouldn't be letting it out..

Enjoy ,

On to the Next ' Hold on To your Dreams" Tim Lawrence and Berlin
Jo
x
Information below

Ultra Tonal is an EP of three works.

This is a freely downloadable EP from the jothomas.me web site. The work is being released as uncompressed AIFF and 320Kbps VBR MP3.

These works are composed for concentrated listening and also live performance. Instructions for concentrated listening are also given with the works. The material on this EP is entirely synthetic and connections between human agency and digital technological landscape have been made.

The format of this EP is rare as it is being released through AIFF. The reasons for this are:

1. The files are pure audio. No spectral content is lost due to codec mpeg three compression. Importantly micro sound, glitch and spatial detail is exactly the same as when composed.

2. The material has it’s own authenticity as a piece of pure audio. It is being offered freely to listener to own, edit and share with other’s. Also, the MP3's have no DRM on them.

Program notes

1. Tula
The meaning of the name Tula is strength. Tula exists in two worlds. One is a light-hearted phonetic pattern, which sings throughout the work. The other is an impending rhythmic world of micro sound and glitch.

2. Ultra
Ultra is the Brother of Tula. This work is an embedded world of continuum and stasis. The sea and the raw physicality of contemporary ballet inspired this work.

3. Shine
Shine is a work, which explores a very human need to shine when times are not so light. A very deliberate association to human agency breath and body is made through this work incorporating the winding of gentle micro melodies and subtle rhythms.

These works are written as focused miniatures. It is intended for a good home system with a balanced EQ and a strong bass system. The set up of the speakers should be classic stereo with both speakers facing slight inwards. Ideally you should sit centre of the speakers about two meters away while listening.

The audio content of the music is mostly glitch material. Glitch essentially is spectral peaking. A good policy is not to peak in the red on the desk as this may cause damage to your speakers and also your ears.

The diffusion of the music should be warm and full enabling audio clarity to delicate passages of high spectral material and bass morphologies.

www.jothomas.me , New Page , New Blog

2010-06-21T02:41:00.000-07:00

I have a new web page and a new live blog . http://www.jothomas.me/ .

It draws together everything Ive been doing on the web for a few years a will be a platform for future releases .I think its beautiful .

I think I may keep this one from time to time for notes about composing .

So goodbye to my lovely blogspot for a while and a big hallo to http://www.jothomas.me/

2010-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm just about to leave my office . It's late and I really shouldn't be working now .. but after a mountain of marks and audio in strange looking CD cases ... I can leave my office.

So , Bordeaux was amazing. I've come back to hear that the recording from the Alpha Launch is going to be on a "Wire" commsioned entracte download .. So , I'm kind of proud. The Scrime Festival was beautiful , very talented artists and creators and I can not thank Christian Eloy enough for his professionalism and joy of electronic music . When I was working with my Glitch Christain was diffusing it around the room on around 25 - 30 speakers . It was pretty stunning audio acrobtics ..

I enjoyed it ... and actually I didn't "think" at all while performing my sound , so , I must of

found a very special place in Bordeaux.

Catching time

2010-06-03T05:40:00.001-07:00

2/06/10

Am sitting on Euro Star to Paris., was a fine line .. having over slept this morning missing my 6 am train to Paris.

I decided there was 12 hours between now and the conservatoire in Bordeaux and this was one spectacular glitch that I could proberally cope with…

Have now arrived in France through the tunnel will be on time for the TVG connection. Met Allon last night in Bar Chocolate to pick up 5 LPs. We decided on the format of the new LP. Girl and a new piece to be done this summer. We discussed Ultra Tonal and down loads from my new web page, I so love the title ultra tonal,

I arrived , presented and am just about to do concert ...

Lovely, so

Come fast summer please,

Performance Scrime ; Bordeaux 2010

2010-05-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting on a train at the moment listening to old tracks by Nick Drake.

This week has been strangely odd but has been a week of constant music composed, rehearsed, marked , discussed written and read.

Had a performance at Hidden Electronic a few nights ago. The London Abelton User Group is such a gem of a group. It really travels a broad spectrum of people using technology to make music. I presented set of Glitch and Algorithmic work , while before me there was a great DJ working from a Games sound / Pop perspective.

Next week I'm in France. I've been invited to Scrime in Bordeaux to give a performance of Glitch, a diffusion and present my work at the Conservatoire.

Programme below follows no english translation.

Remind's me I have to get some vinyl from Allon,

Nearly at Stockport,

http://scrime.labri.fr/

FESTIVAL DES MUSIQUES ELECTRONIQUES DU SCRIME
Halle des Chartrons à Bordeaux- Jeudi 3 juin 2010 à 20 h 00
Entrée libre

Le SCRIME, Christian Eloy et ses invités britanniques, Jo Thomas, Manuella Blackburn et David Berezan, créent l'événement à Bordeaux les 2 et 3 juin prochain, au Conservatoire de Bordeaux, à l'Université Bordeaux 1 et à la Halle des Chartrons avec le
FESTIVAL des MUSIQUESELECTRONIQUES.

Le 2 juin à 19h00, Conservatoire de Bordeaux, conférence des compositeurs invités et présentation de leurs travaux.
Le 3 juin à 20h00, concert de musique électronique avec des oeuvres sur support numérique, sur support Vinyl, des « vidéomusiques », des « live performance » , des « live mix » sur l'orchestre de hautparleurs 24 voies du SCRIME.

Au programme : P. Schaeffer, D. Berezan, M. Blackburn, J. Thomas, JM. Rivet, J. Al Abed, J. Larralde,F. Colautti, J. Beau, R. Bernabeu, K. Ptitchar.
Un hommage à Pierre Schaeffer, le père de la musique concrète qui aurait eu 100 ans cette année, sera rendu tout au long de ce festival et se terminera en apothéose avec une laptop party ouverte aux musiciens présents sur leurlaptop ou leur smart phone.
Renseignements, réservations et inscriptions à la laptop party sur :
http://scrime.labri.fr/

Hidden Directions ...

2010-05-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

A week of marking scripts, music, beautiful new computer's and exceptional books in the British Liberay and the RFH.

It's getting hot here in London so sound editing gains it's greatest pleasure in the early morning or very late at night ...

Christian Eloy in Bordeaux has programmed Glitch to be performed live for performance on the 3rd of June 2010 as a part of a tribute to Peirre Schaeffer. The programme is very acousmatic , detailed listening and pure sound concentration.

It's going to such a pleasure working with his system at Scrime in Bordeaux.

On the 26th of May I'm performing at the Abelton Live group monthly set up @ Hidden Electronic's.

Going to be great, they have a nice system and good sound projected at the Sapphire Lounge .. will be looking forward,

From a dusty summer's Holloway Rd, London

Upwards and onwards

2010-05-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

Great night to be had at the Alibi on the 5th ...

So thank you to those who turned up

A smashing stary photo above taken by Sheihk ,

Looking forward to more in the very near future ,

teaching has finished , scripts are finially in , ISBN numbers are being counted and collberations are moving in the right direction,

Alpha LP Launch (E82)Entr'acte Records 5th of May

2010-05-03T01:54:00.000-07:00

Come along to the Launch of Alpha LP E82, Entr'atce Records . We have a good line up at the Alibi in Central London , with live sets from myself , John Wall, Lee Gamble ,Mark Jenkins ,Filter Feeder Shelly Parker and Sheihk Ahmed. Joseph Clayton Mills is Launching his new Book at this event ' MILLS ZYXY (EP3).

So , it should be a great night to be had my all.

and all very welcome

Free event

WEDNESDAY 5 MAY 2010 20.00 Till 02.00 Free entry ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The Alibi 91 Kingsland High Street Dalston London E8 2PB

INA GRM Groupe de Recherches Musicales

2010-05-01T03:03:00.000-07:00

A very busy week had by all. Wens saw a performance in London in the Forge , Hot-wired a new series for Lab top and Electronic works run by Music Orbit and Funded by the PRS Foundation.

Also I had a Guest Lecturer from Paris attend the University. Professor Christian Eloy. He spoke to my Sound design and third year composition students and toured the University , listening and exchanging idea's. He was a student of the composer's Iannis Xenakis, Ivo Malec and he also worked with Pierre Shaffer in the Studio's at INA GRM. He is Part of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at GRM , Radio France. On thursday he gave a fascinating lecture about the History of INA GRM and then took part in disscusion and practise with the students.

So thank you Professor Eloy.

It was a great to have you speak at the University of East London.

Christian Eloy Website

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/christian.eloy

Wire Review - Alpha LP E82 Jo Thomas

2010-04-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jo Thomas

Alpha

Entr’acte LP E82

Alpha is, surprisingly, the first album of the music of Jo Thomas, a London based electroacoustic composer whose work has been presented and performed widely around Europe and in the US. The three compositions included on this vinyl-only title span the past ten years, including “Glitch”, “Dark Noise” and a new piece, “Alpha”. Though Thomas’s work is to all appearances purely electronic, she is predominantly interested in such physical- world elements as imperfection, mistakes and the nuances of the human voice, and she incorporates these into her work in various ways.

The appropriately titled “Glitch”, a complex soundscape that wobbles, whistles, squeals and explodes across a vast range of sonic textures and frequencies, makes use of such audio detritus as clicks, tape

hiss, distortion and the by-products of the granular synthesis process that are normally discarded. These bits of noise added to the computer-generated signal give the piece a warmth that might otherwise be missing, at times pushing into grating, sand-in-the-gears territory. “Dark Noise” is more architectural in intent, with particular attention given to the physical placement

of sound sources and the way they combine to create a virtual space (though it must be said that Thomas’s use of sonic architecture on all three pieces is excellent). The composition develops more slowly, subtly and systematically than “Glitch”, with little percussive sounds rattling over a dark, swirling undercurrent of low-pitched wind, and the occasional intrusion of a highly processed female voice.

“Alpha” is inspired by the writing of the American post-feminist academic Donna Haraway, best known for her Cyborg Manifesto. The piece uses as its raw material electronically altered recordings of mobile phone calls (some of them extremely low-fidelity) by both women and men – Thomas’s multi-sexual response to what she sees as a female-centric orientation in Haraway’s cyborg theory. “Alpha” is the most musical of the compositions on the LP, with nearly discernible pitches played on what at least appears to be a keyboard instrument or sampler. But as usual Thomas throws wrenches into the works at every opportunity: the otherwise placid piece breaks down repeatedly, is interrupted again and again by distorted glitches and discordant metallic sounds, and from time to time goes completely silent for uncomfortably long periods. Which is both imperfect and perfect. : Dave Mandl

Envisioning Digital Spaces to Cunningham

2010-04-24T04:41:00.000-07:00

Artech 2010

23/04/10 , presented a paper on line via Skype to the Artech 2010, in Portugal.

The title of the paper was "Discerning the Cyborg Utterance"

I discussed the mimetic behaviour’s and construction of micro-sounds in regards to the role of utterance within Alpha. Drawing parallels to our cultural activity on the ether, the speed of touch, voice and noise.

Baudrillard’s hyper-real’ simulations and Haraway's manifesto’ provided the basis for my arguments but in hind sight I was also drawing on works from artists such as Alva Noto, namely U_07 and the use of noise, vocal transformation, pulse code and reference to pure data.

Paris

2010-04-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

Performed at the Elita Electronic Festival ...

Great Space to work, Festival was fantastic , heard Jimmy Edgar ... inspired ...

Grounded in Milan .... Massive Dust Cloud ... Volcanic ...

No planes back to London !

So, shared a lift to Paris at 3 am in the morning ,

Travelled all night through Italy to the centre of France

Woke up at 6am in the car travelling through Mont Blanc, saw the snow on the mountains,

Freezing

Arrived in Paris at 1pm.

Caught the Train, under the Channel ....

Thank you Roberta , Chilly and our amazing Driver ...

and all at the Elita, Milan

Back with my love London ...

Milan

2010-04-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm up early, 5.30 am....

Fu is coming round for a session on our new album before Milan. I'm working with Tim Lawerance again with his book reading "Hold on to your Dreams" based around composer Arthur Russell. in the Elita Electronic Milano Music Festival.

Web link below

http://www.elitamilano.org/program/music-program/artists-artisti-program/starting-from-arthur-russell/

Am looking forward to working with Tim again. We had a really good time working in the ICA, London.

Summer has come in North London. it's getting hot.

I'm meeting Allon on Sunday to pick up records to take to Milan. Magic’

Fu – Fulivo Sigurta

www.myspace.com/FulivoSigurta

Tim – Tim Lawrence

http://www.timlawrence.info/index.php

Allon – Allon Kaye

www.entr’acte.com

Angel Face ; Images Sounds and Scores

2010-04-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Today I was working with open fresh , creative and generous performers ...

Adam de la cour - Guitar

Federico Reuben Electronics

Mark Knoop Accordion

Fiona Bevan Voice and Guitar

and Director Neil Luck

It was pretty lovely to hear my new work ' Angel Face ' rehearsed live. It's a sonically rich work with a very full spectrum working with the dynamic intensity of the scores .

When I was painting the score I was thinking about what each word looked like if it could be read as an image ...

Some of the images can be read quite literally , other's can't..

All the images have been done impulsively , with lots of physical interaction, mostly working with my fingers , the side of my arms and the cuff of my wrist ...

The instrumentalists have been given quite a limited pitch centres to work within but because of the interaction and closeness of the harmonics new sonorities are generated.

Anyway ... the work is dense to listen to and I think it's really beautiful so I hope people will come and watch. I'll put an audio clip on my myspace page soon.

Thursday, April 15, 2010
Time:	6.45-8pm
Location:	The Chelsea Space, London

From 6:45 - 8pm
Neil Luck presents - NOTEBOOK - a performance event based on the sketches of Playwright Richard Foreman.

Coordinated in partnership with fellow Squib-box founders; Adam de la Cour and Federico Reuben, performers include:

Adam de la Cour - Guitar/vox
Federico Reuben - Electronics
Fiona Bevan - Guitar/Vox
Mark Knoop - Accordion

Music is composed and devised by Neil Luck with contributions from, amongst other, Adam de la Cour, Matthew Lee Knowles, Ingrid Laubrock and Jo Thomas.

Soprano and Sine 'Angel Face'

2010-04-05T01:51:00.000-07:00

Angel Face

First Rehearsal tomorrow “Angel Face”

London,

All weekend have been imaging soprano and sine with deep bass structures,

Looking forward,

Release Date Alpha LP Entracte

2010-04-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Hallo all ,

So today I found out my release date for Alpha . 14th of April . Superb. lovely date ..

Extracts for LP is below

http://www.jothomas.me/

Many Thanks to Allon at Entr'ace Records for releasing it and Rashad Becker at D+M for Mastering it

Count down ....

First Posting.. Tuesday is Today and a Good Day

2010-03-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

So , After months of deliberation I've decided to start a blog , the reason being that I think they are quite interesting to read , I think I might live an interesting life, I work in sound , I'm having an LP released in a few weeks . I'm in my thirties and seem to be doing ok .

I am involved in different things all the time based around sound and I love writing ... poems especially .

Tonight I gave a new score over to Neil Luck a talented composer and curator. Neil asked a while ago to work with him on a project he was doing around the playwright Richard Forman. He asked me to have a look at his notebooks , every morning Richard Forman wakes up and writes a stream of concuiness . So I decided to have a look at one of the notebooks ..