L'Orchestre Royal Odradek

I will be performing as part of L'Orchestre Royal Odradek this Saturday evening at the Artword Theatre in Hamilton, Ontario. Details follow:

Sat June 27, 2009 at 8 pm
New Dance, New Music

Artword Theatre presents
a one-night festival
of performance adventure.

All tickets $10 at the door
For info, call Artword's office
905-548-0341
performed at The Pearl Company
16 Steven St, Hamilton

New dance, new music collaborations and improvisations, featuring:

from Toronto — Butoh dancer Meiko Ando with l’Orchestre Royal Odradek (musicians Andy Yue, James Bailey, Michelangelo Iaffaldano, Rod Campbell and William Davison, improvising on homemade instruments made by Michelangelo Iaffaldano)

from Hamilton — new music ensemble Fossils (David Payne, Matthew Boughner, Daniel Farr, Rob Michalchuk and Steve Smith), plus dancers Tanis MacArthur and Ann Milne with fiddler Ronald Weihs

plus visuals from metallurgist Shane Turcott (”Steel Image of the Month”) and Judith Sandiford (lighting and real-time video mixing)

plus special guest appearance: Eugene Martynec (of Artword's "Eugene's Sunday Series") on laptops

at The Pearl Company, 16 Steven Street, Hamilton $10. Call 905-548-0341.

For more information about The Pearl Company, visit www.thepearlcompany.ca.
Artword Theatre website http://www.artword.net/website/welcome_artword.htm

- William

June drawing party

Next drawing party is set for Mon., June 29, 9pm - 12am at The Ossington (61 Ossington Ave.). Hope to see you there!

- William

Dictaphonia

Somehow, even though it came out almost a month ago, I neglected to inform you all of my appearance on "Dictaphonia 1"! Gosh, it's just so dadblasted hard to keep up with it all!

Anyhoo, "Dictaphonia 1" is the first in a series of various artist compilation tapes put out by legendary DIY music/hometaper Hal Mcgee. All the music/sound on the Dictaphonia releases are recorded on microcassette and, yes, the series itself is only available in the microcassette format! I have my contributor's copy of volume 1 and it is very cool! "Dictaphonia 2" has just been released and "Dictaphonia 3" is being compiled as we speak. Check out Hal's Dictaphonia blog for further details - http://dictaphonia.blogspot.com/

I said the series is only available in the microcassette format but this isn't entirely true as Hal is making the tracks available as free MP3 downloads from his website. Quoting from his Myspace blog:

DICTAPHONIA Microcassette Compilation 1 is now available in its entirety online for free downloading and streaming audio, including bonus material not available on the tape:
http://www.halmcgee.com/dictaphoniavolumeone.html

recordings by Dave X, Su Sous Toulouse En Rouge, Kathy Burkett, Istituzioni Ambienti Naturalismo, Otolathe, IWANTTOKILLEVERYHUMAN, Mike Khoury, Black Beast Of Arrrghhh, Horseflesh, Vagina Teeth/Jesus Teeth, William A. Davison, Homogenized Terrestrials, Krysten Davis, Violet, Fiver's Stereo, Hal McGee, 3D-MAN, Chefkirk, Ironing, Concrete Violin, Jeph Jerman, Blind Umizato, Dave Fuglewicz, Big City Orchestra, Waterdigger

DICTAPHONIA Microcassette Compilation 1 is still available in its original microcassette format.
$6.00 postage paid USA and Canada
$7.00 Air Mail postage paid everywhere else
PayPal to haltapes1 @ aol dot com

And you will note that physical copies of "Dictaphonia 1" are still available from Hal and I highly recommend picking one up and supporting the project.

My contribution to "Dictaphonia 1" is a 3-minute noise guitar improvisation similar to the "Plyas Het Giutra" CD I put out in 2006 (http://www.recordism.com/dissongs/DSCatalogue.html) which was also recorded on microcasette.

- William

Synchronicity #448,329

Okay, I made that number up. I'm not actually counting all the strange, seemingly meaningful or significant coincidences in my life. If I were, I'm sure the actual number would be much higher! I do however, when I can remember to do it, like to make note of them as they occur. Here's one from yesterday morning.

Sherri comes into the studio carrying a book. There's a picture in the book she wants me to see. It's El Greco's portrait of Cardinal Fernando Nino de Guevara, Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition (I know what you're thinking...no one expects The Spanish Inquisition!). Sherri was struck by the groovy looking pair of spectacles ol' Ferny was wearing, considering the portrait is from c. 1569.

Here's the picture -



Now the weird bit. As Sherri entered the room, book in hand, I was on Youtube watching an episode of the 1973 Canadian science-fiction TV series "The Starlost". Here's the image that was on the screen as Sherri presented me with the grand Inquisitor's portrait -



Now is it just me, or is there a striking similarity between these two images? Holy Crap! I mean, it's not just the dudes with the beards and the specs (virtually identical specs, you'll note!) but the oval frames the dudes are in and even the reddish hues of their uniforms! Good gosh, what does it all mean?!

- William

Svankmajer improvisations

As I mentioned last week, Colin Fisher and I will be providing an improvised soundtrack for Jan Svankmajer's short film "A Quiet Week In The House". I thought it was later in the month but as it turns out it is happening this Friday! Details follow:

Leftover Daylight
Fri., June 19
8pm

i - carl didur solo
[carl didur (piano)]

ii - fisher/ martin/ salek
[colin fisher (guitar) jean martin (drums, laptop) araz salek (tar)]

iii - sounds to jan svankmajer short movies

tichy tyden v dome (quiet week in the house) [20']
colin fisher (guitar) william davison (objects)

byt (the flat) [12'43'']
nicole rampersaud (trumpet)

Leftover Daylight at Somewhere There
340 Dufferin St., Toronto
(one block south of Queen Street, entrance from Melbourne Ave.)
$10/$8

- William

Leftover Daylight

I will be appearing in the Leftover Daylight series at Somewhere There this Friday evening. Details follow:

June 12
Leftover Daylight Series

i - the woodchoppers chamber ensemble
[nick buligan (trumpet) dave clark (drums, percussion) colin fisher (tenor saxophone, guitar) michael herring (bass) jason kenemy (piano) lewis melville (strings) scott thomson (trombone)]

ii - davison/ leblanc/ liu/ piilonen/ strachan
[william davison (electronics) joel leblanc (guitar - from new brunswick)
germaine liu (drums, percussion) rob piilonen (flute) jeremy strachan (woodwinds)]

iii - sounds to jan svankmajer short movies

moznosti dialogu (dimensions of dialogue) [11'15'']
paul dutton (mouth)

hra z kameny (game with stones) [8'35'']
jean martin (drums, laptop)

do pivnice (down the cellar) [15'20'']
odradek (odradekian instruments)

Leftover Daylight at Somewhere There
340 Dufferin St., Toronto, Ontario CA
$10/$8
8pm

Note: the sounds to Svankmajer series is continuing throughout this month (curated by Tomasz Krakowiak). Very cool! I , along with Colin Fisher, will be providing sounds for one of my favorite Svankmajer films "A Quiet Week In the House" later this month (more on that when I have the exact date).

- William

new Stactor clip

M.Stactor solo set at Clubbb Dreaddd, Toronto, June 6/09. Clip now on Youtube. Other Stactor and W.A.Davison clips at http://www.youtube.com/user/wadavison

- William

The Ossington tonight

S.Higgins and I will be at The Ossington (61 Ossington Ave.) this evening around 9 or 9:30 to listen to Robert Dayton's DJ set (with guest DJ Mishegoss). Not our official drawing night but we will likely do some collective drawing while we're there. Come out, say hi, sit down and draw with us, shoot the shit, etc. etc.

Hope to see you there!

- William

Odradek CIUT podcast

For those of you who might have missed the Odradek set on CIUT the other day, you can grab the podcast version of the show at http://abstractindex.podomatic.com//

- William

Odradek on CIUT

I'll be performing with Odradek this Wednesday evening at a live-to-air concert on CIUT 89.5FM. I'm filling in for Michelangelo Iaffaldano who's in Italy for part of this month. Line-up will be me, Jim Bailey, Andy Yue. Details on the concert follow (extracted from Soundlist):

~~~~~
The Abstract Index/CIUT 89.5FM and AIMToronto present
Freedom Of Community

Time: Wednesday June 3, 6-8PM
Location: CIUT-FM
91 St. George St., Toronto / 89.5FM / http://ciut.fm

On Wednesday June 3 from 6-8PM CIUT’s The Abstract Index showcases the many flavours of Toronto ’s non-idiomatic improvisation with Freedom Of Community, featuring three sets of live-to-air music organized by the Association for Improvising Musicians In Toronto (AIMToronto).

Toronto ’s free improvisers have been internationally renowned for their skillful musical exploration for more than four decades. Coincidentally, CIUT, the University of Toronto ’s campus community radio station also has a four decade history of boundary breaking musical programming.

Freedom Of Community brings two important, community-based cultural institutions together for the first time: CIUT-FM and the AIMToronto.

AIMToronto was formed in 2005. It was conceived as an umbrella under which each of the city’s disparate pockets of improvising musicians could all organize, providing increased visibility for the community as a whole while maintaining its diversity. It is an organization of global significance, hosting the world’s finest improvisers such as William Parker, Joe McPhee and Les Poules in quarterly Interfaces. Its next such presentation features Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber from June 5-7.

All three sets of Freedom Of Community feature members of AIMToronto.

Set 1) a FREE CONCERT from 6:00-6:45PM on the front lawn of 91 St. George St. (weather permitting) with Alaniaris, (fractured Greek rembetika stylings) - Michael Kaler - bass, Ken Aldcroft -, guitar, Mark Zurawinski - drums

Set 2) Michael Keith - guitar, Scott Thomson - trombone

Set 3) Odradek (electro/acoustic small objects) - William Davison - electronics, small instruments, Jim Bailey - electronics, small instruments, Andy Yue – synth
~~~~~

I'm not sure that Odradek will be performing outside...I think we may actually be in the studio which would mean if you want to catch our set (sometime between 7 and 8pm, probably in the last half hour, but don't quote me on that) you will have to tune in to CIUT 89.5fm or listen online at http://ciut.fm

- William