'we sang together, apart, of the holy cities that had become a wilderness'

last night a friend played (online in a safe and socially distanced way) but first there was a panel discussion over zoom (which horsemouth attended in the role of ’audience’). he was left slightly non- plused when everyone departed for youtube and arrived slightly late to the performance by marta zapparoli who works with sounds from the electromagnetic spectrum. it was great and grindy and layering up - the kind of noises from horsemouth’s childhood where you would go scanning round all the bands on the radio.

next up dorit chrysler thereminist (from graz but living in new york in beautifully colourful tiled room with flowers and a grand piano). her theremin lines were played over tasteful and beautiful chill out type sounds.

finally eleonora orregia (xname) who is in a very elite club as the inventor of a new musical instrument - the rebus - which is not a theremin (it works with microwaves being used like radar) but shares some of the gestural features of its use.

in the lrb a singer bemoans the fact that singing (and singing in choirs) may in fact be a particularly good way of spreading the coronavirus (it generates a particularly good aerosol of spit and virus and the singers lungs pump it out round the room). normally she would be singing the somewhat apocalyptic works of william byrd in churches altogether in a big choir but for now she must be content with the modern safe and socially distanced variety of performance.

'we sang together, apart, of the holy cities that had become a wilderness'



from the world of recorded sound horsemouth is continuing to enjoy the music of lena platonos, eighties greek electronic music pioneer, as the technology improves it gets less interesting, but until then there are voices and interpretive dancings. she used some footage from george franju’s judex for one of her videos - a b&w magician with a sinister chicken-head mask releases doves.

today the birth of jean-jacques rousseau in geneva. yesterday the gig and a quick chat to darsavini.