Radio workshop for Octopus
We were invited back to Barrow to give an overview of working with radio for the sound art collective Octopus in their house in Barrow Park. The Octopus Collective run the wonderful festival Full of Noises
Our stay was kindly hosted by
Lanternhouse in Ulverston, a town distinctive for its unique inland lighthouse – shown here with its outstanding views of Morecambe Bay and the lakeland fells
Luckily, there was plenty of time to check out what members of Octopus get up to in Piel View House. Here is John Hall in his vinyl experimentation room, with adapted turntables and glue records which play backwards from the inside outwards, watched over by Kurt Schwitters. Andrew Deakin can be seen recording tiny snippets of sound for the Radia show:
In an Octopus’s Den. Outside the park provides distracting simple pleasures
Now for some work
Off to the bandstand and back
Wine tasting for Grizedale Arts, Octopus and Coniston residents
We paid another visit to Adam Sutherland at Lawson Park to arrange the last details of a wine tasting that Grizdale Arts hosted for us at the John Ruskin Institute, otherwise known as Coniston Library
We wanted to see if we could impart more than one flavour of the Mosel valley to the people of the Lakes. We showed pictures and told stories from our wine village Ürzig whilst introducing a sample range of the complex Riesling grape, transporting a little of the atmosphere of the wine mountains and river to the fells and lakes. We also introduced the audience to the concept of combining abstract music and wine by showing an excerpt of our
Vinosonic concert at the Mosel. The Grizedale team provided excellent stew and dumplings which were the perfect damp autumn accompaniment. Comparing the two contrasting locations of rural German wine country and the Lake District we unearthed parallels that bond the regions, such as the slate rock which heavily influences both architecture and agriculture. The force of water in varying manifestations has an inordinate effect on both communities, but when it is transmuted into fine wine for us to share we all have a great time!
