Ergo Phizmiz

Public Service Announcement! Techno Service #2

2012-02-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Machines, we present Ergo Phizmiz's Techno Service #2.

Are any of your machines in pain, infirm, dying?

Techno Service provides custom-made electronic compositions to soothe, ease, and comfort your machine.

Send details of your machine and its infirmity ergos.techno.service@gmail.com, and in time you will receive a piece of music. Ideally, the machine should be left alone with it’s music from the Techno Service, for a one-to-one experience.

Thankyou for your time.

Like this? Try Techno Service #1

"Music from the Shoes of Fulcanelli" - In Sync

2012-01-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

The 2011 Ergo Phizmiz album "Music from the Shoes of Fulcanelli", a series of instrumental compositions based on melodies and structures from early 20th century classical music and Renaissance music, has proven incredibly popular as soundtracks for an array of short films. You can download the album, free, at the marvellous Headphonica.

Mirrors and self-portraits from cuantofalta on Vimeo.

The Teddy Tea Party - Prologue - Short Film from Jesper Karmark on Vimeo.

The Remedy from Charles Huette on Vimeo.

Dear Stephen from StrongLook on Vimeo.

Krabat & Co from Mario Marinkovic on Vimeo.

Binky purring HD from Helmut Ganster on Vimeo.

Sea Bream Festival at Toyohama, Japan from momo on Vimeo.

UPSIDEDOWNISMS, by Ergo Phizmiz, on The Verb, BBC Radio 3, 20/01/12

2012-01-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

Tune into The Verb on BBC Radio 3 (a "cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performances...") this Friday to hear a new, short-form radioplay by Ergo Phizmiz called UPSIDEDOWNISMS.

From Radio 3:

Valerie Bloom performs new writing especially comissioned for The Verb, and talks about her use of the Creole language and the importance of oral story telling in her work.

Poet Kenneth Stevens has translated the award winning Norwegian writer Lars Saabye Christensen, and presents a Verb masterclass on his work - novels such as the Model and The Half Brother.

And composer, writer and artist Ergo Phizmiz presents a scientific-operatic treatise on the art and mechanics of turning things upside down

The programme broadcasts at 10pm GMT, 20/01/12. Listen live at BBC Radio 3, or on BBC iPlayer for one week after the broadcast.

Anything But The Third Policeman - Part One

2012-01-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

In 2011 Ergo Phizmiz created an electronic opera on Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, which toured the UK and into Rotterdam. For licensing reasons we are unable to present audio or video of the opera. This is the first in a series of "Anything But The Third Policeman" short films, featuring footage from the tour, backstage footage, footage of artists from the tour performing their own music, and little things that happened along the way. Featuring Ergo Phizmiz, Martha Moopette, Monkton Wylde, Oblivian Substanshall, Vulnavia Vanity, and Elvis Herod.

Ergo Phizmiz in 2012

2012-01-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

Well well ... as usual, lots to look forward to from Mr Phiz in 2012 ...

Ergo is becoming an artist-of-the-split-personality: the 'pop' orientated work has become infinitely more refined, moving into a pure and timeless sound that could sit anywhere between the 1960s and 2020, gently subverted from the inside, and produced entirely with one laptop, one microphone, and instruments; whilst his experimental work in opera and radio-art continues to explode format, context, and style, with a healthy disrespect for the boundaries of history and culture.

Please do continue with us on this strange journey, and tell all your friends....it's going to be fun....

Pop music - This year will see the release of the follow up album to 2010's critically acclaimed "Things to Do and Make" on Care in the Community Recordings. Chances are that, if you've seen Ergo perform live in the last year, that you've already heard some of the new songs. Track titles include "The Rock Song of J Alfred Pruflove", "Ophelia", "The Devil in the Belfry" and "Celandine". Ergo will also be touring in support of the album, so keep your eyes peeled.

Gargantua - The new Ergo Phizmiz opera is an epic. Based (very) loosely on Rabelais' "Gargantua & Pantagruel", it takes in the nativity, UFOs, World War II, and a masque of dunces. Ambitious in scope, it will premiere, somewhere, in 2013. Having given up applying for UK arts funding for anything whatsoever, Ergo is writing the opera in his own spare time and hope's to develop partners for the project when it reaches production stages.

You can keep up with the progress of the opera at it's dedicated Soundcloud page.

Conversations With Birds - A new radioplay for Bayerischer Rundfunk is in progress, detailing meetings and incidents with birds from Ergo's life. Written in a mixture of English, German and Polish (with translators Denis Kundic, Caroline Stupnicka and Robin Gill), it promises to be a strange and magickal ornithological odyssey.

Upsidedownisms - A new short-form radioplay for BBC Radio 3, about the art of turning things upside down, and the limits of electronic music, will broadcast on The Verb in late January.

The Mourning Show - On Tour - The 2010 opera about the death by demonic possession of radio DJ Chris Evans will be taken on a comprehensive UK tour in the later part of 2012, in a completely new multimedia staging, starring Elvis Herod as Chris Evans and Ergo Phizmiz as The Plague Doctor.

Populista - Robert Ashley - The division of Bolt Records curated by Michal Libera will release Ergo's collaborative reinvention of the operas and techniques of Robert Ashley.

Electronic Music 2000-2011 - A series of very limited cassette releases bringing a hitherto unreleased mass-body of work from Ergo Phizmiz to you. These will be cut to c45 tapes and released intermittently throughout the year.

Maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less, we'll see....

Happy new year from Bridport....

Ergo Phizmiz was a busy, busy boy in 2011

2011-12-29T04:41:00.000-08:00

2011 may be a year for Ergo Phizmiz to claim to have been the busiest artist on the planet.....

The year began with the semi-opera of fallacies "Fulcanelli's Shoes", created in collaboration with Martha Moopette, which premiered at Soundart Radio, and released online by Headphonica, along with the instrumental album "Music From The Shoes of Fulcanelli".

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" by Ergo Phizmiz from Ergo Phizmiz on Vimeo.

This was rapidly followed by a residency at the Elterwater Merzbarn, resulting in a series of experimental works released on the limited edition cassette "Music For Accountants", and in the audio/video work in collaboration with Elvis Herod & Jared Brandle "Anna Boom", which was released by Bad Panda Records.

Ergo Phizmiz (feat. MC Erik Bumbledonk) - Anna Boom from Bad Panda Records on Vimeo.

Concurrent with this Ergo was (not terribly successfully) crowdfunding for his opera of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman". Undaunted, he wrote, composed, designed, made video, staged and toured the opera across the UK and to Rotterdam, for a total of twelve performances, using the money from each show to fund the next performance. The opera, a hugely original combination of stagecraft, animation, and electronic music, was critically acclaimed and met with wild enthusiasm by audiences. Instrumental elements of the opera were broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC6 Music, and BBC Radio 4. He also created the exhibition Staticopera, which was presented for a month at Riverside Studios, London to coincide with the premiere of The Third Policeman.

It was also a good year for Ergo on radio, particularly in Germany. His autobiographical 60 minute work "Disappearing Boxes" was commissioned by WDR3 and won Horspiel Das Monats at the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Kunste, followed by the 30 minute piece "The Carnival in the Mirror Marches Into The Sea" for dRadiokultur, who also ran a special feature on Ergo's "Music From the Shoes of Fulcanelli". BBC Radio 3 also repeated his award winning 2009 work "Paul Klee, a Balloon, The Moon, Music and Me".

Warsaw provided the setting for Ergo to create a collaborative work based on the operas of Robert Ashley, which is released on the Populista label in 2012. He also performed live improvisations with Hilary Jeffrey, Alessandro Bossetti, and DJ Lenar.

Ergo also co-curated with Martha Moopette the events "Howtosayto" and "Howtosaytwo" at Bridport Arts Centre, staging his operas "The Mourning Show" and "The Third Policeman", followed by a programme of performances and installations from Oblivian Substanshall, Pete Um, Angela Valid, Elvis Herod, Vulnavia Vanity, The Gale, Rob Lee, and a forest of children's art.

Over the course of a few months he released a series of experimental electronic music EPs called Disco Van, in which he fried up and sizzled ideas of dance music in the internet age.

This was followed by the first instalment of a new series entitled "Techno Service", which is music to soothe poorly machines.

In the midst of all this, Headphonica released the mini audio film "Lullaby For a Sinking Submarine".

Surrism-Phonoethics released a mammoth album of Ergo Phizmiz's Collected Sound Installations 2002-2010.

A very decadent evening resulted in the album in collaboration with Vulnavia Vanity, "Buffetinfantil".

He released an "Opera to take place inside a cabinet".

And produced a Posthuman Dadamix for Discrepant.

The Portuguese artist Carlos Noronha Feio asked Ergo to create a soundscape to accompany his exhibition 3-2-1-A-A-and-Away, which was exhibited at Bridport Arts Centre.

With Amie Willingale (The Gale), he wished Beyonce a very happy birthday.

The label Care in the Community Recordings (to whom Ergo is signed for his pop music creations), released two singles, of "The Music Man", and "Food & War" (including a B side cover version of Ergo's song by the legendary R. Stevie-Moore). This culminated in a live session on Marc Riley's show on BBC6 Music. And he gave Marc Riley a great big kiss.

As a producer of other people's music, Ergo produced albums for Oblivian Substanshall ("Oh What a Novelty", and Elvis Herod ("Keep It Regal"), both released on his netlabel Chinstrap, which this year has also released music by The Superfools, Nic Blu and the Travoltings, Vernon Lenoir, Pete Um, and DJ North by Northwest. The label has also been released Ergo curated compilations of music from public-domain science-fiction and horror films, and found 78 RPM obscurities.

So - a very busy year.... thanks for your support and please spread the word....

And what will you have to look forward to in 2012? A new radio commission for Bayerischer Rundfunk in English, German, and Bird language; a new opera called "Gargantua" (which will premiere in 2013 but be released in work-in-progress forms online); and a brand spanking new pop album on Care in the Community, plus some very exciting singles. And more, probably....

N.B. After a year like this, why haven't we got next month's rent?!

Four 12" single-press vinyl for sale ..... as limited as they come, grab 'em!

2011-12-05T04:42:00.000-08:00

The first four installments of six, unique vinyl records. There is one copy of each up for grabs, so be quick. Each of the records comes in one-off, handmade artwork of wallpaper, wrapping paper, paint, craft paper, and marker pen, lovingly handcrafted by Ergo Phizmiz.

Due to the single-press nature of each vinyl, we are selling them for £30 a piece, plus £5 shipping. You want one? Yes..... so e-mail me on ergophizmiz at gmail dot com and Paypal details will be forwarded.....

1) "Before I Acquired My Tardis" - 12" single-press vinyl with handmade artwork - THIS RECORD HAS NOW FOUND A HAPPY HOME
Experiments in ambient and drone music, made using voice, instruments and computers, exploring relationships between space, time, and depth in composition, before I acquired my Tardis. Recorded in Lincoln, UK, 2002-2004.

2) "Why Not Sneeze, Achilles?" - 12" single-press vinyl with handmade artwork - THIS RECORD HAS NOW FOUND A HAPPY HOMECuttings and layer from 'The Faust Cycle', starring Marcel Duchamp and Helen of Troy. The Duchamp side is constructed of his speech 'The Creative Act' cut with easy-listening records, toy instruments, and electronics. The Helen of Troy side is constructed from Hungarian folksongs and musique-concrete. Recorded in Devon, 2006.

3) "Best Heard in a Ballroom" - 12" single-press vinyl with handmade artwork THIS RECORD HAS NOW FOUND A HAPPY HOMEElements and experiments from sample compositions, made principally using ballroom and British dance-band music. Recorded on the Isle of Wight and in Normandy, France, 2005-2007. Very fractured and deconstructed sample music, abrupt silences, jaggedy relationships, some of the seeds of the musical constructions I'd make much later in pieces like The Third Policeman.

4) "Balromulus Machinus" - 12" single-press vinyl with handmade artwork - THIS RECORD HAS NOW FOUND A HAPPY HOMESampling experiments recorded between 2005-2007, the innards of a ballroom machine. Similar in tone to record (3), but more jagged, sounds cut at right-angles to their partners.

"Treats and Dogs - Collages 2011" by Ergo Phizmiz

2011-11-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

A PDF of recent collages in cards, books, wrapping paper, marker pen, glass, wood, secretions, spillages, sellotape, ribbon, by Ergo Phizmiz.

Download the book at the Internet Archive.

Vulnavia Vanity & Ergo Phizmiz "BUFFETINFANTIL" - the night Vulnavia & Ergo locked themselves away with a lot of Vodka....

2011-11-21T03:29:00.000-08:00

Performed on voice, electric guitar, bass guitar, organ, harmonium, mandolin, wheel, turntable, drums, digital-delay, tape recorder, in an evening of extreme decadence and a sorry, slightly painful morning.

We like to call this music Decadence'n'Roll (thanks Christopher Lee).

With deepest apologies to everyone Vulnavia phoned during the recording sessions. And to Benny Bjorn.

And big thanks to Lady SD.

Sponsored (unofficially) by Smirnoff Vodka.

Dedicated to Kerry Katona & Chuck Berry.

Recorded 27th-28th October 2011 at Grindia, Bridport.

"Honey honey, Lich Me Baby, aha!"

More Vulnavia here, and on Facebook here.

More Ergo here.

Ergo Phizmiz Live at the Beach & Barnicott, Bridport

2011-11-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

That's right, a live show round the corner from his living room, Mr Phizmiz will sing songs and tell tall tales in the Beach & Barnicott, Bridport....

Public Service Announcement! Techno Service (#1) and usage instructions

2011-11-17T02:53:00.000-08:00

Are any of your machines in pain, infirm, dying?

Techno Service provides custom-made electronic compositions to soothe, ease, and comfort your machine.

Send details of your machine and its infirmity ergos.techno.service@gmail.com, and in time you will receive a piece of music made by the hairy gentleman below.

Ideally, the machine should be left alone with it’s music from the Techno Service, for a one-to-one experience.

Thankyou for your time.

(Not for human consumption.)

POPSURGERY - New Ergo Phizmiz cover-versions project coming soon to a crowdfunding platform near you!

2011-10-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Coming soon, once we make our final decision which crowdfunding platform to work with...

As every sensible person quite readily accepts, the behemoth that we know as "THE MUSIC INDUSTRY" is now a weak-kneed beast, clawing for survival against the odds.

The odds? Of course - the most creative, imaginative and forward thinking pop music in the world is now created by outsiders, netlabels, dreamers, people with no ambition to attach to this dying giant.

Mainstream media speaks about the demise of the music industry as some kind of tragedy, but the tragedy only exists for those within it, most particularly the rich men in suits, or jeans and black T-shirts, that sit atop it receiving favours from nubile young women in exchange for a few months pretending to be talented in the eye of the world.

The loss of the ability for musicians to make money from the selling of millions of units of plastic discs is no tragedy. The existence of the music industry as we know it spans less than 100 years, a blip in the evolution of music.

This blip, however, has led to two things. One is the devaluing of music that has resulted in so much homogenised, empty, money-oriented nonsense being unleashed on the fertile minds of teenagers.

The other side of the blip, however, is the positive side of the coin. Pop music has thrown up so many remarkable things, so many delights, in both (so called) "high" and "low" pop. I am not interested in a definition of pop music that places The Beatles on an intellectual pedestal above The Spice Girls - lest we forget, The Beatles in many ways were The Spice Girls of their time.

Over the past ten years I have released in free mp3, Creative Commons licensing, a wide range of reinventions and interpretations of Pop Music. I have performed surgery on Beyonce, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, The Velvet Underground, Radiohead, The Pet Shop Boys, Kelis, 90s club classics, Whigfield, Erasure, The Four Tops, Justin Timberlake and many more.

I have often been misunderstood as a "plunderphonics" artist, but actually my interest has never been satirical or political. Rather, I'm interested in how this music works, how it breathes, outside of its cultural baggage.

I believe "Oops I Did It Again" is as good as anything Brian Wilson ever wrote.

Which brings us to POPSURGERY.

I want to take a cross section of around 90 songs from the entire history of pop music, from the 1920s (when 78 RPM records began to take off), to the present day (when it is all falling to iPieces). The choice of the number of songs represents the approximate amount of years the music industry, in its current basic model, began to exist from.

With each of these songs I want to perform reconstructive surgery, using the basic structure and shape of each song to create new shapes in pop music, combining electronic, acoustic, digital, and improvisatory approaches supplanted onto the basic shapes of each song to imagine the future of POP. Using the past to imagine the future.

The definition of pop music can run from Rihanna to Captain Beefheart, from Kurt Weill to Steps, from Kylie Minogue to Cardiacs, The Savoy Orpheans to The Fall, Chuck Berry to Justin Bieber, Squarepusher to Eminem to Spike Jones to Portishead to R Stevie Moore to Michael Jackson to Sly Stone to The Platters to REM to Lord Kitchener to Glenn Miller to Kate Bush. My "taste" will play no part in the choice of material to go under the surgeon's knife. This would defeat the object of the project, which is to take the entire life of the music industry, and create possibilities and probabilities for the future using its forms as a point to leap off from, into the abyss.

As a sidenote, although POPSURGERY will be a cycle of around 90 songs, that does not mean that the subject matter will be limited to 90 pop songs. Each song in the project may well be constructed from elements of numerous pop songs, finding relationships between melodies, progressions, themes across the gamut of pop music history. POPSURGERY will be 90 songs that will soak in hundreds of songs.

This will not be an academic, dry attempt at reaching definitive theories about the history and motion of pop music. Rather, it will function, like all my work, with the logic of a dream. Chronology will be askew, the overall structure dictated by cross-references, peculiar connections and bleeding juxtapositions.

If I sound slightly pompous rattling on about "the future" and so on, please remember that I am nothing if not a frustrated Dr Who. If I cannot crowdfund this project I will have no option but to break into the BBC studios and demand access to the Tardis. And from within that Tardis, I will make this project.

The project will be released as free mp3s, with a vinyl record exclusively to contributors of a cross-section of the cross-section, and the entire 90 song cycle will be played live in marathon performances around the world. (Interested venues are encouraged to get in touch at this Crowdfunding stage, as a performance fee can also constitute a contribution to the development of this project).

Crowdfunding contributors will also, depending on their contribution, help shape the project. For £10 or more contributors will receive their name on all materials as a contributor to the project. For £30 or more contributors will choose a song to be included in the project, receive their name on all materials as a contributor, and a copy of the vinyl record. For £100 or more contributors will choose a song for the project, vote for which pieces are included in the vinyl version, a credit, and receive a copy of the vinyl. For £250 or more contributors will choose a song, choose a song for the vinyl, receive a credit, receive the record, and access to a private blog to access the songs as they are recorded in real-time. For £500 or more contributors will choose a song, choose a piece for the vinyl, receive the record, access the private blog, and an original, framed visual collage on the history of pop music made by yours truly for the artwork to accompany the project.

What can you do, in the meantime, to help? If you have downloaded and enjoyed my reinventions of pop music in the past, please send me a Tweet (@ergophizmiz) or a short message (to ergophizmiz at gmail dot com) about my cover versions, that will then be used in the crowdfunding video pitch.

Not convinced? Try these...

Opera to take place inside a cabinet

2011-09-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

An opera to take place inside a cabinet, preferably wooden, by Ergo Phizmiz.

The text is written by David Niven, from his autobiography "The Moon's a Balloon".

Made with two pieces of metal, an electric guitar, a musical saw, a midi keyboard, a cassette recorder, a floor tom, a plastic tube, a euphonium mouthpiece, the end of a recorder.

Recorded September 2011, at Grindia, Bridport.

Download at the Internet Archive.

Ergo Phizmiz Dates - Oct - Dec 2011

2011-09-29T02:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the realms of chaos. Lots of things happening in the coming months...

04/10/11
"Disappearing Boxes" broadcast on Deutschland Radio Kultur (repeat of the WDR3 broadcast from July)

06/10/11
"The Third Policeman" live at the Kazimier, Liverpool, organised by UpitUp Records.

09/10/11
"The Third Policeman" live at The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe

15/10/11
Ergo Phizmiz live pop & disco van show, at Serralves Museum of Art, Porto, Portugal

23/10/11
Release of Ergo Phizmiz / R. Stevie-Moore 7" single "Food & War" on Care in the Community Recordings

06/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at Musicport Festival, Bridlington

08/11/11
Ergo Phizmiz live session on Marc Riley, BBC6 Music

09/11/11 and 10/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at The Cube, Bristol, organised by Qujunktions

11/11/11
Premiere broadcast of "The Carnival in the Mirror Marches Into the Sea", a new 30 minute radio piece, on Deutschland Radio Kultur

25/11/11, 26/11/11 and 27/11/11
"The Third Policeman" live at Worm, Rotterdam

09/12/11
"The Third Policeman" live (and premiere broadcast) at Soundart Radio, Dartington

10/12/11
"The Third Policeman" and Howtosayto live at Bridport Arts Centre

New podcast - Hallucination Duets: 1

2011-09-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

I have become interested recently in the idea of double-doses of information by the fragmentation and simultaneous presentation of two originals.

That's to say, what the Hallucination Duets are, are two different pieces of music sat on-top of each other, each split into equal fragments of a few milliseconds and playing alternately.

We can hear both, but not quite enough of either but too much of one to hear the other.

I wonder whether it becomes a piece of music itself, or if actually we are hearing two pieces simultaneously without the usual juxtaposition of overlaying anything. Everything is in isolation.

I'm curious if this was applied to "Moonraker" and "The Man With the Golden Gun", would we be able to watch two Roger Moore Bond films in the time it takes to watch one?

Hallucinatory Duetting today comes from ...

Delia Derbyshire vs Art Shaw
Jack Hylton & his Orchestra vs JH Squire's Instrumental Octette
Maria Callas vs Maria Callas
King Tubby vs the Poet Musicians of Turkey
Musique des Vallees Scandinave vs Tala'i, Musavi and Kiana
Robert Ashley vs Polynesian Polyphonies

Ergo's Disco Van Dango

2011-09-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Goodness gracious. Lock up your daughters in Bee Gees torture chambers. Ergo's Disco Van is back in town.

The fifth instalment, "Ergo's Disco Van Dango" presents three grooveobelisks for your sexual delectation.

Take off your shoes, dance like a maniac, put your shoes back on, dance again but enjoying the protection of that finely crafted fabric helmet that protects your floor-hands.

Crafted in the living room, lots of tea, jigs, and a bottle of Guinness.

Happy Birthday Beyonce, lots of love from Phizmiz & Killerwhale

2011-09-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of her 30th birthday, we pass on a Bon Anniversaire to Beyonce Knowles, and wish her all the best of luck and happiness. Let's raise a glass to the next 30 years of soulful R & B.

By way of wishing her happy birthday, we take lines for a walk around "Survivor", "Independent Woman", "Crazy in Love" and "Single Ladies".

Recorded at Grindia, Bridport, 04/09/2011, straight to cassette tape.

Amie "Killerwhale" Willingale - Violin & Vocals

Ergo Phizmiz - Vocals, Harmonium, Musical Saw, Toy Piano, Hammond, Drums

Glory Hallelujah!

2011-09-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

That's right.

Playback Play : Three American Composers - Ergo Phizmiz in Warsaw 05/09/11 - 12/09/11

2011-09-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

Ergo Phizmiz is participating in Playback Play, in Warsaw, September 2011.

He will be creating a collaborative work based on the early operas of Robert Ashley, plus a performance of solo piano songs & improvisations.

PLAYBACK PLAY.

THREE AMERICAN COMPOSERS

6-12.09.2011

Robert Ashley / Morton Feldman / Alvin Lucier

*

Frank Denyer, piano / Ergo Phizmiz, everything / Hilary Jeffery, trombone / Alessandro Bosetti, voice, electronics / Maciej Cieślak, guitar, voice, electronics / Edyta Fil, flutes / Michał Górczyński, clarinet / DJ Lenar, turntables / Paweł Nowicki, glockenspiel / Mikołaj Pałosz, cello / Julia Szproch, voice / Julia Ziętek, violin

Zachęta Art Gallery / Instytut Awangardy / Chłodna 25 / Powiększenie / Nowy Wspaniały Świat

There is a domination in every triangle, they say. Two allies dominate the third. In the Ashley / Feldman / Lucier trinagle there is as many rotating alliances of the two against the other as you wish. Number one, let's say: involvement with the voice. Two: graphic scores. Then: composing dying sounds rather than the notes. And so it goes, endlessly, because there is an infinite number of experimental techniques in the works and lives of this triangle.

Despite its selectivity Playback Play is by now the most comprehensive presentation of the works by the three american composers in Poland (perhaps). But also – not really. Their works are sometimes almost impossible to present. Fine, Feldman is very precise but Lucier's pieces as they survive are close to being hypothetical. They need to be checked out rather than presented in front of the audience. And Ashley? Where are his early operas? The librettos are incomplete and if you are lucky enough to know them – you see they are not precisely the same as the content of the very few and incomplete recordings. What they seem to be altogether is perhaps a grand theory of disappearing. The disappearance of the reverberating sounds in Feldman. The disappearance of speech in noise – Lucier. The disappearance of the recordings and the scores of the Ashley early operas. This is the most we can have. But at least let's have it as an airy way to approach the agony of contemporary music which – it seems – dies out just like their sounds and pieces. Playback Play is an arch from the performances of the pieces to pure phantasies on the ones which are not there anymore. Or to put the same thing in other words: a week long session of musicians who agreed to broaden the compositions of the three american composers with their own experiences and iterests.

06.09.2011, TUE (free entry)

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Nowy Wspaniały Świat, 20.00,

--- Electronic transformations of speech

Alessandro Bosetti + Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar

- Alvin Lucier, Duke of York

- Alvin Lucier, The Only Talking Machine of that Kind in the World

- Alessandro Bosetti, It is an Island

07.09.2011, WED (free entry BUT obligatory reservation: michal.libera@gmail.com)

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Instytut Awangardy, 20.00:

--- Trombone + pure waves

Hilary Jeffery solo

- Alvin Lucier, Wind Shadows

- Hilary Jeffery, Tromboscillator

08.09.2011, THU (free entry)

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Zachęta, 19.00:

--- Radio broadcast [Morton Feldman]

Zachęta, 20.00:

--- Early Feldman

Frank Denyer + Edyta Fil, Paweł Nowicki, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Ziętek

- Morton Feldman, Only

- Morton Feldman, Projection 1

- Morton Feldman, Durations 2

- Morotn Feldman, Projection 4

- Morton Feldman, Extensions 3

- Morton Feldman, Durations 1

- Morton Feldman, Why Patterns?

09.09.2011, FRI (20 zł)

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Powiększenie, 20.00

--- Free noise & songs & Lucier's “Bird and Person Dyining”

Alessandro Bosetti, Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch

10.09.2011, SAT (20 zł)

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Chłodna 25, 19.00:

--- Lecture [Robert Ashley]

Chłodna 25, 20.00:

--- Opera, Operas, Operandi

Alessandro Bossetti, Ergo Phizmiz + Maciej Cieślak, DJ Lenar, Julia Szproch, Julia Ziętek

- Alvin Lucier, Sacred Fox

- Robert Ashley, That Morning Thing / Wolfman Motorcity Revue (incl. Woflman, Automatic Writing, Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon etc.)

- Alvin Lucier, Opera with Objects

11.09.2011, SUN (free entry)

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Chłodna 25, 13.00:

--- Ergo Phizmiz solo piano

Zachęta, 19.00:

--- Radio broadcast [Alvin Lucier]

Zachęta, 20.00:

--- Resonanses

Hilary Jeffery + Frank Denyer, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch

- Alvin Lucier, Music for Cello with One or More Amplified Vases

- Alvin Lucier, Still Lives

- Alvin Lucier, Letters

- Robert Ashley, In Memoriam... Esteban Gomez

12.09.2011, MON (free entry)

----------------------------------------

Zachęta, 20.00

--- Late Feldman

Frank Denyer solo

- Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories

The project has been co-financed by the Culture Bureau of Warsaw

The Third Policeman - Tour Poster & Full Video

2011-08-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

And here, ladies and gentleman, it is ....

21/8/11 - The Third Policeman from Anna Gregg on Vimeo.

Ergo Phizmiz "Lullaby for a Sinking Submarine" out now on Headphonica

2011-08-26T01:58:00.000-07:00

Take a deep breath and .........

Download this release with delicious artwork by Marian Reinig at the glorious Headphonica

New, free EP - Ergo's Disco Van Morrisons

2011-08-24T03:50:00.000-07:00

Oh dear hell. Ergo's Disco Van is chugging into town again, with more slabs of disjointed mustard-groove to dance the night away in red hot shoes until you are dead.

This installment of the ongoing Disco Van series is called Ergo's Disco Van Morrisons, and is dedicated to all those musical artists who have their work stocked exclusively by supermarkets, putting themselves on a par with ready-meals and shrink-wrapped beef.

As the old saying goes, if music be the food of love, go to Tescos.

The Third Policeman - First shows and Times review

2011-08-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well folks! We're back. "The Third Policeman" has premiered, much (very tired and rather intense) fun was had by all.

Audience so far have loved it and detested it, as indicated in the image above. Which is, of course, just the way we like it....

Today's issue of The Times featured a rather splendid review of the show, below...

This link will take you to a photo gallery of images taken by Claire Shovelton (the above image is taken from Claire's gallery).

The lovely Tom Ravenscroft has also been drumming up support for the show, via his 6Music show where he featured a ten minute mix of songs and music from The Third Policeman, and in his New Statesman column, where he writes:

"You should probably expect to be at first a little startled - the music will be wildly unpredictable as I suspect will be his actions. I would be almost concerned if you had witnessed anything like it before. He is a burst of imagination, colour and noise, which has in the past left me sitting jaw collapsed on the floor, speechless as to how someone can so beautifully map out such madness."

Read the full article here.

And finally, today's blog would not be complete without this image of the Gang of Rogues a few minutes before going our separate ways.

Many thanks to Caroline & Izzy, Bill, Anna, Nell and all the other lovelies of Tete-a-Tete...

And let's not forget thanks to the Third Policeman team Erik Bumbledonk, Vulnavia Vanity, Oblivian Substanshall, Martha Moopette, Mike Wade, Bryan Innes Parker, Lucinda Guy, Talulah Lotus & Autumn Poppy. See you for more shows from October to December......

The Third Policeman Podcasts and News....

2011-08-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

There are two new Third Policeman podcasts for your delight and delectation...

First up is the Ergo Phizmiz Opera Mix, a selection of instrumental music from previous Ergo Phizmiz operas for stage, radio, film and puppets....

Secondly is a mix of music that has influenced the composition of the opera, mixed by Ergo Phizmiz.

And .... Tom Ravenscroft has written an article on the New Statesman blog about Ergo & The Third Policeman.

"If it's anything like his last [opera], The Morning Show, an opera about DJ Chris Evans going slowly mad and ending in him believing himself to be a crow, then I strongly advise you try and attend. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Ergo, he is an exceptionally difficult fellow to describe, he has over the years produced a body of work that crosses over every kind of music and sound imaginable, and he can imagine considerably more than you or me."

Read the full article here.

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 6 - Fun With Shadows and Shapes

2011-08-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 5 - Guest Post by Vulnavia Vanity

2011-08-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Reporting from the underneath of Grindia Studios, Bridport, is artist, actor, composer and raconteur Vulnavia Vanity, who plays the Protagonist in Ergo Phizmiz's "The Third Policeman".

Hello cheekies, it's Vulnavia here.

Is it about a bicycle?

Of course it is. Why else would you be here were it not for the magnetic pull of the slender frame, the soft ring of the bell, the firm yet supple grip of the handlebars beneath your fingers, the hypnotic spin of the wheels?

Yes. The bicycle is truly a masterpiece crafted by the human hand, second only perhaps to the jam sandwich or the typewriter.
All this said, personally I have an irrational fear of riding a bicycle.

This stems from a traumatic experience in France when I was brave enough to mount a bicycle, only to discover that bicycle brakes are pretty damn strong, and when my little journey around the garden ceased to a halt, I fell onto the frame, crotch first.

My testicles bled.

It would give me copius amounts of pleasure to sail along the streets on a beautiful, vintage model with a little basket on the back to pick up bread from he boulangerie.

But I'm afraid this will never happen.

But at least The Third Policeman helps me live out my fantasies.

The rehearsal process has been very interesting thus far and has gone surprisingly smoothly, although we still have a terribly long way to go in four days.

This is a role unlike I have ever played before, in the sense that a great percentage of the show I am interacting with other characters who are just recorded voices.

I've been exploring my characterzation quite extensively over the last week or so and have eventually discovered the Protagonist's physicality. In a style almost reminiscent of Bouffon Clown, the Protagonist has his deformity (the wooden leg) and this completely compromises how he moves, his stance and also his attitude. This yonder photograph captures it rather well:

To finish, we have also been playing with shadow behind the projection and have discovered taken some quite lovely images. Look at Grandma Vulnavia for example:

And Grampa:

Ergo & Oblivian dance:

And we say a tender hello to a newly dead friend.

Nanu-Nanu & all that, lovelies ♥

And here is Vulnavia Vanity in his prime, with his rather splendid single "Worse Things Happen at Sea"....

And resplendent in Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette's "Barbette" from "Fulcanelli's Shoes"...

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 4

2011-08-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

The Third Policeman rehearsals, Day 3, and Sounds From The Underground Chamber Podcast 2

2011-08-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

The second instalment of the Sounds From the Underground Chamber podcast features Ergo, Erik & Vulnavia rehearsing the Finnucane section of The Third Policeman.

Autumn Poppy and Bubbles

Erik in flight

The coronation

Ergo throwing DeSelby shapes

I'm a robber with a knife

Oblivian & Ergo chat to Autumn, whilst Erik appears to piss up the wall

MacCruiskeen & MacCruiskeen

Sergeant MacCruiskeen throwing Freddie Mercury poses

Oblivian Substanshall arrives

Arguing over a manuscript

Talulah Lotus

Smiling Houmous

Terrified Vulnavia

The Third Policeman Rehearsals, Day Two, and first "Sounds From the Underground Chamber" podcast

2011-08-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Second day of rehearsals done and dusted, real progress made today....

We are delighted to introduce the first of a new podcast series "Sounds From the Underground Chamber", documenting the rehearsal process of The Third Policeman.

Erik Bumbledonk dies in a corner

Ergo & Erik look at a chair

Martha Moopette post-goosing

Erik stabs Vulnavia in the head with a ladder

Ergo demonstrates the art of throwing empty cans into a bin

Mr Phizmiz's pursed lipped coquettish look, just before a light fell on his head

Vulnavia in foxy mode

Building a puppet theatre and back projecting

Martha Moopette getting jiggy with the iron on glue

Vulnavia regarding a giant pair of underpants

Shadow puppets

Vulnavia hasn't managed to remove the ladder from his head

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Begin!

2011-08-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. Today rehearsals for Ergo Phizmiz's electronic neur-opera vaudeville machine "The Third Policeman" began...

Erik Bumbledonk with beautiful flat cap / pony-tail combo

Bumbledonk looking pensive by a glove that has previously caused him pain

Ergo gesticulates and nobody looks

Bumbledonk recounts the plan of Divney

Ergo holds a bar for no reason

Ergo wears Mathers' fez and holds little tiny Mathers puppet

A pensive moment with Vulnavia Vanity and Erik Bumbledonk

Erik Bumbledonk sings and holds his penis whilst Vulnavia looks on

De Selby's nose

Ergo with the look of a madman

Vulnavia's latex fetish

And for an update on the splendid masks Martha Moopette & Mike Wade have been working on for the opera, you could do worse than head over to Moop's blog...

Tomorrow we construct the set, and await the imminent arrival of Oblivian Substanshall...

New Ergo Phizmiz EP: Ergo's Disko Van Dysko

2011-08-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, put that razor away and put on your dancing shoes. The third instalment of Ergo's Disco Van has careered into town in a hazy mist of steam and wine.

This edition, "Ergo's Disko Van Dysko", is dedicated to Dick Van Dyke and his remarkable dancing shoes.

Four slabs of uberdisco, replenished with the stench of a fat man at the end of the night in the discotheque.

TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

STEAL SOME WHITE BROGUES.

KNOCK ON PEOPLE'S DOORS THEN RUN AWAY.

DRINK IMPROVISED COCKTAILS AND TAP YOUR FOOT UNTIL IT SMARTS A BIT.

Like this? Try...

Ergo's Disco Van Too

Ergo's Disco Van

"Disappearing Boxes" wins Horspiel des Monats, Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Kunste

2011-08-03T01:53:00.000-07:00

We're rather happy to tell you that Ergo Phizmiz's autobiographical radio piece "Disappearing Boxes" (created for Studio Akustische Kunst on WDR3) has recently been awarded Horspiel of the month by the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Kunste.

You can read a (German language) review of the piece, and listen to a short extract at their website.

And here, by the wonder of Google translate, is some kind of approximation of what they're saying....

"Ergo Phizmiz is a 30th-rounder from the UK, which is in "Disappearing boxes" goes on the search for traces of his early career as an opera composer. Except for a few snippets of newspaper and a BBC interview from her only recording is received an overture. His whimsical, fictional auto opera story is about a shy boy who decides cheered on by his devotion to Monteverdi at the age of 10 years to compose operas - just as he was convinced of it as a four year old to be Popeye.

Without classical training was his musical training in hearing the same old pieces at home, playing the music student of his father every day during the organ lessons in endless variations. Coupled of course with the enthusiasm for technological options such as high-speed dubbing or multi-tracking, he opened the four-lane tape recorders and computers. His first opera, a farce, set in a pizzeria and the 13-year-old student with the school orchestra for the performance brought brought him dubious fame as the "Boy Genius". At age 16 he was already composing on again, stand-up comedian and was only returned on his multi-faceted musical experiments with 30 letter to the opera. Ergo Phizmiz is for his self-deprecating narrative, which is incidentally also as a brilliant deconstruction of the high-cultural genre of opera, a wonderful balance between text and music. Music is free for him to Lewis Carroll's "Auto-Boojum": it exists only when it is listed commits, so with each performance slow suicide. This fascination with the fleeting existence of music runs through the dazzling, from seemingly endless sources of dining and music sound collage that makes this a unique radio play, puzzle play acoustic."

The Third Policeman - Tour Dates (new dates added)

2011-08-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

Ergo Phizmiz's electronic neur-operatic vaudeville machine adaptation of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman" opens at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival on August 20-21, Riverside Studios, London. Tickets are available here.

Links for booking of all other shows will be online soon.

Can't wait? Download the free album of Third Policeman Remixes....

New, free EP - Ergo's Disco Van Too

2011-07-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

Something is happening. It's "Ergo's Disco Van Too".

Ergo Phizmiz is becoming an Ubu-esque king of the disco. His moustache roars with deepbeat. His footwork is fancy and fly. His white trousers fall down in the noisy night. The crowd screams, then dies.

Like this, try the first release of "Ergo's Disco Van"...

New, free Ergo Phizmiz EP: "Ergo's Disco Van"

2011-07-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

An Ergo Phizmiz Disco EP! And about time too....

To be played at parties. Moustaches optional, but highly recommended.

With special guests Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, and Skeenilly AKA The Skeematic.

(And samples from Plushgoolash, Oblivian Substanshall, The Superfools, Talulah Lotus, Madagascar children's songs and instrumental music, Dreaded Plate, Robert Ashley, The Cheeky Girls, and more or less or more or less....)

Created in the living room, 27/07/11.

DEEAYEESSSEEOOO.

Ergo Phizmiz "Music For Accountants: Volume 1"

2011-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

A new series of cassette tape releases by Ergo Phizmiz, "Music For Accountants" will be released in limited runs of 50 copies, each in unique, handmade packaging, on Chinstrap Music.

The music contained will not be posted formally online at any point, and all will be unique to these cassettes. Everybody who buys the cassette, however, will also receive a ZIP file containing high-quality mp3 and FLAC versions of the music.

The sounds contained on "Music For Accountants" document the far reaches of Ergo's work, away from commissions and pop releases, delving deep into the experimental processes that drive the heart of his idiosyncratic output.

"Music For Accountants: Volume 1" features digital-delay vinyl experiments, the use of Kurt Schwitters' Merzbarn as a musical instrument (in collaboration with regular co-conspirator Erik Bumbledonk), remixes of Monteverdi into sublime glitch compositions, intricate MIDI compositions, extracts from score music for carpets, and alphabets made of stars.

Tracklist:

Side A

Symbols Float (1.35)
Monteverdi Shimmers (1.02)
Doll War (1.18)
Popcorn (2.21)
Thirst Class (4.52)
Monteverdi Stutters (0.31)
Bond Dodo Gilt Bats (2.28)
321AA (2.37)
Salt (3.18)
Balloon Time (1.42)

Side B

Monteverdi Stammers (1.02)
Star Alphabet (3.44)
Babybox (2.00)
Disturbers (1.09)
Monteverdi Shatters (0.50)
Andaway (3.29)
Merzybeat (4.05)
Rattlers (2.00)
The Rubble in the Barn (5.59)
Monteverdust (0.12)

It will be released within the next month or so, and is now available for pre-order, at £8.00 plus £1.50 P&P.

Playback / Play Festival - Warsaw, September 2011

2011-07-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

Ergo Phizmiz will be collaborating on productions of Robert Ashley's almost invisible early operas at Playback/Play festival, aswell as performing a set of solo piano & vocal compositions and a short concert of music for toys.

SEPTEMBER 6 – 12, 2011

Playback Play

Wojtek Blecharz – flute
Alessandro Bosetti – laptop, voice
Frank Denyer – piano
Michal Gorczynski – clarinet
Hilary Jeffery – trombone, tromboscillator
DJ Lenar – turntables, sound
Pawel Nowicki – percussions
Mikolaj Palosz – cello
Ergo Phizmiz – everything
Julia Szproch – voice
Julia Zietek – violin

playing music by Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier and each other

Various Venues, Warsaw, Poland

Disappearing Boxes : Credits

2011-07-02T01:17:00.000-07:00

Broadcast 01/07/11 on Studio Akustische Kunst, WDR3

Written, Composed, Performed & Produced by Ergo Phizmiz

Additional voices by Margita Zalite & Pete Um

Mechanical improvisations and jazz-tube with Erik Bumbledonk

Cassette tapes from Ergo Phizmiz's teenage years, incorporating musical compositions, comedy performances, and a local radio interview, c. 1992/3

Opera fragments by Ergo Phizmiz, from “La Puce de Neige” (2009, for Patrick Sims/Buchinger's Boot Marionettes) “The Mourning Show” (2010, for DePlayer) and “The Third Policeman” (2011, by permission of A.M. Heath Ltd.)

The song “Celandine” by Ergo Phizmiz appears courtesy of Care in the Community Recordings

Sampled (PD & CC sources): The United States Army Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps “Toccata from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo” (Creative Commons) * Enrico Caruso “Ideale My Idial”, “Campaneasera” * Archie Mayer “Svengali” * Maria Callas interview & performance * D'Oyly Carte Opera Company “The Pirates of Penzance” 78 RPM recording * Lewis Carroll's “The Hunting of the Snark” from Project Gutenberg * Paderewski piano performance * Tom Kennedy “Pigtails & Chopsticks” * Pitman's Gramophone Course of Typewriter Keyboard Instruction * Jenny Howard “Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty”

All sampled sounds from archive.org, freemusicarchive.org, and the archive of Bryan Innes Parker

Thanks to Felix Kubin, Martha Moopette, Vulnavia Vanity, Talulah & Autumn

ANNA BOOM

2011-06-28T02:04:00.000-07:00

A new slice of mekanikomerzuberpop from Ergo Phizmiz, with lyrics and vocals by the marvellous M.C. Bumbledonk.

With film by Jared Brandle.

Ergo Phizmiz (feat. MC Erik Bumbledonk) - Anna Boom from Bad Panda Records on Vimeo.

Released on Bad Panda Records.

"The Third Policeman" - Booking for the premiere at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival now open!

2011-06-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. Booking for the world premiere of the neur-opera by Ergo Phizmiz of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman", at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, August 20-21 2011 is now open.

From “maverick composer” Ergo Phizmiz comes an opera on Flann O’Brien’s perplexing masterpiece. Part thriller, part comedy, part science-fiction, this radical adaptation combines stagecraft, animation, and distinctive, unforgettable music into an astounding composite for the ears and eyes. Expect bicycles, murder, atomic theory, typewriters, infinity, and sweets.

Book tickets for the premiere of this unique piece of music theatre here.

Download an mp3 instrumental montage of music from the opera here.

You will also be able to catch the new Ergo Phizmiz exhibition STATICOPERA, which is presented at Riverside Studios from August 1-21.

"The Third Policeman" is also essential viewing for any of you people with good taste who are fans of the brilliant Erik Bumbledonk (of Plushgoolash), Oblivian Substanshall, and Vulnavia Vanity, all of whom appear in the opera.

See you there........

"The Third Policeman" - A Neur-Opera by Ergo Phizmiz - Trailer

2011-06-21T04:36:00.001-07:00

Coming soon on Bad Panda Records: ANNA BOOM

2011-06-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. It's on the way.... "ANNA BOOM", an epic of MACHINEMERZUBERPOPTASTICNESS, by Ergo Phizmiz & MC Erik Bumbledonk, with accompanying film by the remarkable Jared Brandle. Released 27/06/11, on Bad Panda Records.

Abba. Starring Oblivian Substanshall, Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette

2011-06-19T06:44:00.001-07:00

New Oblivian Substanshall album produced by Ergo Phizmiz

2011-06-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

The new album from Oblivian Substanshall, which is produced by Ergo Phizmiz, is available now on Ergo's netlabel Chinstrap. Go there and grrrrab it for freeeee.

Ergo is a busy boy....with or without a moustache....

2011-06-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, feast your eyes on THAT MOUSTACHE.

Then continue onto this nice compact list of the various Ergo Phizmiz events that are happening over the coming months...

Releases

Ergo Phizmiz "The Music Man" single released imminently on Care in the Community Recordings.

Radio

July 1 on Studio Akustische Kunst - WDR3 , "Disappearing Boxes" (50 minutes)

November 11 Deutschlandradio Kultur, "The Carnival in the Mirror Marches Into The Sea" (30 minutes)

Workshop/Performances

September 5 - 11 @ Play/Playback Festival, Warsaw, interpreting the operas of Robert Ashley, plus solo piano performances and experimental collaborations.

Exhibitions

August 1-21 "Staticopera" @ Riverside Studios, London, as part of Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival

Performances of "The Third Policeman" Opera

August 20-21 @ Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, Riverside Studios, London

October 9 @ The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe

November 6 @ Musicport Festival, Bridlington

November 25-27 @ Worm, Rotterdam

December 9 @ Soundart Radio, Dartington

December 10 @ Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport

* * *

"The Third Policeman" and remixes also form the official incidental music to the 100 Myles: Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference, Vienna - July 24-26

"The Third Policeman" by Ergo Phizmiz - Tour Dates

2011-06-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

The Third Policeman
A Neuropera by Ergo Phizmiz

Based on the novel by Flann O'Brien

By permission of A.M. Heath Ltd.

August 20-21 @ Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, Riverside Studios, London

October 9 @ The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe

November 6 @ Musicport Festival, Bridlington

November 25-27 @ Worm, Rotterdam

December 9 @ Soundart Radio, Dartington

December 10 @ Bridport Arts Centre, Bridport

* * *

"The Third Policeman" and remixes also form the official incidental music to the 100 Myles: Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference, Vienna - July 24-26

* * *

With the myriad talents of

Vulnavia Vanity, Oblivian Substanshall, Erik Bumbledonk, Martha Moopette, Michael Wade, Bryan Parker, Lucinda Guy, Monkton Wylde

Ergo Phizmiz's "The Third Policeman" - Instrumentals and Remixes at 100 Myles: The International Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference

2011-05-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Instrumental cuttings and remixes from Ergo Phizmiz's forthcoming neuropera "The Third Policeman" will form the official incidental music of 100 Myles: The International Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference in Vienna, July 2011:

Ergo Phizmiz's “neuropera” of The Third Policeman opens at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, London, during August 2011, with a string of performances following in the UK and Europe between September – December.

The opera is a truly 21^st century artwork, using a wide array of creative methods and approaches in handmade and digital art to bring Ergo's idiosyncratic take on Flann O'Brien's already idiosyncratic world to life.

Created in collaboration with a host of artists who can only be described in today's incessant jargon as “outsiders”, and performed by a cast of non-trained singers and comedians, with visual influences from Eastern European animation and musical references ranging from British dance bands to intricate electronic music, it will be an unforgettable and unique sensory experience.

In co-operation with the 100 Myles Vienna Conference we are delighted to present instrumental backgrounds from the opera, mixed in with exclusive remixes of Ergo's music by a range of sound-artists and composers from across the globe, as the official incidental music of the conference.

STATICOPERA - An exhibition by Ergo Phizmiz

2011-05-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

“Maverick composer”, collagist, and writer Ergo Phizmiz presents the world's first mute, stationery opera, strewn in silence and stillness across the gallery walls like music squashed into submission by the forces of unimagination, bursting through regardless into inaudible life

Part of Tête à Tête: the Opera Festival, who will also be presenting the premiere performances of Ergo Phizmiz's new opera "The Third Policeman".

Disappearing Boxes, on Studio Akustische Kunst, WDR3, Germany

2011-05-10T03:01:00.000-07:00

Broadcasting on Friday 1st July, 23.05, on WDR3, Germany.

At the age of 12 , with no formal musical training, I wrote my first opera. This was followed over the next three years by ten further operas. The local newspapers described me, perhaps a little prematurely, as “Teesside's answer to Mozart”.

Between the ages of 12-16 I wrote ten operas, a symphony, two cantatas, and countless songs & instrumental music.

At 16 I abruptly abandoned composition and music entirely. At this point I decided to become a stand-up comedian, a line I pursued for the next five years before, eventually, returning back to music via electronic means.

Due to various circumstances, multiple changes of accommodation, and the many boxes of music-manuscript being stored in various people's attics, all of the music I composed as a teenager has, to all intents and purposes, disappeared.

I didn't write another opera until the age of 30.

Last year I found an audio cassette of an interview I took part in on local radio in North-East England, at the age of 13, about an opera I had composed, a farce that took place in a pizza parlour. Aswell as the interview the tape also features a MIDI recording of the Overture to that opera, the only surviving fragment of all my teenage compositions.

"Disappearing Boxes" is an impressionistic attempt to retrospectively analyse this mass of invisible operas that may never see the light of day. The work will attempt to explore the mindset of a teenager suddenly compelled to spend the majority of his time composing operas, whilst simultaneously exploring the medium of opera historically and culturally.

Part detective-tale, part musical analyses, part autobiography, part art-history, this piece will fuse the personal with the theoretical, using radio to delve deep into the way the creative process works.

From WDR3:

Mit 16 Jahren beschloss der junge Mann aus dem Nordosten Englands, Standup-Komiker zu werden. Bis dahin hatte er seine Pubertät zum nicht geringen Teil mit dem Schreiben von zehn Opern, einer Symphonie, zwei Kantaten, Liedern und Instrumentalmusik verbracht. Beim Umzug verschwanden dann allerdings sämtliche Schachteln mit den Noten. Erhalten ist nur der Mitschnitt eines Radiointerviews des 13jährigen Komponisten. Ausgehend von diesem Band versucht Ergo Phizmiz nun die Rätsel seiner Jugend und der Operngeschichte zu verstehen.

The Third Policeman - Instrumental Montage

2011-05-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

All is full-steam-ahead with the progress of The Third Policeman opera. All the tour dates (including new ones added since the last blogpost) will be formally announced soon.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the Police Station (above)....

.... and treat your ears to a short montage of instrumental music-in-progress from the opera by downloading this mp3.

The Third Policeman

2011-05-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to announce that Ergo Phizmiz's opera of "The Third Policeman" is on its way. After a long haul through thick and thin, the kindness of strangers, the kindness of friends, the open-mindedness of adventurous venues, and the willingness of brilliant colleagues to dive head first into what will be a difficult and financially ludicrous venture, we are now in a position to formally announce the impending opening and initial tour of this exciting project.

Fulcanelli's Music - In-Sync

2011-05-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Since the release of "Fulcanelli's Shoes" and "Music From The Shoes of Fulcanelli" on Headphonica, lots of lovely vids have started to pop up using the new instrumental compositions/arrangements by Ergo Phizmiz.

Art with June | Trailer from Compass Cinema on Vimeo.

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "The Keystone Cut Ups" Live at Flatpack Festival

2011-04-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me - Repeated this Saturday on BBC Radio 3

2011-03-31T05:17:00.000-07:00

Ergo Phizmiz's radiophonic art-adventure "Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me", first broadcast November 2009, is being repeated on BBC Radio 3 this Saturday 02/04/11 at 9pm GMT, and will be available for a week afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

The 30 minute piece, which features Felix Kubin as Paul Klee, and John Matthias as Klee's violin, received the Special Mention in the composed radio category at the 2010 Prix Italia. It tells of a surprise visit by the artist Paul Klee to Ergo Phizmiz, taking him on an adventure through his world and exploring the relationships between painting and music.

From BBC Radio 3:

"A fantastical encounter with Swiss painter Paul Klee, in an imaginary Klee-world of twittering machines and dream landscapes, singing colour polyphony and scribbling violin. Composer and writer Ergo Phizmiz wanders through Klee's paintings in the company of their creator, evoking their vivid colours and whimsical humour in intricately composed soundscapes. Klee takes Ergo on a hot-air balloon ride which, like a magic carpet, miraculously flies them to Tunisia, the land where he 'became a painter'. Their voyage also passes through paintings of strange gardens, mountain carnivals, and abstract colour gradations, before they finally ascend to the moon, a dream-world populated by lunar monkeys, peculiar birds and trees bulging with seeping paint."

The piece is also being written about in a forthcoming book by Stephen Ellis, about the relationship between Klee's painting and music.

Tune in!

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" and "Music From The Shoes of Fulcanelli" out now on Headphonica

2011-03-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

“Fulcanelli’s Shoes” is a response of sorts to this cultural phenomenon, by artist, composer and writer Ergo Phizmiz. Weaving a tale with one foot paddling in truth, and the other firmly embedded in lies, the piece presents a rewritten cultural history of the 20th century, presenting the relationship between the artistic and alchemical worlds at the beginning of the century as the catalyst for the creative, scientific and political revolutions of the proceeding times.

Discover how Jean Cocteau could travel in time; the secrets of the Large Hadron Collider; hear a genuine alchemical transmutation of base metal into gold; find out how anagrams built the universe; learn how to fix anything that is broken …..

Part lecture, part opera, part documentary, this is a uniquely 21st century artwork, bringing together strands of forms into a unified but scattershot form. Collaborating with film-maker Martha Moopette and performer Vulnavia Vanity, Ergo Phizmiz has created a truly experimental piece of anti-art, with the feel of something akin to being kicked in the face with a Ferrero Rocher boot.

Recorded live at Soundart Radio, Dartington, UK, February 5th 2011.

Written, Composed, Narrated & Produced by ERGO PHIZMIZ

Shadow-Puppets, Animation, Video editing, Consultancy by MARTHA MOOPETTE

Music based on themes by
ERIK SATIE
CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
MAURICE RAVEL
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
EDVARD GRIEG
FRANCIS POULENC
IGOR STRAVINSKY
GIOVANNIA BATTISTA PERGOLESI
GEORGES AURIC

With film extracts from
JEAN COCTEAU
KAREL ZEMAN
HANS RICHTER
JOSEF VON BAKY
MICHAEL POWELL & EMERIC PRESSBURGER
SERGEI EISENSTEIN
JACQUES TATI
ORSON WELLES
ALEXANDER CALDER
FERNAND LEGER

* Used without permission, but lots of respect

“Barbette” performed by VULNAVIA VANITY

Fulcanelli’s Feminity performed by MARTHA MOOPETTE

Sarangi performed by AMIE WILLINGALE

Foley contributions from THE TRAVELLING MONGOOSE

Mycology photographs by TRAVIS NOBLES

Live sound-engineering and introduction by MONKTON WYLDE

“The Man With The Glass Nose” and “The Flat and Round Painter”

Written by KURT SCHWITTERS

Translated by JACK ZIPES

* With the kind permission of Jack Zipes at Princeton University Press

Extracts from the Ursonate by KURT SCHWITTERS

to download the entire album [mp3 & artwork, zip] click >>> here <<<>>> here <<<>>> here <<<

to download the entire piece [hplive012 + hpcd088 + video.mp4] click >>> here <<<

The Posthuman Dadamix

2011-03-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

Ergo Phizmiz has created a Posthuman Dadamix, based on ideas and themes from Andrei Codrescu's "Posthuman Dada Guide".

The mix is presented by the lovely Discrepant, where you can stream and download it.

A Pained Erik Bumbledonk begs for your support for "The Third Policeman"

2011-03-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

Support Ergo Phizmiz's "The Third Policeman" at Crowdfunder. Please do help us make something remarkable.

Howtosayto

2011-03-09T01:19:00.000-08:00

HOWTOSAYTO Saturday 12th March 2011 at Bridport Arts Centre.

Curated by Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette

Ergo Phizmiz "The Mourning Show" starring Erik Bumbledonk as Chris Evans

Live music from:
Vulnavia Vanity
Eleanor Davis
Oblivian Substanshall
Robert Lee & Friends
Erik Bumbledonk
Amie Willingale
Ergo Phizmiz

DJ Courtley Love spins a bunch of badgoodbeauties

Films from
Martha Moopette
Phil Lane
Erik Bumbledonk
Maria Deegan
Carl Rosendahl
Alexander Jones

Ergo Phizmiz "The Third Policeman" Opera seeking support through Crowdfunder

2011-03-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

You can support this new project at Crowdfunder. Please do.

And please Tweet, Retweet, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, and what-not, this page or the Crowdfunder link. If you've ever downloaded free music from Ergo Phizmiz's 50+ hours of Creative Commons licensed music, do us a favour and spread the word!

WHAT ON EARTH IS IT?
A steam-punk-neuropera on Flann O'Brien's absurdist masterpiece "The Third Policeman". Adapted, composed and directed by acclaimed musical absurdist Ergo Phizmiz ("A musical equivalent to Chris Morris" - BBC Radio 3), and performed by a cast of non-opera singers including comedians, writers and musicians. The Third Policeman will be a truly 21st century artwork, a steampunk odyssey through an absurdist hell.

The opera will be funny, disturbing, catchy and deeply in the spirit of Dada. Imagine an opera filtered through Frank Sidebottom and Vic Reeves, with music one-foot in Monteverdi and the other in Captain Beefheart.

THE THIRD POLICEMAN?
A classic of absurdist literature by Flann O'Brien. The story is very difficult to summarise, but concerns bicycles, policemen, wooden legs, hanging, pensioner murder, and a strange substance called Omnium. More detail on the novel can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Policeman

TELL ME MORE ABOUT WHAT IT WILL SOUND LIKE?
This will not be inaccessible, screamy contemporary opera. It will be sang by people with real, untrained voices. If you'd like an idea of what the music will sound like, then put the following ingredients in a pot and stir until cooked:

Harpo Marx, Raymond Scott, Noel Coward, Claudio Monteverdi, Mechanical Music, Spike Jones, Erik Satie, The Velvet Underground, Miles Davis, Laurel & Hardy, Gamelan, John Cage, Can, Bagpipes,Kurt Schwitters, Timbaland, Lord Kitchener, Bruce Haack, Augustus Pablo, Johann Strauss, Thelonius Monk, Jacques Offenbach, Captain Beefheart, Mozart, Perez Prado.

If that doesn't make things clear enough, you could do worse than head to a page where you can download over 50 hours of free, Creative Commons licensed music by Ergo Phizmiz, at http://ergophizmiz.net/freemusicarchive.html

HOW WILL THE MUSIC BE PERFORMED?
Ergo Phizmiz doesn't have the opportunity or the inclination to write grand operas for orchestras. This opera's music will be performed by a mixture of pre-recorded sound, made from instruments, electronics, samples, and field-recordings, and on-stage instruments performed by the cast.

Some of the onstage instruments will be home-made, steampunk-ish, and absurd instruments, such as The Blibburblabbar, an instrument made out of a brass mouthpiece, a plastic tube, and a teapot, which you can see in a demonstration video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rluEw_yGjRg , and can also see in action in a cover of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ_3dca3XN0

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?
The performance will be a beautiful, multi-textured piece. Two masked performers will continually multi-role whilst two unmasked performers play the central protagonist and the bonkers natural philosopher De Selby throughout. The mise-en-scene will be created through projections onto a backcloth, made live via a camera pointing onto layered sheets of perspex onto which the scenery throughout will be created in miniature, in a style similar to the films of Russian animation genius Yuri Norstein.

HOW WILL IT BE PERFORMED?
The performance style will reference music-hall, early silent-comedy, and the extreme stylisation of Japanese Noh theatre. There will be slapstick humour, and choreographed dance. It will all be highly artificial, sometimes overblown, with allusions to the Theatre of the Absurd and traditional clowning.

NOT AN OPERA FOR RICH PEOPLE IN SMART SUITS.....
Ergo Phizmiz has been developing a way of writing and presenting operas that is entirely separate from the “high culture” usually associated with opera – trying to make opera that is the antithesis of the “rich man's opera”, bringing the artform to a wide audience and opening up the possibilities of the medium. We aim to help bring a new understanding of the medium by making new works to reinvent the genre, taking it completely out of the opera house, the world of excessive ticket prices, and removing opera from its place on the social-artistic hierarchy. This is a very personal mission for the composer, who wrote his first opera at 12 years old but has seldom been able to go and see any himself.

WHO IS INVOLVED?
The opera will be written, composed, and directed by Ergo Phizmiz. Designed by Martha Moopette. Performed by Erik Bumbledonk, Oblivian Substanshall, and Vulnavia Vanity. All the artists involved are definitions of "outsider artists" - we are all freelance and operate outside of the art and music industries that occasionally grasp onto us for a few minutes before losing grip again.

Each of the artists are multidisciplinary wilduns and vagabonds. Each of the four performers are all skilled musicians, singers, actors and comedians. Needless to say, none of them are "opera singers". Good.

Here are some video examples of the work of all the artists involved:

ERGO PHIZMIZ (writer, composer, director, performer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUTDwwhYx3A

MARTHA MOOPETTE (designer, consultant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCgNT5azP_U

ERIK BUMBLEDONK (performer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwHlwR68tA8

VULNAVIA VANITY (performer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6m9tnKyWU

OBLIVIAN SUBSTANSHALL (performer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iq_nuTmwks

WHERE WILL IT BE SHOWN?
The work has been offered a premiere at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival in London in August 2011, with performances afterwards at ShutUp Comedy Club, Saltburn, UpItUp Records Liverpool, Bridport Literary Festival, and Soundart Radio, Dartington. It has been rejected Arts Council funding on rather spurious grounds.

CAN IT BE (GASP!) POPULAR?
The work has great potential for commercial and critical success, particularly because of heightened awareness of the original novel through it's inclusion in the TV series "Lost", which has brought the book to a new audience. The piece will be amusing, disturbing and highly original in presentation. The music will be melodic and innovative, full of earworms and fresher than this morning's baked bread.

RIGHTS...
Literary rights for the project have been arranged with A.M. Heath Ltd, who have agreed the rights for a 10% cut off box office takings.

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?
The money from this funding will go towards the following:
* Covering costs and living expenses for the participating artists during writing & production
* Materials for the design and construction of the mise-en-scene
* Rehearsal space
* Travelling expenses for artists to rehearsals and all performances
* Printing of press materials and marketing

LET'S SEE SOMETHING ELSE THEN....
Not convinced yet? Then you probably need to see Ergo Phizmiz's previous opera "The Mourning Show", about a demonic-attack on the radio DJ Chris Evans, leading to his premature death.

You can watch The Mourning Show at: http://vimeo.com/16337859

This opera uses techniques that will also be used in The Third Policeman, and also stars Erik Bumbledonk, who will play the lead in the new work, as Chris Evans.

You can also turn your eyes to Ergo Phizmiz's most recent work "Fulcanelli's Shoes", a semi-opera / performance about art, time-travel, alchemy, and so forth.

Watch "Fulcanelli's Shoes" at http://vimeo.com/20105017

AND WHAT, PRAY TELL, IS A NEUROPERA?
A Neuropera is a term to separate this kind of work from the social traditions of opera.

It stands for "New Experimental Underground Radical Opera"
It also stands for "Noisy Eccentric Uber Ropey Opera"
And also for "Nasty Exceptional Uppity Rabid Opera"
And finally for "Naughty Elegant Umptydumpty Raging Opera"

COME ALONG THEN....
We have a great creative team, the literary rights, and venues to perform the opera. The only thing we lack is the funds to make it happen. This is a big opportunity for all artists involved, and an even bigger opportunity to all audience members who will experience something that is absolutely unforgettable and unlike anything they have ever before witnessed.

You can support this new project at Crowdfunder. Please do.

Twelve Films, One Piece of Music

2011-02-27T02:54:00.000-08:00

Over the past year we've noticed an alarming amount of short films that use "Roland Vegners" from Ergo Phizmiz & Margita Zalite's "Lamps & Chairs" album. Below are twelve very different films which all use the same piece of music...

Indie Game: The Movie Goes to TIGJam from IndieGame: The Movie on Vimeo.

A Week In Making from Mac Oosthuizen on Vimeo.

Flower Lapse from Christoph Sullivan on Vimeo.

Aides: Wake Up to a New World from Dusty Caravan on Vimeo.

Toasted from Mike Egan on Vimeo.

Christmas Cookies - Family Bank from Marluce Keikl on Vimeo.

Quick Tüt - Neck Strap Stabilizer from Robin Al on Vimeo.

Gingerbread Kind Of Day from Michael Way on Vimeo.

Late Nights and X-Heights from Jamie Lee on Vimeo.

Shoes from Sanjay Parashar on Vimeo.

Camera Test 2 from Thomas Galyon on Vimeo.

Tea in 60 Seconds from Scott Wild on Vimeo.

The just about exhaustive, possibly with omissions, collected sound-works list of Ergo Phizmiz, 2000-2011....

2011-02-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

Because it had to be done some time ......

2011
Disappearing Boxes
Radio-art, for WDR3. Work-in-progress.

The Third Policeman
Opera. 53 minutes. Work-in-progress.

Merzak - Muzak for the Merz Barn
Electronic and electroacoustic music, with MC Bumbledonk. 55 minutes.

Carnival
Radio-art, for DeutschlandRadioKultur. 3o minutes.

Posthuman Dadamix
Mix for Discrepants, on ideas from Andrei Codrescu's "Posthuman Dada Guide". 20 minutes.

Look, Do and Listen
Pop album, 50 minutes. Released on Care in the Community Recordings. Recorded 2010-2011.

3 2 1 A A and Away
Sound-Installation for exhibition by Carlos Noronha-Feio. Presented at Bridport Arts Centre 2011. 20 minutes.

Fulcanelli's Shoes
Performance-lecture-opera-film-show. Supported by Arts Council England, Headphonica, Soundart Radio, Care in the Community Recordings. Created in collaboration with Martha Moopette. 53 minutes.

2010
Mix for Tom Ravenscroft Christmas Eve Special
Short-story and 20 minute mash-up. Broadcast on BBC6 Music.

The Ergo Phizmiz Show (Pilot)
30 minute spoken-word and mash-up show. Unreleased.

The Keystone Cut Ups
A/V collaboration with People Like Us. Premiered at Berwick Film & Media Festival. 45 minutes.

Music For The Jilted Generation
Cover version of the album by The Prodigy. Released on UpItUp, mp3. 40 minutes.

The Faust Re.Cycled
Remixes of The Faust Cycle. Released on Headphonica, mp3. 100 minutes.

The Phantom Organ
Sound-Installation for Depozitory, Isle of Wight. Indeterminate length.

Tramadol Nights : Pussy Song & Train Song
Two songs for Channel 4 comedy show. One unreleased. Broadcast Channel 4. 3 minutes.

Things to Do and Make
Pop album, released on Care in the Community Recordings. 40 minutes. Recorded 2007-2009.

The Mourning Show
Opera, commissioned by and premiered at De Player, The Netherlands. 45 minutes.

Toped Buts
Album of studio improvisations. Unreleased. 50 minutes.

Earballet - Don Quixote
Instrumental music. Released on Free Music Archive. 20 minutes.

Dadaphone
Covers album. Released on Free Music Archive. 50 minutes.

The Faust Cycle
Sound-art odyssey. Released on Headphonica. Supported by Arts Council England & VentnorBlog. 14 hours.

2009
Live in Warsaw
Live album, with Macio Moretti & Piotr Zabrodzki. 40 minutes.

Music For Pleasure
Rock'n'Roll album. Unreleased. 60 minutes.

Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me
Radio-art, for BBC Radio 3. Special mention at 2010 Prix Italia. 30 minutes.

La Puce de Neige
Score for puppet-opera, for Patrick Sims / Buchinger's Boot Marionettes. Premiered at La Friche, Marseille. 45 minutes.

Outtakes from "The Snow Flea"
Mp3 album, released on the Free Music Archive. 30 minutes.

Neighbours
3 pieces of personal agitprop. Released on the Free Music Archive. 8 minutes.

Now That's What We Pump at the Party
Covers album, with Monkton Wylde, The Travelling Mongoose & Vulnavia Vanity. Released on Free Music Archive. 40 minutes.

Neredzema Margo
Score for Latvian children's television programme. 15 minutes.

Pointballing
Short-form radio for BBC Radio 3. 12 minutes.

PoetryLab
Theme tune for BBC Radio 3. 45 seconds.

Amitini
Pilot for children's internet television. Unbroadcast. 30 minutes.

The Invention of Birds
Sound, image, object and film installation, for Soundart Radio. 2 hours.

Talulah & the Baron
Children's radio. Released on Free Music Archive. 8 minutes.

Soundart Radio show
Weekly experimental show for Soundart Radio. 20 programmes, 60 minutes each.

Carnival
Workshop with Tom Hicks, culminating in film. 5 minutes.

2008
Lamps & Chairs
Music for Interior Design, with Margita Zalite. 25 minutes. Released on Free Music Archive and presented in Latvia.

Rhapsody in Glue
Pop and sample album, in collaboration with People Like Us. 50 minutes. Released on Bleep.com

Klara Festival adverts
TV & Radio ads for Belgian music festival. 2 minutes.

Forest: Part One
Sound, image, object and video installation. Indeterminate length. Presented at Venn Festival.

Dimbola - The Cabinet of Julia Margaret Cameron
Short form sound-works. 50 minutes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Dimbola - Forest : Part Two
Radio-Art. 90 minutes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Dimbola - Julia Dreams Exploding Sleep
Radio-Art. 45 minutes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Dimbola - Tennyson's Enchanted Garden
Radio-Art. 20 minutes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Dimbola - John Godwin's "Julia" (score)
Music for radioplay. 15 minutes. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Marcelle van Hoof session
Two experimental radio sessions, broadcast on DFM. 45 minutes.

Pie Hateaux
Album of songs, electronic, and electroacoustic vocal music. 50 minutes. Released on Proot Records.

Handmade in the Monasteries of Nepal / Eloise My Dolly
12" LP on Gagarin Records. 50 minutes. Recorded 2006-2007.

2007
Phuj Phactory (Season 2)
Mash-Up Radio show, broadcast on WFMU. 33 x 60 minutes.

Transymusic
Experimental compositions made in Romania. 80 minutes.

Time Travel Musical Bazaar
Turntablism podcasts, with The Travelling Mongoose. 10 hours.

Codpaste
Podcast series, with People Like Us. 11 hours.

Screenplay
Film soundtrack, with People Like Us, for Christian Marclay. 30 minutes.

Nose Points in Different Directions
Retrospective album, on Womb Records. 75 minutes.

2006
Silver Mixes of Golden Inches
Hip-hop album, in collaboration with Blank Beats. 30 minutes. Unreleased.

Phuj Phactory (Season 1)
Mash-Up Radio show, broadcast on WFMU. 33 x 60 minutes.

Sacred Emily
Radio version of Gertrude Stein. 15 minutes. For Softpalate.

Vestibule
Live performance with Martha Moopette. Indeterminate length. For Bestival.

Perpetuum Mobile
Pop and sample album, with People Like Us. Released on Soleilmoon. 75 minutes.

Concentrate on the Brass
Brass band pop music. Released on Mukow CDR. 60 minutes.

M: 1000 Year Mix
Sound-collage, for Arts Council England. 3 hours.

2005
Wholepole: The Discotheque of Erotic Misery
Radio for BBC Radio 3. Two version 30 minutes & 45 minutes. Remixes 20 minutes.

Tortoise
Album of electronic music and songs, unreleased. 65 minutes.

Garden Waltz
Installation for Artists in the City. 20 minutes.

Arff & Beef
Cover versions, released on Womb Records. 25 minutes.

Reconstructing Scarborough, or the Absent Minded Seaside
Sound-Installation, for Sonic Arts Network. 30 minutes.

2004
Sticky White Glue (Season 2)
Radio-art, for Resonance FM. 3 hours.

Corner
Film-soundtrack, for Martha Moopette. 3 minutes.

White Light / White Heat
Cover of the Velvet Underground album, released on Womb Records. 45 minutes.

Live on Mixing It
Session for BBC Radio 3. 45 minutes.

The The Interpretations by Uutske Buutske : Remixes
Covers, originals, and remixes, with The Travelling Mongoose. CDR on Mukow. 75 minutes.

Tribal Operations on the Mechanical Skull of Matthew Kelly
Improvisations and electronica, with The Travelling Mongoose. CDR on Mukow. 60 minutes.

Pangolin Variations
Electroacoustic music and songs, with Irene Moon. CDR on Mukow. 30 minutes.

For The Neonate
Track on Irene Moon 10" vinyl. Released on Begonia Society. 5 minutes.

2003
Zip (Season 2)
Spoken-word, songs and music, for Resonance FM. 3 hours.

Sticky White Glue (Season 1)
Radio-art, for Resonance FM. 3 hours.

Cull to Clont
Live improvised vocal radio-art, for Resonance FM. 60 minutes.

Fymbouqkets
Instrumental music, unreleased. 2 hours.

UmBeBrekekollage
Sound-Poetry & Music, unreleased. 20 minutes.

Cameron Snaps Her Heel
Radio-art, for Resonance FM. 45 minutes.

Porpoise
Film soundtrack for Zenith Pitts, screened at Super-Deluxe Tokyo. 3 minutes.

Ergo Phizmiz & his Orchestra plays Aphex Twin
Cover versions, released on Mukow CDr. 30 minutes.

The The Interpretations by Uutske Buutske
Cover versions and originals, with The Travelling Mongoose. Released on Mukow CDr. 30 minutes.

Gongexeva
Mash-ups of religious music, with People Like Us & Xper Xr. Released on Mukow CDr. 30 minutes.

Requiem for the Precedence of the USA
Radio-art, for Alt-X. 60 minutes.

Frithden EP
Remixes and instrumental music, released on Mukow CDr. 15 minutes.

The System of a Down Sessions
Remixes and instrumental music, released on Mukow CDr. 25 minutes.

2002
Zip (Season 1)
Spoken-word, songs and music, for Resonance FM. 3.5 hours.

Music From The Court of Queen Bubu
Instrumental music, unreleased. 20 minutes.

Gently Bently Beneath the Waby Wabes
Radio-art, for Resonance FM. 45 minutes.

Stageworks
Online compositions, for Ubuweb. Indeterminate length.

Technique & Picnic
Radio-art remix of Namaiki, for Kirin Plaza Gallery Osaka. 30 minutes.

Music of Ergo Phizmiz
Songs and instrumental music, released on Mukow CDr. 65 minutes.

Music for Squares and Spinning
Ambient and experimental music, presented at Quay Arts, Isle of Wight in 2005. 4 hours total.

Orekano Mekano
Ambient and experimental music, broadcast on Resonance FM. 90 minutes.

Water Music
Performance-art mini-opera, presented at Middlesbrough College and broadcast Resonance FM. 30 minutes.

Music For Abdul Haq
Instrumental music performance, presented at Middlesbrough College and broadcast on Resonance FM. 20 minutes.

2001
Indianhead - # - Xan
Songs and instrumental music, unreleased. 2 hours.

Vytrebenky
Songs and instrumental music, unreleased. 45 minutes.

Mechanical Translation
Songs and instrumental music, unreleased. 45 minutes.

Avocado Dreams
Songs and instrumental music, unreleased. 45 minutes.

Sfl Bjcts
Sound-Poetry, releasedon Ubuweb. 40 minutes.

Whiter Hair, Softer Teeth
Film soundtrack for Namaiki, unreleased. 20 minutes.

Molotovia
Radio-art, for WFMU. 60 minutes.

Gnossytroissy
Minimalist comedy, broadcast on WFMU. 20 minutes.

2000
Sesmisarea
Spoken-word and music, sections broadcast on WFMU. 12 hours.

Holiday in Hiroshima
Music and songs, unreleased. 45 minutes.

The Electric Lobster
Music and poetry, unreleased. 45 minutes.

Rumbled Bicycle
Radio-art, unreleased. 3 hours.

Live Dates, March-April 2011

2011-02-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Ergo Phizmiz is playing a number of live shows across various formats during March - April 2011.

March 12th - "Howtosayto" at Bridport Arts Centre

March 26th - "Merzman" Islington Mill, Manchester * Supporting John Maus
This show will be preceded by a week long residency at the Merzbarn in Cumbria

March 27th - "The Keystone Cut Ups" * with People Like Us, at Flatpack Festival, Birmingham

April 6th - "Songwriters Cafe" * Beach & Barnicott, Bridport, performing entirely new material

Howtosayto @ Bridport Arts Centre

2011-02-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

Howtosayto? One would expect this query to have a simple, one-dimensional solution. Life is, however, rarely so straightforward, and set to wreak the freshly odoured havoc of uber simple anti-simplicity will be a flock of artists, writers, thieves, raconteurs, chefs, composers, charlatans and burlesque dancers taking over Bridport Arts Centre on 12th March, 2011.

Showcasing work by creatives existing outside the fairly contemptible rotten gammon stench of the art and music industry/world, Howtosayto will present an evening of delights for your aural-retinal palates to savour like strawberries with sugar on a Summer's morning.

Baked in an immense pan by internationally acclaimed Dadachefs Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette, the evening is a luxurious casserole of ingredients from across the UK, set to sizzle with world spices and just a dash of arsenic.

The sartorial elegance of Vulnavia Vanity will present tasteful slices of ukulele uberpop. Master Professor of Surrealism Oblivian Substanshall will fill your wanting mouths with spoken-word odysseys from the depths of Edward Lear's oven. Future-anti-pop-supergroup Angela Valid present a wordless cookbook of shatters and rattles, like a heavenly kitchen hurtling through space. Eleanor Davis will put a viola and her mouth into a pan, let them gently simmer, and see what comes out. Ergo Phizmiz will perform his new piece "Fulcanelli's Shoes", which includes no cooking but plenty of time-travel and a picture of Simon Cowell looking like a murderer.

The evening will also showcase some of the cream of contemporary film-making, including music videos and installations by the multi-award winning Martha Moopette, "Process No 18" by Phil Lane, a Duckumentary by Alexander Jones, and the UK premiere screening of the film "Slitscan Carnival" by Carl Rosendahl, one of the founders of renowned animation studio Dreamworks.

Bringing out the extra spices will be burlesque dancer Amethyst Shivers, who is of course likely to heat up the proceedings, a human Cumin, if you like. The evening will be compered by a comedy legend so underground he's permanently hot from volcanic activity (hence his red hair, the colour of a Rogan Josh), the great Erik Bumbledonk, who was last seen as a suicidal, birdlike imitation of radio DJ Chris Evans, bare-bottomed and jumping out a window to his death.

At the miniscule cost of £3, which now constitutes approximately 3 and a half chocolate bars, or two bags of pasta, or half a bottle of wine, you can't really go wrong. So do come along, wear something dapper or trampsy, whatever is your wont, clean out your eyes and ears (but with something non-corrosive, of course), buy a drink, and learn Howtosayto.

ergophizmiz.net * marthamoopette.blogspot.com * bridportarts.com

Ergo Phizmiz Live at Whitechapel Gallery, November 2010 - Short video clip

2011-02-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

Fulcanelli's Shoes - Trailer

2011-02-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

The trailer for Ergo Phizmiz's performance/lecture/fact/fiction/opera/film, which premieres at Soundart Radio, Dartington, 5th February 2011. If you can't make it to the opening, why not tune in....

Livin' On a Prayer

2011-02-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

Ergo Phizmiz is developing a new covers project, following on from his notorious "Ergo Phizmiz & his Orchestra plays Aphex Twin", "White Light White Heat", "Arff & Beef", "Now That's What We Pump at the Party", "Dadaphone" and "Music For The Jilted Generation".

The new one is called "Pomp Up the Jam", and is entirely covers of POMPROCK.

Ergo Phizmiz Live in 2011 - Awaiting Bookings

2011-01-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

Ergo Phizmiz is currently putting together a series of live dates in various forms for 2011.

Please contact ergophizmiz at gmail dot com if you are interested in booking any of the following:

Performance-Lectures & Seminars: A rare chance to hear the various nooks and crannies of Ergo Phizmiz's singular work unwound, like a magician revealing his tricks. Part performance, part seminar, Ergo takes various facets of his work over the past ten years and unravels the methods, meaning and madness behind it all.

Find out about the processes of producing a 14 hour radiophonic journey over three years, or how Ergo killed a popular DJ through opera, or how Beyonce translates into Klezmer, or how Ergo met Paul Klee and went on a hot-air balloon ride through the deceased artist's paintings.

Travelling through methodologies including sapling and sound-collage, intense-memetic composition, radio-art structured through tangential wordplay, painting with music, and looking at sound-art & composition through the lenses of both technique and dreams, this will be an entertaining and unique trip through the work of an artist described as "truly a singular visionary".

This performance is available to universities and colleges.

An Evening with Ergo Phizmiz: The artist described by The Wire as "Not so much a one man band as a one man movement" presents a one-man show.

Across the course of a whole evening Ergo Phizmiz performs extracts of work created from 2001-2011, including pop songs, live radio-art, chamber opera, improvisation, live film soundtracks, and spoken-word, interspersed with film and installation works.

An immensely colourful journey through acoustic, electronic, and sample-based music, and with the benefit of ten years performance experience across the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Romania, Switzerland, and Poland, Ergo gives a chatty, intimate, Dadaistic cabaret show, completely unlike anything else in the world of performance today.

Fulcanelli's Shoes: Reconsider your histories. We live in an age of holocaust deniers and the Da Vinci Code, the information age has become the age of fabricating the past. Reality has become something malleable, flexible to the needs and whims of whomever happens to be recalling what has already been.

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" is a response of sorts to this cultural phenomenon, by Ergo Phizmiz. Weaving a tale with one foot paddling in truth, and the other firmly embedded in lies, the piece presents a rewritten cultural history of the 20th century, presenting the relationship between the artistic and alchemical worlds at the beginning of the century as the catalyst for the creative, scientific and political revolutions of the proceeding times.

Discover how Jean Cocteau could travel in time; the secrets of the Large Hadron Collider; hear a genuine alchemical transmutation of base metal into gold; find out how anagrams built the universe; learn how to fix anything that is broken .....

Part lecture, part opera, part documentary, this is a uniquely 21st century artwork, bringing together strands of forms into a unified but scattershot form. Collaborating with film-maker Martha Moopette and performer Vulnavia Vanity, Ergo Phizmiz has created a truly experimental piece of anti-art, with the feel of something akin to being kicked in the face with a Ferrero Rocher boot.

"The Mourning Show": Ergo Phizmiz's "punk opera" about demons, magic, and the death of a popular radio DJ was described by Vital Weekly as "an excellent opera, which brought plunderphonics to a new level".

Featuring a stunning central performance from Erik Bumbledonk as Chris Evans, The Mourning Show is by turns hilarious, intense, and completely unforgettable.

***

To book any of these performances or enquire further, contact ergophizmiz at gmail dot com

Fulcanelli's Shoes - World premiere of the new piece by Ergo Phizmiz

2011-01-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

World premiere of the new piece by Ergo Phizmiz
Taking place at Soundart Radio, Dartington, UK
February 5th, 2011

Reconsider your histories. We live in an age of holocaust deniers and the Da Vinci Code, the information age has become the age of fabricating the past. Reality has become something malleable, flexible to the needs and whims of whomever happens to be recalling what has already been.

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" is a response of sorts to this cultural phenomenon, by acclaimed artist, composer and writer Ergo Phizmiz. Weaving a tale with one foot paddling in truth, and the other firmly embedded in lies, the piece presents a rewritten cultural history of the 20th century, presenting the relationship between the artistic and alchemical worlds at the beginning of the century as the catalyst for the creative, scientific and political revolutions of the proceeding times.

Discover how Jean Cocteau could travel in time; the secrets of the Large Hadron Collider; hear a genuine alchemical transmutation of base metal into gold; find out how anagrams built the universe; learn how to fix anything that is broken .....

Part lecture, part opera, part documentary, this is a uniquely 21st century artwork, bringing together strands of forms into a unified but scattershot form. Collaborating with film-maker Martha Moopette and performer Vulnavia Vanity, Ergo Phizmiz has created a truly experimental piece of anti-art, with the feel of something akin to being kicked in the face with a Ferrero Rocher boot.

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" is presented as part of Soundart Radio's FirstSpark Festival, and double-bills with a special, in-studio performance of Ergo Phizmiz's opera about radio, magic, and the death of popular UK DJ Chris Evans "The Mourning Show".

Featuring an unforgettable and masterful central performance from Erik Bumbledonk as Chris Evans, "The Mourning Show" has been described as a punk-opera.

Telling the story of the gradual destruction of Evans on his Radio 2 morning show by three malevolent callers, this performance is an experience you won't easily forget.

As a flummoxed audience member put it at the London premiere in August 2010, "It's not only the big things that can become overwhelming".....

Vital Weekly described it as "an excellent opera, which brought plunderphonics to a new level".

The performance will also contain delicious winter warmer soup, included in the ticket price.

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" is supported by Arts Council England, Soundart Radio, & Care in the Community Recordings

"The Mourning Show" was commissioned by DePlayer (www.deplayer.nl)

If, due to geography, time, space, or what-not, you are unable to get along to the performance, you can tune in to the show live on www.soundartradio.org.uk

Ergo Phizmiz at Bridport Arts Centre

2011-01-21T00:52:00.000-08:00

Ergo Phizmiz is involved with two forthcoming events at Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset, UK.

CARLOS NORONHA-FEIO
featuring a sound-installation by Ergo Phizmiz
"3, 2, 1, 0 - A A And Away - 1, 2...."

Rugs, Video and Installations

The Allsop Gallery

29th January - 12th March

Carlos Noronha Feio is an artists who leaves and weaves the mothership of his own national identity to traverse cities, histories and space.

His work is engaged with the points at which geography and migration meet, where different cultures collide, interfere and impose their own imperatives on each other.

The exhibition features his latest work funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation.

Read an article about the exhibition here.

Chinstrap presents.....

An evening curated by Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette....

Featuring live music, early & new cinema, trash-opera, burlesque, Dada ....

HOWTOSAYTO

Saturday 12th March

8pm

Admissions: 8pm

An evening of contemporary music & early cinema, live soundtracks & radio-art, sound-installations and performance.

Banged together by composer Ergo Phizmiz (The musical man of the moment - The Times) and prize-winning film-maker Martha Moopette you are cordially invited to explore Bridport Arts Centre in the company of inventive, accessibly music and film from local and international artists.

"Howtosayto" promises a night of curiosities and skewiff ideas, live collaborations, mini-operas, and possibly some classics of bad-good pop music from the past, present and future.

New People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - from "The Keystone Cut Ups"

2011-01-21T00:43:00.000-08:00

Barbette

2011-01-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" premiere and "The Mourning Show" special performance at Soundart Radio, February 5th 2011

2011-01-10T02:44:00.001-08:00

We are delighted to announce the premiere performance of the new piece by Ergo Phizmiz "Fulcanelli's Shoes", adventures in the 20th century, badly remembered.

This one-man performance is an account of the relationships between the artistic and alchemical worlds of the early 20th century in Paris, centreing around the semi-mythological character of Fulcanelli, author of "Les Mysteres des Cathedrales", with Le Chat Noir cabaret as the central location.

Combining new music and songs based around early 20th century music and medieval/Renaissance elements, with a documentary-narrative and shadow-puppet / stop-motion films, "Fulcanelli's Shoes" is a Dadaist trip into the heart of the cat.

The performance will double-bill with a special performance of Ergo Phizmiz's opera about radio, magic and the death of UK radio DJ Chris Evans "The Mourning Show", taking place in-situ at the Soundart Radio studio. Starring the amazing Erik Bumbledonk as Chris Evans, this nihilistic "punk opera" was described by Vital Weekly as "an excellent opera, which brought plunderphonics to a new level".

This performance is part of Soundart Radio's FirstSpark Festival, at The Gallery, Dartington, Totnes, UK. Go to Soundart, and tune in to the freshest and most resolutely individualistic radio station in the UK.

The Blibburblabbar

2011-01-04T03:18:00.000-08:00

Ergo Phizmiz 2010 Retrospective

2010-12-16T08:11:00.001-08:00

2010 has been a very busy year indeed in Phizmiz towers, so we thought it an opportune moment for a flashback...

"The Faust Cycle"

The year began with the release on Headphonica of "The Faust Cycle", Ergo's epic 15 hour adventure in sound, released under for free under a Creative Commons license. The album has now been downloaded by in excess of 5,000 listeners, and has been broadcast on stations across the globe. Although generally ignored by the conventional media, the enlightened blogosphere acclaimed the work wholeheartedly, with Continuo describing the piece as "the most ambitious music project conceived in the 21st century and certainly the only one able to change your listening habits." Download "The Faust Cycle" at Headphonica. This was shortly followed by a remix project "The Faust Re.Cycled", also available at Headphonica here.

"The Mourning Show"

The Mourning Show from Tête à Tête on Vimeo.

Ergo Phizmiz's opera about radio, magic, death and UK radio DJ Chris Evans was commissioned by and premiered at De Player in Rotterdam, with further performance in Nijmegen and Brussels. Vital Weekly described it as "an excellent opera which brought plunderphonics to a new level". The show received it's UK premiere in August, at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival.

"Things To Do and Make"

Ergo's pop album was released on Care in the Community Recordings earlier in the year to widespread critical acclaim. Pennyblack Music said "The first major and mainstream Ergo Phizmiz album may be a small independent release, but this album goes to show how major record companies have lost touch completely. It's the kind of listening experience that will force you to shut down your mobile and close your Twitter and Facebook accounts." The album can be bought at the majority of music retailers online and in some shops, whatever they are....

"The Keystone Cut-Ups"

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "Blue Moon" [2010] from Vicki WFMU on Vimeo.

The long running collaboration between Ergo Phizmiz & collagist People Like Us continued in the form of "The Keystone Cut-Ups", an A/V work playing with the relationships between early silent cinema and Surrealist cinema. The piece was commissioned by and premiered at Berwick Film & Media Festival, with further performances scheduled for 2011.

"Music For The Jilted Generation"

Continuing his long line of albums of cover versions of popular classics, the marvellous UpItUp Records released Ergo Phizmiz's retake for acoustic instruments of the entirety of The Prodigy's "Music For The Jilted Generation". This release also came with a handy zip file of all of Ergo's cover versions from 2003-2010, and you can grab it all, free, here.

"Collected Sound Installations"

Surrism-Phonoethics recently released Ergo Phizmiz's Collected Sound Installations from 2001-2010, 4.5 hours of Ergo's most experimental music including "Forest", "The Phantom Organ" and "Music For Squares and Spinning". You can grab that, for free, right here.

Chinstrap - The netlabel from Ergo Phizmiz

Since January Ergo has been running a free, Creative Commons netlabel. Now with 15 published releases, the label has put out work by artists including Oblivian Substanshall, Vulnavia Vanity, Angela Valid, The Travelling Mongoose, and The Superfools, including soundtracks, children's music, musique-concrete, sampling, improvisation, radio-art and songwriting. You can download all releases from the Chinstrap blog, which can also be accessed in one convenient list here.

And more ....

This year Ergo also ..... received a grant to produce a new work called "Fulcanelli's Shoes" which premieres in February 2011; played live shows across the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain; composed additional music for Frankie Boyle's "Tramadol Nights" on Channel 4; re-released remastered versions of archive pieces including "M: 1000 Year Mix" & "Cinemacollages"; a sound-installation for the Depozitory on the Isle of Wight; and received the Special Mention in composed radio for his work "Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me" at the Prix Italia. This year he has been written about in The Guardian, The Times, The Wire, and Mojo magazine, aswell as comprehensive interviews on Tokafi, Popshifter, and Intangible23.

The year ends with a Christmas Eve mix from Ergo Phizmiz on Tom Ravenscroft's BBC 6Music show, which you can find out all about here.

Wishing you all a marvellous end of the year, and a excellent next one....

Website redesign

2010-12-16T08:10:00.001-08:00

The Ergo Phizmiz website at ergophizmiz.net has currently undergone a swanky new redesign... head over and have a peep..

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg

2010-12-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

"Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg" by Ergo Phizmiz
Dedicated to marching students, UK Uncut, and glorious civil disobedience in the face of idiocy

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
I've got a few questions, not pullin' yer leg,
so please give a listen, I really must beg
for a moment of your precious time.

A big surprise what they're doing to our country....

You'd like all the people to sit down in silence
and certainly abstain from abhorrent violence
but how can we sit in contentment to christen
your system, when clearly you're not going to listen

The bankers, the bonuses, bona fide bastards
are supping the champagne, expensively plastered
you speak of recession and endless cutbacks
whilst most of your chummies are dodging their tax

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
I'm not being funny, but do you expect
all the people to sit down and quietly reflect
on the rug being pulled underfoot?

Mrs Clegg, you are sat in your warm, comfy office, ye
got there by mast'ring the fine art of sophistry,
Cameron, can't quite believe that you got your wish,
always presumed you were grown in a petri dish.

What will become of the hope and the glory
the future will tell an abominable story
Deeply I want to say "Better beware"
but the truth is that, surely, you really don't care

Keep the rich even richer
the poor even poorer
And slowly but surely
and surely and surer
the present kills future
the parents eat infants
and all of our culture
devolves into fragments
and eats itself
where is your sense of posterity
look past your pockets and into the futurey

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
A terrible rhyme, I know, but I must beg
that you pull out your earplugs, use your fucking heads
or you'll sink us all into the water
sink us all into the sea - er
we might as well be North Korea

tell all the police stop the fear
our country's become rather queer
that's just about all now my dear
just about all now my dear...

In a green and pleasant land sitting
Watching clouds a running by
Take the heart from the unwitting
Pull the sunshine from the sky

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mr Clegg
Beyond the issue of expense,
have some bloody sense....

Ergo Phizmiz

Public Service Announcement! Techno Service #2

"Music from the Shoes of Fulcanelli" - In Sync

UPSIDEDOWNISMS, by Ergo Phizmiz, on The Verb, BBC Radio 3, 20/01/12

Anything But The Third Policeman - Part One

Ergo Phizmiz in 2012

Ergo Phizmiz was a busy, busy boy in 2011

Four 12" single-press vinyl for sale ..... as limited as they come, grab 'em!

"Treats and Dogs - Collages 2011" by Ergo Phizmiz

Vulnavia Vanity & Ergo Phizmiz "BUFFETINFANTIL" - the night Vulnavia & Ergo locked themselves away with a lot of Vodka....

Ergo Phizmiz Live at the Beach & Barnicott, Bridport

Public Service Announcement! Techno Service (#1) and usage instructions

POPSURGERY - New Ergo Phizmiz cover-versions project coming soon to a crowdfunding platform near you!

Opera to take place inside a cabinet

Ergo Phizmiz Dates - Oct - Dec 2011

New podcast - Hallucination Duets: 1

Ergo's Disco Van Dango

Happy Birthday Beyonce, lots of love from Phizmiz & Killerwhale

Glory Hallelujah!

Playback Play : Three American Composers - Ergo Phizmiz in Warsaw 05/09/11 - 12/09/11

The Third Policeman - Tour Poster & Full Video

Ergo Phizmiz "Lullaby for a Sinking Submarine" out now on Headphonica

New, free EP - Ergo's Disco Van Morrisons

The Third Policeman - First shows and Times review

The Third Policeman Podcasts and News....

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 6 - Fun With Shadows and Shapes

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 5 - Guest Post by Vulnavia Vanity

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Day 4

The Third Policeman rehearsals, Day 3, and Sounds From The Underground Chamber Podcast 2

The Third Policeman Rehearsals, Day Two, and first "Sounds From the Underground Chamber" podcast

The Third Policeman Rehearsals Begin!

New Ergo Phizmiz EP: Ergo's Disko Van Dysko

"Disappearing Boxes" wins Horspiel des Monats, Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Kunste

The Third Policeman - Tour Dates (new dates added)

New, free EP - Ergo's Disco Van Too

New, free Ergo Phizmiz EP: "Ergo's Disco Van"

Ergo Phizmiz "Music For Accountants: Volume 1"

Playback / Play Festival - Warsaw, September 2011

Disappearing Boxes : Credits

ANNA BOOM

"The Third Policeman" - Booking for the premiere at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival now open!

"The Third Policeman" - A Neur-Opera by Ergo Phizmiz - Trailer

Coming soon on Bad Panda Records: ANNA BOOM

Abba. Starring Oblivian Substanshall, Ergo Phizmiz & Martha Moopette

New Oblivian Substanshall album produced by Ergo Phizmiz

Ergo is a busy boy....with or without a moustache....

"The Third Policeman" by Ergo Phizmiz - Tour Dates

Ergo Phizmiz's "The Third Policeman" - Instrumentals and Remixes at 100 Myles: The International Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference

STATICOPERA - An exhibition by Ergo Phizmiz

Disappearing Boxes, on Studio Akustische Kunst, WDR3, Germany

The Third Policeman - Instrumental Montage

The Third Policeman

Fulcanelli's Music - In-Sync

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "The Keystone Cut Ups" Live at Flatpack Festival

Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me - Repeated this Saturday on BBC Radio 3

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" and "Music From The Shoes of Fulcanelli" out now on Headphonica

The Posthuman Dadamix

A Pained Erik Bumbledonk begs for your support for "The Third Policeman"

Howtosayto

Ergo Phizmiz "The Third Policeman" Opera seeking support through Crowdfunder

Twelve Films, One Piece of Music

The just about exhaustive, possibly with omissions, collected sound-works list of Ergo Phizmiz, 2000-2011....

Live Dates, March-April 2011

Howtosayto @ Bridport Arts Centre

Ergo Phizmiz Live at Whitechapel Gallery, November 2010 - Short video clip

Fulcanelli's Shoes - Trailer

Livin' On a Prayer

Ergo Phizmiz Live in 2011 - Awaiting Bookings

Fulcanelli's Shoes - World premiere of the new piece by Ergo Phizmiz

Ergo Phizmiz at Bridport Arts Centre

CARLOS NORONHA-FEIOfeaturing a sound-installation by Ergo Phizmiz"3, 2, 1, 0 - A A And Away - 1, 2...."

The Allsop Gallery

29th January - 12th March

Saturday 12th March

8pm

Admissions: 8pm

New People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - from "The Keystone Cut Ups"

Barbette

"Fulcanelli's Shoes" premiere and "The Mourning Show" special performance at Soundart Radio, February 5th 2011

The Blibburblabbar

CARLOS NORONHA-FEIO
featuring a sound-installation by Ergo Phizmiz
"3, 2, 1, 0 - A A And Away - 1, 2...."