Realtime, generative Audio Visual performance presented in the MAC’s best kept secret – a gem of 1960s architecture – the HEXAGON theatre, originally the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre

SCREE are DJ Sir Real from the House of God and VJ Catweasel who does visuals for artists like Stevie Wonder. Modulate are an AV collective who grew out of electronic ambient pioneers Higher Intelligence Agency. FREECODE are an AV collective of tweakers featuring:

• Chromatouch
• Minuek
• Laternist
• Hellocatfood

Happening on Friday 19 August. Head to Facebook for info. Brown Paper Tickets for even more info and tickets.

Incidentally, more info on the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre here.

SOUNDkitchen launches with an Opening Banquet tomorrow (17 February), at the Hare & Hounds, as the first in a series of monthly events bringing new and experimental sounds to Birmingham.

The night will bring together emerging Birmingham based composers with established organisations Modulate and Mama Feel Good! along with guest performers from Bristol, Leicester and London. Their aim is to provide professional development with an open environment for sound artists to experiment, collaborate and build networks.

Thursday’s set menu looks to be a tasty affair, with all of this to look forward to;

…incidental DJing from Two Left Ears; a theremin and wii mote performance from Eric Bumstead; live laptop performance by Norah Lorway; Audio-visuals from Martin Clarke (oem records); soundscapes from Simon Whetham; Experimental audio trio performance from Modulate; and an afrobeat and electronica DJ set from Bobbaliní Hot (Mama Feel Good!)

SOUNDkitchen will be serving from 8pm-1am, at £6 entry. For more info and the full menu, visit the SOUNDkitchen website.

Lago de Mamori: An Aural Environment by Annie Mahtani is described thusly:

Following her recent participation in the Mamori Sound Project (directed by Francisco Lopez), Annie will present field recordings from the Brazilian Amazon in the form of a 16-channel sound installation. She will also speak about her experience in residence at Mamori Art Lab and engage the audience in an open discussion around the recordings and possibilities for future development of this work-in-progress.

This is part of Modulate‘s Sonic Culture Salons and will be at The Gallery in the Custard Factory on Saturday 9 January from 1-5pm. The work lasts an hour, so turn up on the hour to hear the whole thing through. Entry’s free.

Also, it’s nice to see that Annie Mahtani has jumped on Soundcloud where she’s putting full, high-quality versions of her work.

Even more impressively, there’ll be a performance by Oli Sorenson, aka VJ Anyone. This guy’s one of the world’s best and doesn’t play such intimate venues very often – he’s usually working at the behest of top name dance acts and fancy brands.

As well as all that they’ll have all sorts of fun cleverness in the form of the Tagtool, Wiiwhorld, and 10-player Bomberman.

More info on Chromatouch’s website and the Facebook event.

STRAX has a show on Rhubarb Radio on Wednesdays, 5-7pm. You can listen back to the past few via the handy ‘listen again’ feature.

In May 2008 Damian re visited us in Birmingham and we took the opportunity to talk to him about his experience of being here, and how the residency had impacted on his creative path since then. We also collaborated on a piece of work, something we hadn’t done much during his residency.

These conversations are in the form of three videos:

Frank Bretscheider, musician, composer, video artist and co-founder of the Geman based Raster-Norton label… will give a performance at Modulate.

As with many things of this ilk, most of the reviews and descriptions I’ve found are purposefully obtuse.  However, you get some idea of what this audio/visual performance will consist of when you read that Frank has:

a strong interest in the possibilities of an exchange between visual art and music by various means such as computer graphics, video or graphic composition

It could certainly be an interesting way to spend a Saturday night and make a good counterpoint to the Flyover Show earlier in the day.