Live at the controls of the Lotus Toolbox, 14 June 2013

I’m excited to be playing a live ambient set in Baltimore on Friday, 14 June 2013. It’s part of a two-day series of concerts curated by the Baltimore SDIY group, called the Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concerts, on 14 & 15 June 2013 at Club K.

The line-ups for each day are available here:

Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concert One [14 June 2013]
Baltimore Electronic Music 2013 Summerfest Concert Two [15 June 2013]

Club K is on 2101 Maryland Avenue Baltimore MD 21210, physically located at 2101 W. 21st Street, Baltimore MD 21210, two doors from the corner of Maryland Avenue & W. 21st Street. Admission is $5 per person per concert.

I’m in the line-up from 9:30-10:00 on Friday, but the events run from 8-11 each night, with an array of electronic musicians ranging from the experimental to the beatworthy. The SDIY group does a great job of mashing a lot of genres together in these events, so you’re almost certain to find something that stokes the fires.

I’ll be playing sort of cascading shambling digital slow music with electronics using the lotus toolbox, a stripped-down live rig I’ve been refining with the intention of getting my gear simplified to the point that I can fit all I need across the seat of a motorcycle.

C’mon down and see me!

a new blessing and upcoming notions

 

Performed my fifteenth psychotronic blessout of the holy rollers and their grimy feet at the American Visionary Art Museum‘s 15th annual Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore last weekend and it was a blast. This is my best video yet, thanks to Will Wall‘s steady camera work, though with increased resolution comes a realization that I could stand to take an iron to my habit. I did double duty this year, being recruited to do announcements and color commentary at the water entry in the race, and it was a thoroughly fun and fantastically action-packed day, as usual.

A few old and new projects are in the works, and I’m gradually getting my old stale web presence dusted off for the year. I’ve written a script for a one act play, “Overdue,” based on a particularly aggravating phone conversation with a bill collector back in hairier days, I’m continuing to work on a new edition of my one man show, My Fairy Godmothers Smoke Too Much, with the intention of doing a little touring version sometime in the next year or so (drop me a line if you have a venue, please!). It’s expanded to the original script length, with new music and sound and the same old staging (me and a microphone). Will be posting some teasers as the completed version gets closer.

In the process of consolidating fifteen years of various web presences, I’m going to revive my stalled ambient music podcast, 12 Minute Travelogues, in order to get it back online and to finally air the final two episodes. It’s a nice, pastoral thing, consisting of twelve twelve-minute ambient experiments created between 2008 and 2013, so watch this page for an announcement of its reappearance. In a similar vein, I’m working on a new podcast of generative music pieces, to be described in more detail very soon.

The hum drift at Pyramid Atlantic.

I had the great pleasure to perform a short ambient set at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring, Maryland as a part of the Sonic Circuits Broken Mic Night for July 30th, 2012. I’d just come in from a long road trip, got home in time for the derecho storms that knocked out power and generally tore up the area, and made my way south the very next day, which was no mean feat, given that every traffic light in the county was out and lines at the gas stations that still had power were up to an hour long. There was a full house, the audience were cool and properly into experimental sound, and I had a great time.

I was a bit tense, though, and there was a hum in my gear I couldn’t quite shake, so I went with it. Essence of the moment.

See an annotated photo of the rig I used here.

Spinning more strands.

As the internet grows ever more complicated, I’m moving sideways to better connect with people who wish to follow what I’m up to at any given moment. I’m gearing up to add a lot of new content to this page, and related online sources, finishing up 12 Minute Travelogues #11, and working on a piece I’m planning to submit to the New York Times. In the meantime, I’ve added some new venues to my repertoire, including the following.

My interim outlet for ongoing writing projects and better pieces from the past:
bluestarlounge.blogspot.com

My “fan” page at facebook:
facebook.com/joebelknapwall

And last, and least, my twitter feed:
twitter.com/joebelknapwall

As usual, thanks for following along and giving me the space to work.

Love and kisses, Joe!

Dredging up past projects

I’ve been reminded, in a bout of sudden and unexpected attention (thanks, y’all!), that I’ve had a few projects on the back burner for so long that they’ve fallen behind the stove altogether, and are now adrift in the dark realm of crumb-covered kitchen dust bunnies, lost bottle caps, and the nylon chew bone my previous dog lost under there a decade ago.

There’s the mosaic project at AVAM, for one thing. It’s odd how quickly you can forget a giant art project you worked on for a solid year, on a diesel high lift in the Baltimore skyline in blazing summer heat and the wicked, biting winter wind that blows in from the bay without a pause.

George Washington was a very small animal

I was just interviewing this dog for the 4th of July, and the very, very nice guy who does panoramablog took some neat pictures with this cool camera that’s like a little whirling ball on a stick. If you pan around (ignore the dork in overalls), you can get a nice view of the north face of the mosaic wall. Each of those panels is 32 x 50 inches, weighs about 90 pounds, and rode around the city strapped onto the roof of my Metro before coming back to be bolted in place from the wiggly platform of a lift. I think it’s pretty neat, but I’m hardly an impartial observer.

Working at AVAM, particularly on the Mosaic Project Phase II,  a huge community art project designed by the artist/educator Mari Gardner, built by kids in drug treatment, homeless shelters, and juvenile justice programs, and engineered by yours truly, was just hard to describe—emotional, frustrating, complicated, joyous…just lots of things at once. It’s always great to go back and see my work there (in the last crunch to get stuff built, I got to do some design elements, too, and the inclusion of the constellation Ursa Major was my own little intrusion) when I do my street theater gigs there.

Another go-round at the Hexagon.

Joe at the BEM Summerfest 2010

Had another great gig as part of the Baltimore Electronic Music Summerfest 2010, an annual 13 hour festival of electronic, DIY, and unclassifiable music at the Hexagon. Great company, great music, and lots of fun. Yes, I am dressed as a nun. When your particular musical style involves long stretches of near-motionless attention to a small black box full of gear, you need a hook, don’t you think? To hear the set, click the arrow on the player above.

To set the landscape buzzing

It’s a little late this year, but I’ve got all the bees settling nicely into their hives. Once they’re really working, there’s nothing quite like the kind of calm you get, just sitting there, on a lawn chair in front of your beehive, just watching them coming and going, bringing nectar in, sending foragers out, a whole world of perfectly-choreographed activity laid plain.