this occasional society november newsletter
hello friends! hoping that this newsletter finds you well - it’s been tough for a lot of folx recently - if you’re finding things hard, I am sending love. Be gentle on yourself and others and focus on staying safe.
On a completely different subject - if I’ve somehow missed that you subscribed to the newsletter and you haven’t had an email back from me with EP download code, please message me and accept my apologies. It’s an entirely manual system and, like me, it’s far from perfect.
this occasional society update
By the time you read this, the next t.o.s release ‘leaves’ will be up on Bandcamp. It’s free / Pay what you want. .
t.o.s. has also dipped it’s toe into the world of merch - albeit UK only for now (Soz - fuller explanation on the page).
If you didn’t read about my duetting with a houseplant, you can enjoy that here alongside all the other weekly blog shenanigans.
Very looking forward to Synth East next February - maybe see you there?
this month’s unvarnished, work in progress ‘music sketch’ for you to download if you want is here.
the next newsletter will be with you 12.12. as ever, if you want anything included in the ‘updates from friends of the society’ section, just let us know. it’s good to talk.
updates from friends of the society
Two releases from Norwegian experimental ambient artist Kristoffer Lislegaard - solo album Subsupra came out on 6.10 (it’s also on Mirlo) then on 22.11 there’s an album with Øy, a very interesting project where they use tap dance to trigger and effect electronics instruments.
Gribbles has just released the wonderfully titled ‘githerments’ collection which we’re looking forward to diving into.
Wirral based producer Lo Five has a new album, ‘Aspirant’, coming out 29.11 on Waxing Crescent - quite apart from how great you know it’s going to sound, having seen photos of the design, it looks beautiful!
Fancy a bit of something that sounds like a lost track off an early Warp comp? Xylander has released another couple of tracks (Luci's house / Sixes all the way down) recently. Fab as ever.
Sad to hear of the imminent wrapping up of RadioFreeFedi - an astonishing, multi-channel, attribution focused net radio station highlighting tons of great artists who would struggle to make it onto more mainstream radio. As it was all pretty much maintained by one person, they deserve a well earned rest and our thanks but hopefully the community that grew up round it will continue.
On a happier note, a great new release from Roberta Fidora - Information Array - comes with a great video as well.
a.o.b. - things that have replenished our creative wellspring recently
The Kayla Painter / Sulk Rooms gig in Portsmouth last month was amazing. Both highly recommended if you get the chance.
Likewise electronic festival / conference / trade show Machina Bristonica was a brilliant chance to get hands on with a bunch of gear, hear some great talks and watch some fantastic acts (great sets from Paddy Steer, Loula Yorke & Hinako Omori in particular). It’s firmly in the diary for next year. Also fab to meet WHI Recordings in person and share a coffee and a chat.
In the process of trying to understand how to do ‘merch’ + VAT + navigate EU postage & VAT via Bandcamp, I came across this really useful article by avowedly DIY musician Penfriend / She Makes War / Laura Kidd about shipping merch overseas from the UK. A very useful, well laid out read (although in the end, I abandoned the idea of overseas shipping).
If the cover to the new Roberta Fidora release is giving you the warm fuzzies then you may enjoy having the latest news delivered via Ceefax. It may well have been RF who brought this to my attention actually. Let’s assume it was - cheers Roberta.
Finally, did you know that across the world there are about 3 million lightning flashes a day?! This website provides a real-time map of lightning across the world complete with a little audio click for each strike. Somehow, this going to make it’s way into a future t.o.s. release.