Ollie Bown

I recently started recording with the bass clarinetist Brigid Burke, which was a huge amount of fun. Here’s a very rough mix of a take. I’m sure an edit of this or one of the other cuts will end up on an album:

http://www.olliebown.com/files/music/ollie_brigid_breaks_take_1_very_rough_mix.mp3

An early draft capture from a sonic ecosystem experiment. I had moved on to using granular synthesis, but am conisidering returning to this simpler version:

Sonic Ecosystem 1.100.2

Schneefall from Brittski on Vimeo.

An experimental video by Brittski with live generative sound by myself. Hoping to find time to develop this work over the summer.

If I had to choose my one major achievement during my first year in Melbourne, it would have to be the compilation of this map of great places to eat, which took many evenings of painstaking effort to produce…

View Good grub in Melbourne in a larger map

Beads Live example from Oliver Bown on Vimeo.

The following Icarus gigs have been confirmed for over the summer in Europe…

July 2nd - Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands

July 4th - L’an Vert, Liege, Belgium

July 11th - Wattfest, Devon, UK

July 20th - Norberg Festival, Norberg, Sweden

August 8th - Karl Marx Allee 36, Berlin, Germany

August 9th - Golden Pudel Club, Hamburg, Germany

August 13th - Cafe Oto, London, UK

September 11th - Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, Denmark

September 12th - Musikcafeen, Aarhus, Denmark

… and a few more might be sorted out asap. I’ll also be playing with Alice Eldridge in London and in Brighton, dates tbc. I’m organising a workshop on autonomous improvisation software, for the beginning of August, with a concert on August 6th at Cafe Oto. My sonic ecosystem artwork will be on at Shunt (tbc), the International Computer Music Conference in Montreal, and Cube 37 in Frankston, Australia. Hopefully I’ll also be putting Driftnet on again in Norway too.

We’ve been hacking away at Beads, which recently got its first mention on the Processing site. A new version will be up soon.

Now available on Boomkat: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=181316.

More info including audio snippets here: http://www.rump.nu/sylt_remixes.html.

Is this a joke? It made me laugh so much.

I was really interested to read in a PRS mailout about the ongoing conflict between PRS and Google. PRS think that Google should pay them some royalty money for their artists because they are broadcasting all of this great music content for free. Part of me thinks that PRS have a point — you’re trying to make a living from music, but people aren’t buying it, because they can get it for free. And sure, if Google are reaping a great profit then they should share it with their content creators. But then you can see the issues with this principle applied as generally as possible — some video of a man falling on his ass trying to fix his roof could then surely be classed as an artistic creation and gross millions. Hmm, maybe this is the business model of the future, we’ll see.

But here comes the crunch. Have you ever heard of Rickrolling? It’s when you send someone a link to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” as a trick. They click on the link, thinking it’s some important news item or a wiki on Java programming or something, and Rick’s irritating synth pop anthem starts blaring out of your speakers, to everyone’s shock and amusement. For this reason, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found the following comment on a website supporting PRS’s efforts. The comment is by Peter Waterman, co-writer of Rick’s hit. Does this make you wonder whether PRS have a point after all?….

“I co-wrote ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, which Rick Astley performed in the eighties, and which must have been played more than 100 million times on YouTube - owner Google. My PRS for Music income in the year ended September 2008 was £11.

“Music videos and music generally is at the very heart of User Generated Content sites. It is the hard work and creative endeavour of songwriters and musicians everywhere that has been the bedrock upon which many of these websites have been built, creating along the way huge value for their owners. As well as arguing with them over royalty rates, we should be fighting them to get proper recognition for the part we’ve played in building their businesses.”

Can you imagine if Peter got 100 million small royalty payouts as a reward for writing the world’s most annoying pop-tune? Was this really written by Peter Waterman or is it a hoax?

I’m performing again at the Make It Up Club at Bar Open in Brunswick Street on Tuesday March 24th with the multitalented clarinetist Brigid Burke. Today, the Make It Up Club, tomorrow, the world (or the Make It Up Club again)!!!!