some gigs and some stuff in the new year

a quick update. hello. thanks for checking in. if you are reading this. thanks. that’s nice of you. i don’t prepare for these blogs i just free write them when i think i have enough time to write one.

since august phd things have been happening but mostly not happening for various reasons. its difficult (no surprises) i’ll talk in depth about it at some point in the future. the thumbnail is an nice out of context image for now, but the the project is about being a composer-in-residence with stan’s cafe, a theatre company based in birmingham, however i’m not allowed to make any music for their productions so have to find alternative things to do…

like this!

https://soundcloud.com/jmci/stans-cafe-not-cafe?si=8ccf983677314e9a93df1be44e37f73f&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

been playing gigs! had a big one at nonclassical, and have another one coming up with tanna chamberlain on 8th feb. come it will be nice.

yes gigs. november was full of them. played with benedict taylor, stephen crowe and linda kemp in nottingham, performed a lecture on improvisation as my improvised set for a gig in birmingham.

and just last week i performed a support set for my friend poor northern (paul norman) who asked me to do my soundcloud stuff but live. which isn’t something i do. but i did it. and now i want to make more things. I saw the fargions (francesca and giacamo) perform some songs and they were very satisfying to listen. paul makes songs and i guess the soundcloud stuff (its under sounds on the website) is kinda song ish? or has that potiential. and i think this sort of work might be more suitable for my phd. so who knows. its definitely easier to make than the more experimental theatre work. but i do really love performing those. I’ll strike a balance i think. at some point.

yes other big thing is curating gigs again with amok. I’m working now at artefact, an artist cafe/bar cooperative in stirchley. a wonderful place to be, very open to ideas. to help get people in i thought it would be nice to have a more chill version of amok happen there regularly. so that takes up a lot of time. but i love it. posters and such. just very bad at the whole physically promoting them. curation and producing of them is grand though.

we have a nice community that support the things happening at artefact so here’s hoping it continues to thrive. always looking for more people to put on gigs there so reach out if that is you!

hopefully embarking on another residency with maya to work on some flxnflx stuff before the next amok on the 18th feb… should be grand.

oh i started meditating. would highly recommend it to anyone. its not an instant fix but i’m feeling its benefits gradually. i also have a video game addiction. good lord.

yes that’s a general sense of things so far. just struggling with phd jargon and making making things work as a way of conducting research.

my headphones broke and that is pretty tragic tbh. keep on keeping on.