The day job involves working at Goldsmiths – and one of the nicer things about this is I get to see awesome things for free from time to time.
Today I dropped in at a performance / installation by David Somló entitled ‘I am here’ – part of Goldsmiths’ Pure Gold festival run by the legendary Music department.
Running from 10am to 6pm, he uses cassettes, electric guitar and various items. A triangle hangs from a tree for example – and curiously what looked like a LOMO camera and some bananas. The guitar is one the ground, played with a bow or drumsticks. He might place a speaker at the end of a long plastic tube and steer it around to channel the sound towards the listener – or towards the wall or ceiling – interacting with the physical space and the acoustics. The crash barrier makes a useful percussion item.
The location itself is a curious part of Goldsmiths campus, off the beaten track behind a sign saying ‘Danger demolition in progress’. It’s a good location – a large covered space open to the elements. Dry (tho’ it’s a hot day and no rain yet) and a rare mix of concrete walls and ceiling – yet open at three sides and trees to hang items on.
The cassette players were old-style mono ones and a Sony walkman plugged into little blue pod speaker things. I did spy a C120 label on one of the cassette boxes – that’s a risky choice!
The ten minutes or so I was there I enjoyed tremendously (sadly had to get back to work). The music itself was right up my street – I was taken back to some of the things we used to do in our SOFA club back in the day – but it was also a visual performance treat. Great stuff.
For more: davidsomlo.bandcamp.com