This is a short clip (actually it’s Part 6 of 8) from a live performance of Harmonic Coaction by myself and Cosey Fanni Tutti at the Avatarium Festival in St Etienne, France on 16th April 2011.
The visuals and some of the sounds you hear are edited and manipulated from field recordings and photos made at the location of the performance prior to the concert.
Throughout 2011 myself and Cosey Fanni Tutti will be performing together as Carter Tutti and Chris & Cosey and also collaborating with other artists and musicians. This page will be updated in the coming weeks with info regarding dates and locations of these performances. . See above... __________________________________________________ CARTER TUTTI - 'HARMONIC COACTION' Avatarium 12 Festival, St Etienne, France - 16th APRIL FESTIVAL LINK
CARTER TUTTI & YANN MARUSSICH - 'CRÉATION' Electron Festival, Geneva, Switzerland - 21st/22nd/23rd APRIL FESTIVAL LINK
CARTER TUTTI & NIK VOID Mute at Short Circuit, Roundhouse, London - 13th MAY FESTIVAL LINK
CARTER TUTTI PLAY CHRIS & COSEY Wave Gothic Festival, Leipzig, Germany - 13th June Festival LINK - ticket link soon...
CARTER TUTTI PLAY CHRIS & COSEY Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland - 25th June Tramway LINK
CARTER TUTTI PLAY CHRIS & COSEY MIMI Festival, Marsaille, France - 7th July Festival LINK - and HERE
To start the New Year off we have compiled a 90 minute ‘mix tape’ for The Quietus from some of our favourite tracks. You can listen to it on Mixcloud for free right now... right here > The Quietus Mix 008: Chris & Cosey
Myself and Cosey Fanni Tutti will be performing a version of our new live audio/visual improvisational piece ‘Harmonic Coaction’ at the Acusmatiq festival in Ancona, Italy on the 31st July.
'Harmonic Coaction - Part Two' A live audio assimilation of person place and time. 'Harmonic Coaction' is a series of sound works constructed from audio field recordings relating to the performance site. The work is created live in situ using those recordings as key components, deconstructing and manipulating the sounds in juxtaposition and harmony. The accompanying visuals consist of images inspired by the site to create an audio visual continuum.
Some shots from the trip are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_carter_/4863343486/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_carter_/4862721407/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/coseyfannitutti/4853056618/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/coseyfannitutti/4853069554/
Me and Cosey have been rushed off our feet for the last few months - remixes, my Dirty-Carter project, Cosey Complex, numerous exhibitions, Cosey’s Tate Modern solo performance and our up-coming audio/art performance in Brescia, where Cosey is also exhibiting new works and doing an ‘in conversation’ in Faenza. More details on the CARTER TUTTI site
When we return to the UK next week we are taking a few days off before completing some other outstanding projects, which includes remastering some of our early Chris & Cosey back catalogue for vinyl reissue later this year.
I've uploaded a selection of my photos from the recent Cosey Complex / Cosey Club events at the ICA to my Flikr pages. More shots (and video of the afternoon event) were taken by the ICA, if/when I can I'll post a link to them here.
Myself and Cosey (Fanni Tutti) will be participating on one of the discussions panels at Parallel Voices 2010 - MISSING LINK on 18th March at the Siobhan Davies Studios in London. Also taking part will be: Blixa Bargeld, Carsten Nicolai and Ben Borthwick.
There we were: me and Cosey sitting quietly waiting for the London bound train to depart on our way to Cosey's lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy in London. Hang on a minute... there seems to be a lot of police in the station for a Monday morning, usually there are none. Oh they've got sniffer dogs too, and here come some more police in flak jackets with sub-machine guns, and those guys at the end of the carriage must be spooks or plain clothed cops - well they're definitely not civilians, civilians don't usually wear those single earpieces. And that woman coming down the aisle wearing a dark suite and a humorless expression has a pistol peeking out from under her jacket. OK, so the carriage we're sitting in at the front of the train - the 10.55 from King's Lynn - is basically swarming with constabulary, uniformed or otherwise, who are giving everyone the once over.
It wasn't ‘that’ unusual to see activity around our little train station. Living in this part of Norfolk we've got used to seeing the odd dignitary, or celeb. I would think it's much the same in many English rural towns with picturesque views, castles and quaint tea rooms. We get a a couple of movies and a few TV shows shot around here each year and it’s not unusual for the odd actor and politician dropping by. I even saw Al Pacino once, sauntering around the market - surrounded by 'minders'. And of course everyone around here has seen Stephen Fry shopping in town at some time or another, he's a local. I know it’s probably hard to believe - and I’m not blowing our own trumpets here (well not much) - but me and Cosey even get recognised and stopped for autographs in town at least a couple of times a year: see... I told you it was hard to believe? But I suppose our inconspicuous market town's biggest claim to fame must be our famous neighbour: HM Queen Elizabeth II, whose winter residence Sandringham is a couple of miles up the coast road.
So we're waiting on the train putting two & two together and thinking it will probably be Prince Philip (HMQ's hubby) going down to London again, we've seen him plenty of times... so no big deal. Or maybe it's some terrorist related exercise or other, who knows? But the train is ready to go and we're all just sat there waiting with restless flatfoots in abundance, when this petite, white haired figure in blue, wearing a silk headscarf bobs past our window and ducks into the (only and empty) 1st Class compartment in our carriage. The passengers (well those who saw her) do a double-take and the penny drops and everyone is like "oh... right, that's what all the dogs and bodies and hardware were for". The scenario was vaguely surreal to say the least.. we were to be accompanied on our journey by the Queen of England and her Royal entourage.
Once we'd set off, well we'd set off... that was that. It seemed mildly inconvenient with all the plods everywhere: eyeballing, taking up seats and wandering up and down and generally lounging to attention outside the 1st Class compartment - although unfortunately I saw no marching and saluting, is that inappropriate on a train? Maybe... anyway a few people joked that we'd bound to be on-time (ha ha!) and that the driver seemed to be driving the train a bit smoother than usual (is that even possible?), then - as you do on a 90 minute journey - we checked our emails and went on Twitter and of course we did a few Tweets about HMQ - as you would - and thought little more about it really. Although... it was fun ‘gun spotting' the plain clothed cops who went up and down the aisle. "he doesn't have one, she has a big one, he has a small one, that guy looks like he has two".
About 30 miles down the line we stopped at Ely station and a family of Americans got on board - we have a lot of 'US cousins' in this part of England, because of all the US air bases around here in East Anglia, so it was not an entirely unexpected addition. They sat next to me and Cosey - actually they sat down on either side of us - and were all gushy and full of "OMG! we just saw the Queen of Enger-land in the front compartment" and "it can't be the Queen of Enger-land, what's she doing on the 10.55 from King's Lynn?" Good question. Then the conversation went along the lines of: "why doesn't she go by State limo? why doesn't she fly to London - surely she has her own jet, like Air Force 1? or in her own helicopter, or her own train, surely her own train carriage?” All perfectly reasonable questions but we only knew the answer to one: she used to have her own train but stopped using it long ago due to 'Royal cost-cutting', or something, but don't quote me on that it could just be an urban myth. But their best quote had to be: "I've lived my whole life and never seen a US President in the States, I come to the UK and The Queen of Enger-land is on the first train I get... wait till I tell the folks back home". Cosey pointed out that as Britain is much smaller than the USA the the odds of bumping into Royalty were much higher here, which kind of went over their heads. But they did seem quite concerned that our dear old HMQ was traveling by public transport. So we told them not to worry as she was on a train full of highly trained armed guards and sniffer dogs to look out for her. But the 'sniffer dogs' comment got them worried about 'terrorist threats' and that maybe the train would be a ‘terrorist target’. So we let them worry and went back to our emails and Tweets. Until... they decided this was a Kodak moment, a photo opportunity not to be missed. Out came the cameras, flashes popping and, as we were only 5 or 6 rows from Her, not very discreet. Of course we got a visit from a stern plain clothed plod, who takes the two adults to one side for a wrist slapping and a dressing-down, and we overhear 'disrespect' and 'privacy' bandied about. All very funny - well it was for us at least.
As predicted by the wags at the beginning of the journey we did actually arrive on time at Kings Cross, and came to an unusually gentle halt, definitely none of the usual lurching and stalling. But once we'd disembarked we were all held on the platform by a line of police while HMQ - now looking all spick and span and sans head scarf - toddled off to a waiting limo outside the station.
There is no point to this story - well it's not even a story, more an anecdote - I'm just relaying what happened on one of the slightly more interesting trips we regularly take to London. But to bring this tale to an end... the next day The London Evening Standard decided to run a quarter page piece on our trip with HMQ: 'Her Majesty's close encounter with industrial anarchy' (LINK). They mention the Tweets (word for word) and lie about attempting to contact me and say “how tame they look nowadays”. WTF? They also refer to me as a "rocker & DJ" - which is very funny because anyone who knows me would agree that the "rocker" tag is about as inaccurate a description of me as you could make. But I'm still trying to figure out though why they decided to use an ancient photo of Genesis in a piece about me and the Queen. Unless it's some ironic reference to another old queen! (no offense meant Gen...)
As I’ve said before, 2009 was extremely busy for us and to be honest we probably took on too much work and too many projects and we have to learn how to say "NO" more often, and mean it. Of course the bills still have to be paid and it may seem odd to be talking about turning work down but ultimately our health comes first, well Cosey's more specifically, particularly with her heart condition, which isn't any worse but is definitely aggravated by stress and overworking.
Bloody hell, it's been two months since I posted anything on here. So I think my apologies are the order of the day... for being so outrageously lax. But to say I've been busy would be an understatement, of the greatest degree. There have been various ongoing (and unfinished) Carter Tutti projects, filming and remixes - assisting Cosey in her many solo endeavors and of course the ever present enterprises of TG. Of which the release of our new little musical box 'Gristleism' has been the most time consuming. But I'm not going to go on at any length, yet... as I'm in the process of designing and building a new website to replace this one you are on right now and I'll be updating my blog in the process. Check back here sometime in January 2010.
I can't remember the last time Cosey and I were this busy, probably during our early to mid Nineties period. But then it was recording, performing and working on projects almost exclusively related to Chris & Cosey. And although we've always had Cosey's solo Art career running in parallel with what the two of us work on together it's since 2002 that we've had to factor in ever increasing amounts of Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records related work and projects. But during the last 12 months TG & IR has at times almost taken over our lives (well mine & Cosey's at least) and has impacted our own solo and CarterTutti projects pretty drastically. Even if you haven't read the TG book 'The Wreckers of Civilization' you may know that the core of TG/IR (the TG four) has always been run as a democratic co-oprative cottage industry. In as much that everything we do is decided by a majority vote, all our income is shared equally and we try keep as much as possible of what we do and how we do it 'in-house' - or 'in the family'. No matter what it may appear like to outsiders the realm of TG/IR is not a dictatorship, and it never has been. In the early days: the 1970s' & 80s', that literally meant everything, well except physically pressing records. We even ran our own cassette duplication facility, churning out thousands of cassettes and covers from a converted kitchen in Hackney. I used to rent or borrow vans and Genesis and me would deliver vinyl, cassettes, t-shirts and merch in person all over London. This was apart from all the equipment building, recording, editing, mastering, filming, videoing, performing and self-promotion we did. And for most of that period we all had regular day-jobs too.
So here we are in 2009... and there are obviously still aspects and areas within TG & IR that we individually excel at or specialise in, or are sometimes co-opted into out of necessity. But it seems a lot of what we do nowadays, to keep TG running smoothly (or at all) falls on the shoulders of Cosey and me. And if we didn't 'step up to the plate' as often as we do (which is pretty much all the time) I honestly think TG would fade out of existence and cease to exist as a living, working collective.
I've recently deleted all my photos from this site and moved most of them onto my Flikr pages. I have had a Flikr site for a year or so and any photos (or videos) I wish to share have lately been posted straight onto it, and viewers can leave comments (unlike here), so it didn't make sense having my photos spread across two sites any longer. I still haven't moved some of the travel, international and architectural images, but I will as soon as I get the time. You don't need a Flikr account to view my photos but without a Flickr account you cannot leave comments, send me messages or access my fetish & bondage photo sets (link), which are tagged as 'restricted' by Flikr. Also if you wish to view my 'restricted' images and you have a Flikr account you may need to reset your preferences. My 'restricted' images are also not accessible if you are located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany or Korea: sorry, It's not my fault, that's just how Flikr works.
I can tell from my Flikr stats figures that a lot of people are viewing my photos (another good reason for moving my images from here), this includes the 'restricted' fetish & bondage sets, which is only to be expected I guess but PLEASE do not berate me for using Flikr as I'm happy using it (and I don't care what you experience is with it) and don't ask me to host my' images ('restricted or otherwise) on another 'photo sharing' site (way too much hard work) or to send copies to you by email as I don't (or will ever) have the time.
I've posted some photos (and a video clip) from Cosey's recent COH plays COSEY performance at the Brussels Electronic Music Festival on my Flikr pages. Follow this link to view them: FLIKR
I've posted some photos on my Flikr pages from our recent trips to (and Cosey's subsequent 'talks' at) the Frieze Art Fair and the Liverpool Bienniale. I've been a longtime Nikon SLR owner, actually when I think about it I was (occasionally) using Cosey's Nikon F back in 1974 and later her FE, until I got my own FE2 in the early eighties, followed by an F301 and various lenses I've collected over the years. I continued to use my F301 until a couple of years ago, when I bought a digital Sony DSC-F828. The F828 was OK (ish), it handled well and had a good lens and even infra-red capability but had some annoying 'quirks' as far as image handling and image quality goes. And it definitely was not DSLR. I almost got digital Nikon a few of years ago (a D70) but I wasn't totally convinced by the picture quality/features/price ratio, well not enough to splash out more than a £1000 or so. Anyway what with one thing and another (coincidently a PRS cheque arriving the same week as the Nikon announcement) the D90 pretty much fulfills my needs, and like I said I'm extremely pleased with it. Feel free to comment on the photos... don't be too brutal though Link to photos on Flikr All these photos were taken with my new Nikon D90 DSLR - which I'm very happy with.
I've been a little lax keeping up to date here over the last few months, what with one thing and another. We (Cosey and me) decided that some long overdue DIY jobs around the house needed doing before autumn sets in, and as they were all outside jobs it took longer than we expected due to the variable weather here lately. But it's all pretty much completed now, I just need to replace one large interior window pane inside our studio, which I cracked while being a bit too handy when chipping away at some paintwork. Also... we've been setting up, or rather re-activating, Industrial Records as a fully fledged Limited Company again after leaving it dormant for more than 25 years. This is to coincide with our new TG release on IR: 'The Thirty-Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle'. Lots more details on that are HERE. But it was a major undertaking (by our terms anyway), registering IR as a company (again), registering for VAT, getting a registered office address, making a business plan for the bank, and a ton of other boring legal stuff that's needed these days! Then we (actually it was mainly Cosey) had to put the 'product' into production. Which translates into having to cope with various suppliers, manufacturers, printers, distributors, shippers etc. etc. etc. All the screamingly frustrating stuff Mute usually to do for us for a 'major' release. Not that they've stopped, they just aren't involved in this release. In between running Industrial and DIY we've also been recording with Millimetre and producing a dance remix for Excepter, but more on those projects later.
Next week we are both at the Frieze Art Fair, where Cosey is on a discussion panel, and where we are launching 'Thirty-Second Annual Report'. In a couple of weeks we'll be at the Liverpool Biennial where Cosey is 'in conversation', and on November 7th we are playing at the Wroclaw Industrial Festival in Poland. After all that lot we are taking some time off, as Spring 2009 looks to be busy for TG. Can't say more right now but we could be flying west, then west again.
BTW: I've recently posted some really old TG photoson my Flikr pages. Even if you're not a TG fan they're definitely worth checking out. My, my... how we've changed!
Some of you may already have heard, or not, but Cosey has been very ill since the begining of the year. This meant the majority of our upcoming projects and all our current activities were rescheduled or put on hold. Cosey's health has improved somewhat in the last week, although she still has a way to go before a full recovery, but we are now in a position where we can attempt to slowly begin catching up with our most pressing or outstanding work. Number one on our 'to-do' list has been starting our Feral Vapours film, which will now be released on DVD much (much) later in 2008 than we originally planned. We have also completed contributions for a number of compilations and collaborations that will be released in the coming months (details when we have them). We will definitely be playing some Carter Tutti shows in Europe this year but are waiting on final confirmations before we make any announcements, which will be soon. In a couple of weeks we will also begin preparations for a few European Throbbing Gristle shows this Summer.
I've posted some photos on Flikr from the recent 24-hour (and what will probably become legendary) Mute '4298607' party. FYI the '4298607' numbers refer to (in this order) the Mute building number in the Harrow Road, the year Mute moved into the building and the year they move out (and go to EMI).
And what an utterly weird experience it was walking through the doors into that building again. It had been transformed from busy record company offices into what looked like a twisted post-apocalyptic 'industrial party' film set. Bunches of severed cables hanging out of ceilings and walls, discarded odds & sods and paperwork on the floors and dozens of empty offices. The place had no signs of fixtures, fittings and furniture, just lots of bean bags, old sofas, spot lights, strobes, video projectors, make-shift drinks bars, a barbecue in the car park, 3 or 4 DJ systems on different floors, a fully equipped stage in the warehouse and people, kids, drinks, food, more people and cameras everywhere you looked (plus the presence of a slightly menacing security crew constantly wandering around, I guess to stop anyone walking off with what little 'Mute souvenirs' were left).
I think the idea was to give what could have been a maudlin event a really positive spin, and it worked. Everyone was really buzzing and there were a lot of smiling faces and a lot of hugging going on. We were just Mute 'artists' and yet we bumped into quite a few 'former Mute employees' we hadn't seen for years. But Mute has employed a lot of people over the last two decades and it was great to see so many people turning up and seeing old friends and work-mates. Daniel (Miller, head honcho) even did the old 'meet and greet' routine on the door, classic! Never thought I'd see the day. We went along with Andria Degens (aka Pantaleimon), who used to be Daniel's PA and we all did a short contribution for the 'Mute video diary' that had been set up in the former studio on the top floor, the studio where TG recorded the TG Now album back in 2004. They also had a great room (actually I think it was Daniel's old office) with hundreds of 'Mute' photos covering 20 years pasted onto the walls. Nostalgia overload! But great. As we left dozens of people were still turning up and you could hear the noise way down the street.
Footnote: The following week the building was demolished (and Mute were going to time-lapse film it for posterity). There's also talk of one of those blue memorial plaques going onto the new apartment block that's replacing it.
2006 was an odd year for us, with some real highs (like our Carter Tutti gigs and Cosey's exhibitions and so on) but there were also a lot of unfinished and unresolved aspects to it. And it ended on a real emotional downer, with Nick (our Son) rushed into hospital. But... after a few setbacks he's finally on the road to a full recovery and his nurse says should be OK to go home next Sunday (Jan 7th). By the way, thanks again to all of you who sent wishes etc. they were very much appreciated.
This year should see some interesting developments. We're determined to get our long overdue second Carter Tutti album completed (well over a year late!), Cosey and I are working on a number of interesting 'collaborations and projects' that we'll be announcing soon, there are some 'significant' TG announcements (and releases) imminent and Cosey is in a major exhibition opening in LA, in the Spring.
Detailed updates on all these soon'ish... Happy New Year...
Much on hold at the moment as our son Nick is still very poorly after a burst Appendix. Regular updates will return after Xmas/New Year. In the meantime here is a newly posted online interview with me | LINK |
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