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I recently found this shot in our archive on a strip of TG negatives.
It's my studio in our apartment in Crouch End, North London and was taken shortly after TG split-up (first time) in 1981. This was the TG / Chris & Cosey crossover period and a few weeks before I got my Roland MC-8 MicroComposer.
Everything in this photo was used on later TG material and early Chris & Cosey releases and while I no longer own the majority of the gear I still have the Boss pedals, the Auratone speakers and the chair.
The modular system on the right consists of three Roland 190 racks and two 191J racks containing: two 182 Step Sequencers, 121 Dual VCF, 130 Dual VCA, 112 Dual VCO, 150 Ring Mod/Noise/S&H/LFO, 110 VCO/VCF/VCA, 172 Audio Delay/Phaser/LFO/Gate Delay.
Also included in the Roland racks were a number of my own self-built modules, including a: Digisound Dual VCO, Digisound Dual VCF, Digisound Dual VCA, Digisound Dual ADSR, Digisound Dual RM, Blacet variable clock/divider, a Gristleizer module and (in the top rack) a flanger/delay and a dual phaser/flanger/delay.
Under the modular system is a Boss DR-55 Dr. Rhythm (sitting on top of) a Roland CSQ-600 Digital Sequencer, a Roland TR-808 (one of the first in the UK I might add), a Sinclair frequency meter (for tuning) and a Roland 181 Controller Keyboard.
To the right of the modular (top to bottom) are a small sub-mixer, a Sinclair mutli-meter, a Leak power amp, s Boss KM-4 a Leak FM tuner and a custom digital delay line and a custom 10-band EQ unit (both self-built). In front of those are two Seck 6.2 mixers.
On the far right of the desk are (top to bottom) three Accessit compressors, a Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo, H&H Slide Echo.
In the foreground are a couple of Roland Flanger pedals, a Boss micro Amp pedal and an Electro-Harmonix Gate pedal.
Also in shot are a Tandberg stereo reel-ree, a Tandberg cassette deck, a Warfdale cassette deck, a pair of self-built 8" speakers and a pair of Auratone 5C Super-Sound-Cubes.
Techy photo note: the photo was taken with a Nikon F2 using a 50mm 1.4 lens on Ilford FP4 film using available light.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_carter_/3263010726/sizes/o/
I've been getting concerned emails and comments on the interweb about my 'gear sales' on eBay.
Basically saying: "are you mad?, why?, please don't, are you short of cash?, they should be in a museum, keep them, don't sell them" and so on and so on. I'm sure you get the drift.
They are all valid points, and yes I can absolutely see where these concerns are coming from and no I'm not doing it for the cash, well not at the moment at least. I have kept back some 'unique'ish' TG items: the Gristleizers, some other hand-made fx units, a Bolex movie camera, a 'blood-stained' microphone and a couple of battered TG flight-cases. But I have a history of 'off-loading gear and moving on' every 5-10 years or so and previously I'd sold (my personal) TG and C&C gear to private collectors and through specialist auction houses. This time it's through eBay and it's generated a certain amount of interest and forum chatter. I'm not going to attempt to justify what I'm doing, I don't need to but I will explain my reasoning.
Well, apart from (the not inconsiderable) space considerations, I just don't use some of this gear anymore and I'd like other musicians to 'take up the mantel', so to speak and carry on using it while it all still works (and hopefully in new and interesting ways). One of the main reasons I started selling my old gear 10-15 years ago was that much of it was failing, malfunctioning or broken and I was spending a small fortune trying to keep it all going. So I sold it to buyers who could afford to repair, cherish and use it to make music for a few years more, as it deserved. I'm not the only member of TG who's passed on 'retired' gear so that others can get something else out of owning it either.
Also one of my morbid fears is that Cosey and I (or even all TG) will die in a plane crash and our TG and C&C archive, which even apart from the gear is MASSIVE (it literally fills a whole room in our old 'school' house) will be dumped in a land-fill never to be seen or used by anyone ever again. Irrational and possibly quite improbable I know... but hey! that's me.
Now... if someone from a museum or gallery wants to take this lot off my hand's I'm sure we could come to some arrangement but they'd better hurry.
Wow! it's been almost six weeks since I posted any updates here, very remiss of me I must say.
My excuse is that we've been busy finishing our new album (and its variations) and adjusting and tweaking it for final release... i.e.: so it is ready for the various production facilities, factories, printers and pressing plants etc. Which is now about 98% done. In fact as I write this I'm waiting for the door bell to ring with a delivery of the first batch from the CD factory.
We've also been gearing up for the inevitable (but essential) promotional push... which translates to: new photos, press releases, promo lists, advertising (web, viral and print) AND setting up our new mail-order site. Yes, after three years or so we're going back into the mail order business. Which means from October (ish) you'll be able to buy Carter Tutti, C&C and CTI physical product directly from us (new and back catalogue CDs to you and me).
Plus we're updating the Carter Tutti / C&C web site with a makeover.
TTFN
The CTI studio rebuild is pretty much finished. Phew... what a massive job that turned out to be!
Yes it's true... World Serpent, our distributor for the the past 10 years, has gone belly up owing us a lot of money! The whole fiasco has been handled really badly and two words I've heard a lot in the past few weeks have been "spineless bastards!", and you can quote me on that.
I'm currently re-organising our studio... yet again!
Also mixing the TGV DVD live recording session from 24-track for DVDs.
Annual studio clearout !... Even more C&C (and TG) gear for sale!
Rehearsing for Carter Tutti June performances.
Compiling & tweaking material for TG live recording session.
RE~TG RESCHEDULED - ticket holders wishing to attend the TG recording READ THIS (dead link)
Busy recording new CARTER TUTTi (Cabal) album.
Aug
As is usually the way just when Cosey and I thought we had some time to get down to recording more material for our new Carter Tutti album offers of more projects turn up (gigs, gear reviews, music reviews, books and mastering the new TG+ boxed set), which are, of course, all impossible to turn down. However, in a week or so we're beginning preparations, video editing and rehearsals for our upcoming gigs in October.
July
I stayed at Sleazy's house in Western-super-Mare recently where we made our first attempts to get some of the initial sounds and ideas we had for RE~TG into some serious shape. I can summarise what we came up with in two words: exciting and productive. Sleazy is now in Thailand until 2004 but we are continuing to work on material via emailed files and iChat.
I've recently finished remastering some C&C back catalogue albums, a new C&C live CD and Cosey's forthcoming EAR4 album. Also for the last few weeks I have been trying to get my head around 'Ableton Live' and 'Logic 6' software. We've pretty much sussed out 'Live' now, in fact Cosey used it extensively on her new Selflessness project.
And we've finally started some serious work on our much delayed studio album, which will be released under our new monker: Carter Tutti.
Changing times ahead...
I recently spent three weeks rebuilding, reorganising and rewiring our studio. This was something that was long overdue but turned out to be a far more complex and time consuming task than I originally anticipated. Everything is now pretty much back up to full spec but we still haven't actually got around to recording yet.
The TG boxed set and IR re-launch are still on track and the whole project is moving along nicely. As a kind of 'primer' we are releasing a new 'best of' TG album and are in discussion with various artists who are interested in re mixing a TG track for commercial release prior to the launch. More soonish...
For the last couple of weeks or so I've been assisting Cosey with some photography and live Art pieces.
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