Tag: art

2024 roundup

Following the 25th anniversary of fiffdimension in 2023, it was in some ways tempting to leave it there, and retire…

… but I soon found myself creating new music in 2024:

Quietism

January: Solo suite for electric guitar, bass and electronic percussion.

The Margins

April: New combination of old free improv collaborators Simon O’Rorke and Antony Milton.

“A virtual infusion of ‘ants-in-the-pants’ for the entomologically deficient.” –Antony Milton

“The album blends Antony Milton‘s and my styles, with Dave Edwards often occupying a pivotal midpoint. It’s an exhilarating session.” – Simon O’Rorke

The Troubled Times: The Latest Poll / Boa

June-August: A pair of new albums from The Troubled Times (trio with Antony Milton and David Heath):

The Latest Poll marked a departure into semiacoustic freak folk; whereas Boa leaned more towards noisy electric rock.

Poems & Lyrics by John Collie (1856)

June-July: Recorded a couple more of my ancestor’s poems for this epic acoustic/folk work-in-progress (& hoping to finish it off this summer when my nephews visit):

The Troubled Times: Pyramid Club – live 28/09/24

September: A long-overdue return (after six years!) to live performance in Wellington, and The Troubled Times‘ first appearance there at the Pyramid Club.

Dolby FM interview

October: A career-spanning longform interview, telling my life story and the background influences behind the music.

Live in Sydney 20/10/24

October: An international performance across the ditch :

The Sydney performance can now be heard on the Live 2022-24 album:

Jovial Blade 7″

November: A new solo 7″ on vinyl (first one since 2016):

“Some seriously scrambled dissonance. 80’s vocals hits 60’s electro/cut-up nonsense whilst smothering an ever mutating bassline […] the track contains more musical ideas in its 5 mins than some exhibit in musical careers.” – Simon Baker, What Lies Beneath

A Second Sun t-shirt

December: A thoughtful birthday present (thanks Talei!): a t-shirt featuring the cover art from The Troubled Times’ A Second Sun album.

I also enjoyed a visit to my hometown of New Plymouth (& hope to play a gig there next time!)

More to come in 2025!

w/ James Robinson – Negentropic Diatribes (2022)

Multimedia spoken word and music collaboration between two unique NZ artists:

Listen

About

James Robinson is a mid career contemporary New Zealand mixed media artist, exhibiting widely since 1989 – www.jamesrobinson.nz

fiffdimension is music and multimedia by Dave Edwards (aka Dave Black) and collaborators, since 1998 – www.fiffdimension.com

We met in the early 2000s, and finally collaborated 20 years on. Negentropic Diatribes was recorded in Otago in 2022, as James used spoken word recordings to discuss his creative process and innermost thoughts.

The musical settings were created by Dave in Featherston – plus contributions from other collaborators.

credits

  • James Robinson – words, voice, paintings & drawings, bell drum
  • Dave Edwards – electric guitar, bass, loops (2,6,9), midi (9,13), ukulele (11), harmonica (14)

with

Tracklist

1.Telescopic Misanthropy (take 1) 02:10
2.Tendrils of Glowing Memory Filaments 04:31
3.Nothing Can be Threatened by Nothing 04:19
4.James Robinson + The Troubled Times – The Edge 03:25
5.James Robinson + snakebeings + fiffdimension – Dialogue with the Divine 05:30
6.Well Done Son! 00:54
7.Old Brain (metadada of Oceania remembering) 06:19
8.James Robinson – Is Not Art 03:29
9.Existential Threat 01:02
10.Got Razed 07:34
11.James Robinson + snakebeings + fiffdimension – That which is itself nature 05:00
12.James Robinson + Trillion – Bath poem 10:31
13.Psychocultural Glossalalia 01:39
14.James Robinson + Nat da Hatt + fiffdimension – Ake Ake Amene 18:20

James Robinson

James won 2007 paramount prize in the wallace award for
” Taniwaha dragon mother ( spirit bones)”

Read more: w/ James Robinson – Negentropic Diatribes (2022)

‘… a great big flatulent belch of fresh air amongst all the tight-sphinctered, deodorised boys and girls of the accepted national art world….. off-kilter and threatening but always sumptuously, gloriously beautiful.’

– Chris Knox.
Continue reading “w/ James Robinson – Negentropic Diatribes (2022)” →

Ruasagavulu

Out now – the new album

by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

Made in Fiji

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

  

Snake Beings & Dave Black in Fiji

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended… it’s got nothing to do with the pandemic.

It was recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd and 4th of November 2019.

The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade optimistically.

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Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

a fusion of several genres and a DIY manifesto – “Pick up the pieces and make them into something new, it’s what we do…”

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu” →

Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji

Made in Suva, Fiji – the new album by Dave Black & Dr Emit Snake-Beings

“So easy to get totally lost in this music, recommend for helping with your inner peace” – Andi Verse

 

Indo-Fijian inspired tropical devotional avant-garde instrumentals for keyboards, ukulele, dholak, duduk, harmonicas, DIY kitchen gamelan, and video.

This was one of the last in-person international collaborations from before the world ended.

 The title ‘ruasagavulu’ means ‘twenty’ in Fijian, to kick off the new decade.

recorded in Suva, Fiji, 2nd November 2019

Further listening

Our first duo recording was ‘Ngumbang‘  (2015) –

Continue reading “Ruasagavulu – with Snake Beings in Fiji” →

Ritual Remnants exhibition by snakebeings

Saturday 2 September in Port Chalmers

Emit Snake-Beings 2-9-18

  •    

Ritual Remnants’ is an exhibition by snakebeings using leftover objects, failed electronic projects and discarded materials from the process of designing and making an electronic instruments which combines Gamelan musical structures with the rhythms of Morse code.

The objects were made during the art science residency in Port Chalmers between March and September 2018.
snakebeings and dave black also collaborated in 2018 on ‘sampak membengkak‘
and in 2015 on the Ngumbang album

Snake Beings

Dr Emit Snake-Beings – founder of the Hamilton Underground Film Festival, composer, musician and electrical shrine maker – is a New Zealand / British experimental filmmaker and musician. He has produced over 40 independently released film soundtrack CDs, and made a number of short experimental and narrative films in Spain, U.K. and New Zealand.

His music includes two duo albums with fiffdimension:

Ngumbang (Huia, 2014/15)

and

Ruasagavulu (Fiji, 2019/20)

He also appears on

Gamelan Dimensi Kelima (Indonesia)

His other projects include:

www.snakebeings.co.nz