E-Magierin Thalia Zedek sprach anlässlich ihres Wien-Konzerts mit E im – in englischer Sprache geführten – skug-Interview über die USA, Europa und das Leben auf Tour.

Harte Zeiten verlangen harte Maßnahmen: Mit dem neuen Album von Ceramic Dog ist anständiger Ärger im Anmarsch. skug traf die Band rund um Marc Ribot im Zuge ihres Konzerts in der Wiener Sargfabrik zum Gespräch.

Ahead of his live-set at this year’s Elevate Festival, skug talked with Jimi Tenor about his past in electronic mainstream culture and his thoughts about music of today.

Will Guthrie played in complete darkness at Elevate Festival in the course of a concert series called Dunkelkammer. skug interviewed the Australian percussionist about all aspects of his work.

The artist Karen Werner gives an impressive personal insight into her work and thinking. To her, hearing sounds, choosing words and the entire act of communication is an incredibly complex process that should be understood in a scientific and poetic way.

Interview with Ferenc Török, the director of the film »1945«, about the western-style icons in his film, the importance of suspense and the intimate feeling of identity, which shouldn’t be exploited by politicians.

Ivo Dimchev is a trickster, an extrovert change-agent, an experimental theatre beast, well known for his sarcastic performance pieces. At the moment he is touring around the world to present his delicate love songs from his debut album »Sculptures«, which he presented at the closing show of ImPulsTanz 2017 at the Volkstheater in Vienna.

Baba Zula is a psychedelic parallel universe whose heart and epicentre is located in Istanbul. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the band released the compilation »XX«, which features a vast array of collaborators including Sly & Robbie, Mad Professor, Dr. Das of Asian Dub Foundation, and Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten. Electric saz player Osman Murat Ertel, percussionist and machinist Mehmet Levent Akman, who together formed this so-called »psychebelly dance music« group in 1996, and electric oud player Periklis Tsoukalas talked to skug after a mesmerizing, high-energy evening at the Porgy & Bess Jazz & Music club in Vienna. When we left the club, we noticed that the snow-covered cars in the alley had been magically tagged with Baba Zula logos …

»Because of death, I am desperate to live« – Lydia Lunch battles war, daddy, death, and sex with music, spoken word and self-love. »We live shorter than sea turtles«, she said in a Spoken Word Interview.

»german version

»We could play this song or that,« Prince proposes to a singing, dancing and emotionally captured audience. »Vienna!« June 7, 2014, Vienna City Hall, Prince & 3rdEyeGirl. A subjective proletarian drum column on American astray.

Dorian Wood is currently causing a great stir with his musical output. Intimate, powerful and evocative he pushes the alleged boundaries of genre and gender. His body, his voice and his ears are the main elements, the tools he wields like a master of ceremonies. On stage, Wood conceives the body in its nakedness as a costume, comparable to a special evening gown you only don at rare occasions. It is particularly this distinct perception of the human body that positions the artist – who has meanwhile also collaborated with Marina Abramovic – close to performance art. Musically, Wood is hailed as an exceptional artist and his singing voice has been compared to Antony, Nick Cave or Tom Waits. He directed the video for his song »La Cara Infinita«, his latest album »Rattle Rattle« features 60 musicians, and he also did the artwork for the limited edition vinyl himself. This congenial artist from L.A. is full of surprises and seems to have even more in store for us.

Both released in 2013, on her debut album »Needs Continuum« as well her EP »Kiki The Wormhole« the U.S.-born Londoner Karen Gwyer creates diverse Techno outfits with layers of House and Ambient.
An e-mail conversation.

Mathias Polednas ,swinging donkey, Jeremy Dellers, steel artist – film art, that concentrates of its own music creation. How is it possible to play so melodiously with metal drums? To create such a broad band of sounds? In the British pavilion at the Art section of the Venice Biennale the »Melodians Steel Orchestra« took the prize. An enchanted, subjective »Prolo Schlagzeug« column from the skug.at series.

Holly Herndon uses her laptop as a live instrument. She thinks about the computer’s personal experiences and gives a lesson in bi- and polytonality which flows in both directions. Herndon will play live at Donaufestival Krems: Saturday, 27th April 2013, 22:00, Halle 3. A good reason for an e-mail interview in advance.

On the German translation of the much-discussed tome by Simon Reynolds.

Translated into English by Friederike Kulcsar
»German version

Margarida Garcia lives in Lisbon, plays bass and draws, always on the edge and looking for next. She describes her latest solo release, »The Leaden Echo«, as »Not conceptual. Not experimental. Not technical. Not clean. Not cold.« – Let’s talk.

«Everywhere march your head» William S. Burroughs

I will probably give you a different answer every time you ask me, but for now, Mad Nanna’s out of tune, out of place and out of time collection of lazy and aloof lofi recordings on the »I Made Blood Better« tape was the best reord of 2011. A small talk with Mad Nanna’s songwriter Michael Zulicki.

»You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do«
(Henry Ford)

»He seems to attach himself to certain movements …
Lemmy Kilmister: Idiot, I think is the word you want«

Text: Lemmy Kilmister* (edited by Noël Akchoté)         »german translation
 

Hiroaki Umeda is known for his works that combine choreography, soundscapes, imagery and lighting design. As a one-man company acting under the name of S20 he has been composing choreographies for other dancers since 2008. At the Tanzquartier Vienna he presented »2. repulsion«, a performance he created in 2010 for three dancers (Sofiane Belkebir, Yvener Guillaume, Soufiane Tiet) by commission for the Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar. The other piece he presented on two evenings (26.03.-27.03.2011) was »while going to a condition«, a work that established his reputation as a first-class Japanese solo dancer who blends classical dance movements with HipHop elements, always keeping his feet firmly grounded while being in contact with rhythmic noises and minimalist video art. Backstage he talked about his first steps into the world of dance and explained his spatial concepts.

Fotocredit: Julieta Cervantes

»Ladies of Hip-Hop« is an annual festival, first held in Philadelphia in 2004 and now located in New York City. On the 8th of March 2011, the International Women’s Day, the founder of the festival, Michele Byrd-McPhee, presented her project for the first time in Europe together with the »KosmosTheater Wien« and the Austrian association »Urban Arts & Culture«, a place in Vienna for art and politics explicitly dedicated to female artists. Michele Byrd-McPhee offered a versatile programme containing performances, workshops and panel discussions to broach the issue of female creativity within a male dominated Hip-Hop culture. skug talked with Michele and Tweetie, a famous Hip-Hop dancer and choreographer from the South-Bronx, about different aspects of Hip-Hop Culture and the female role in it.

Photo: Michele Byrd-McPhee, © Gabriel Bienzycky

skug interviews John Foxx on his new album »Interplay«, D-I-Y, ghosts, and the art of leaving.

Credits of all Photos: Metamatic

Lia Rodrigues is a Brazilian born activist and artistic director, trained in classical ballet in Sao Paulo in the 70s. Her work has won several prizes both in Brazil and overseas. In February 2011 she showed her latest piece »Pororoca« (2009) for the first time in Austria, together with a performance of »Such Stuff As We Are Made Of« (2000) at the Tanzquartier Wien. Her performance and dance style are inspired by the daily routines of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, constantly shifting the dancers‘ body language between familiar and exceptional expressions. (Foto: Pororoca 3 © Sammi Landweer)

In April Sudeten Creche will be on stage for the first time in more than twenty-five years, performing in London, Paris, Antwerp, Berlin and Vienna. skug caught up with Sudeten Creche during their rehearsal schedule to find out more about the songs they will be playing and some of the lesser-known history of this established but somewhat reclusive early 80’s minimal electro duo.

Fotocredits: Martin Lloyd

Meg Stuart is an American choreographer and dancer now living in Belgium. She is a very important  figure in the European and International contemporary dance world, leading her own company Damaged Goods since 1994. We got the chance to talk to her and the well known Austrian Choreographer and Dancer Philipp Gehmacher together with the German visual artist Vladimir Miller about their new, physically intense piece »The Fault Lines« which they presented via Tanzquartier Wien in the MUMOK factory basement on 4th and 5th February 2011.

fotocredit: © Eva Würdinger

Even after years of terminological presence it remains difficult to pin down what a VJ does, what makes one a VJ, what legitimises a VJ, what a VJ is. Depending on the context, the terms »VJ« and »VJing« are used in such heterogeneous frameworks and are associated with such an array of different fields of activities that it would take several chapters merely to explain the term »VJing« and its nature.

This text, however, attempts to create an audiovisual dispositive which departs from common designations for VJs, and instead takes a detour around so-called video bands to display the many possibilities for novel audiovisual live art. This will be exemplified by Metamkine from France and Granular Synthesis from Austria.

Text originally published Nov. 2006 for VJ Theory; www.vjtheory.net/art/metamkine_and_granular.htm

Minimal Wave is crashing back in on Europe. An Interview with Oppenheimer Analysis and Mark Warner (Sudeten Creche, Rossetti’s Compass) at the club event Brave Exhibitions Berlin. (See skug #85 print issue for a full article in German on the modern Berlin Wave club scene: »Weniger ist mehr, Herr Bargeld!«)

Andy Oppenheimer/Martin Lloyd (Oppenheimer Analysis), Jen Ellerson (Brave Exhibitions), Mark Warner (Sudeten Creche, Rossetti’s Compass) @ Brave Exhibitions Berlin, 21.10.2010. Photo: © Kristal Burtrum

Back to the future. Or maybe tape labels have never really gone away. Anyway, I like the Connecticut based tape label Goaty Tapes because of its careful and naïve hand-collage layout that ties together a well-selected bunch of artists. A word with its founder; history student Zully Adler.

»I could demand in the contract that I have a 20 hour sound-check.«

In French there is an odd common expression that I never quite got right as it obviously states one thing and its radical contrary at the same time: »On n’a pas tous les jours vingts ans« (»one doesn’t turn twenty every day«). Twenty What/What »twenty«?

I am not always sure anymore that the Django open reference is a plus for all productions. Of course it allows fans and afficionados to recognize the file quickly but […]