News
Big Bad Wolf Publication
28 Sept 2024
Rachel Howard’s exhibition ‘Big Bad Wolf’ opened at the Little Institute and my poem ‘The Molecular Weight of Water was included in the publication.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBZeiV5o8Pv/?igsh=YWxuaTEwa2FnNGo3&img_index=1
Matt Carey-Williams Viewing Room
4 June 2024
‘A mirage that perceived itself,’ ‘Darwin’s acid 1,’ and ‘Darwin’s acid 3’ are now on show in the viewing room at Matt Carey-Williams Gallery! Please contact Matt with interest.
https://www.mattcareywilliams.com
@matt_careywilliams
How to Make a Head: Group Exhibition
23 May 2024
The title of this exhibition is taken from Luke Hannam’s drawing How to Make a Head, 2024 , a head seemingly constructed from rectangular blocks. Not intended as a portrait of an existing person in the traditional sense, the work assembles life from scratch to create a humanoid form.
In this spirit of alchemy, all the artists in the exhibition have been handed the force of Prometheus, to blow life-giving fire into inanimate materials. The figures, bodies and body-parts seem to be in the process of coming alive through the imaginative use of materials and collage. Although they are made-up characters, the inhabitants of this exhibition feel strangely present.
The exhibition runs from 23 May until 8 June, Gallery 1, Saatchi Gallery London.
Featured Artists
Dominic Beattie
Paul Cole
Jody DeSchutter
Tim Ellis
Lucy Evetts
Luke Hannam
James Alec Hardy
Harry Jones
Alec Kronacker
Tom Shedden
Robert Welch
Poppy Whatmore
Anisa Zahedi
Neil Zakiewicz
This exhibition is curated by Dominic Beattie.
https://www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/how-to-make-a-head
Laima Performance at South London Gallery
22 May 2024
Experience a new performance by Laima Leyton at the SLG, programmed alongside our current exhibition, Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest. Using drumming, megaphones and voice, the performance explores moments of transition and vulnerability during processes of migration and motherhood.
Leyton draws from her own experiences of migration and those of Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, who designed a garden for the South London Gallery.
The music is performed by Leyton, Iggor Cavalera and Jody DeSchutter with costumes by Liria Pristine, scent designed by Anelena Toku and visuals by filmmaker Pedro Küster
Tickets: https://www.southlondongallery.org/events/performance-laima-leyton/
How to Make a Head: Group Exhibition
18 May 2024
Dominic Beattie
Paul Cole
Jody DeSchutter
Jean-Phillipe Dordolo
Tim Ellis
Lucy Evetts
Luke Hannam
James Alex Hardy
Harry Jones
Alec Kronacker
Tom Shedden
Robert Welch
Poppy Whatmore
Anisa Zahedi
Neil Zakiewicz
18 May 2024, 2pm -7pm drinks reception @ Strange Cargo, The Factory, 43 Geraldine Rd, Folkestone CT19 4BD
Image credit: Mimei Thompson
Fight Flight or Freeze: Group Exhibition
10 May 2024
Kafka Projects at Pictorem Gallery
383 Hoe Street, Walthamstow
E17 9AP
8 May - 25 May
PV 10 May 6-8 PM
Open Tuesday - Saturday 10-5 PM
Instagram @kafka_projects
Kafka Projects is pleased to present Fight Flight or Freeze, a group exhibition exploring instinct, agency and the existential angst inherent in our DNA.
Alexandra Blum
Alice Peillon
Aviv Benn
Belinda Worsley
Clare Wilson
Frank Hannon
Ian Whitfield
Jody DeSchutter
Johanna Melvin
Julie Caves
Karl Bielik
Linda Lencovic
Louisa Longstaff Scales
Maggie Nightingale
Matthew De Kersaint Giraudeau
Michele Fletcher
Mimei Thompson
Miranda Boulton
Patricia Pisanelli
Patrick Lears
Robbie Bushe
Rod Melvin
Sarah Barrett
Sarah Longworth West
Photo by baby cakes romero
‘Infinite Past, Infinite Future and NOW’!
7 May 2024
Laima at Richard Saltoun Gallery. This will be the first time Laima has performed all 8 sound pieces inspired by Hannah Arendt’s insights on time, culture, truth, and spirituality, titled collectively as ‘Infinite Past, Infinite Future and NOW’!
Costume design by Liria Pristine
Sound by Vanessa De Michelis
Performance by Jody DeSchutter and Analena Toku
More information about the project: https://www.richardsaltoun.com/viewing-room/25-infinite-past-infinite-future-and-now-laima-leyton/
Friday Late: Feminist Futures
26 April 2024
Artists, performers and collectives explore alternative pathways of feminism through sensorial experiences, healing, activism practices and ancestral stories. The evening will share how feminist networks of care can be extended beyond conventional boundaries, debunking dominant narratives on gender, race and the body. It celebrates ways of strengthening support for communities marginalised by patriarchal systems and under-represented in previous waves.
Anna Perach’s Ecstasies
Choreography: Luigi Ambrosio
Original Sound: Laima Leyton
Sound Assistance: Jody DeSchutter
Performers: M Sole Montacci, Ana Coltatu, Chiara Pagani
Drop in 18.30 – 22.00
https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/vJdykk60bjv/friday-late-april
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL18.30 – 22.00
'TRANSMUTE' on Black Dog Yellow House shop
21 April
TRANSMUTE: A collection of poetical substances to be said out loud
In anticipation of upcoming sonic releases this collection of spoken word has been transcribed to the page, pulling together previously released material and the yet-to-be-released. With an interest in how the words morph between spoken and written, this collection serves as an alternate perspective to the words performed as part of BAG.A journey from the clay to jittering atoms out of our atmosphere, this collection brings the spoken word onto the page, asking how how meaning shifts depending on context. Some of these pieces will be released sonically in the near future and with a nod to constructivism, the artist wonders how it will shape understanding having read the verse or heard it spoken first…
Published by Doris Press here: https://www.doris.press/blog/the-molecular-weight-of-water?rq=molecular
Hand bound booklet with lino-print cover.
BUY HERE: https://www.blackdogyellowhouse.store/shopblackdog/p/transmute-by-jody-deschutter
Anna Perach, Mistress of the Desert, performance. Photo by Lena Gomon.
Anna Perach’s Ecstasies Performance Series
31 January 2024
8 March 2024
12 April 2024
I am really excited to assist Laima Layton with the sound for Anna Peach’s performance series called Ecstasies and exhibition called Holes at Gasworks. The exhibition runs from 1 Feb to 28 April 2024 with the Preview and performance on Wednesday 31st January, 6:30-8:30pm and further performances on 8 March and 12 April.
Anna Perach's practice explores the dynamic between personal and cultural myths, and how many of our intimate narratives are deeply rooted in ancient folklore and storytelling. Using a method called tufting, a historical technique where carpet textile pieces are produced by hand, Perach transforms female archetypes into sculptural hybrids, exploring ideas of identity, gender, and craft.
For her first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, Perach will produce a new body of work based on the concept of the monstrous feminine, and the transformation of the body as a metaphor for cerebral and spiritual exploration.
Comprising large-scale sculptural forms and installation, Holes is inspired by instances where the female body is viewed by a religious or scientific patriarchal authority as something that transgresses the rules of morality and nature. Richly detailed and layered, the sculptures confound conventional expectations, with stretched limbs, engorged features and distorted faces.
Holes creates a site of rebirth, where non-conforming and subjugated bodies take control, revelling in the alluring yet monstrous and pushing beyond conventional understandings of flesh and skin.
All Gasworks’ exhibitions are supported by Catherine Petitgas and Gasworks Exhibitions Supporters.
https://www.gasworks.org.uk/events/opening-and-performance-of-ecstasies/
Spanish news article by Daniel Postico
01 October 2023
Dan and I had the great privilege of being interviewed by Daniel Postico; we spent a day talking about sound, painting, tattoo, biographies and all their intersections. We played a live BAG set, exhibited paintings, and live tattooed to illustrate and solidify our discussions. Daniel wrote this incredibly thoughtful and considered piece in response, a portrait, drawing a thread between, through, and around it all.
Read the full article here: https://www.niusdiario.es/cultura/20231001/bag-inclasificable-grupo-londinense-musica_18_010528256.html
Calling Cards Publishing Presents (Guest Performance)
22 July 2023
I am super excited to collaborate and perform with GOMM (Dan Allison) alongside James Alec Hardy as part of this evening!
GOMM (Bloxham Tapes, Sensory Leakage) GOMM is Dan Allison but also a concept of collaboration and distortion via synthesis and sound experimentation. GOMM released its self titled album on Sensory Leakage in 2021 and followed up with a collaboration album with artist and sonic explorer James Alec Hardy. ‘211215’ was released on Bloxham Tapes in early 2022. Collaborators include Jody DeSchutter (BAG), artist Dominic Beattie and producer Holst who mixed and played on GOMMs debut release.
Calling Cards Publishing Presents: Nick Klein, GOMM, Regan Bowering, Syrens DJ's (Mike Keelin & Jamie Paton) Saturday 22nd July 2023 Servant Jazz Quarters £10 ADV / £12 OTD 20:00 - 23:00
Buy tickets here: https://ra.co/events/1723371
The Horror Show! Sensory Leakage mixtape (Monoprinted O-cards)
26 June 2023
Selections from the first five Sensory Leakage releases, Zener_01 to Zener_05, archive copies of which were on display in the GHOST Act of The Horror Show! – co-curated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and Claire Catterall – at Somerset House, London, which ran from 27 October 2022 to 19 February 2023.
This mixtape places audio by Black Hair Rolled In Dried Blood, The Transit Board, Ghost Stations, Detritus Plates, Ximes and Pulselovers into a new context for your Ganzfeld state needs.
Only previously purchaseable from the exhibition's Goth Shop, this cassette is now available in limited batches via Sensory Leakage Bandcamp following the conclusion of The Horror Show! This is the second batch.
Each O-card features unique monoprint artwork by Jody DeSchutter (www.jodydeschutter.com).
Compiled by Sensory Leakage and mixed by GOMM, this is a Remote Viewing cassette.
Buy a copy here: https://sensoryleakage.bandcamp.com/merch/ganzfeld-effect-the-horror-show-sensory-leakage-mixtape-second-batch
“Beyond the scene” with sound performance by BAG
10 June 2023
Lariot Collective presents Beyond the scene, a duo show with works by Ernesto Crespo (Cuba 1994) and Filippo Fanciotti (Italy 1988). The synergy between both artists starts with the concept of scenography. The exhibition will be held in an industrial space in Shoreditch from the 10th to the 11th of June. During the opening there will be a sound performance by BAG, their first collaboration with the Lariat Collection!
3-5pm preview
5-9pm opening with sound performance from Jody DeSchutter and Daniel Allison (BAG) at 6pm
Shoreditch | Ground floor | 133, Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
“Rain falls like tar on my skin” Performance by W.H.Y. (Zara Truss Giles), in collaboration with Jody DeSchutter (BAG), Laima Leyton (Inner Swell)
8 June 2023
“Rain falls like tar on my skin” Performance by W.H.Y. (Zara Truss Giles), in collaboration with Jody DeSchutter (BAG), Laima Leyton (Inner Swell) takes inspiration from Audre Lorde’s poem “New Years Day” and W.H.Y.’s “A Litany for Survival” where W.H.Y. imagines a conversation with Lorde. Lorde addresses issues of racism, sexism, and societal oppression, emphasising the need for social justice and equality. Lorde’s writing ends with
“I am deliberate and afraid
of nothing.”
W.H.Y. considers the quantum position of nothing as everything and the entangled position of “nothing” (everything) from a queer/trans/woman/black/Jewish/working class & neuro-divergent/disabled perspective. Here, W.H.Y. explores the history of tattoos concerning print and ancestral symbolism and the entangled cultural connections to Indigenous ways of knowing and viewing the world, as well as a practice to document histories of family, society, and place. Jody DeSchutter (BAG) & Laima Leyton (Inner Swell) collaborate with W.H.Y.’s text from ‘Litany of Survival’ to create an artwork which they will tattoo on W.H.Y. live during this performance. They will think about the flux and connection by performing live on analogue video and audio synthesisers during each artist's tattoos on W.H.Y.
Read the full Press Release here
18.30-22.00 P.V. including
19:00 - ‘Litany of Survival’ Performance by W.H.Y. (Zara Truss Giles)
20:00 - 22:00 “Rain falls like tar on my skin” Performance by W.H.Y. (Zara Truss Giles), in collaboration with Jody DeSchutter (BAG), Laima Leyton (Inner Swell)
FIVE YEARS GALLERY | UNIT 2B 19-15 ELTHORNE ROAD (ENTRANCE ON BOOTHBY ROAD) | LONDON N19 4AJ
DALILA KAYROS & DANILO CASTI AV + BAG + THE SEER + AAACP
14 April 2023
IKLECTIK presents,
NO TREND w/ Dalila Kayros & Danilo Casti ‘Animami’ AV [UK Premiere] + BAG + The Seer + AAACP
Friday 14 April 2023 | Doors: 8pm | First Act: 8:30pm
Our Kiosk opens 1 hour before doors.
NO TREND is an eclectic night of live performances and experimental sound art. A corrosion of genres, hosting artists who are pushing the boundaries of underground music.
More information: https://iklectikartlab.com/no-trend-w-dalila-kayros-danilo-casti-av-bag-the-seer/
Tickets: £12 Advance / £15 OTD https://link.dice.fm/D6ae0f67fb82
Momentary Lapses Album Launch at IKLECTIK
25 February 2023
BAG X Collapsing Drums + Tears|OV + [something’s happening] + Sensory Leakage (DJ) + Sam Terentjev-Watts (DJ) + Special Guest
Saturday 25 February 2023 | Doors: 7:30pm | First Act: 8pm
Our Kiosk opens 1 hour before doors.
Join us for an evening of experimental composition and kaleidoscopic language. With visions of varied landscapes encircling sound and speech, this launch party combines diverse perspectives to create one momentary lapse, one trespass into that imagined land.
To celebrate the release of BAG X Collapsing Drums’ album ‘Momentary Lapses’, they will be joined by very special guests Tears|OV (live), something’s happening, Sensory Leakage (DJ set), Sam Terentjev-Watts (DJ set) and an additional unannounced guest. This event will coincide with the UK cassette release and run until 1am.
Tickets: £11 Advance / £14 OTD / £21 Advance + Limited Edition Tape / £24 OTD + Limited Edition Tape
BUY TICKETS HERE: https://link.dice.fm/Q2b332561814
Momentary Lapses Album Release on Already Dead Tapes
27 January 2023
Released on Already Dead Tapes & Records. “Spoken word, synth, modules & beats invite the listener into an electronic landscape where smell is colour and sound has weight. 'Momentary Lapses' is the second collaborative album from London based artists BAG (Jody DeSchutter and Daniel Allison), and Collapsing Drums (Charlie Behrens). This is a deeply artful work that is simultaneously engrossing and challenging, and one that benefits from repeated listening.”
BUY A COPY (North America): https://www.alreadydeadtapes.com/product-page/bag-x-collapsing-drums-momentary-lapses-cassette-tape
BUY A COPY (UK): https://bagbagbagsound.bandcamp.com/album/momentary-lapses
Stochastic Resonance Release 111122 - BAG Remix
16 December 2023
Music by BAG (Remix by IlSantoBevitoreAlexia) Robbio, Camilla Pisani, Angelina Yershova and Nicola Baroni. Mastering by Ynaktera. Cover art and design: Scual.
Full release: stochastic-resonance.bandcamp.com/album/sr-021-111122
The Near Jazz Experience Live at Chats Palace (special guest BAG)
10 March 2023 (rescheduled from Nov 20)
We invited our friend Terry Edwards to curate an evening of some of his favourite East London artists. Join us for an evening to remember including -
A DJ set by the icon that is Rhoda Dakar, lead singer of The Bodysnatchers, doyenne of the 2 Tone record label
Transatlantic duo BAG Dan Allison (London, UK) and Jody DeSchutter (BC, Canada) weave vibrant sonics and vivid poetry into and around each other to create an outline of the slippery worlds that can’t be defined by standard labels or performance.
Darren Hayman - a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter who eschews the big, the bright and the loud for the small, twisted and lost. For 15 years, and over 14 albums, Hayman has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly.
“bold and unique” The Sunday Times, “Hayman has hit a creative purple patch… a treat” Mojo, “uniquely intimate and very satisfying” BBC
Headlined by the east London jazz legends that are The NJE – a trio so called because their wayward style of jazz has a punk leaning to it. The NJE are Madness bassist Mark Bedford, multi-instrumentalist Terry Edwards (who has played with the Blockheads and P J Harvey) and Simon Charterton.
Tickets are on sale now: £12 in advance/ £15 OTD
Doors 7pm Over 18s only
Chats Palace Arts Centre, 42-44 Brooksby's Walk, London, E9 6DF UK
BUY TICKETS HERE: https://ticketlab.co.uk/event/id/15012#/
BAG + SW1n-HUNTER + [something's happening] at New River Studios
16 November 2022
BAG, SW1n-Hunter and [something's happening] come to New River Studios in a tangle of poetry, audio essays and broken electronics
Poetry fuses with deeply volatile electronics. Audio essays slip through fractured noise. Found text hits spectral guitar and spins out in a looping maze. Join BAG, SW1n-HUNTER and [something's happening] for a night of textual, visual and sonic performance at the heart of London's DIY community, New River Studios.
“BAG is the poetry and sound project of Dan Allison and Jody DeSchutter. The duo’s debut album, Mapping Azure, twisted flurries of abstract but never meaningless speech through webs of field recordings, brittle beats and scorched synthesis. Theirs is a world where music and language seem precariously tied together, emerging in a lyrical call and response to create something as bewildering as it is lucid. It triggers a unique effect for the listener. Never didactic, BAG’s music feels like an invitation to join them in charting the contours of a world constantly in flux. The project continues to evolve as they work towards their next album, branching into glacial, almost dub techno weight, intricate high-definition soundscapes and obliterated pop music. It all combines to further realise their ever more vivid parallel universe, one where words and sounds mean more together than they ever could apart.Mapping Azure was named one of the best tapes of 2020 in the Spool’s Out Column at The Quietus…”
By Bezirk/Spool's Out
Wed, 16 November 2022, 19:00 – 23:00 GMT
New River Studios 199 Eade Road London N4 1DN
BUY TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bag-sw1n-hunter-somethings-happening-at-new-river-studios-tickets-452331424467?aff=erelexpmlt
Frieze London: Waiting With {Sonic Support}
15 October 2022
I’ll be participating in an Open Mic at Frieze London, as part of Abbas Zahedi’s ‘Waiting With {Sonic Support}’, this year’s Frieze Artist Award Commission.
Recorded outside of Frieze in Regent’s Park, and live streamed inside the art fair between 12-16 October 2022 - Abbas Zahedi’s two wooden sculptures connect the inside and outside of the tent, to establish a speculative transport system for sonic messages.
Live on Saturday October 15, 3-4.30pm
Each day’s recording online the next day
The Frieze Artist Award 2022 is co-commissioned by @friezeofficial and @formaartsmedia.
FORMA’S WEBSITE: https://forma.org.uk/projects/abbas-zahedi-waiting-with-sonic-support/
Seeing Feeling Forgetting
29 September 2022
A meditation on solitude the studio and making. Seeing Feeling Forgetting opens 29 September at APT Gallery for the PV from 6-9pm. All welcome.
Exhibition Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seeing_feeling_forgetting/
Hearing Feeling Remembering
1 October 2022
A collaborative performance between BAG and the Fayrfax Singers. Gregorian chants, poetic ramblings and a meditation on the colour green are woven into an immersive alchemical soundscape in response to the exhibition Seeing Feeling Forgetting.
The Fayrfax Singers are a choral early music group programmed by Nerissa Taysom and for this performance, conducted by Ben McKee. Weaving together music by Hildegard von Bingen, Byrd and Palestrina, the group will take you on a sonic pilgrimage from verdant pastures to deserted lands.
BAG is transatlantic duo Dan Allison (London, UK) and Jody DeSchutter (BC, Canada). Reconfigured field recordings, synths, vocals, homemade instruments and loops scaffold or entomb DeSchutter’s Dada-esque words, allowing the listener to co-navigate the landscape.
In conjunction with the exhibition there will also be an in-conversation with the artists and Daniel Herrmann, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects, National Gallery, London at 4:30pm
Free Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hearing-feeling-remembering-tickets-414320452627?aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1
Dronica Podcast #63: Jody DeSchutter
16 August 2022
Monthly episodes on Resonance Extra. Founder and curator, Nicola Serra, presents archive of live materials from previous incarnations as well as special episodes about the experimental London scene and International artists.
In this episode, Dronica meets Jody DeSchutter.
Jody DeSchutter is a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from Canada, now living and working in London. She is one half of BAG, a spoken word and sound duo, alongside her partner Dan Allison. DeSchutter writes and performs in conversation with the immersive sound crafted by Allison, the two merging familiar and unknown, and ultimately building new landscapes and contexts.
DeSchutter practices painting and sculpture in tandem with spoken word and sound, working at their intersections and allowing edges to dissolve. She is interested in exploring these 'in between' and ever-shifting spaces.
In this episode, DeSchutter has collaged some favourite and formative work, ideas, and inspirations in anticipation of two BAG albums currently being moulded and burnished.
LISTEN HERE: https://www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/dronica-63-dronica-meets-jody-deschutter-tuesday-16th-august-2022/
Doris Press Presents The Molecular Weight of Water by Jody DeSchutter
26 May 2022
The Molecular Weight of Water is published by the artist-run magazine founded and edited by British painter Rachel Howard.
READ AND LISTEN HERE: https://www.doris.press/blog/the-molecular-weight-of-water
TRANSMUTE | A collection of poetical substances to be said out loud: First Run Release
23 April 2022
A5 sized handmade booklet with card (Orange, Green, Pink) or sugar paper (Blue, Cream) Lino-printed cover and hand-bound in coloured embroidery thread.
This is the very first run of handmade poetry booklets by Jody DeSchutter: written, edited, and handcrafted by the artist. In anticipation of upcoming sonic releases this collection of spoken word has been transcribed to the page, pulling together previously released material and the yet-to-be-released. With an interest in how the words morph between spoken and written, this collection serves as an alternate perspective to the words performed as part of BAG.
PURCHASE HERE: https://bagbagbagsound.bandcamp.com/merch/transmute-a-collection-of-poetical-substances-to-be-said-out-loud
Black Hole Bungalow - Camp Radio
24th Feb 2022
“We’ve woken up in a fabricated bungalow nestled between bosons and fermions. Now traverse the colliding and collected sounds, song, and words emitted from BAG’s radar...”
The final episode of the Black Hole Bungalow is airing on Camp Radio today, 8pm GMT. BHB is a radio show produced, narrated, and edited by Jody DeSchutter and Dan Allison, the duo behind BAG Sound Project. The archived episodes are all up on Mixcloud, links below.
EPISODE 1: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-03rd-december-2020/
EPISODE 2: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-25th-february-2021/
EPISODE 3: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-20th-may-2021/
EPISODE 4: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-09th-september-2021/
EPISODE 5: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-02nd-december-2021/
EPISODE 6: https://www.mixcloud.com/camp_fr/black-hole-bungalow-24th-february-2022/
Listen to Camp Radio live and access full archives: http://listen.camp
Daylight Music 338 Review by Paul Hudson
18 November 2021
“This weekend’s Daylight Music was curated by Terry Edwards as part of the London Jazz Festival. Featuring his Near Jazz Experience and his hand picked selection of artists. It proved to be a very popular session and a much needed boost to the returning Daylight series.
Welcoming the audience as they arrived to St John’s in Bethnal Green, Paul Cuddeford’s blues on a steel guitar gave the audience a hint of what to expect. Today’s curation is very much a near jazz experience. Music that skirts around the edges of jazz but shares much of its ethos. Something the discerning Jazz audience seemed to engage with. Well most did, apparently two ladies left after the first act proclaiming to the volunteers on the door ‘that wasn’t jazz’. Nice to see they have such an open mind to new music
The offending artists were BAG. They mix spoken word with various electronic sounds and music. To be fair to the two ladies. No it wasn’t ‘jazz’. But there was a theme today. Terry’s choices put vocals at the fore. In this case, the vocals used to deconstruct our expectations of musical structures – a bit like the improvisation bits in jazz. Vocals speeding up and slowing down, accenting different bits of variable length sentences. All the time, forcing the music to shift form. I can see the connection. But to be honest, who cares. It was a fascinating performance.”
…
READ THE FULL REVIEW: https://www.downatthefront.co.uk/archives/8455
338: EFG London Jazz Festival – Terry Edwards presents The Near Jazz Experience, Jan Goodkin & Rod Melvin, Jem Moore + BAG
13 November 2021
An invitation from Terry Edwards on a journey down a rabbit hole of sound and ideas. 12:00pm to 2:00pm November 13th at St. John on Bethnal Green; pay-what-can-entry.
http://daylightmusic.co.uk/event/338/
“We tune into BAG which consists of transatlantic duo Dan Allison (London) and Jody DeSchutter (BC, Canada), whose strange worlds are journeyed and mapped; sounds and words dissolve into colour and back again. Then the bass and voice of Jem Moore (The Scapegoats; Serious Drinking) performing a unique interpretation of The Masque of Anarchy, the long poem which Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in indignation against the Peterloo Massacre of 1819.
Our series has for over a decade been about the ‘experience’, an invitation to a journey down a rabbit hole of sound and ideas. A running theme is collaging or the pull and push of the disparate into a whole. This is a concert originally conceived for a milestone birthday but delayed by the world put on pause. We now invite you to go through the looking glass with multi-instrumentalist - and legend - Terry Edwards (Tindersticks, PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk, Holy Holy, Jerry Dammers etc)
The Smiths' melodies have always reminded Terry of Plainsong - where better to listen to those melodies than the benign walls of St John's (courtesy of soprano Jan Goodkin with piano interventions from Rod Melvin)?
We move finally to Edwards’s own direct contribution with The Near Jazz Experience. This ensemble combines the rhythm section of Madness bassist Mark Bedford and former Higsons drummer Simon Charterton with Terry Edwards front playing saxes (two at once), trumpet, melodica & flute. This is a two-hour expedition in new music, near the edges of genre, that will pour like tea into the curious minds and souls sat in the pews.
Over a decade, Arctic Circle's Daylight Music has become a staple of the capital’s live music scene, with an eclectic mix of music, delicious cake, and iconic venues. Featured regularly in Time Out’s 101 Things To Do in London and cited in The Rough Guide to Make the Most of Your Time in Britain it has become both an institution for Londoners, and a reason to visit the city!”
St John on Bethnal Green,
200 Cambridge Heath Rd
E2 9PA
Bezirk x IKLECTIK | BAG x BEHRENS Debut Live Performance
07 August 2021
IKLECTIK presents,
Bezirk x IKLECTIK
Saturday 7 August 2021 | 8:30pm (doors 7:30pm)
Tickets: £12 early bird (25 tickets) / General Admission £15: https://buytickets.at/iklectik/552160
IKLECTIK x Bezirk present a night of multidimensional, electronic music. From the audio/visual media misuse of London duo Sculpture, to BAG X BEHRENS poetics of circuits and voice, and JC Leisure’s reanimation of the rave archive. These artists all twist ideas of sampling, analogue vs digital and machine vs human autonomy in their vibrant sonics.
The event will be enlivened by Beachers (aka Daryl Worthington) DJ sets!
IKLECTIK: ‘Old Paradise Yard’ 20 Carlisle Lane (Royal Street corner) next to Archbishop’s Park, SE1 7LG
Redshifted / Brood Ten Release
30 July 2021
BAG X BEHRENS is the thrilling collaboration between London-based poetry/electronics duo BAG (aka Dan Allison & Jody DeSchutter) and visual and sound artist Charlie Behrens.
Their debut release, Redshifted/Brood Ten, is a work of speculative exploration, with vibrant sonics and vivid poetry weaving into and around each other. DeSchutter treats words and syllables as malleable matter, haptic objects to be stretched out, twisted and molded. Allison and Behren’s electronics, taking in dub deep negative space, pristine sound design and ghostly frequencies add not so much a backing track as a dialogic component. Pronunciation weaves into beats, language harmonises with pure music, to create an outline of the slippery worlds that can’t be pinned down by either sound or words. “We want that constellation of elsewhere,” says DeSchutter on Redshifted. It serves as fitting statement of intent for the abstract modes of perception BAG X BEHRENS chart.
This double A-side is a teaser for the soon to be released BAG X BEHRENS collaboration album. The project was born from a respect of each others recent 2020 releases ‘Mapping Azure’ and ‘Uneasing’.
Spoken word, synth, modules & beats invite the listener into an electronic landscape where smell is colour and sound has weight.
Released July 30, 2021 on Lathe-cut transparent 2mm 7” vinyl and gold liner cassette
Written and performed by Jody DeSchutter, Dan Allison & Charlie Behrens.
Mastering by Binary Feedback
Cut by Plastidis
BUY / LISTEN NOW:
https://bagxbehrens.bandcamp.com/album/redshifted-brood-ten
https://bagbagbagsound.bandcamp.com/album/redshifted-brood-ten
https://collapsingdrums.bandcamp.com/album/redshifted-brood-ten
Interview on The Silver Stream, Soho Radio Culture Channel
05 April 2021
Byzantia Harlow creates and hosts a monthly show on Soho Radio. A journey through ideas in collaboration with invited guests. Using artworks, writing and music as navigation points within a stream of consciousness.
This episode features an interview with Jody Deschutter and Dan Allison, and tracks from BAG and GOMM. It aired on Soho Radio at 6pm GMT and is available for catch up on MixCloud, link below.
Review in The Quietus by Daryl Worthington
18 December 2020
BAG - Mapping Azure
(Bloxham Tapes)
“How do you describe a colour to someone who’s never seen it? How do you map a cloudless sky? These are the sorts of questions of communication BAG, the duo of Brit Dan Allison and Canadian Jody DeSchutter seem to engage with on debut tape Mapping Azure. The combination of electronics, field recordings and poetry are simultaneously vivid and vague. Clusters of words are read, often without obvious connection, but this isn’t a completely random language soup. Constellations start to form so that even if sense doesn’t fully appear, its echo does. The accompanying soundscape has a similar effect, shifting from almost inaudible pulses to pristine arpeggios and lurking beats. It occasionally seems at odds with the poems, but maybe that distance is where the real meaning lies?
Mapping Azure seems to dig at the very essence of communication. When we reach the limit of vocabulary we resort to metaphor or describing the effect of something rather than the thing itself. That seems to be the case with BAG’s music, a weird schematic of something unknown that can only be conveyed through allusion.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://thequietus.com/articles/29322-the-best-of-spools-out-2020
Skin of the World EP Release
08 October 2020
'Skin of the World' is taken from the album 'Mapping Azure' by BAG.
This EP includes remixes by IlSantoBevitore and Holst.
ilsantobevitore.bandcamp.com
holstmakesmusic.bandcamp.com
'Skin of the World' features Natalie Dzbik
Cover art by Jody DeSchutter
released October 8, 2020 by BAG
BUY / LISTEN NOW: https://bagbagbagsound.bandcamp.com/album/skin-of-the-world-ep
BAG’s Debut Release Mapping Azure
26 September 2020
Reconfigured field recordings, synths, vocals, homemade instruments and loops scaffold or entomb DeSchutter’s Dada-esque words, allowing the listener to co-navigate the landscape.
Their debut release, Mapping Azure, breathes fractured and cyclic narrative-like nonsense into vast soundscapes and pulses. It pushes forward over mountain and valley like breath, like water, like sky.
Strange worlds are journeyed and mapped; sounds and words dissolve into colour and back again.
Released September 26, 2020 by Bloxham Tapes
All tracks written by BAG
Interlude, Skin of the World and Ode to Slug feature Natalie Dzbik
Recorded and mastered by BAG
Design by Luke Drozd
LINKS:
Buy limited edition cassette or digital album from Bloxham Tapes here
The deXter Bentley Hello GoodBye Show | ft. BAG + Molejoy
02 May 2020
The Hello GoodBye Show is an upbeat, eclectic new music show hosted by deXter Bentley every Saturday lunchtime between midday and 1.30pm on London’s only dedicated art’s radio station Resonance 104.4 FM.
Saturday 2nd May 2020. Today: spoken word, bright ideas and sound-art combine in BAG. (Jody DeSchutter and Daniel Allison)
Plus, irreverent, socio-punkitical clatter and holler from Molejoy.
Broadcast in Central London on 104.4 FM, D.A.B. in Greater London and worldwide on-line via: RadioPlayer
LINKS:
Earwax | Jody DeSchutter (BAG)
30 April 2020
Earwax is a platform for womxn identifying artists who work with sound and performance based practices. The Earwax community is made up of writers, musicians, sound artists, DJs and those whose practice is not yet defined. We work to develop each artists work in its respective form. Ensuring that all Womxn identifying sound artists have access to a space where they can be vulnerable, in order to nurture and perform their work.
Starts at 6pm BST on Instagram Live
LINKS:
Cease Producing Stimuli | Deptford X
25 Oct 2019 - 3 Nov 2019
Taking the festival theme literally, rephrasing the title and looking in depth at the lateral meaning of sense itself…Cease Producing Stimuli.
We bring together a collection of artists and performers to investigate the meaning behind these three words, they will ultimately fold in on each other and collapse and reform and collapse and reform with their inability to ‘cease’ or ‘stop’.
Festival Theme: Stop making Sense Stop Making Sense is the starting point for 2019’s festival, which looks to surreal, playful and unruly art as a disruption to our current political climate of hostility and division. The title is borrowed from Talking Heads’ 1984 concert film of the same name.
Location: Deptford Market Yard Unit 1 (under the carriageway ramp opposite the Taproom).
Curated by: Daniel Allison & Samuel Hailey-Watts
Essay by: Matt Carey-Williams
In Between And Through | Jody DeSchutter
10 Oct 2019 – 13 Oct 2019
Launch night: Friday 11th October 7-10pm (Performance by BAG sound project at 8pm)
DeSchutter mobilises a combination of established media in an effort to explore the spaces ‘In between’ and ‘through’. Using a culmination of familiar and unknown simulacra, DeSchutter’s practice celebrates the lack of singular origin or system and embraces paradox. Ideas and forms become cyclical acts, endless loops; the familiar becomes the unknown and vice versa. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Aware of the immediacy of portraiture or the domesticity of textiles, these works are interested in bridging such functions of understanding with the contemplation of nonsense, unknowing, or subjectivity. Self-consciously, these pieces converse with nothingness and play with a child-like wonderment. The portal becomes an overused symbol of attempting to access that which we do not know or cannot know and the resulting multi-‘truths’ carried by each viewer.
These uncategorised spaces (‘in’ ‘between’ ‘and’ ‘through’) tend to mimic her own self-doubts and hypocrisies, seeking to embrace transition and inform a forward motion. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Born in Lake Country BC Canada, she received a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts in Victoria BC. DeSchutter now lives and works in London UK. Her work spans over spoken word, painting, sculpture, printmaking, tattoo, and community engagement.
LINKS: