AVALANCHE THOUGHTS
by
ANDREW POPPY & JULIA BARDSLEY

to be presented at
GAle GAtes et al. 37, Main Street, Brooklyn, New York
10th - 12th January 2002
and
New Territories Festival, Tramway, 25, Albert Drive, Glasgow
13th - 14th February 2002

AVALANCHE THOUGHTS
by Andrew Poppy & Julia Bardsley

opens the NEW TERRITORIES Festival

Featuring TANIA CHEN, piano
Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th February 2002
Exhibition open from 7pm Performance starts 7.30pm

Tramway One, 25, Albert Drive, Glasgow G41 2PE
Box Office: 0141 287 5511

www.galegates.org      www.newmoves.co.uk     www.juliabardsley.net

What they said in New York:

AVALANCHE THOUGHTS, a work by the leading collaborative team of UK sound artist/composer Andrew Poppy and visual artist/filmmaker Julia Bardsley, "is a hybrid and heterogeneous work that combines the experience of the gallery, theater and concert hall, balancing video projection with live recorded music, sculptural objects, photographs, and text as object and sound."

Yes, the combination might sound like an overkill, but this performance/installation is a commixture that brilliantly blurs the lines of space and memory, capturing stillness in the palm of tireless labor, as a traveller lost in a blizzard fights with oblivion and certainty.

The piece features excerpts from Bardsley's short film, SNOW, with a partially trenchant otherwise soporific score by Poppy. It is nostalgia, glorified through moments of pleasure and destructive impulse - the embodiment of all that transforms the moment into eternity, saturated with agonising and erotic deliberations of the mind that incessantly press into the consciousness and finally surrenders to the articulation of the piano (performed live by Tania Chen) while the blizzard is kept at bay, still haunting, waiting, breathing into the rims of rationality. The only symbol of certainty is a chair, a chair that embodies the ghost of human experience - sensuous, scarred and hauntingly beautiful.

I would encourage you to resist the urge to close your eyes and revel in the unfolding musical performance, lest you miss the breath-taking subtlety with which the space melds into the fingertips of the pianist... AVALANCHE THOUGHTS will leave you lingering - in the blizzards of your mind, in the images of your memory, luring you to indulge in the tangential fabrications of your own senses.

Ahmet Sibdial Sau FOILMAGAZINE

21 October 2001

Some belated information: two magazines featured new interviews with Andrew Poppy earlier this year. The first was the online magazine Stride, the other interview was with the Spanish Magazine called MARGEN. The latter also included a CD containing the previously unreleased track 'Revolution Number Eight: Airport for Joseph Beuys' and loads of material by other artists.

A number of minor updates to the site. It now contains a reviews section. And an essay on Glyn Perrin was added to the articles section.

12 October 2001

12/stages2: [a forensic mnemonic]

a film by Julia Bardsley & Aldona Cunningham
with original music by Andrew Poppy

selected for the
19th WORLD WIDE VIDEO FESTIVAL, Amsterdam
10th October - 11th November 2001 www.wwvf.nl
&
the international Competition of the
9th BIENNALE de L'IMAGE en MOUVEMENT, Geneva
2nd - 11th November 2001 www.centreimage.ch/bim

12 October 2001

ANDREW POPPY in CONCERT

Tuesday 16th October 7:30
Axis Theatre Alsager Arts Center
on the Alsager campus of the Manchester Metroploitan University

TIME AT REST DEVOURING ITS SECRET

WEIGHING THE MEASURE
new work

SNOW/SNOWDRONIA
with film

Tania Chen: piano
Mick Foster: soprano and baritone saxophones
Robert Jarvis: trombone
Christian Probst: hard and soft faders
Andrew Poppy: electric piano
Julia Bardsley: images and projections

further details and travel directions see www.mmu.ac.uk
or call Dept of Contemporary Arts 0161 247 5302

5 March 2001

ANDREW POPPY
presents a unique post-minimal mix at THE SPACE including the new CD

TIME AT REST DEVOURING ITS SECRET
"bewitching, beautifully crafted and highly addictive" THE WIRE
and
AVALANCHE THOUGHTS
with TANIA CHEN piano

Thursday 22 March 8.00 pm
at
THE SPACE

269 West Ferry Rd, Isle of Dogs E14 signposted and
7 mins from MUDCHUTE docklands light railway connects to Jubilee line
box office 020 7515 7799 - £6/4 cafe and bar

4 February 2001

TARDIS
On Thursday 15th February 2001 there will be a special presentation of Time At Rest Devouring its Secret at National Review of Live Art in Glasgow.
21:30 Studio Theatre, The Arches Glasgow.
Further details: www.newmoves.co.uk

Delta Beta
A sound installation by Glyn Perrin (former Lost Jockey and Man Jumping) commissioned by National Review of Live Art will be installed by Andrew Poppy. The new work runs from 13:00 to 22:30 from Wednesday 14th to Sunday 18th Feb at The Arches, Glasgow.

Composer's Discussion
Andrew Poppy will be part of a composer's discussion 21:30 The Arches Glasgow Friday 16 Feb. 2001

New Score
A new score for Burning Bright a play by the American author John Steinbeck. A new production directed by Alison Peebles opens at The Tramway in Glasgow on Tueday 13 March 2001 for 15 performances. The company web site is at: www.biganimal.co.uk/clients/vamp

31 December 2000

The new CD Time at Rest Devouring It's Secret received a very good review in The Wire magazine.

31 December 2000

This month brought the London premiere of Poems & Toccatas. Performance details as follows:

EXPERIMENTS & ECCENTRICITIES
Tuesday 5th December 2000
7:30pm
The Warehouse 13 Theed Street, Waterloo

Darragh Morgan Violin
Dominic Saunders Piano

Mark Taylor: 2 Fragments for Darragh Morgan **
John White: Elegant Melancholy **
Christopher Fox: The Anatomy of Light **
Cornelius Cardew: The East is Red
Gerald Barry: Triorchic Blues
Chris Newman: Romance in C for Optional Lovers
Andrew Poppy: Poems & Toccatas *
Joe Phibbs: Fantasia *

** World Premiere * London Premiere

28 October 2000

The new releases on souRce research recordings will be available for purchase online from the following site: http://www.irislight.demon.co.uk/s.htm.

17 October 2000

A new solo release is due for October 30, 2000. The mid-price CD entitled Time at Rest Devouring Its Secret will be released on the souRce research recordings label and feature a single 35 minutes track.

At the same time, the emre [Dark Matter] compilation is coming out on the same label. The piece contributed by Andrew Poppy on that compilation is called Blind Fold. Other artists featured on this compilation are COH, Coil, Ovum, Cyclobe, souRce research, and Leif Elggren.

3 August 2000

The following info was received from Ian Peel. On September 3rd, Annie Nightingale's show on BBC Radio 1 will air Goodbye Mr G, and two sections of Cadenza by Andrew Poppy. These tracks are played as part of an overview of ZTT's most ambient moments from the past 15 years. You can find more info at the Radio 1 website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 and there will be details added to Annie Nightingale's section at www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/djs/nightingale.shtml. There is also some info in the Radio section of Ian's own website: www.ianpeel.com.

11 June 2000

On Saterday June 17th, the Premiere Screening of Snow, a 22'30" short film by Julia Bardsley featuring music by Andrew Poppy, will take place at the first Greenwich Film Festival in the programme Art & Dance Special. Programme starts at 1:00PM (ends 2:40PM).

For reservations:
Greenwich Cinema
180, High Road SE10
Telephone bookings: 020 8293 0101

Limited seats, so book early. Tickets UKP4/2.50 concs.

Festival info hotline: 020 8694 2218

16 April 2000

On March 27, the Smith String Quartet released their new CD Good Medicine on the Glissando label, featuring the track Last Light by Andrew Poppy.
The album is available from Amazon.com. Search for 'good medicine' in the Classical Music section.

Andrew Poppy has made a little electric piano piece for a CD that's coming out on a label called source-reseach based in Scotland. Additional info can also be found here: http://www.mapref.co.uk.

4 April 2000

Graham Fitkin Group will perform a new version of 32 Frames for small ensemble in Rome at the Instituzione Universitaira dei Concerti, Lungotevere Flaminio 50 Roma.

January 2000

Heidi Latsky is choreographing Cadenza (from The Beating of Wings) for her New York based company Goldhuber & Latsky. The duo are highly acclaimed for their work with Bill T. Jones. Performances are at the Joyce Theatre New York on 25, 29 30th January as part of the Altogether Different Series.

(All the works from the Beating of wings have been professionally choreographed at some point in the last 10 year. Many work have also been used for student workshops and exercises.)

2000

Snow a film based on Ted Hughes' story of the same name and with a score by Andrew Poppy will be premiered early in the new year.

November 99

The Smith String Quartet will record Last Light for their new CD on the Pure Classics label.

October, 1999

There is a feature on Andrew Poppy at the British Music Information Centre (BMIC). See the 'news & features' section.

13-23 October 99

Andrew made a special mix of his orchestral work: 'Revolution no 8: Airport for Joseph Beuys' for an installation of photographs, projections and items of evidence called 12 Stages 3 (a memory theatre) by Julia Bardsley and Aldona Cunningham presented at The Theatre Toynebee Studios Commercial Street E1.

21 October

Ruth Wall and Ann Morphy play 'Poems and Toccatas' No 11/4/7 in Dorchester as part of The Graham Fitkin Group's concert.

21 September 99

Andrew plays his solo piano works 'Trace of a Reed' and 'Matters of Theory' in London Fashion week. Since leaving Jasper Conran Julian Roberts and his company Nothing Nothing has become a name to watch. A long time admirer of Andrew's work Julian asked him to play for the show which was held at the Atlantic Gallery in Brick Lane. Julian is currently editing a special video of his work accompanied by the piano score.

June, 1999

The website now includes some RealAudio clips from Andrew Poppy's more recent albums. Check out the discography page. Go to the RealAudio website to get the appropriate audio player, RealPlayer G2.

10 May 99

String Factory conducted by Nick Pendelbury play a string orchestra version of Last Light at the Isleworth Festival.

March/April 99

Andrew presented his work on the west coast of America: on Dean Suzuki's show at radio KPFA, at San Francisco State University and at CalArts ( California Institute of the Arts).

February, 1999

A new piece called 'Ghost' premiered at Roehampton Institute London on Wed 10th Feb. It's being performed by a group called Gemini. The piece is for clarinet, violin cello and piano and is based on some of the trio music. The concert is in a series called British Music of the 1990s.

This is the programme note:

1. Discussing the impact of the player piano in the 1900’s Hillel Schwartz in The Culture of the Copy states that piano rolls presented active ghosts striking or stroking the keys A player piano company claimed it is the actual playing of Rachmaninoff just as if he were personally at the keyboard. Today the situation is inverted. The saturation of recording as a primary musical experience turns live performance into a Ghost
   
   
2. A narrow platform upon the battlements. Starlight, very cold.
   Barnardo: Who’s there? - William Shakespeare Hamlet
   
   
3. In the Banks Islands there are some stones of a remarkably long shape which go by the name of ‘eating ghosts’ because certain powerful and dangerous ghosts are believed to lodge in them. If a man’s shadow falls on one of these stones, the ghosts will draw his soul out of him so that he will die - Sir James Frazer The Golden Bough
   
   
4. A sort of umbilical cord links the body of the photographed thing to my gaze: light though impalpable is here a carnal medium, a skin I share with anyone who has been photographed. Roland Barthes Camera Lucida

December, 1998

The Smith String Quartet perform Last Light at Bruno Letort's Tapage Nocturne festival in Paris.

October, 1998

There is a world premier of a new work called End Synch Sound on 10th October 1998 at the Palace Theatre Newark. It's performed by the Charlie Barber Band for whom it was written earlier this year. The tour consists of 8 dates in total. Here is the programme note:

"The work incorporates an educational film made by Encyclopaedia Britannica in the 1950s. Director unknown. The film shows some aspects of life in a Chinese village. End Synch Sound (an instruction written on the end of the film), echoes surrealist technique in its re contextualising and restructuring of a found object. The score does not attempt to psychologically interpret the images but rather to work with the details and flow (?) of their construction. The authority of the didactic and unseen narrator is brought into relief by disengaging his statements and suggestions from the images. The music, the presentation of images and the explanations of language are hopefully experienced as the play of moments in construction. Duration 15 mins."

September, 1998

Last October [1997] AP gave a lunch time concert at Goldsmiths College of a new suite of a piece called Mouthing the Words for two singers and a band of 8 musicians. AP has since revised the material for a slightly bigger band of 10 musicians. AP plans to record it at some point in the very near future.

In March 1998 AP made a performance at the Telegraph Hill Festival in South London with some new music written for mixed quartet. Piano/electric piano, Tenor sax, Accordion and Cello. They played Snowdronia a concert version of music written for a short film Snow by Julia Bardsley adapted from a short story by Ted Hughes. AP has almost completed some more music for this quartet and they hope to perform and record it soon also.

Stop the Press (a rumour): Poppy and Ensemble to support Art of Noise in 1999 touring extravaganza.

Andrew Poppy recently wrote an article on film music in the "International Film Guide". You can read the full article here. 

HORN HORN 
Concerto for 2 alto saxophones 

commissioned by 
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 

John Harle & Simon Haram alto saxophones 

Conductor Sachio Fujioka 

World Premiere 19th March 1997 
7.30 pm Philharmonic Hall, 
Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BP 
Box office 0151 709 3789 

Original plans were to take part in the festivities of the cultural capital Copenhagen in September '96 with a theatrical presentation of Ophelia/Ophelia. However, lack of funds prevented this from happening. This also prevented BiTtA TwIsTiNg ReCs AnD PrOdS from launching their own website as intended, which was planned to be linked to the website of the festival. 

Nevertheless the summer was very busy. Work is in progress for a double saxophone concerto for the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which is called HORN HORN. Premiere March 1997. 

Also, AP hopes to return to live performances which is, he says, "the area I want to address as soon as possible". 

Created by Keesjan van Bunningen. Last modified on October 11, 2003