First of May 2010

"When I was small and Christmas trees were tall,
We used to love while others used to play.
Don’t ask me why, but time has passed us by,
Some one else moved in from far away.
Now we are tall, and Christmas trees are small,
And you don’t ask the time of day.
But you and i, our love will never die,
But guess we’ll cry come First of May."
There's something important to be said.

There may be those of you who know me and my partner and our current "situation" and thinking, why is he writing a blog and not taking care of other more important things? Yes, Sally and I are at the waiting stage, the 'hoping it will start soon' stage! Both of us can be notoriously control-freakish and therefore, us much as one can be prepared, we have planned and set up for the birth. And so at the moment there are long periods of waiting and thus this little entry. Yes, by the time of my next entry (perhaps by the time you read this) I will be a father. Daunting, exciting, terrifying and inspiring all simultaneously, which is a lot to be experiencing. For the last 9 months it's been in my mind whilst trying to carry on with day-to-day business and life. The last month or so has been particularly scattered psychologically, but ultimately I know it will be good!

And I'm only speaking of me, it's not really my place to speak about Sally here, but I cannot possibly imagine what it must be like to be an expectant mother. So here's my utter respect and admiration! Ultimately any words that I attempt to write about something so profound and yet so simple and everyday (which is why it's profound), can potentially trivialise it, so I'll stop there.

So amongst the thoughts of impending parenthood, some other things have taken place and I'll outline them here;

On March 12, I performed a live soundscape/mix at the opening of Chora Choruses at Kings ARI in Melbourne. I had initially produced a surround soundscape for Fiona Lee's work in the show (with Cath Robinson) and was also asked to perform at the opening, using the same audio sources (10 songs chosen by the Kings board). Seemed to go over okay. Images below; two live performance shots (taken by Fiona Lee)

mumble(speak) performed as opener for the Jandek show at the Philip Smith Centre in Hobart on March 26, 2010. All I can say is, it was an honour to be on the same bill as Jandek, a great band and fantastic folks and my set was well received and proved to be a good warmup for the upcoming tour, see below. Thanks very much to Heathen Skulls for bring Jandek to Australia and to Pip and Andrew for organising the Hobart gig with MONA and allowing me to perform. Cheers also to Lee for the mix and to Jason for lights. Below two images from the mumble(speak) set (images by Sally Rees) and below that some live excerpts from the set.

mumble(speak) - 'Goodend/Godsend' by MattWarren

mumble(speak) - 'storm' by MattWarren

mumble(speak) - 'bad' by MattWarren

Untermorast (my dark/drone/psych duo with Tim Panaretos) played a set for the Edge Radio Benefit 'Weird Heavy' night at the Brisbane Hotel on April 14. We played with Evil Goat, The Wizar'd and Traitor. Cool bill, under-patronised unfortunately. Please keep an eye out for Untermorast releases, possibly as split-cassette and a CD sometime in the future.

Coming up soon:
May 5: Save 10 Murray Street Presets: 'Please Don't Let Me Be Understood' http://save10murray.wordpress.com/ I began the Exhalation performance project in 2008 and I intend on performing it every year for the rest of my life. It is an ongoing work about mortality and as I was invited along with 34 other artists, to contribute to this exhibition, I thought it was an apt work to include. So for this version I performed this work in my studio (Dead Letter Office) and on the final breath took a photo, with lens steamed up with breath. The physical work I am donating to the exhibition is a print (the only one apart from the artist's proof) and a CD of the performance recording (again only one apart from the artist archive copy). Opens: 6pm - Wednesday May 5, 2010 at the Waterside Pavilion, Mawson Place, Hobart.

May 29: The Antipodean Homecoming Show. The first Australian show for THRALL in 3 years will also feature local harcore/grinders Traitor, my mate Tom Hall's awesome AXXONN and my projects Untermorast and first gig since February for MOIO. MOIO by the way are currently working on new material, approx. 5 new songs (we will debut some at this next gig). We will be releasing a new recording sometime in the future and have been invite to contribute a track to Julian Teakle's second edition of 'Community' a compilation of Hobart bands/musicians. The gig is at 9pm, Saturday May 29, 2010 at the Brisbane Hotel, Hobart.

June: mumble(speak) tour
Thanks to Sound Travellers, mumble(speak) will be undertaking an Australian tour called 'The Good and Band People and Things' tour 2010. Almost all dates/venues confirmed;
June 16: Stutter, Melbourne
June 18: 6a, Hobart
June 19: …., Perth
June 20: Serial Space, Sydney
June 25: DVVA, Darwin
June 26: Browning Street Studios, Brisbane
June 27: Feltspace, Adelaide.
Hope to see you at one of these!

August: Sönaris - a video and surround sound installation. A new solo work that will be an ongoing exploratory and hopefully evolving work. An in-progress still is below.