Spark Festival - Found Sound
Up at the crack of dawn to bid Kim and Bryn goodbye and hit the road with Duncan. Made good time over to Bradley International in Hartford Connecticut. Had some fun finding the long-term parking but got right on a shuttle in the lot and were on our way. Good flight out to Chicago, but delayed on the Minneapolis leg. Finally got in and through the airport fun to find that the Holiday Inn Metrodome was best reached by Super Shuttle. Stopped at all the rest of the downtown hotels before making our way over beyond the Metrodome. Checked in to the hotel and freshened up before heading across the river the check out the Whole where Duncan and I would perform the following morning as part of the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts’ Concert of Found Sound/Audio Appropriation. The venue looked decent, with video screens flanking the stage.
Were over at the venue by 08:30. Well ahead of our 09:30-10:00 soundcheck. Dave Hill, the manager of the Whole was happy to have us step right up and get plugged in and our levels adjusted. Chatted with Bob Siebert for a while about airport security and him being a terrorist with his circuit bent Casio SK-1 keyboard. Greg Carr was along a short while later with a turntable coffin from the wayback machine. It was sporting 3 tonearms and was piped to a Space Echo tape delay.
A series of CDs followed Greg’s awesome opener. Then Duncan and I were up, he made a nice intro and I got busy with Ableton Live. The IBVA software went on the fritz and the performance was less than optimal. But the audience had no idea and Duncan along with the curators were quite pleased.
[
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2310694047 “View ‘Duncan Laurie introducing “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”) [
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2311503216 “View ‘Todd and Duncan perform “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”) [
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2310693343 “View ‘Todd and Duncan perform “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”) [
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2310693123 “View ‘Todd and Duncan perform “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”) [
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2310692943 “View ‘Todd and Duncan perform “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”) [
](https://www.flickr.com/photos/57611802@N00/2310692701 “View ‘Todd and Duncan perform “Rock Music”’ on Flickr.com”)
Zipped out before the last of the CDs played in the Found Sound event to go and take in a talk by James and Todd of Graffiti Research Lab. Friend Ali Momeni had built 3 of the Mobile Broadcast Units. GRL put on a nice presentation about their recent work. Had lunch with the GRL boys, Ali and some of the students.
