As well as the musicians and composers I've had the good fortune to work with and play alongside; Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Sylvia Hallett, Clive Bell, Mark Hewins, Martin Mayes, Brian Sansome, Myles Boisen, John Russell, Torsten Muller, Gerd Glasmer, Dave Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Trevor Wishart, Dominic Murcott, Jem Finer, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Elysian String Quartet, The Tiger Lillies ... recent filmmaking activities have brought me back into into contact with the work of; Howard Skempton, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Luc Ferrari, John Cage, all of whom have been strong formative musical influences and whose work still excites and interests me today. I also remain an enduring fan of; Brian Eno, Erik Satie, Fred Frith, Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre, Dagmar Krause, Olivier Messiaen and of course, Captain Beefheart.
Movies
The Louise T Blouin Institute in West London recently joined the client list for www.richardcoldman.com. So far, three videos have been post-produced for webcast, educational and archive purposes.
Richard Meier Art & Architecture Exhibition
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Web video featuring the Richard Meier Art & Architecture Exhibition for the Louise T Blouin Institute in London, November 2007.
Escapade by Akademi
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Excerpt from a large-scale projection I filmed and edited in collaboration with choreographer/film maker Mark Murphy. The video projected on a wall of the Royal Festival Hall underpinned a site-specific event including 137 artists and performers, 59 production staff and an audience of 16,000.
See the projection in context in the next video ...
Installation for String Quartet
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"Installation for String Quartet was composed and devised by Dominic Murcott, performed by the Elysian String Quartet and conducted by Andrew Morley. The installation and the documentation videos were filmed and edited by Richard Coldman."
Excerpt from Alston in Overdrive
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A walk through the educational DVD I made with choreographer Richard Alston, in which he gives a very thorough breakdown of his piece Overdrive. Composer Terry Riley comments on the use of his music by dancers and the musical structure is analysed in depth by Dominic Murcott, Head of Composition at Trinity College of Music.
Accordion Crossover
This video palindrome featuring the accordionist Janie Armour was projected as part of a live performance of "Dark Blue Time" by the No Orchestra at B.A.C. London 2001. The single continuous take was used in its entirety and the flash of light sweeping across the pavement exactly half-way through is pure coincidence.
Import Export
Alexander Gorlizki in India, introducing some of the artists and craftsmen who aided him in the manufacture of items such as the Anthemist's shoe from "North Sea Circle" (see The Anthemist).
Richard Coldman - Video for the Arts Since 1990
.. a compilation of arts video that I have produced, directed, shot, edited and often made my own tea on. Artists include Lol Coxhill, Ultramarine, Richard Alston Dance Company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Terry Riley, Steffen Schleiermacher, Dominic Murcott, Elysian String Quartet, Tracy Emin, Alexander Gorlizki, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Charles Linehan, Yolande Snaith, Akademi and V-TOL Dance Company.
Rebecca Skelton - clip from short film
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"The late Rebecca Skelton, choreographer and dancer, seen here in a clip from a short 16mm film made for projection as part of a solo dance performance in 1993. The music is by Andrew Deakin and the camerawork is by AJ Murray. The film is directed and edited by Richard Coldman."
Pattern Dreamers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1AJjvfO_Rs
The sleepers have never met in the waking world. An ocean separates them. They are joined only by dreams.
Commissioned for "DarkLight" at Martin Kudlek Gallery, Cologne 2001.
... and now for something completely different - Question Time pitch to the BBC
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Anarchy in the Ukulele 2005
Television
At home we finally got rid of TV altogether. This has been a brilliant time-saving, life-enhancing act! We should really have done it sooner. Of course, TV wasn't completely devoid of interest. I edited the QUESTION TIME pitch video (above-second from last clip) for Mentorn when the BBC put the contract up for grabs last year. I also had some fun behind the scenes shooting David Dimbleby developing rapport with his audience before the show and some of the action in the gallery and on the floor. I became more passionately involved when I found out that Endemol's (Big Brother etc.) "factual" arm, Cheetah were bidding as well. For me, Endemol represents all that is sick and useless about British TV. The dumbing down of the dumber than dumbest brain-rotting tripe (I'm showing some restraint here). Thank heavens they lost that particular contest.
I like to make my own decisions about what I watch and when, so naturally I find the web a more convenient and varied source of news and entertainment. There are also a lot of things available on the web which don't get past the political, economic and cultural censorship inherent in network TV. However, I've recently noticed that even Youtube is not immune to political censhorship (see my blog "editing the news"). Long live the independent internet.
As far as entertainment goes, a band like the UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN (above) turns up on TV every once in a while, but you can watch them online at Youtube any time you like.
FYI If you want to buy their DVD, "Anarchy in the Ukulele", go to www.ukuleleorchestra.com. I hope to be shooting another two brand new DVDs with them next year.
Books
Some books are good. For instance, here is a passage from "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien. I've read it about 8 times and I could read it again and laugh until it hurts. If you haven't read this book yet, give yourself a treat!
Policeman MacCruiskeen put the lamp on the table, shook hands with me
and gave me the time of day with great gravity. His voice was high,
almost feminine, and he spoke with delicate careful intonation. Then
he put the lamp on the counter and surveyed the two of us.
'Is it about a bicycle?' he asked.
'Not that' said the Sergeant. 'This is a private visitor who says he
did not arrive in the townland upon a bicycle. He has no personal name
at all. His dadda is in far Amurikey.'
'Which of the two Amurikeys?' asked MacCruiskeen.
'The Unified Stations,' said the Sergeant.
'Likely he is rich by now if he is in that quarter,' said
MacCruiskeen, 'because there's dollars there, dollars and bucks and
nuggets in the ground and any amount of rackets and golf games and
musical instruments. It is a free country too by all accounts.'
'Free for all,' said the Sergeant. 'Tell me this,' he said to the
policeman, 'Did you take any readings today?'
'I did,' said MacCruiskeen.
'Take out your black book and tell me what it was like a good man,'
said the Sergeant. Give me the gist of it till I see what I see,' he
added.
MacCruiskeen fished a small black book from his breast pocket.
'Ten point six,' he said.
'Ten point six,' said the Sergeant. 'And what reading did you notice
on the beam?'
'Seven point four.'
'How much on the lever?'
'One point five'
There was a pause here. The Sergeant put on an expression of great
intricacy as if he were doing far-from-simple sums and calculations in
his head. After a time his face cleared and he spoke again to his
companion.
'Was there a fall?'
'A heavy fall at half-past three.'
'Very understandable and commendably satisfactory,' said the Sergeant.
'Your supper is on the hob inside and be sure to stir the milk before
you take any of it, the way the rest of us after you will have our
share of the fats of it, the health of it.
Policeman MacCruiskeen smiled at the mention of food and went into the
back room loosening his belt as he went; after a moment we heard the
sounds of coarse slobbering as if he was eating porridge without the
assistance of spoon or hand. The Sergeant invited me to sit at the
fire in his company and gave me a wrinkled cigarette from his pocket.
'It is a lucky thing for your pop that is situated in Amurikey,' he
remarked, 'if it is a thing that he is having trouble with the old
teeth. It is very few sicknesses that are not from the teeth.'
'Yes,'
I said. I was determined to say as little as possible and let these
unusual policeman first show their hand. Then I would know how to deal
with them.
'Because a man can have more disease and germination in his gob than
you'll find in a rat's coat and Amurikey is a country where the
population do have grand teeth like shaving lather or like bits of
delph when you break a plate.'
'Quite true,' I said.
'Or like eggs under a black crow.'
'Like eggs,' I said.
'Did you ever happen to visit the cinematograph in your travels?'
'Never' I answered humbly, but I believe it is a dark quarter and
little can be seen at all except the photographs on the wall'.
'Well it is there you see the fine teeth they do have in Amurikey,'
said the Sergeant.
film and video production and sound design/music composition
Richard Coldman Miniatures - my film of paintings by Alexander Gorlizki with music by Howard Skempton will feature on the first online edition of the Open Space Magazine Posted 1 hour ago view more
About me: I've always been interested in sounds, images and mind and how these work together.
From teenage experimental film making and audio-tape compositions using found electronics, wine glasses, junk, piano innards etc., I went on to improvisations and compositions with a guitar and other objects, touring Europe and North America.
As a working musician I've appeared on various albums (INCUS 31 with John Russell, Beach Singularity with Trevor Wishart, Guitarspeak with Myles Boisen etc). Material from my 'Guitar Solos' was featured in Trevor Wishart's book On Sonic Art (Contemporary Music Studies, V. 12)
(Harwood Academic Publishers 1996).
Nowadays I stalk and capture the timeless moment through the creation of time-based media - DVD*, sound designs (my latest is now online at Diabetes.org.uk), installations, site-specific performance projections, streaming or downloadable video and very occasionally through old-fashioned TV.
My first of two films with world-class choreographer Richard Alston, "Essential Alston" has just been released on DVD. Further details are available from The Place.
Other Contemporary Dance DVDs
My second film with Richard Alston, "Alston in Overdrive", is out now in its second pressing. More details can be found at The Place Shop. My first DVD with Shobana Jeyasingh, *"Surface Tension" is available from The National Resource Centre for Dance and the second, "Foliage Chorus" can be found at RESCEN, the Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts at Middlesex University.
My latest music documentary out on DVD in April 2009 is Tiger Lillies - the Early Years. You can buy it at The Tiger Lillies website if you're so inclined!
Who I'd like to meet: It might be very useful if I could go forward in time and talk to myself when I'm even older than I am now. Maybe one of me would talk some sense into himself.
Above: A Short Film About Woolboy (episode 6 of the "North Sea Circle" series)
You can see all 7 episodes of The North Sea Circle below ...
Let me know if you want the best online learning material that I've found so far. I am a "permaculture" junkie. I didn't weed that garden bed at all. I'm planning to fill this yard up with food producing trees, shrubs, vines, roots, and small plants next year.
I havn't been very motivated lately being surrounded by industrial stuff, but I got my force back, planted a garden, and slowed dowwnnn. Now I remember what it feels like to breath, ahhhhh, possibility. Is there still time to use to the cool energy movement picture?
about my picture, you are right there is story behind it...just never though of mentioning anything about it.. sunday that is about to be..so I wish you to have a very relaxing one!
As bamboo chill drifts into the bedroom, Moonlight fills every corner of our Garden. Heavy dew beads and trickles. Stars suddenly there, sparse, next aren't.
Fireflies in dark flight flash. Waking Waterbirds begin calling, one to another. All things caught between shield and sword, All grief empty, the clear night passes.
The very first words i saw on your page, seeing it as an art gallery....it is so true. I have seen some very fine work here not to mention have made "real" friends. Yes, of course! Thank you Richard.
(Harwood Academic Publishers 1996).
I want to see it on your page so it feels given. Then larger version is in my pictures. I hope you like it!
