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A COSMIC THEOPHONY
 
Wednesday 18 June, 7pm for 7.30 sharp,
 The Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society,
50 Gloucester Place, London, W1H 3HJ
(Baker Street Tube)

Tickets £6
Reservations: mark@strangeattractor.co.uk

B O T HStrange Attractor and The Address are honoured to present:

An evening of cosmic theophony, featuring illustrated talks by Erik Davis and Ken Hollings and music from Jo Thomas.

Cosmic Tones: The Universal Vibrations
of Electronic Music

Erik Davis, contributing editor to Wired magazine and author of the seminal Techgnosis, and Ken Hollings, author of Destroy All Monsters and regular contributor to The Wire magazine, will consider the history, technology and meaning of the music of Outer (and Inner) Space.

Drawing on their vast combined repositories of esoteric sound and knowledge, our speakers will explore the musics that were inspired by, brought from and launched into Outer Space. From the mystical electronic tones of the theremin to the reverberating Saturnian Piano of contactee Howard Menger, both talks will be illustrated throughout with appropriate musical excerpts.

Electro-acoustic musician Jo Thomas will provide live intro and extro music, and both our guest speakers will engage in an audience Q&A following their talks. Tea and scones shall be served during the interval.


The night's programme is an extension of Silent Key, a 45 minute radiogenic work 'assembled 'by writer/producer David Ellis and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on the 23rd of February for the series 'Between the Ears'. It was described as "an audio-field diary investigation into a lesser known history of short-wave radio, Danny Kaye's anxious children's songs and 19th table-rappers". Silent Key in radio-ham jargon refers to ' a dead radio ham.

The original programme can be heard here:

This event is part of the SK Project Tour, funded by the Arts Council of England 2003 is a series of events / performances drawing on continuing research into various related subjects. On 27 February 2003, David Ellis, working with Brown Sierra (Paddy Collins & Pia Gambardella) and Daniel, performed a 90 minute lecture with live electronics, incorporating re-jigged audio material from the original broadcast.

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