What do conspiracy
theorists scream this festive season at the doomed earth?
“He's behind you!”
And why?
Because NIBIRU!, the
giant angry celestial body on a warpath with our planet is, they say,
quite literally about to collide with this small ball. What better
way to see in the yuletide?
It is for this reason
the cream of the UK and Europe's avant-garde in music, performance
and comedy are gathering at Hackney Old Baths this December 15th
to present an ANTI-PANTO.
“A Techno-pocalyptic
party that generates a unique anarchic energy” (The Stage) with a
“hypnotic electro soundtrack” (The Guardian) .
Join Ergo Phizmiz
(PLC), Depresstival (Lottie Bowater), international refugee aid
radical computer music pop-group Goodiepal & Pals, Elvis Herod,
Joz Norris, Consignia, Narin Oz, Mary Clarke, Pete Murphy, Lydia
Beardmore and many more in an apocalyptic experience of performance,
projections and Paxo.
NIBIRU!, originally
conceived as a techno concept album by Ergo Phizmiz (PLC), was
developed into a performance-happening for this year's Tete a Tete:
The Opera Festival at RADA Studios. This new event reunites the
original cast of NIBIRU! with a whole bevy of beautiful new
apocalyptians, and promises to be an unforgettable experience of
tap-dancing celestial bodies, glitter, canned food provisions, fire,
and brimstone in glorious techno-color. How else would you expect the
end of the world to be?
15/12/18. Doors open 7.30pm, with
DJs in the cafe. Performance 8.30pm. Afterparty, with exclusive
performances from the cast, from 9.30pm.
NIBIRU! is a
pay-what-you-want event, with all proceeds going to Goodiepal &
Pals Refugee Aid organisation.
Lest you forget, the end of the world is nigh, and should you wish to be at the centre of the fireball you need to make your way to RADA Studios on August 7th at 9pm, where NIBIRU! is premiering at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival.
In these times of regression to absolute idiocy and the celebration of mediocrity as an aspiration, miscreants like us who fight the super-techno-DIY-fight find it DIFFICULT to find any institutional support in this desolate landscape.
But did that stop the industrious AVANTHARDCOLLECTIVE? Of course not. We did this.
With the wonderful support of Goodiepal, Elvis Herod, Connor White, David Landau, Anne Jamieson, and Tom Chapman, we were on the up!
Soon the poor, poor children sang for their supper...
And all the way from Singapore, the super-artist extraordinaire Jon Panther sent a very clear message...
Then on a visit from his home in the North, urban legend Tom Earth pitched his piece...
Long days of pestering everyone across the media led to two magnificent press pieces, first in The Wire, then in The Quietus.
And a special mention to Pete Murphy, who posted throughout the project and also added this gem to the archives of NIBIRU!
Towards the end of the campaign, we released the free, Creative Commons release "DISCO MUSIC FOR ARMAGGEDON" on the Free Music Archive.
And, thanks to all you magnificent people, we hit the target, and exceeded it by nearly two hundred quid! We shower you all with kisses, and your lovely prizes will be coming your way soon by a postman whistling gabber.
But next up, on August 1st, tune in to Resonance FM at 8pm (repeated the next day at 10am) for an hour of the AVANTHARDCOLLECTIVE talking the super-techno-opera-talk.
As I'm sure you all appreciated, being The World's Most Deluxe Entertainer is no meagre task, and it is necessary for me to exert all my muscle-power to push the broken-down tractor of entertainment through the thick slurry.
It is for this reason, despite the impending collapse of society, that over the last calendar year I have been engaged in the following pursuits.
Mozart vs Machine
For the last five years or so the good folk at Mahogany Opera Group have been cooking up this treat, which premiered at Folkestone Fringe last February and went on to tour the UK, with an international tour now in the works. Read how excited the nicepeoplegot.
I also sat in the Electric Cafe with Lady Victoria of Bennett and the results were recorded for posterity in The Quietus.
A short film by Lottie Bowater on "Mozart vs Machine"
The United Kingdom of Earth
In mid 2016, prior to the EU Referendum, I was asked by Hajo Doorn, then director of the Worm Avantgarde State, to write a community opera about Brexit. This was presented in Rotterdam in November 2016.
The UK political situation made it irresistible, though not always perhaps advisable, to mount further productions, and so plans for performances in London and Glasgow were drawn up. Enthused, smiling troops of young actors and non-actors marched into the apocalyptic sunset of their respective cities and, behold, "The United Kingdom of Earth" plummeted into London and Glasgow like a very naughty Nibiru. On which, more later...
"The United Kingdom of Earth" imagined a post Brexit Britain that had been entirely cut off from outside resources, and there may not be anything outside at all. It was a big, naughty community pantomime with electronic music and language as fruitsome as a grocer's private stash.
And, despite repeated occurrences of having our funding pulled, being stranded in various places, and all the tribulations of post-apocalyptic life, didn't we have THE FUN?
"The United Kingdom of Earth", following its Rotterdam premiere in November 2016, was presented during 2017 at Tete a Tete: The Opera Festival (London), and CCA Glasgow, presented by the marvellous The Hidden Noise. A shorter version of the piece was also performed in collaboration with Goodiepal & Pals as part of their Cafe Oto Residency (video below).
The Glasgow performance of "The United Kingdom of Earth" had its funding pulled a matter of days before the opening, due to the subject matter being deemed "too sensitive". Then, never shaken, or at least not too fucked up to operate in such a crisis, plus a heavy night on the whisky in a glass fronted shop, the avant-garde power-station Bowater & Robertson sprang into action and this happened...
And lots of you lovely people came out and stopped the whole thing from crumbling and the cast for starving and we're eternally grateful. We are also making you nice presents.
Watch extracts from "The United Kingdom of Earth" performed by Ergo Phizmiz PLC, Lottie Bowater, and Goodiepal & Pals, with a special opening monologue by Carl Foster.
Die Bayerische Prinzessin
In March 2017 my musical radioplay about Alexandra Amalie, the glass-piano swallowing Princess of Bavaria, was broadcast on Bayerischer Rundfunk.
You can hear the piece here. And below are some images to prove it exists.
It also features a killer song about tap dancing, of course.
And in the midst of all this...
I was baptised in the sea at Aldeburgh as Ergo Phizmiz (Public Limited Company)
The Minister was Frederic Wake-Walker (Who WAS a real minister)
Synergy was chanted Bryan Benner gave us Schubert And champagne glasses sang And there was hardcore business In every rock
"PL Slowly and C" .....
Big Thyme
Being The World's Most Deluxe Entertainer doesn't stop there. The job requires I do many other things, otherwise the wheels stop turning and things just go wrong. Honestly, if I stopped this for one minute, terrible things would happen in your town.
For this reason I continued my merry pursuit of pop music, and make a record for your delight and delectation called "Big Thyme". It's pretty and is designed to be listened to while your legs are stretching out and being caressed gently by softly enfolding animated vines.
Boubouroche
I also figured the world probably needed a giant super sexy disco sex party love record with me wearing a golden tabard and a tinfoil space helmet on the front.
The Unreleased Ergo Phizmiz Volume One
And, since there seems to be a nice trend towards releasing and re-releasing my old work lately, I thought I ought to jump on the band-wagon and lay out a cold-collation of slices from my previous poptastic albums that didn't make the final cut. This is this.
Shortly after, the hugely inventive and prolific songwriter and composer Pete Murphy brightened up a morning by releasing this giant cover version of the entire album.
Performances at Depresstival Presents
Of late, I have been performing regularly at Depresstival Presents, London's longest running avant-hard night, curated since 2011 by Lottie Bowater, where I present something different every month. So far this has included the premiere performance of my piece "The Avant-Garde Sport Manifesto", a pop song extravaganza, and, below, finally a documented performance of my 2014 opera "Vogel Europa". Come along, generally the first Sunday of every month at The Others Bar in Stoke Newington.
The Beautiful Epoch of Avant-Garde Sport
Why not reclaim sportswear for people who don't like sport, and make sport all about the posing? Why not?
A co-production of me, Rococo Chanel, Lottie Depresstival Bowater, and The Superfools, we invented "The Beautiful Epoch of Avant Garde Sport"
I also presented three manifestations of THE AVANT-GARDE SPORT MANIFESTO. At Depresstival Presents (London), Vrooom Festival (Rotterdam) and Festival Blaues Rauschen (Herne). You can see these when I've done my dirty work with the footage.
NIBIRU!
And the year just wouldn't have been complete without releasing a giant electro spoken-word concept album about the apocalypse, now, would it?
Next? Is there always more? Can you spare us?
With being The World's Most Deluxe Entertainer comes Very Deluxe Responsibility. This year, there is great striving and hardcore effort being made to provide all of with the most Deluxe Entertainment plausible.
Coming up next on the Deluxe Entertainment Channel ...
IG Witzelsucht "Sometimes Puns Are a Sign of a Damaged Brain" 12" vinyl and CD release on Knockemdead Records and Megaphone Records. Songs co-written and produced by Lukas Simonis. See below for Lukas and I looking very lovely in Rotterdam, in a music video by Florian Cramer.
Also coming up, the next steps of a giant outreach opera project on Dr Johnson's Dictionary, in collaboration with Lottie Bowater, Mahogany Opera Group and Jubilee Opera.
Maybe two or three more shows, but you'll have to wait and see...
Next, Lottie and I are in Munich, to record the science-fiction radioplay "ANIMALIUM KEPLER 22B", which broadcasts on Bayerischer Rundfunk later in the year.
What the
world undoubtedly needs in these troubled times is a massive, epic
concept album about the apocalypse, conspiracy theories, and [social]networking. This is that album.
Given that
it has been proposed Nibiru is going to smash and obliterate the
earth in mid December 2017, this album has only a few days to be
listened to. You'd better dig in.
Smash-ups of
spoken-word, sound-collage, electronic music, live instruments, and
the best of Youtube. This is your party as Rome burns. Wrap up warm.
NIBIRU! is a
production of the end-of-the-world renowned operatic abomination Ergo
Phizmiz (Public Limited Company).
HOW TO MAKE
A MUSIC VIDEO FOR A CONCEPT ALBUM AT THE END OF THE WORLD
TAKE A
CADBURY'S FLAKE ADVERT, SLOW IT DOWN TO THE LENGTH OF THE TRACK
TAKE A
YOUTUBE VIDEO OF A SOLAR ECLIPSE, WHICH TURNS OUT, AS IT HAPPENS, TO
HAVE THE WORDS “RIGHT WING” SUDDENLY AND ABRUPTLY SPATTERED ONTO
THE SCREEN
REALISE THAT
THE UNIVERSE IS
IN THE FINAL THROES OF EARTH
DOING YOU FAVOURS
AND
MAKING REALLY UNPLEASANT SATIRE
WITHOUT YOU REALLY MEANING TO
SLOW
THIS DOWN TOO
ADD SOME
DODGY CHROMA KEY
PLACE THE
WATERMARK OF
SOME CORPORATION OR OTHER
ONTO THE SCREEN
IN THIS CASE
THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
ADD
[ NIBIRU! ]
WATERMARK
Written,
Composed, Performed and Produced by Dominic Robertson
Violin
improvisations by Lottie [Depresstival] Bowater
Synthesisers
performed by Lottie [Depresstival] Bowater, Lukas Simonis, Dominic Robertson (one
night at Worm, Rotterdam, when I lost my umbrella) *
Dedicated to Jon Panther, for sending me on the concept album trail, and Richard Kennedy, for the arctic vacations.
* Between writing this text this afternoon and returning tonight to release the album, I was given a new umbrella. Nibiru is definitely coming. What will we do? If the earth is flat, as some seem to be suggesting, we might be alright - that is, Nibiru might just roll along it like a marble. It could even just skim the bottom. And we all know how nice skimming the bottom is. Wish Nibiru the best of luck. And a happy Eczemas to all the politicians, to the rise of everyday Fascism, the continuing infringements of human rights and civil liberties, and the general, mainstream, wilful regression into idiocy that is happening seemingly everywhere. Happy fucking what? Tell the Ravens to leave the Tower of London as soon as possible and find another planet. I know Beefeaters look nice and all that but everything has its day. Goodbye, have a nice eternity.
