Alan Lomax was a musicologist who spent over six decades working to promote knowledge and appreciation of ‘people’s songs’, and he gathered an enormous archive of folk, blues, gospel, country and traditional music.

You can see an amazing collection of videos via the Association of Cultural Equity, which Lomax founded to research and disseminate the world’s traditional music, and to reconnect people and communities with their creative heritage.

Alan Lomax discusses Sacred Harp:

This Wednesday we’ll be at Vivid Projects with Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records, enjoying some rare footage from the Alan Lomax and Mississippi Records archives. Tickets are £5 in advance and can be purchased via www.theticketsellers.co.uk. Doors are at 7pm.

Just a few tickets left to snap for this very exciting show. The indie noise darlings Deerhoof make a much anticipated return to Birmingham with excellent support from the electronic duo Free School and post rock/grunge band Victor.  Don’t miss out, get your ticket from theticketsellers or from Polar Bear records in Kings Heath. Doors are 8pm.

Oren Ambarchi is an Australian sound artist, primarily using the guitar he investigates unconventional ways of playing traditional instrumentation. He’ll make one third of the power trio Nazoranai on Tuesday 9th July at CBSO Centre, along with Keiji Haino and Stephen O’Malley. Oren will performing drums at this show. Tickets are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

“From the darkest reaches of space comes Nazoranai, featuring Japanese underground legend Keiji Haino, Stephen O’Malley of avant-metal overlords Sunn 0))) and Australian experimentalist Oren Ambarchi. On their 2012 debut, Haino’s bleakly beautiful guitar and diabolical vocals slice through the creeping mass of O’Malley’s bass and Ambarchi’s minimalist drums; what they have in store for Glasgow, however, is anyone’s guess.

‘I try to keep all my collaborative projects spontaneous and organic. Working in this trio is no different’, explains Ambarchi. ‘I’ve worked with Haino-san many times and it’s always different – he constantly likes to pull the carpet from under your feet… There’s always elements of ritual and the psychedelic (in the truest sense of word) in a Nazoranai performance. Both Stephen and I are “fans” of Haino, and rabid fans of music in general, so we’re happy to support and complement Haino’s flights as much as we can’.” Read the full interviewvia The List here

A prolific collaborator, Oren has worked with Jim O’Rourke, Fire!, Fennesz, Robin Fox and many more, but don’t overlook his solo work!

Australian producers Super Critical Mass have been commissioned to present Together We Breathe, a large-scale project to celebrate the opening of the Library of Birmingham, and we’re looking for players to help us make this a truly a magnificent spectacle!

A mass of brass players from the region will be positioned throughout the new library building, filling the air with a dramatic opening fanfare. From the deep throb of tuba, the wash of trombone, and the sinewy swirl

of trumpets, audiences will be welcomed to the Library of Birmingham by a forest of brass. This is a really great opportunity to part of the

opening of a crucial new cultural building in the region, and it’ll all be filmed for BBC’s Culture Show.

Performers:

We are currently looking to work with existing brass bands and players who meet the following criteria:

– owns or has access to their own brass instrument

– has achieved Grade 3 (or equivalent) on their brass instrument

– is available for a workshop, rehearsal and performance on the dates detailed below

– is happy to be filmed as part of the BBC’s Culture Show feature on this event

Schedule:

– Workshop
Saturday 31st August :time TBC

– Rehearsal
Sunday 1st September: times tbc

– Performance
Tuesday 3rd September: 9am – 1pm

Application:

Please email [email protected] by 5pm on Monday 29th July with your interest. We will then send you a short registration form.

100 flutes at Carriage Works, Sydney

We are very pleased to welcome Spencer Hickman to Capsule’s Advisory Committee. A long friend of Capsule, Spencer has been really supportive of Supersonic Festival over the years and we’re thrilled to be

receiving his invaluable input to Capsule’s planning.

With over 20 years experience, music industry veteran Spencer Hickman is one of the loudest supporters of independent music in the UK. Hickman spent years working in record shops including setting up and running Rough Trade East (the UK’s largest record store), it won retail brand of the year twice under his management. Spencer co-ordinates Record Store Day for the UK, which in six short years has become the largest celebration of record shop culture in the world and is worth £3 million to the UK music industry. He left Rough Trade in 2012 to concentrate on his specialist soundtrack label Death Waltz Recording Company, which

within its first year has won numerous awards and has seen artists such as Dinos Chapman deliver exclusive new artwork for classic film scores.

www.deathwaltzrecordingcompany.com

Spencer joins Anna Russell of the National Trust, Warren Fisher of Urban Audio Productions, Gina Crane of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, artist Mark Titchner and our chair Angela Maxwell.

Photo by Jonathan Morgan

The next Capsule event takes place on Monday 24th June at Hare & Hounds. There we’ll meet Victor, a young band on the local scene they promise noisy post rock with a grunge edge.

“The first taste of Victor we had was supporting The Chapman Family at The Rainbow in March – and what an unexpected treat they were. Victor don’t have any recordings online but we’d urge you to go and see them; their passionate vocals combine with a post-rock sound verging on grunge, subsequently creating a wall of noise that will make you deafer than your nan.” Counteract

Along with the mighty Deerhoof and Free School, this is going to be a great Monday night. Tickets are selling fast so snap yours up for £10 via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

FACT magazine have released a great interview with Nicholas Bullen. The interview delves into his long history of extreme music creation, and the making of his new record Component Fixations. The official release show for this album will take place Tuesday 9th July st CBSO Centre in Birmingham. It’ll be a special event, with Nazoranai also on the bill.

“The common thread is an interest in new strategies of engaging with both the material and the wider world. Napalm Death was informed as much by Power Electronics as Punk or Heavy Metal (for example, the middle section of Sacrificed on the Scum album was intended to reference the ‘walls of noise’ of Throbbing Gristle and Ramleh’s attack of sound). Just as the Power Electronics I made in 1984 operated in a realm where the agitated and active meets the laminar, so Napalm Death moved – through velocity and abrasion – towards a form of stasis which I think also characterises Scorn, where the creativity operated within a seemingly endless but closed space. These elements all have their place within my compositional approach.”

Read the full interview here

Tickets for the show are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

A firm fixture of Capsule’s programme over the years, we’re really pleased to see the excellent reception for Nicholas Bullen’s new record. From solo electro acoustic performances, grindcore academia, and heavy noise rock with Backwards, Bullen is an artist who always delivers the goods!

You can stream his record Component Fixations via soundcloud, it’s now out on Type*. Parts of the album will be performed live on Tuesday 9th July at CBSO, this will be the official launch for the album. Also on the bill is Nazoranai, the heavy power trio of Stephen O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi and Keiji Haino. Tickets are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk