Avant Gardens ed. 2
Welcome to Avant Gardens, a blog/newsletter where I explore all things strange, experimental, and exciting in the arts.
Hi my angels, how are we feeling? It’s the end of the 2025 era. This year has many ups and downs, and in some ways I’m relieved for it to be over - a fresh start. This edition, some of the choices are a bit more personal in my journey, others are new finds. As usual, I hope you enjoy and find something that strikes your fancy.
Daphne Oram - Pulse Persephone (1965)
This is one of my favourite pieces of electronic music - it’s so dark and foreboding, like I’m floating through a vortex of strange space and time. Daphne was a pioneering electronic composer and also helped co-found the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in late 1950s Britain. I think often about the impact she made on experimental music, both as a composer and as a woman. I can’t imagine it would have been an easy or welcoming environment being these two things, but her influence always helps to inspire me, seventy odd years later.
glue eye - two faults [ERROR] (2025)
I had the privilege of seeing this experimental work by glue eye (aka my mate Zachary Floresta) develop behind the scenes. As always, I’m so impressed by Zach’s work. This is one of the pieces from two faults [ERROR], a 2-part EP, where he used field recordings, sound design and played with hardware synths to explore making these industrial, experimental timbres. I just love it.
You can check out the other track from EP here (and keep updated on Zach’s future work).
Sam Hodge - Coal Tides (2020)
I’m so enthralled by Hodges work that her pieces will probably feature a few times in these editions... This particular series features paintings made from the coal picked up from the shore of the Thames. These small, organic shapes, textures and shadows almost create small worlds that you could fall into. I’m also a big fan of using natural or ‘found’ textures to make any kind of art.
You can view the rest of the series here.
Kosei Komatsu - 雨のうた (2020)
Google tells me that this title translates to ‘Rain Song,’ which is fitting when you watch the spinning disks glisten like rain falling from the sky. The artist, Komatsu, used these plastic disks, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned house to emulate the rain, particularly the reflective puddles in the ground. It appears as if he’s had the installation work shown several times, but alas, I cannot read Japanese to confirm the details. Though, I was able to find a small video on Facebook of another version of the work here - I think I prefer the dark background and pinkish hues this space creates in the disk reflections.
Joyce Campbell/Peter Kolovos - Flight Dream (2014)
I can still remember the first time I experienced this work. It was 2016, on Cockatoo Island in Sydney for a uni excursion, during the Biennale of Sydney. I was walking through one of the dark, bricked tunnels, when I heard this piercing feedback radiating through the chamber. The visuals.. the music.. the dark, creepy tale. All of it, perfection. The film was made by Aotearoa/NZ artist Joyce Campbell, featuring music by experimental composer Peter Kolovos, and words from Mark von Schlegell’s sci-fi short story Flugtraum (which was in turn written in response to Campbell’s photographic work Marianas (2003-11)). Unfortunately I can’t find the full work anywhere, but I was able to find this short clip on Youtube.
I’ll leave it there and not get sappy with the 2025/2026 crossover. Wishing you all a wonderful new years transition and I’ll see you with the next round of cool art in a month’s time xxx
As always, if you have anything you’d like to suggest (or to even display some work of your own), please send my way :)
