O 2012 dos nossos amigos

2012 termina hoje. Interessa viver o presente, planear o futuro, mas também sabe bem recordar o que se viveu. Pedimos a alguns amigos que nos partilhassem o seu top 5 do ano:

COLIN VAN EECKHOUT (AMENRA)

1) vacation in France with my two sons and wife
2) 22/12/12 Mass V release show in Brussels
3) surviving the recording of Mass V
4) releasing Mass V on Neurot recs
5) everything we did with the Church

DAVE W. (WHITE HILLS)

1) Filming a scene for Jim Jarmusch’s new film “Only Lovers Left Alive”. Just to be asked to do it was a great honor alone, but actually being on set was something that I never thought I would ever do and is an experience I will never forget.
2) Wovenhand “The Laughing Stalk”: This has to be the album I have listened to the most this year. It never ceases to amaze me. The raw emotion and depth to this album is like no other I’ve heard this year.
3) Seeing the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York City. This exhibit touched me deeply. The depth to her work is boundless. The exhibit was inspiring to say the least.
4) Witnessing the largest, most vibrant and complete rainbow I have ever seen. It was while on tour as we were heading from Valencia to Granada in Spain. Awe inspiring and beautiful.
5) Living…being able to continue down the path I have created for myself. Each year I feel extremely fortunate to live the life I do. To be able to continue to create music and have an audience for it is one of the greatest things I could ever ask for. There is not a day that passes in which I realize how lucky I am. It is a testament to hard work and never giving up on my dreams.

ERIC QUACH (THISQUIETARMY)

Top 5 moments of 2012.
A really hectic year of music & touring for me: almost 4 months on the road, playing 72 shows in more than 20 different countries, mostly in Europe. The remainder of the year was spent at home writing grant submissions, booking shows, figuring out logistics, working on some recordings & on TQA Record’s releases. Needless to say that the best moments were spent on the road and that every day of these 4 months on the road could have been a top moment. Here are 5 of them, in no particular order.

1. Basque country, Spain & Portugal solo tour (May 4-12)
After an intense 3 weeks of touring with AUN; we parted ways in Paris and I hopped on my rental VW Golf GTI. It just felt really liberating to drive alone for 2 weeks along the French & Portuguese coast, cutting through the majestic Spanish mountains. The weather was perfect and the landscapes were gorgeous – but most of all, it was great to hang out and drive through the Basque country with my friends in Monarch, and to meet new wonderful people in Bilbao, Madrid, Lisbon & Porto.

2. Denovali Swingfest with Year of No Light (October 6)
Though our shows together were great in France, Belgium & The Netherlands – it was the Denovali Swingfest in Essen, Germany that really surprised us the most. The atmosphere was amazing and everything was well organized but most of all, the festival goers made up one of the best crowds and supporters for a wide diversity of experimental music. Bonus: a personal record of merchandise sold – not that success is to be measured by those means but in these sad times for the physical support, it was actually quite encouraging and enlightening, especially in the context of a festival organized by your primary record label.

3. Ljubljana with Caspian (November 3)
Of our 22 shows together in Europe last fall, this one at Channel Zero (a venue part of Metelkova City) may have been one of the best concert and atmosphere of the tour. Everyone played so well that night (Tides from Nebula opened and set the bar for the night) and the vibe was just positive all around. It was one of the rare nights of the tour where we didn’t go straight back to the hotel after the show: after-party with Foosball games with new Polish & Slovenian friends, taking turn to DJ, shots & photo shoots. Bonus: horsemeat burgers.

4. UK (October 12-15)
Regardless of how the shows fared, I considered playing in the UK for the first time (in 4 European tours) a highlight on its own. Artists from outside the EU union knows what a pain in the ass it is to play shows in the UK, so I was really happy to finally have made it there. The evening at the might Cafe OTO in Dalston London with AUN & Petrels was quite great on its own and made the trip & visas worth it. Extra brownie points for Edinburgh Scotland and UK pubs in general.

5. The road to Zemlika Festival (October 24-26)
I don’t know if it was the 1300 km rides by bus/shuttles/vans/cabs in 50 hours, from Warsaw to Kaunas to Vilnius to Riga to Durbe to Liepaja and back to Riga to then catch a plane to Zurich, playing the Zemlika festival in Durbe, Latvia – an experimental festival which happened in a tiny town of pop. 620 (according to Wikipedia) or meeting up with my friend Robert Lowe (who performed as Lichens the same night) in the middle of the Latvian countryside – but after that much road combined with very little sleep, it’s not hard to imagine that this part of the tour was definitely one of the most surreal and intense travelling adventures I’ve had – though again the people, the food, the landscapes and the unique experience definitely made up for it. Thumbs up to the Lux Express bus company.

Honorable mention: Roadburn Festival (April 12-14). First time there for me – saw great bands, had lots of fun and met plenty of new friends.

EUGENE S. ROBINSON (OXBOW)

1) OXBOW’s appearance with an orchestra at ATP this year.
2) all of the shows with L’Enfance Rouge.
3) the release of LAST OF THE DEAD HOT LOVERS…a record I did with Philippe Petit.
4) any and all shows I did with Scott Kelly on our U.S tour.
5) persistent and grinding poverty helps you realize that the hole within which you live offers no help, hope or means of escape and this creates a situation where you make a friend of misery and do what you can with the scant comfort offered by rocks, sticks, and pieces of dirt that are yours for, well, the rest of eternity. so this I have done. and this marks a big change in how I see the world and has been accompanied by a change in almost everything i do. philosophically i think it means freedom is mine. and this is a big deal.

FRANÇOIS CAMBUZAT (L’ENFANCE ROUGE)

1) The beginning of the Lydia Lunch’s Putan Club, in mars, at Théâtre Garonne, Toulouse, France, then the tour of this new project in November;
2) My first tour in China, alone, under the name of Hong Hay Er (the Red Child). 15 concerts, 12000 km, in June.
3) The wonderful Iberian Tour organised by Amplificasom in July (and I’m absolutely NOT writing this because of you), with highlights in Sines (our first concert with Lotfi Bouchnak) and on the Isla San Simon (Sinsal Audio Festival).
4) The meeting, creation, tour, violence and friendship of L’Enfance Rouge + Eugene S. Robinson in December.
5) Discovering the books of Marc Sastre (L’homme perçé), a HUGE French contemporary poet, and accidentally the works of Cormac Mac Carthy.

GREG HAINES

Working with David Dawson at the Dutch National Ballet.
A slightly drunken improvised set with Peter Broderick in Hannover.
Playing on Isola Maggiore in Italy.
Releasing the debut album from The Alvaret Ensemble.
Playing with Damo Sukuki at the Incubate Festival.

HUGO SANTOS (PROCESS OF GUILT)

“Concentrar num top 5 o resumo do que aconteceu num ano acaba por ter sempre o seu quê de aleatório ou, mesmo, de esquizofrénico, mas, num exercício de mistura activa de alhos e bugalhos, ressaltam alguns detalhes que, decididamente, influenciaram e marcaram o ano que agora expira.
FÆMIN: O lançamento de FÆMIN enquanto concretizar de uma vontade de expressão do nosso ponto do vista pessoal e artístico, constituiu, obviamente, um dos momentos centrais deste ano. Entre concertos, ensaios, viagens e bancas de merch há muito por onde podemos ver um ano passar quase sem dar por ele.
MÚSICA: Com tantos e bons discos que saíram no último ano, destaco alguns dos que mais me acompanharam e que ainda perduram no leitor: Swans “The Seer”; Converge “All We Love We Leave Behind”; Woven Hand “The Laughing Stalk”; Deftones “Koi No Yokan”; Tragedy “Darker Days Ahead”; Wreck and Reference “No Youth”; Kowloon Waled City “Container Ships”; Birds In Row “You, Me and The Violence”; Pig Destroyer “Book Burner”; Graveyard “Lights Out”.
SUNSET STRIP: Uma década recheada de laca não teria, à partida, muito a (re)descobrir, no entanto, os relatos incluídos nas biografias dos Motley Crue “The Dirt” ou do Duff McKagan “It’s So Easy” (And Other Lies), que apenas este ano li, foram suficientes para provar que uma realidade tão afastada como a da Sunset Strip pode, igualmente, assumir-se como ainda cativante.
CRISE: Numa altura em que a todos (ou quase) nos custa o acto da sobrevivência diária, seria falso não citar este como o acontecimento mais relevante no que ao quotidiano respeita. Num país onde impera o despotismo e a impunidade de quem, objectivamente, andou a viver acima das suas (e das nossas) possibilidades, a amargura da injustiça continua a pesar demasiado sobre o nosso dia-a-dia, sem que a nós nos assista algo mais do que a mera indignação.
2013: O facto do mundo não ter acabado há dois ou três dias também ajuda, apenas espero que não seja esse o único motivo de rejúbilo pelo novo ano.”

JON PORRAS (BARN OWL)

William Basinski live at SFEMF
Lee Gamble ‘Dutch Tvashar Plumes’/ ‘Diversions’
Strymon Blue Sky Reverb
Dariush Dolat-Shahi
Miles Davis ‘Get Up With It’

JOZEF VAN WISSEM

1) flying into warsaw airport march 25th from toronto
2) receiving the newly build black lute in brooklyn early september, a gift from my parents.
3) teaching tom hiddleston to play the lute in cologne early august for an upcoming vampire film and hearing my music in it for the first time.
4) walking on the beach of fano island in denmark july 28th wondering about the lost germans.
5) playing solo at porto cathedral october 28th.

SUNTA TEMPLETON

One Book – How to be a woman by Caitlin Moran (a post modern feminist view)
One Movie – Life Of Pi (an amazing use of 3D which shows the beauty & strength if the animal world)
One Show – Forever Crazy (the Paris Crazy Horse show comes to London)
One Event – London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics (I didn’t know I could feel so proud of this city)
One Festival – Paredes de Coura (an amazing few days with lovely people and the craziest gig of my life!)

SUZUKI JUNZO

1. Gig in San Francisco
i’m very big fan of San fransican psychedelic Rock for a very long years, this year, i did short solo US tour, it was my first visit to US in my whole life. the last date of US tour, i have gig in san fransisco and i visited Haight-Ashbury Street!! it was very memorial to me and i can see the old Grateful dead house!!!!

2. Aldous Huxley- Two or three graces and other short stories
there is no japanese translation of this great english guy’s early works. Finally this year, japanese Edition have published from company called Futohsha for the first time in japan! it was great reading experiece for me.

3. Hired hand soundtrack by Bruce langhorne vinyl edition
in this september, American label called Scissor Tail published this great american movie’s soundtrack by Bruce langhorne via Vinyl for the First time. Bruce langhorne is one of my favorite guitarist and you can listen his guitar in the Bob Dylan7s Eary columbia era and many sixties folk album. Especially i love to hear his work in Peter Walker’s Rainy day raga and Tommy flanders’s Moonstone. i think there is no edition published at that time, CD edition is putting out from Blast first in 2004, then Vinyl coming this year! off course, This movie directed by Peter fonda is one of my favorite movie.

4. buying vinyls, videos and books…
everybody knows, recently there is too many mp3 or flac files on the internet and we can listen anytime if we had internet coneection.. off course i have my iphone and it filled with too many files. but i keep on buying Second-Handed Vinyls, Videos and Books and this year, I think i bought many records/videos/books the most in my life!!! i had solo EU/UK/US tour, My pleasure is going to local record shop in town and get second-handed record!! and bought too many records! spend much money! putting the needles on to vinyls and listen, and put old videos to my video deck and watch (I don’t like DVD.. VHS tape’s rough conditions of movies is very fit with me..), and before i sleep, reading old books is my great pleasure. my life seems to going like that.. i’d like to ask one thing all my friends.. when i go to your town to play, please take me to the second handed record shop before soundcheck!!!!

5. Ode to a Blue Ghost/Eight-Sided Infinity
this year, i put out my 2 solo album called Ode to a Blue Ghost (re-issued with bonus track) and Eight-Sided Infinity. so i can toured around the world and i had very great experience for my life. i want to thank all who listen to these my solo stuff and i strongly hope you all enjoy my music. and also, many gratitude to the stuffs who participated, Ikuro Takahashi who drummed in title track of Eight-Sided Infinity, of Kousokuya, LSD-March, who is formely drummer of Fushitsusha, Richard Holner and Iwao Yamazaki, Engineer for these 2 albums, and takuya koiso who took the cover photograohs of these albums, and Keith Utech of Utech records, Milwaukee, US.

and for me, visiting porto is very excited everytime! good foods, beautiful people like Andres Mendes and Great Amplifest stuffs. in 2013, MIMINOKOTO’s new album are comin’ from 8mm Records in porto! and 20 Guilders stuff from US, off course, my solo, too. i hope to touring around the world in 2013! off course, Porto, too! hope to see you soon!!