Synaesthesia @ The Garrison

4 humans + 1 machine + 1 projector with liquids

Garrison Jan 11th/2013 photo by @thebradee

Backstage: Ancient runes from previous musical civilizations, warning of bad monitor mixes…

Garrison Jan 11th/2013 Photo by Kenneth Laing Herdy

Photo by Kenneth Laing Herdy

Colour Gamut

So you’ve read our little mission statement, right? While it’s important to listen to and experience the special mood evoked in each raga, colour is important in many ways around here. Do you have enough in your life? Living online, we never get real colour. No colour on a computer screen is complete.
Being a sound guy, colour gamut is a concept I picked up only recently via this Michael Scroggins (of Single Wing Turquoise Bird) video (below). Essentially the term refers to “the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time” [1], and often its usage describes the limitations of a device or medium to reproduce that full spectrum of colour. How curious that the term came from music…

The video is great, especially if you have an interest in Californian counter-culture in the ’60s – I was always curious about the Hog Farm that is always referred to when mentioning Wavy Gravy. But I’m happy to cut to the chase here, as it illustrates lightsweetcrude’s preoccupation with liquid light projections: “These dyes and the overhead projector gave you a colour gamut you couldn’t get off of film, off of video or slides – it was really intense.”
I honestly wasn’t aware that this was behind the unusual intensity experienced when seeing liquids projected on a wall… Even just food colouring on some transparencies. Colour affects us, and the purity of colour might be an important factor in its effect.
You should really get your eyes off your screen for a bit today, and experience some green in a wooded area, or at least the sky – that might be the longest standing source of great colour going for our species. It’s interesting that they say when planning a meal to “colour your plate”. Getting some colour into your life everyday is as important as eating your veggies.

Photo credit: Paola Martinez Hernandez 5-26-2012

Photo: projection on the wall at lightsweetcrude HQ.

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blue + orange

Somewhere There Light Projections #3

L to R: Jamie Thompson flute, Erik Colin Ross, keys, Andy Yue, keys, Michael Kaler, bass, Arnd Juergensen, guitar, and Paul Newman, sax.

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Homegrown Hamilton

File under: *awesome night*
Photos courtesy of Rob Rush (upper) and Paola Martinez Hernandez.

Somewhere There Light Projections #2

A little bit of background this time: Somewhere There, Toronto’s experimental music hub, generously offered lightsweetcrude a May/June 2012 residency. We did one in March/April of last year, and it really did something great, but this year not everyone could commit. Ken Aldcroft encouraged me to come up with something else instead as I was declining, so Michael Kaler and I agreed to collab on this, with him curating a ensemble (with a few variations week-to-week) playing improvised music, and my contribution: fire up the overhead projectors, and trip the light fantastic. This week it was: Michael Kaler, bass, Connie Nowe, drums, Paul Newman, sax, and Arnd Jurgensen, guitar.

The residency continues May 27th.

Marching Forward

Psyched to play at Sneaky Dee’s this Sunday, with fellow TO bands Kundalini Vibes and New Stems. This venue has some strong points, and one of them (1) is the sound – good people are usually on the case in that dep’t, and (2) there’s a screen at the rear of the stage…. which means the overhead projector will be fired up, and cooking some liquids… after all, crude oil is an essential part of the psychedelic experience…

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