fbpx
Wikipedia

Peter Cusack (musician)

January 01, 1970

This article is about the musician. For Australian rugby league player, see Peter Cusack (rugby league).

Peter Cusack is an English artist and musician who is a member of CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice), and is a research staff member and founding member of the London College of Communication in the University of the Arts London. He was a founding member and director of the London Musicians' Collective.

He is best known as a member of the avant garde musical quartet, Alterations (1978–1986; with Steve Beresford, David Toop, and Terry Day),[1] and the creator of field and wildlife recording-based albums including:

  • Where Is the Green Parrot? (1999) with tracks like "Toy Shop (Two Small Boys Go Shopping)" and "Siren", which are just as advertised.
  • Day for Night (2000), with Max Eastley. This features "duets" between Eastley's kinetic sculpture and Cusack's field recordings.
  • Baikal Ice (2003), featuring tracks like "Banging Holes In Ice" and "Floating Icicles Rocked By Waves" and "Falling In".

Cusack has been involved in a wide range of projects throughout his career. Several of his pieces have been reviewed in Leonardo Music Journal, the annual music Journal published by MIT Press. He has also curated an album for Leonardo Music Journal.

He is currently research fellow on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's multidisciplinary 'Positive Soundscapes Project'.

Musical interests edit

Cusack is particularly interested in environmental sound and acoustic ecology. He has examined the sound properties of areas such as Lake Baikal, Siberia, and the Azerbaijan oil fields, and is interested in how sounds change as people migrate and as technology changes.

In 1998, Cusack started the "Your Favorite London Sound" project. The goal is to find out what London noises are found appealing by people who live in London.[2] This was so popular that it has been repeated in Chicago, Beijing, and other cities. He is involved in the "Sound & The City" art project using sounds from Beijing in October 2005.

Cusack's Sounds From Dangerous Places is a project to collect sounds from sites which have sustained major environmental damage. Sites that Cusack is working on include Chernobyl, the Azerbaijan oil fields, and areas around controversial dams on the Tigris and Euphrates river systems in south east Turkey.

Cusack's performances are a central part of the book Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory (Toop, 2004) by his old collaborator and respected music critic and author, David Toop. Toop investigates the use of environmental sound and electronic instruments in experimental music in his book.

Other performances edit

With clarinetist Simon Mayo, he formed the duo known as "A Touch of the Sun". His first "major" recording was part of Fred Frith's 1974 record, "Guitar Solos".

He was one of the first to play the bouzouki in England, which gained him the respect of London's musical avant garde.

As a musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Clive Bell, Nic Collins, Alterations, Chris Cutler, Max Eastley, Evan Parker, Hugh Davies, Annette Krebs and Eastern Mediterranean singer Viv Corringham.

A live performance with Nicolas Collins was released as "A Host, of Golden Daffodils" in 1999.

Activities related to music edit

He co-founded an artist-owned record label called "Bead Records" which has released many previously unavailable pieces in 1972. It had released more than 30 albums, as of 2007.

In 1975 Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Max Boucher, Paul Burwell, Jack Cooke, Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Madelaine and Martin Davidson, Richard Leigh, Evan Parker, John Russell, David Toop, Philipp Wachsmann and Colin Wood formed the journal MUSICS, later described as "an impromental experivisation arts magazine".

Cusack produces the monthly radio program "Vermilion Sounds" with Isobel Clouter. Vermilion Sounds explores environmental sounds and is broadcast by Resonance FM in London. John Levack Drever, writing in Soundscape, comments:

Of significant note is the work of Peter Cusack and Isobel Clouter (from the British Library Sound Archive who we now welcome onto the UKISC Management Committee), who have done a sterling job producing Vermilion Sounds—a weekly radio show for Resonance FM...[3]

Other projects edit

  • Soundlines: City of London Festival educational project on music and environmental sound in East London schools (April to November 2003).
  • Baku, 5 Quarters at the University of Baku, Azerbaijan. This was a collaboration with Swiss video artist Ursula Biemann in 2004.
  • Urban Grime, exhibition at the Museum of London Sept 2003 to Jan 2004
  • Send+Receive Festival performance & workshops, Winnipeg, Canada 2004:
  • LMC Guitar Festival performances, Museum of Garden History, London 2004
  • Frère Jacques et autres pièces à Francis: Expositions. 1997. Saint-Fons, with Ron Haselden, a British artist living in the French town of Brizard, in Brittany. This was a well-known interactive multimedia piece featuring the song Frère Jacques.[4]

Selected recordings edit

  • Your Favourite London Sounds 1998–2001, Peter Cusack, Resonance (2002)
  • Day For Night, Peter Cusack, Max Eastley, Paradigm (2000). The compilation of recordings from a 25-year collaboration.
  • Interruptions, Terry Day, EMANEM 4125; Cusack plays on two tracks, recordings from 1978–1981.
  • Voila Enough! 1979–1981 (Atavistic ALP239CD) – CD release of the group Alterations (Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day, David Toop)
  • Baikal Ice, Peter Cusack, RER Megacorp / IODA (Spring 2003)
  • Where is the Green Parrot?, Peter Cusack, RER Megacorp / IODA (1999)
  • The Horse Was Alive, The Cow Was Dead, Peter Cusack album with 46 tracks
  • Butlers Wharf, Peter Cusack
  • Ghosts & Monsters: Technology & Personality in Contemporary Music, Composer: Robert Ashley, Frieder Butzmann, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Henning Christiansen, et al., Conductor: Christian von Borries, Guy Protheroe, Performers: Peter Cusack, Margaret Leng Tan, Jerry Hunt, Shelley Hirsch, Berliner Philharmoniker, Emf Media (2 May 2000) includes an extract from a Host, of Golden Daffodils – Nicolas Collins, Peter Cusack
  • Haunted Weather, assorted artists, Staubgold Germany, 25 May 2004, includes "Flight Path Trace" by Peter Cusack (companion CD to Ghosts and Monsters: Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music, Leonardo Music Journal 8 (1998), Leonardo / MIT Press, 1998)
  • Not Necessarily "English Music": A collection of experimental music from Great Britain, 1960–1977, curated by David Toop, Leonard Music Journal CD Series Volume 11, includes Geese recorded in 1974 by Peter Cusack and Simon Mayo (A Touch of the Sun), the companion CD to 2001 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press, 2001.
  • Nightjars and Roe Deer, and Squabble (both from CD to Musicworks #59, Peter Cusack) included in , (René van Peer, catalogue for festival Whistling in the Dark/Pfeifen in Walde, organised by Matthias Osterwold and Nicolas Collins in Podewil, Berlin (Germany), 9 to 18 September 1994, organised by Matthias Osterwold and Nicolas Collins in Podewil, Berlin (Germany), 9 to 18 September 1994, pub. by Volker Straebel and Matthias Osterwold, in association with Nicolas Collins, Valerian Maly and Elke Moltrecht. Distribution through Podewil and Maly Verlag, 1994.)
  • , an album recorded at festival "music unlimited" at Alter Schlachthof Wels, Austria, 11 November 1995. The album features Peter Cusack playing "bousouki & interactive birds"
  • Operet, Peter Cusack and Viv Corringham, Rere121
  • Sounds from dangerous places book with audio CDs

Curations edit

  • Interpreting the Soundscape, curated by Peter Cusack, contributions by Tonya Wimmer, Andrea Polli and Joe Gilmore, Jacob Kirkegaard, Chris Watson, Rafal Flejter, Chris DeLaurenti, Christina Kubisch, Charles Stankievech, Sonic Postcards, Yannick Dauby and Pascal Battus. LMJ CD Series Volume 16 accompanying the 2006 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal, Leonardo Music Journal Volume 16 (2006), MIT press, 2006.

Selected publications edit

  • "Ghosts and Monsters": Contributors' Notes", Alexander Abramovitch Krejn, Christian von Borries, John Cage, Andrew Culver, John Tilbury, Paul de Marinis, Robert Ashley, Henning Christiansen, Alvin Lucier, Peter Cusack, Shelley Hirsch, Jerry Hunt, Michael Schell, Frieder Butzmann, Michael Snow, Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 8, Ghosts and Monsters: Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music (1998), pp. 64–74, MIT Press, 1998.
  • The Positive Soundscape Project: A re-evaluation of environmental sound, Mags Adams, Angus Carlyle, Peter Cusack, Bill Davies, Ken Hume, Paul Jennings, Chris Plack, Research Proposal.
  • Dialogue, Peter Cusack, Soundscape—The Journal of Acoustic Ecology 1 (2) p8, 2000.

References edit

  • Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory, David Toop, Serpent's Tail, 1 July 2004, ISBN 1-85242-812-0

Notes edit

  1. ^ Bell, Clive. "Clive Bell: What's so funny 'bout British improvising? - The Wire". The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  2. ^ Kenneth Goldsmith wrote a review of Your Favourite London Sounds, Compiled by Peter Cusack (London Musicians' Collective), Cusack’s Favourite London Sounds 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine published in New York Press, (2002), 15 (9)
  3. ^ United Kingdom and Ireland Soundscape Community (UKISC), John Levack Drever, Soundscape, Volume 4, Number 2, p. 7, Fall/Winter 2003 23 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine, a review of Vermilion Sounds
  4. ^ Frère Jacques et autres pièces à Francis: Expositions. 1997. Saint-Fons Ron Haselden, Saint-Fons, Centre d'Arts Plastiques, 1997, ISBN 2-9509357-2-9

External links edit

  • Peter Cusack's official website
  • Favourite sounds project's website
  • Sounds from dangerous places project's website
  • Peter Cusack entry in Allmusic, François Couture
  • This album was recorded in 1981 and released in 1999.
  • Bead Records website, the record company Cusack co-founded in 1972, which has released more than 30 albums.

January 01, 1970
peter, cusack, musician, this, article, about, musician, australian, rugby, league, player, peter, cusack, rugby, league, peter, cusack, english, artist, musician, member, crisap, creative, research, sound, arts, practice, research, staff, member, founding, me. This article is about the musician For Australian rugby league player see Peter Cusack rugby league Peter Cusack is an English artist and musician who is a member of CRiSAP Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice and is a research staff member and founding member of the London College of Communication in the University of the Arts London He was a founding member and director of the London Musicians Collective He is best known as a member of the avant garde musical quartet Alterations 1978 1986 with Steve Beresford David Toop and Terry Day 1 and the creator of field and wildlife recording based albums including Where Is the Green Parrot 1999 with tracks like Toy Shop Two Small Boys Go Shopping and Siren which are just as advertised Day for Night 2000 with Max Eastley This features duets between Eastley s kinetic sculpture and Cusack s field recordings Baikal Ice 2003 featuring tracks like Banging Holes In Ice and Floating Icicles Rocked By Waves and Falling In Cusack has been involved in a wide range of projects throughout his career Several of his pieces have been reviewed in Leonardo Music Journal the annual music Journal published by MIT Press He has also curated an album for Leonardo Music Journal He is currently research fellow on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council s multidisciplinary Positive Soundscapes Project Contents 1 Musical interests 2 Other performances 3 Activities related to music 4 Other projects 5 Selected recordings 6 Curations 7 Selected publications 8 References 9 Notes 10 External linksMusical interests editCusack is particularly interested in environmental sound and acoustic ecology He has examined the sound properties of areas such as Lake Baikal Siberia and the Azerbaijan oil fields and is interested in how sounds change as people migrate and as technology changes In 1998 Cusack started the Your Favorite London Sound project The goal is to find out what London noises are found appealing by people who live in London 2 This was so popular that it has been repeated in Chicago Beijing and other cities He is involved in the Sound amp The City art project using sounds from Beijing in October 2005 Cusack s Sounds From Dangerous Places is a project to collect sounds from sites which have sustained major environmental damage Sites that Cusack is working on include Chernobyl the Azerbaijan oil fields and areas around controversial dams on the Tigris and Euphrates river systems in south east Turkey Cusack s performances are a central part of the book Haunted Weather Music Silence and Memory Toop 2004 by his old collaborator and respected music critic and author David Toop Toop investigates the use of environmental sound and electronic instruments in experimental music in his book Other performances editWith clarinetist Simon Mayo he formed the duo known as A Touch of the Sun His first major recording was part of Fred Frith s 1974 record Guitar Solos He was one of the first to play the bouzouki in England which gained him the respect of London s musical avant garde As a musician he has collaborated with artists such as Clive Bell Nic Collins Alterations Chris Cutler Max Eastley Evan Parker Hugh Davies Annette Krebs and Eastern Mediterranean singer Viv Corringham A live performance with Nicolas Collins was released as A Host of Golden Daffodils in 1999 Activities related to music editHe co founded an artist owned record label called Bead Records which has released many previously unavailable pieces in 1972 It had released more than 30 albums as of 2007 In 1975 Derek Bailey Steve Beresford Max Boucher Paul Burwell Jack Cooke Peter Cusack Hugh Davies Madelaine and Martin Davidson Richard Leigh Evan Parker John Russell David Toop Philipp Wachsmann and Colin Wood formed the journal MUSICS later described as an impromental experivisation arts magazine Cusack produces the monthly radio program Vermilion Sounds with Isobel Clouter Vermilion Sounds explores environmental sounds and is broadcast by Resonance FM in London John Levack Drever writing in Soundscape comments Of significant note is the work of Peter Cusack and Isobel Clouter from the British Library Sound Archive who we now welcome onto the UKISC Management Committee who have done a sterling job producing Vermilion Sounds a weekly radio show for Resonance FM 3 Other projects editSoundlines City of London Festival educational project on music and environmental sound in East London schools April to November 2003 Baku 5 Quarters at the University of Baku Azerbaijan This was a collaboration with Swiss video artist Ursula Biemann in 2004 Urban Grime exhibition at the Museum of London Sept 2003 to Jan 2004 Send Receive Festival performance amp workshops Winnipeg Canada 2004 LMC Guitar Festival performances Museum of Garden History London 2004 Frere Jacques et autres pieces a Francis Expositions 1997 Saint Fons with Ron Haselden a British artist living in the French town of Brizard in Brittany This was a well known interactive multimedia piece featuring the song Frere Jacques 4 Selected recordings editYour Favourite London Sounds 1998 2001 Peter Cusack Resonance 2002 Day For Night Peter Cusack Max Eastley Paradigm 2000 The compilation of recordings from a 25 year collaboration Interruptions Terry Day EMANEM 4125 Cusack plays on two tracks recordings from 1978 1981 Voila Enough 1979 1981 Atavistic ALP239CD CD release of the group Alterations Steve Beresford Peter Cusack Terry Day David Toop Baikal Ice Peter Cusack RER Megacorp IODA Spring 2003 Where is the Green Parrot Peter Cusack RER Megacorp IODA 1999 The Horse Was Alive The Cow Was Dead Peter Cusack album with 46 tracks Butlers Wharf Peter Cusack Ghosts amp Monsters Technology amp Personality in Contemporary Music Composer Robert Ashley Frieder Butzmann John Cage Cornelius Cardew Henning Christiansen et al Conductor Christian von Borries Guy Protheroe Performers Peter Cusack Margaret Leng Tan Jerry Hunt Shelley Hirsch Berliner Philharmoniker Emf Media 2 May 2000 includes an extract from a Host of Golden Daffodils Nicolas Collins Peter Cusack Haunted Weather assorted artists Staubgold Germany 25 May 2004 includes Flight Path Trace by Peter Cusack companion CD to Ghosts and Monsters Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music Leonardo Music Journal 8 1998 Leonardo MIT Press 1998 Not Necessarily English Music A collection of experimental music from Great Britain 1960 1977 curated by David Toop Leonard Music Journal CD Series Volume 11 includes Geese recorded in 1974 by Peter Cusack and Simon Mayo A Touch of the Sun the companion CD to 2001 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal MIT Press 2001 Nightjars and Roe Deer and Squabble both from CD to Musicworks 59 Peter Cusack included in Songs Soaring Rene van Peer catalogue for festival Whistling in the Dark Pfeifen in Walde organised by Matthias Osterwold and Nicolas Collins in Podewil Berlin Germany 9 to 18 September 1994 organised by Matthias Osterwold and Nicolas Collins in Podewil Berlin Germany 9 to 18 September 1994 pub by Volker Straebel and Matthias Osterwold in association with Nicolas Collins Valerian Maly and Elke Moltrecht Distribution through Podewil and Maly Verlag 1994 TECHNO MIT STORUNGEN an album recorded at festival music unlimited at Alter Schlachthof Wels Austria 11 November 1995 The album features Peter Cusack playing bousouki amp interactive birds Operet Peter Cusack and Viv Corringham Rere121 Sounds from dangerous places book with audio CDsCurations editInterpreting the Soundscape curated by Peter Cusack contributions by Tonya Wimmer Andrea Polli and Joe Gilmore Jacob Kirkegaard Chris Watson Rafal Flejter Chris DeLaurenti Christina Kubisch Charles Stankievech Sonic Postcards Yannick Dauby and Pascal Battus LMJ CD Series Volume 16 accompanying the 2006 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal Leonardo Music Journal Volume 16 2006 MIT press 2006 Selected publications edit Ghosts and Monsters Contributors Notes Alexander Abramovitch Krejn Christian von Borries John Cage Andrew Culver John Tilbury Paul de Marinis Robert Ashley Henning Christiansen Alvin Lucier Peter Cusack Shelley Hirsch Jerry Hunt Michael Schell Frieder Butzmann Michael Snow Leonardo Music Journal Vol 8 Ghosts and Monsters Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music 1998 pp 64 74 MIT Press 1998 The Positive Soundscape Project A re evaluation of environmental sound Mags Adams Angus Carlyle Peter Cusack Bill Davies Ken Hume Paul Jennings Chris Plack Research Proposal Dialogue Peter Cusack Soundscape The Journal of Acoustic Ecology 1 2 p8 2000 References editHaunted Weather Music Silence and Memory David Toop Serpent s Tail 1 July 2004 ISBN 1 85242 812 0Notes edit Bell Clive Clive Bell What s so funny bout British improvising The Wire The Wire Magazine Adventures In Modern Music Retrieved 17 May 2016 Kenneth Goldsmith wrote a review of Your Favourite London Sounds Compiled by Peter Cusack London Musicians Collective Cusack s Favourite London Sounds Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine published in New York Press 2002 15 9 United Kingdom and Ireland Soundscape Community UKISC John Levack Drever Soundscape Volume 4 Number 2 p 7 Fall Winter 2003 Archived 23 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine a review of Vermilion Sounds Frere Jacques et autres pieces a Francis Expositions 1997 Saint Fons Ron Haselden Saint Fons Centre d Arts Plastiques 1997 ISBN 2 9509357 2 9External links editPeter Cusack s official website Favourite sounds project s website Sounds from dangerous places project s website Peter Cusack entry in Allmusic Francois Couture Alterations album reviews This album was recorded in 1981 and released in 1999 Bead Records website the record company Cusack co founded in 1972 which has released more than 30 albums Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Peter Cusack musician amp oldid 1221573529, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.