Ergo Phizmiz News and Upcoming

Many treats approaching in a quick burst of Phizmiz news...


Coming very soon....

"Conversations With Birds" - Deeply in production at the moment, the new radiophonic kaleidoscope from Ergo will broadcast on Bayerischer Rundfunk later in 2012. Created in a mixture of English, German, Polish, and Bird Language, with a right motley crew of brilliant collaborators including Denis Kundic, Patrick Sims, Margita Zalite, Oblivian Substanshall, Robin Gill, Caroline Stupnicka, & Martha Moopette.


"The Grinder" - A multimedia adventure / performance / installation event created in collaboration with Joel Cahen at NewToy as part of his Interzone project, intended for premiere at Shoreditch Festival 2012.


"It's a Sin" - Ergo's beefy cover version of the Pet Shop Boys song will be released on vinyl on Care in the Community Recordings very soon.....


"Care in the Community" - A short opera for the next Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, premiering August 2012.


"The Keystone Cut-Ups" - The marvellous Illegal Art are releasing a DVD of the 2010 collaboration between People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, which explores the relationships between silent-comedy and early avant-garde cinema, to an original musical score. This release will happen towards Autumn-time.


"Ergo Phizmiz with Alessandro Bossetti, Maciej Cieslak, DJ Lenar, Lula, Julia Zietek, plays Robert Ashley's Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" - Released on Populista/Bolt Records shortly. Recorded live in Warsaw, 2011.


"The Old Man of the Mountain" - Ergo is working on elements of the sound-design for the electronic puppet opera by Patrick Sims / Les Antliaclastes Marionettes, which opens in Lausanne, Switzerland, on September 11th 2012.


and....


"Eleven Songs" - The brand spanking new album of songwriting by Ergo Phizmiz, 3 years in the making, is released in Summer on Care in the Community Recordings. 

Unwanted Mash-Ups: Chicago Juke vs Pitman's Gramophone Course of Typewriter Keyboard Instruction

Ergo Phizmiz dances to Chicago Juke vs Pitman's Gramophone Course from Ergo Phizmiz on Vimeo.

Classwar Karaoke

Ergo Phizmiz has created the track "Music For Klaus Nomi" for the new edition of the vast ongoing compilation series Classwar Karaoke. Download this album, and ear-up past installments in the series, at the Classwar Karaoke blog.

New 30 minute mix by Ergo Phizmiz for ZigZag compilations

Ergo Phizmiz has created a mix for ZigZag compilations, featuring Erik Satie, Leszek Jankowski, Anton Webern, Lezet, Art Shaw, Musique des Vallees Scandinave, Felix Kubin, The 5 Jones Boys, Kalama's Quartet, Robert Ashley, and Berthold Goldschmidt.

Download, free, at Zig Zag Compilations.

Ergo Phizmiz Eats The Heart of Robert Ashley

Where I stood
I stood and waited Where I stood
I stood and thought
I stood and thunk
And thunk it hard

The night before

I'd found myself
before the television
I wore no trousers
and I laughed
at a televised funeral

Where I stood

I looked up and thought
About years ago
when I would fill
these cavernous spaces
with the deep and drawn-out
voices of wolves
and wolf men

The lady prostrate

laying out her soul
before a merciful God
is sexy

Then there I stand

and “Here lies the heart
of Robert Ashley”

In a little room

the wolf will squeal
In here
the wolf will roar
I will steal the heart
of Robert Ashley
and I will run away
with this little petrified
flesh biscuit

in a sandwich bag

in my pocket

then I will go home

and play piano

then I will stand and think

for a long, long time

then I will eat the heart

of Robert Ashley

then I will play piano

until my own heart stops

or at least until

my fingers ache a bit

I will steal the heart

of Robert Ashley

then I will run away

and nobody will find me

Robert Ashley will love me

like he has never loved
another man
And I will keep
him in my pocket

The lady who prays

will turn around
and see me with
sharp objects
she will see me
reach into the walls

my arms like

a cucumber plant
reaching for the sun

she will see me

steal the heart
of Robert Ashley
and she will see me
run away
with the heart of
Robert Ashley
in my pocket
in a sandwich bag

and she will roar

like a deep-wolf
in a cavernous space

I will run for a long time

with the heart of
Robert Ashley
and I will never stop running
until my own heart stops

or at least

until my feet ache a bit

Then I will sit a long time

and think
and I will hold the heart
of Robert Ashley
to my ear
and it will whisper to me
the prayer of the prostrate lady

When the heart has

finished its recital
I will open it
with a penknife

It is almost dust

it is not a cavernous space
from inside the heart
of Robert Ashley
the wolf will squeal
but only dogs will hear

And thus I, Robert Ashley, prove

that the heart of man belongs to dogs
that the heart of music belongs to dogs
that the world belongs to dogs
and that dogs are cavernous spaces

I will stand still

I will wave at dogs
until my heart stops
or at least until my arm aches a bit
I will cut out my heart
and feed it to the dogs who wave back
then I will lay on my back
with no trousers on
and no heart
and no Robert Ashley
and no dogs
and no lady
and no afternoon
and no funeral
and no telephones
and no television
and no sandwich bags
and no flesh
and listen, finally, to the voice of the wolf.


* written in Warsaw, September 2011

** passages of this piece appear in the new Classwar Karaoke compilation

*** Ergo Phizmiz Sextet performs Robert Ashley's "Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon" is out very soon on Populista, part of Bolt Records.

New Ergo Phizmiz electronic album - "Music For Your Party" - Free download

We present for your delectation a new mini-album, 27 minutes of rhythmic electronic sample music and sound-collage by Ergo Phizmiz.



It is intended, as the title implies, for parties and right royal knees-ups, but can be listened to at your discretion (or indiscretion) in any chosen environment or context.

* (Any of the rare breed of Ergothusiasts may be interested to know this is the first of Ergo's works produced entirely using the taking, juxtaposition and processing of samples in a timeline since 2007, back in the heady days of Phuj Phactory & 1000 Year Mix. Goodness gracious. It must be something they put in the water....)

NOW - put on your dancing shoes, buy a few bottles, and have a party.

Created Bridport, March 2012, at the kitchen table.

Cover photograph by Martha Moopette, of Ergo Phizmiz, in the aftermath of a party appropriate to listening to this album, dressing up as a chauffeur in Zombina's house. And why not, eh?

Sampled on this album are: Art Shaw, Augustus Pablo, Die Todliche Doris, Anton Webern, Pete Um, Delia Derbyshire, Bohislav Martinu, Der Plan, Anthology of Dutch Electronic Music, Kosmos, Klaus Nomi, Puaj-Ahem's Glitchy Bitchy, Kraftwerk, Erik Satie, Moondog, Arnold Schoenberg, The Cheeky Girls, Claudio Monteverdi, Daphne Oram, Sounds to Come, Little Richard, various bits and pieces from Youtube....amen....

This album is dedicated to the simply gorgeous Elvis Herod, may he rot like an abandoned vegetable languishing in the early morning of yesterday's market....