Tuesday 26 June 2012

THE GRINDER - Augmented theatre by Ergo Phizmiz & Joel Cahen


Written by Ergo Phizmiz
Creative direction and sound design by Joel Cahen


The Grinder is nourished by our information, our thoughts, our tweets, our images, our videos, our sounds and our dreams. Within The Grinder all this information exists in a state of perpetual alchemy, as 0s and 1s, as flesh/meat, as hallucinations, as fragments of sounds, as shards of vinyl, toys, texts, paper, machinery, microchips.
Everything within it exists in a constant state of permutation, existence and non-existence, as The Grinder explores and reflects every ever-increasing possibility in upon itself. The entirety of the internet is set to feed into The Grinder which, due to it's existence between the physical and virtual, occupies no fixed abode.
Until now. A triumphant feat of hacking has left The Grinder temporarily locked in one physical space. You will follow a chain of events across a series of locations, with a wide range of permutations and possible routes, incorporating clues and strange characters on your way to discovery.
The Grinder takes place in Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green
Audience will need an iPhone or Android smartphone.


Interzone Theatre is a covert performance platform for an audience of one.
It is an exploratory theatrical experience where the buildings, parks and waterways serve as a backdrop and passersby unwitting extras in a psycho-geographical interactive journey through the cityscape. Passersby become unwitting extras as the audience tries to decipher who is a character in the narrative and who is not, they might see the dots but only the audience can connect them and see the narrative unfolding with each zone they step in.
Interzone Theatre is based on sound design to convey the story. Sound gives context to a scene and gives the audience access to a parallel world superimposed on familiar locations and daily interactions.
Interzone Theatre requires an iPhone or Android smartphone. You are given headphones and a start point, its up to you to find out the ending.

Newtoy production

Part of Shoreditch Fringe Festival and CREATE 2012.

Monday 25 June 2012

DISCREPANT PRESENTS: KINK GONG + ERGO PHIZMIZ + IAIN CHAMBERS


Ergo Phizmiz is performing at Cafe Oto on the bill with Kink Gong & Iain Chambers, on Friday 20 July 2012.

Ergo will be premiering a new piece "Duet for Merz & Barn".

Door Times : 8pm

Tickets : £7 advance / £8 on the door

Discrepant presents a night of far out ethnic discrepancies headlined by tribal field recorder manipulator Kink Gong. 


Friday 22 June 2012

Tickets on sale for Ergo Phizmiz at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2012

Tickets are now on sale for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2012, which features the following Ergo Phizmiz events....


Ergo Phizmiz "Queen of Names"
Saturday 4th August, 21.15-21.55 Buy Tickets

"A whirlwind tour through the life and work of maverick writer, collagist, radio-producer and opera composer Ergo Phizmiz. Performing excerpts from music-theatre pieces dating back to his early teens to current work-in-progress and experiments, the evening will provide a personal and kaleidoscopic overview of the work of one of the UK's most uncategorisable and prolific artists."

Written, Composed & Performed by Ergo Phizmiz


Elvis Herod & The Gang of Rogues "Mike the Headless Chicken"
Saturday 4th August, 20.05-20.50 Buy Tickets
Sunday 5th August, 17.05-17.50 Buy Tickets

"One day in the mid 1940s in Fruita, Colorado, a poultry farmer was flummoxed by the continued survival of a decapitated chicken. Over the next 18 months Mike the Headless Chicken became a celebrity, touring the land as a wonder of nature, until an inglorious end in an hotel room (which can hardly be called untimely, since his head had died a year and a half earlier). This new Kentucky Fried Live Action Dada Cartoon opera by Elvis Herod, presented with The Gang of Rogues (returning to the festival after last year's controversial "The Third Policeman"), is a poultry-indigestion nightmare in garish technicolor."

Written & Composed by Elvis Herod

Starring Oblivian Substanshall, Martha Moopette, Richard Clare, Ergo Phizmiz, Vulnavia Vanity, Elvis Herod, Talulah & Autumn


"Caring in the Community" A Lite Bite Opera by Ergo Phizmiz

"A charming and heart-warming tale of the unmitigated hatred that can develop between two people living next door to one another. After a long day at the office, a businessman's evening of watching the X Factor is ruined by the dulcet tones of the opera singer who lives next door."

Written & Composed by Ergo Phizmiz and performed/directed by Tête à Tête Opera, this short opera deals with a subject close to Ergo's heart: dreadful neighbours. Telling the story of the close-quarters neighbourly relationship between an office worker and an opera singer, it is the product of many years (unwanted) research.

This is one of Tête à Tête's "Lite Bites" programme, short operas that play in and around Riverside Studios during the course of the festival.


Do come along. This is always a genuinely unpredictable festival.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Ergo Phizmiz dates, mid 2012




June 6th - Release of Populista CD version of Robert Ashley's "Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon".


June 15th - Release of "It's a Sin" single on Care in the Community 7"


July 1st - Release of FUNBAG #1 on Chinstrap.


July 27th - Solo performance on the Isle of Wight, for the Undecided Art Collective.


August 2nd - Preview of "Mike the Headless Chicken" at a secret location in Bridport, followed by the Chinstrap Marching Band through town, and IF: 2 with Greater Than or Equal To, Oblivian Substanshall, Elvis Herod and more at another secret location.


August 4th - Premiere of "Queen of Names" one man show, and premiere of Elvis Herod's "Mike the Headless Chicken" opera at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, Riverside Studios, London.


August 5th - Second performance of "Mike the Headless Chicken" at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival, Riverside Studios, London. 


August 18th-22nd - Premiere of augmented theatre piece "Interzone: The Grinder" at Shoreditch Fringe Festival. Written by Ergo Phizmiz, produced by Joel Cahen.


September - Release of "Eleven Songs" LP & CD on Care in the Community Recordings.


September 5th - Premiere of Les Antliaclastes Marionettes "The Old Man of the Mountain" at Vidy Theatre, Lausanne.


October - Release of People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "The Keystone Cut-Ups" DVD on Illegal Art.


October 19th - premiere broadcast for Ergo Phizmiz's radiophonic ornithological kaleidoscope "Conversations With Birds" on Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Ergo Phizmiz with Alessandro Bosetti, Lula, Maciej Cieślak, Julia Ziętek, and DJ Lenar play Robert Ashley's "Purposeful Lady, Slow Afternoon" - NEW CD Out now


Queen Ergo Phizmiz the 1st of England is delighted to announce this new, handsomely packaged CD release on Populista, a division of Bolt Records curated by Michal Libera.

Comprising a live recording made in Warsaw during September 2011, a 20 minute interpretation of Robert Ashley's disturbing piece, interleaved with cut-ups of Michael Winner's "Winner's Dinners" column.

Created in collaboration with  Alessandro Bosetti, Lula, Maciej Cieślak, Julia Ziętek, and DJ Lenar.

A limited number will be available to buy shortly through ergophizmiz.net ... if you just can't wait, you can order the CD at Monotype Records.

Populista is a brilliant series of releases, and every installment of the series is highly recommended. If you want Costes performing the Marquis de Sade, Bernard Schutz & Reinhold Scheindl performing Schumann, or Rinus Van Alabeek performing Luc Ferrari, then this is the place to get them.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Ergo Phizmiz creates UPMIX16 "The Only Union Jack I Want to See is Union Jacques" for UpItUp Records


Ergo Phizmiz has produced a mix to celebrate the jubilee of Freddie Mercury and, of course, his own diamond jubilee as Queen Ergo Phizmiz the 1st of England, for the gargantuan behemoth netlabel that is UpItUp Records.

It is called "The Only Union Jack I Want to See is Union Jacques Mix", in homage to UpItUp's own hairy treasure chest Jacques Malchance.



Featuring music by Tom Dissevelt, Sun Ra, Takemura, Der Plan, Greater Than or Equal To, Anthology of Congolese Music, Felix Kubin & Ensembles Integrales, The Royal Wedding, Oblivian Substanshall, Elvis Herod, Royal British Legion Band, Delia Derbyshire, Dwoogie, Alexander Laszlo, Albert Glasser ft Vincent Price, and two previously unreleased Ergo Phizmiz tracks.



Stream or Download the mix at UPITUP.