Ergo Phizmiz & The Travelling Mongoose DJ at the Design Museum

The Design Museum, London, features this coming Friday night a Silent Disco collaborative DJ set from Ergo Phizmiz & The Travelling Mongoose, for Care in the Community Recordings, as part of Design Overtime Festival.

The exclusive set will mix the nature and found-sound recordings of The Travelling Mongoose, with instrumental, experimental and furniture music by Ergo Phizmiz created over the past ten years including many new and unreleased pieces, a spot of 78-RPM recordings, and junkshop vinyl.

DESIGN OVERTIME
FESTIVAL
FRIDAY 25 September
6 - 10pm last admission 9.15pm

A last chance to see Super Contemporary at a spectacular late opening, not only is it the London Design Festival but it’s our 20th Birthday too! See the exhibitions and take part in debates and workshops set to a blend of music and entertainment.

Enter the Birthday Cake Bakeoff and make us a cake inspired by iconic design. The best cakes will be put on display for one night only to help us celebrate our twentieth birthday. Email overtime@designmuseum.org or download the Bakeoff brief for details of how to enter and delight in the culinary climax at the Design Overtime. Brace yourselves for our Silent Disco to provide you with a personal soundtrack by which to boogie whilst you draw in the Super Contemporary exhibition.

Tickets £5 in advance, includes entry to all current exhibitions

Go to Design Museum website.

"The Faust Cycle" - World Premiere begins tonight on Soundart Radio

Tonight's the night! The first airing of Ergo's 15 hour housebound necromantic food sex alchemy odyssey. Midnight, UK time, end of Monday going into Tuesday, as it were. Then every night till Friday on Soundart Radio.

Nothing left to do but the credits ...

The Faust Cycle

Written, Composed, Performed & Produced by Ergo Phizmiz

Additional writing by Jack Phoenix

'Little Octet for Assorted Tubes & Cones', 'An Evening in Hell' piano work, and
instrumental collaborations on variations of Erik Satie's 'Le Tango Perpetuel' by Jack Phoenix

'Hell Kebabs' electroacoustic work by Angela Valid

Work for Cello & Electronics by Bela Emerson

Field and Insect Recordings by The Travelling Mongoose and Irene Moon

Trumpet parts composed and performed by Mark Upton

Violin solo composed and performed by Amie Willingale

Additional musicians & composers Margita Zalite, Rebecca Robertson and Aaron Islamb

Editing of workshop recordings by Simon Perry



Contains interpretations of music by
Claudio Monteverdi
Carlo Gesualdo
Melchior Franck
Thomas Ravenscroft
The Four Tops
Peggy Lee
Erik Satie
Sergei Prokofiev
Jacques Offenbach
Arthur Sullivan
Georges Bizet
Camille Saint-Saens
J.S. Bach
Charles Tennier
Giuseppe Verdi
Argentian Tango (Un Chien Andalou)
Cole Porter
W.A. Mozart
Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby



Project consultants Jack Phoenix, The Travelling Mongoose and Martha Moopette



Dr Faustus performed by Zenith Pitts

Eloise performed by Margita Zalite, Rebecca Robertson, Martha Moopette

Gretchen speech devised and performed by Martha Moopette

Dr Faustus in 'Box' operetta performed by Pete Um



Workshops facilitated with Jack Phoenix and Simon Perry, in co-operation with Quay Arts & VentnorBlog



Written & Recorded 2006-2009

Ventnor, Newport, East Cowes, Ryde, Freshwater, Buckfastleigh, Brighton, London (UK)
La Ferriere aux Etangs, La Noe de Fendrement (France)
Tirgu-Mures, Transylvania (Romania)



Thanks to

All the artists involved, Kate, Talulah & Autumn, Jeremy Court, David Fenech, Felix Kubin & Gagarin Records, Vulnavia Vanity, the Faustus of the West Country, Sal & Simon, Matt Johnson, Soundart Radio,Chris, Lucinda, et al, WFMU, Zoe & Storm, Vicki & Peter , Sid & Maz, Jo Hummel Newell & all at Quay, except you know who ...., Penny King & Angela Unsworth at A.c.Eeee, Steven Streight, Chinky Bolin, Soleilmoon, Doyouspeakenglish Radio, Proot Records, Patrick Sims, Sarah & Peter Nelson, Satanicpornocultshop, Tomomi Adachi, Erik Bumbledonk, Anthony Locke

Dedicated to
Joseph Cornell
Ken Campbell
Morecambe & Wise

"The Faust Cycle" - World Premiere of new 15 hour radioplay on Soundart Radio

A new 15 hour adventure for radio from Ergo Phizmiz, supported by Arts Council England, Quay Arts and Ventnor Blog.

Premiering on Soundart Radio, 12-3am from 8th to 12th September

One afternoon Ergo Phizmiz finds himself lumbered into delivering a parcel to the house of legendary alchemist and necromancer Dr Johann Faustus who, since the events of some time ago for which he is renowned, has entered into a rather quieter life in a vast, labyrinthine house, with hundreds of lodgers running the gamut from artists, birds, bird-people, walking fictions, ventriloquists, a Cassowary, running chairs, walking gramophones, and myriad automata.

This enormous dream fable, told through speech, songs, collage and sound-design, is the result of over three years delving down various rabbit-holes, and features collaborations in a range of contexts with artists of many disciplines, including Jack Phoenix, Margita Zalite, Pete Um, Angela Valid, Bela Emerson, Martha Moopette, Amie Willingale, and Zenith Pitts.

In glorious radiophonic technicolour, it is a musical-comedy of disorientation and magick, somewhere between nightmare and the half-remembered childhood whimsy of an insomniac music-hall artiste.

Please note - "The Faust Cycle" is not, necessarily, suitable for sensitive ears at times, containing, as it does, some naughty words, some sexy references, and a healthy smattering of scatological excess.

If you just can't wait, you could do worse than head over and download the free album of instrumental music from The Faust Cycle, "Music From The House of Dr Faustus".

Soundart Radio : Transylvanian Recordings

The next two weeks of Ergo Phizmiz's show on Soundart Radio will be dedicated to recordings of folk music taken in Transylvania, Romania, during the Transymusic project of December 2007.

The recordings were taken on location around the Targu-Mures area of Romania, at Morisena, as part of Iuliana Varodi's Transymusic project.

On these recordings you will hear Ana Nicoara, Varga Iuliu, Barabas Ladiszlau, Demeter Panna Katalin, Mihai Sorohan, Asterix, Alan Marrero, Sebastien Tatar, Asterix, Margita Zalite, Stoica Matei, and the legendary Spoon Man. There are more - but we don't know their names!

You can hear the results of the Transymusic project, new compositions inspired by the Romanian folk music experienced and recorded, at the Transymusic Archive.

Ergo Phizmiz's Soundart Radio show broadcasts Thursday between 2-3pm UK time.

Now That's What We Pump At The Press Release...

We are delighted to announce the online-only, free release of a new album of covers of 1990s chartbusting, dancefloor filling smash hits, arranged for acoustic, electronic, homemade, and toy instruments, by Ergo Phizmiz & The Midnight Florists.

"Now That's What We Pump At The Party"

Following in the footsteps of the reviled, acclaimed, maimed and shamed Ergo Phizmiz & his Orchestra project (also available free), which covered the music of Aphex Twin, the entirety of the second Velvet Underground album, and a selection of 90s & noughties R & B classics for acoustic and toy instrument. This recording, however, moves on from the sound of the Orchestra project, moving into a more band-orientated sound, sounding something similar to strange manic jazz made by psychotic octogenarians on whatever instruments they could find.

For anyone with fond or hate-filled memories of such luminaries as C & C Music Factory,Dee Lite, Lou Bega, Culture Beat, or Snap, this album is for you. Hear Ergo & the Florists tear their way through "Rhythm is Dancer" like a party of wild banshees armed with ukuleles and box drums, or crawling across the bar-room Harmonium on an afterparty "Mambo No 5". Help us call "Mr Vain", complete with toy piano and the Monkton-o-phone, or simply put on your dancing shoes and begrudgingly admit that "Groove is in the Heart", which, hearts in the groove, the Midnight Florists plough through, group falsetti circling like vultures atop the corpse of that 'indestructable medium', the CD.

This album is the first release by the new musical unit The Midnight Florists. The group, on this release, is comprised of Ergo Phizmiz, The Travelling Mongoose, Monkton Wylde and Vulnavia Vanity, all of whom play all manner of instruments and contribute vocals to the release. Special mention should go to The Travelling Mongoose's newfound skills in very, very high falsetto vocals, at which he is an undisputed master.

Download, dance, and tell all your friends .....

Here be the link, on the marvellous WFMU Free Music Archive .....

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ergo_Phizmiz/Now_Thats_What_We_Pump_At_The_Party/

Ergo Phizmiz & The Midnight Florists "Now That's What We Pump At The Party" - Out now!

The new album of covers of classic chart-busting 1990s dancefloor hits by Ergo Phizmiz and the Midnight Florists is out now. And it's M P Free!

Download it at WFMU Free Music Archive.

Ergo Phizmiz & The Midnight Florists "Now That's What We Pump At The Party" - New album imminent ....

We are delighted to announce the imminent online release of a new album of cover versions, from the 1990s, by Ergo Phizmiz and The Midnight Florists.

This album is the screaming successor to the Ergo Phizmiz & his Orchestra project, in which Ergo recreated the music of Aphex Twin, the Velvet Underground, and various nineties and noughties R & B classics. And, of course, the record must be free!

(Although a 10" one day would be nice ...)

The tracklist is:

"Groove Is In The Heart"
"Mr Vain"
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
"Gonna Make You Sweat"
"Mambo No 5"
"Rhythm Is A Dancer"

The album is arranged & performed by Ergo Phizmiz, The Travelling Mongoose, Monkton Wylde & Vulnavia Vanity. The elegant Mambo Rocher was away on some shady business trip, but may if time is on our side make an appearance on Blue (Da Ba Dee) along with a spatial gust performance from the good lady Martha of Moopette. Produced by Ergo, with thanks to the Co-Op bins and Vulnavia's astounding business acumen. Recorded at the Mechanischemusikabbinett, this last week but mainly the other day, 2009.

During the sessions Monkton's balls were cupped. But by whom?

And it'll be on this blog very soon..... next day or so is the theory..... tell all your friends and put on your dancing shoes.....