Stanier Black-Five will be performing live at Musica Dispersa’s Experimental Transoceanic event in London on Friday 4th September, 2015. She will be joined on the international bill with Furchick (Australia), Hysteresis (Jason Williams and Charlotte CHW, UK), Tasos Tafarel Stamou (Greece/UK), Suso Flores (Spain/UK), Luca Nasciuti (UK) and Fer Xplosion DJ (Spain).
Doors: 7pm
Venue: Power Lunches, 446 Kingsland Road, Hackney, London E8 4AE
Entrance: £5
A review of Stanier Black-Five’s Oenosthesia II performance at the Lines of Flight 2015 Festival by Dr Jonathan Marshall appears in the April/May edition of Realtime Arts magazine.
Stanier Black-Five performed Oenosthesia II at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery as part of the Lines of Flight Festival 2015.
This was a development of the Oenosthesia project that started at an artist residency in Irpinia, Italy and was the first time Stanier Black-Five had created a wine soundscape live around the flavours and textures of three different wines: in this instance a sparkling wine, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir from Quartz Reef.
A review of the festival by Dr Jonathan Marshall, which includes Stanier Black-Five’s performance, appeared in Resonate.
Over three years ago the bells of Christchurch Cathedral ceased tolling when the iconic building was destroyed in the major earthquake that shook the New Zealand city in February 2011. In Resonifying the City, Stanier Black-Five brought this integral part of the city’s soundscape back for the weekend of the Audacious – Festival of Sonic Arts, which joined her ongoing installation in Colombo Street that reflects the sounds of a once noisy thoroughfare back into the street.
The earthquake transformed the city soundscape dramatically, for a while muting the noise of daily life and removing some familiar sounds altogether. Resonifyng the City returns sounds to their old locations through a series of installations created from archival material and personal recordings.
Many people in Christchurch miss the sound of the cathedral bells. These returned to haunt the ruins of the building, evoking a nostalgia for what has been lost. The 
juxtaposition of this sound from the past chiming in what is now a very different city also aimed to provoke reflection on the change that has occurred since the bells were last heard and pose questions about the past and its relevance to the present.
The sounds for the installations were recorded around Christchurch by Stanier Black-Five, except the historic Christchurch Cathedral bells recording, made and kindly donated by Mike Clayton.
Torpedo Boat Museum
Magazine Bay, Lyttelton
Avast! is the latest solo album by Lyttelton sound artist, Stanier Black-Five (Jo Burzynska), created from field recordings made around the port of her home town. Released on the European Entr’acte label, Burzynska is bringing Avast! back to its source for its New Zealand release at a launch event in February at Lyttelton’s Torpedo Boat Museum. This will feature a new live work based on her Lyttelton material and will also feature performances inspired by the port and the atmospheric Torpedo Boat bunker by Zeug Gezeugt and Regressor.
Sounds for Avast! were captured between 2009 and 2012 at sites around the natural amphitheatre of the extinct caldera: from the abandoned wartime gun emplacements on the top of the crater rim to the port and its cacophony of cargo ships, tugs and workshops. The work is also haunted by the resonance of buildings such as the Timeball Station, which were destroyed in the earthquakes.
Avast! is already starting to receive highly positive reviews in the European press since its release there in late 2013:
“Don’t be fooled by its mock-historical title, the album’s three pieces zero in on the disembodied sonic textures of modern capitalism. As ships dock and steel containers move in transit, engines whirr and grind, and relentless mechanical rhythms are punctuated with sundry creaks, bleeps and clangs.” Nick Cain, The Wire
Copies of Avast! will be available to purchase at the event at a special price and entry will be by donation to the Torpedo Boat Museum.