Writing as Jo Burzynska, Stanier Black-Five’s Global Ear column on the sound scene in post-quake Christchurch appears in the January 2013 edition of The Wire. She’s also curated a compilation of Christchurch music – including her Body Waves collaboration with Malcolm Riddoch – which can be listened to on The Wire website.
Stanier Black-Five will be making a special outdoor performance as part of the Rising Tides Festival in Wellington on Thursday 8th December. More information about the festival can be found at: www.soundexplorers.co.nz/rising-tides-festival/
Stanier Black-Five is touring with Malcolm Riddoch in Europe: September 2012, with the following dates:
Ljubljana 14.09.12: Earzoom Festival – Body Waves
London 17.09.12: noise=noise – Global Resonances
London 18.09.12: ABA @ Goldsmiths University – Body Waves
Ljubljana 14.09.12 Earzoom Festival @ International Computer Music Conference – http://www.icmc2012.si/
Body Waves
Body Waves is a live infrasonic performance whose primary sound source in this exploration of vibroacoustic perception are the unique recordings made by Stanier Black-Five at the epicentre of the recent earthquakes in New Zealand, which capture the vibrations of its massive aftershocks, collapsing buildings and subsequent demolitions. These are transformed by Riddoch to accentuate lower frequency harmonics in a spatial work spatialised through a quadraphonic set-up to immerse its audience/participants in this visceral music of the body.
London 17.09.12 noise=noise – http://nnnnn.org.uk/doku.php?id=noise_noise_170912
“Global Resonances”
Australasian sound/noise artists Stanier Black-Five (NZ) and Malcolm Riddoch (Aus) will be collaborating on a live work in three parts using both the natural acoustic resonance of the space in which they perform and that of a location on the other side of the world. Stanier Black-Five will start proceedings using field recordings made in disused cement silos in Auckland, NZ that harness their amazing natural reverb. Riddoch will then enhance this reverberant soundscape using live feedback techniques exploring the resonant frequencies of the soundscape within the performance space. Finally the feedback residue will play out within the space itself. From Auckland to a synthesis of Auckland-London to London acoustic spaces, Global Resonances traverses space-time through electroacoustic noise.
London 18.09.12 ABA @ Goldsmiths University, New Cross – Body Waves – http://aaaabbbbaaaa.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/aba08/
Oenosthesia is a multi-sensory installation exploring the synergies between sound and taste. The work was created during a Suone dal Confine artist residency in Irpinia, Italy in July 2012 from field recordings made by Stanier Black-Five within the region’s wineries and vineyards. Their different frequencies and timbres were designed to interact with selected local wines served at specific times during its performance. The installation was premiered at Interferenze’s Farm 2012 Festival in Tufo 
Here Stanier Black-Five talks about the concept during the installation’s creation.
Listen to Oenosthesia on Soundcloud. For the full multisensory experience, suggestions of wines to accompany its three sections are:
00:00 A mature Greco di Tufo or similar mid-weight white wine with some richness eg Chardonnay
06:00 A youthful Greco di Tufo, spumante/sparkling or comparable minerally high acid white eg Riesling
12:00 Requires a full bodied red, such as Taurasi or a Cabernet Sauvignon/blend
Writing as Jo Burzynska, Stanier Black-Five has contributed a chapter to Erewhon Calling: Experimental Sound in New Zealand, the recently published book edited by Bruce Russell, which offers a broad and fascinating insight into New Zealand’s experimental audio culture.
Erewhon Calling can be purchased online at: http://cmr.net.nz
About the book
Erewhon Calling: Experimental Sound in New Zealand is a lavishly-illustrated new publication from the Audio Foundation and CMR. It is a survey of how a bunch of antipodean misfits and malcontents have forged new ways and new reasons to make noise, here at the end of the earth. Edited by Bruce Russell (the Dead C.), in association with Richard Francis and Zoe Drayton; the aim of this volume is to survey the full range of ‘non-standard’ audio practices in contemporary NZ culture. The book’s remit runs from the borders of composed art music, through improvised noise, to deconstructed ‘rock’n pop filth’; and every genre, every scene, every permutation of unconventional audio practice in-between. The aim is not to be comprehensive (there is literally too much vitality and diversity for any book!). The hope is to ‘throw a good handful of gravel into the pool’. While not every eel will have been hit, the surface will have been rippled from shore to shore, which is more than anyone else has even attempted before.
Erewhon Calling makes room for many voices, allowing multiple and possibly conflicting voices and points of view. A range of artists and informed commentators mainly tell their own stories, describe their own work, and outline their own goals in working on the fringes of audio culture. The readers of this important new source book will be able to discern their own meanings and make their own connections from this thought-provoking and unique publication.