Light Shows

Candlemas 2024

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Next gig – we’re reprising our Candlemas performance of last year on January 28th with a variety of liquid lights and slides plus music and food at the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine in east London. Curated by Heena Song, she’ll be joined by Julian Hand, Paul Naudin, Joe and Janie of Whyte Light Visuals and myself for an evening of psychedelic projection in and outside around the grounds of the Foundation. Nearest train station is Limehouse and then it’s just round the corner, you should be able to see the lights from the train. Tickets are available here or on the gate and the event runs from 6pm to 9pm.

Candlemas

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2023

Best LPs 2023Music:
Kosmischer Laufer – Volume 5 LP (UCR)
Soia, Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau – In C for 11 Oscillators and 53 Forms LP (unjenesaisquoi)
Cate Brooks – Tapeworks DL (Cafe Kaput)
Memorials – Music For Film: Tramps! LP (State 51 Conspiracy)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse… LP (Album of the year)
Field Lines Cartographer – Moonbuilding Sessions LP (CiS Subscription Library)
Brian Eno – The Lighthouse radio station (Sonos) (most listened to)
Niholoxica – Source of Denial LP (Crammed Discs)
SareemOne – Olivine Window
Coast Contra – Breathe & Stop Freestyle/Never Freestyle/Scenario Freestyle
Move78 – Grains LP
Heiroglyphic Being – The Moon Dance LP (Apnea)
Raj Pannu – Past Crimes EP 12″ (To Pikap Records)
Gordon Chapman-Fox – The Nine Travellers LP (Castles In Space Subscription Library)

Podcasts:
Oh God What Now?
Cartoonist Kayfabe
Jonny Trunk’s Patreon Show
What Goes Around
The Bunker
The Bureau of Lost Culture
Not A Diving Podcast with Scuba

Best of Live events 2023-2
Gigs / Events:
Art of Noise @Jazz Café, London
The Light Surgeons – SuperEverything launch @iklectik, London
Quadraphon debut @Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
Beyond The Streets exhibition @Saatchi gallery, London
Pop Up Subculture festival, Stroud
Holotronica, @IMAX Bristol
Sunroof / Finlay Shakespeare @iklectik, London
0282 Club, the library, Burnley
Paul Cousins @iklectik, London
The Light Surgeons – The Consensual Hallucination @iklectik, London
Memorials at the State 51 Summer Psych party @State 51, London
Queens of the Stone Age @Glastonbury
FogFest2 @iklectik, London
JG Thirlwell & Emsemble @Bush Hall, London
The Book & Record Bar 10th anniversary party, London
Machina Bristronica, Bristol
Visiting Peel Acres with Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves
Nihiloxia @the Jazz Cafe, London
NEXT Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia

Best design 2023
Design / Packaging:
Yves Malone – A Hello To A Goodbye LP (Castles In Space)
Drumetrics – Phuzzle (Drumetrics)
Waclaw Zimpel – Train Spotter LP (State 51)
David Boulter – Factory 3″ CD (Clay Pipe Music)
Fluctuosa – Wetware EP 12″ (Analogical Force)
Fluxus – Orbit & Shine LP (Castles In Space)
Floating Points – Birth4000 12″ (Ninja Tune)
Cate Brooks – Easel Studies LP + badge (Clay Pipe Music)
Brian Eno – Top Boy OST CD (Beatink)

Artists:
Kallamity
Soda
Nick Taylor (Spectral Studio)
Louise Mason
Francis Castle (Clay Pipe)
Tradd Moore
KO_Computer
Kishi Omori
Autone1
Mike Mignola
Geometric Love
Anna Readman
Zoe Thorogood
Colin & Maria @ Time Released Sound

Best books 2023
Books / Magazines / Comics:
Medical Grade Music – Steve Davis & Kavis Torabi (White Rabbit)
Doctor Strange – Fall Sunrise – Tradd & Heather Moore (Marvel)
Tales To Enlighten – The New Testament – Matt King and James Edward Clark
Beyond The Streets exhibition book
Pop – Milton Glaser (Phaidon)
Kevin O’Neill Apex Edition (2000AD)
Mark Stafford – Salmonella Smorgasbord (Soaring Penguin Press)
Savage Impressions – Bruce Lichen (Independent Project Records)
Hexagon Bridge – Richard Blake (Image)
Monica – Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics)
Acid Valley – Luke Insect
Petrol Head – Rob Williams & Pye Parr (Image)
Lawless – Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade (Rebellion)
Giant Robot Hellboy – Mignola/Fegredo (Dark Horse)
Facelss & The Family – Matt Lesniewski (Oni Press)

Film:
Barbie
Squaring The Circle : The Story of Hipgnosis

What Have I done 2023
Another year over and what have I done?
Designed a retro jungle cover for District 1727 release Rinse Out The Raw Steel
Opened for The Art of Noise two nights running at the Jazz Cafe
Designed The Home Current & Peter Wix and UNE CDs for Spun Out Of Control
Performed at Candlemas with Julian Hand, Heena Song, Paul Naudin and Whyte Light Visuals
Started working with visual artist PuttyRubber with my Quadraphon turntable at live gigs
Designed the Stasis 12″‘Quondam Sequences’ for De:tuned
Edited a short video for Holotronica after their Bristol event (not sure this ever got broadcast/finished actually)
Restarted my Infinite Illectrik label with 7 monthly releases from May
Mixed two new volumes of The Funky Eno with selections provided by Nohbodhi
Gave talks about Wheels of Light in Stroud and Brighton
Collaborated with Graham Dunning live with visuals by PuttyRubber and Chromatech for FogFest2
Appeared on the 45 Live and What Goes Around podcasts
Wrote the theme for the new Why? podcast
Remade and remixed Amon Tobin’s Permutation LP artwork for the 25th reissue
Continued the weekly Mixcloud Select series of archive mix uploads
Designed and illustrated Wonders of the Undersea World LP for Trunk Records including a sheet of stickers to make your own cover design.
Designed zoetropes for T Rex, Donna Summer, Dr Who, Lily Allen and Steps(!)
Designed the Pulse Five EP, poster and postcards for FSOL, working with Jonas Ranson again on the screenprint
Designed the De:tuned 15 logo and T-shirt for the label’s fifteenth year in 2024
Designed the Clerkenwell Kid Junkyard Melodies album + ephemera and 3″ Xmas Winter Warmers companion CD for Stephen Coates/The Real Tuesday Weld
Designed the A’bear album sleeve for Castles In Space
Contributed vintage graffiti photos to the second Old So Kool book about the UK graf scene in the 80s
Ongoing research into at least three other book projects…

RIP:
Alan Rankin, Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Alain Goraguer, Lee Purkis aka In Sync, Paul O’Grady, Al Jaffee, Jah Shaka, Mary Quant, Mark Stewart, Frank Kozik, Andy Rourke, Peter Jones (Colourscape designer), Martin Amis, Kenneth Anger, Tina Turner, Astrud Gilberto, John Romita Snr, Glenda Jackson, Jane Birkin, Paul Rubens, Jamie Reid, Michael Parkinson, David McCallum, Mark the 45 King, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Gibson,

Looking forward 2024
Looking forward to:
Candlemas II
Gary Hustwit’s Eno film
The Time Released Sound Book – A Decade of Handmade Music Packaging
Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga
The Hoppy documentary
Richard Norris’ autobiography, Strange Things Are Happening
Sophia Satchell-Baeza’s ‘Sensuous Laboratories’ book
The The’s new tour
Doug Shipton’s new Fundamental Frequencies label
More collaborations

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Christmas Collector Countdown 2023 #11: Kevin Foakes – Wheels of Light book

WheelsofLight_cover edit
A daily post throughout December of records, CDs, books, comics or other ephemera that I’ve bought or been given recently from independent artists, labels or publishers who would welcome your support.

#11. Kevin Foakes – Wheels of Light + Four Corners Books
Got to plug something of my own – my book on projection wheel designs for British light shows has been out for just over a year now and the lovely people at Four Corners Books have a wealth of obscure publications to complement it.

WOL3
WOL7
WOL6
WOL2
WOL5
There’s still time to buy from Four Corners before Xmas and, if you spend over £30 on their site, they’ll send you a limited edition enamel pin designed by John Morgan, plus a Bearandas postcard as an extra stocking filler. Offer ends 18 Dec, while stocks last

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https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/wheels-of-light/

https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/



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Wheels of Light now back in stock at Liquid Light Shop


My book, Wheels of Light, published by Four Corners Books, is now back in stock at Steve Pavolvsky‘s Liquid Light Shop online for US customers who want a copy. Steve is the main man behind Liquid Light Lab and a major player in the light show world in NYC. His website is a treasure trove of info, both technical and historical, a great place to start if you’re interested in getting into the medium. His shop is stocked with various paraphenalia that you’ll need if you want to project your own liquid light show including inks, petri dish glass, moiré sheets and more. I’m so pleased he’s into the book, it’s a real seal approval from such a major figure in that world.

In other news, Optikinetics – a major part of my book – have reached their Kickstarter goal for their new home projector, the Kino. There’s still time to order one though and get a variety of additional wheel add ons. The projector can be held in one hand, is very quite and can be controlled via a app on your phone. You have just 4 days left to back the campaign – check it out here

Kino projector

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Floating Points – Birth4000 single

FP single cover
I was struck by the cover art to Floating Points‘ new single, ‘Birth4000’ the other week as it resembles the liquid light shows I so love. On further investigation, it seems that’s not far off as the artist, Akiko Nakayama, projects her ‘Alive Painting’ onto huge canvases from microscopic sizes. Her website is well worth some investigation and she made a video for the single which you can see below as well as a billboard that Ninja Tune showed off somewhere in London recently.

FP billboard

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Wheels of Light now out in the US

WOL cover
Not only was my book ‘Wheels of Light’ published a year ago by Four Corners Books but it’s now available in the US with free UPS ground shipping from D.A.P. – they are also supplying bookstores too if you want copies for your store. Order here
Wheels of Light Oil Wheel Optikinetics
WOL8
In other related light show news, Optikinetics are close to fulfilling the Kickstarter for their new Kino projector, a mini home projector that takes 6″ wheels and includes several options to back including one with my book and vintage Pluto wheels.
You can back the campaign and get your own home projector here

Kino projector
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Magnetic Cartridge Quartet ‘Polykicks B’ video


I made a video for my Magnetic Cartridge Quartet ‘Polykicks B’ track from the Buried Treasure ‘Decapod’ compilation – all made using a vintage Strand Patt theatre light with 18″ glass optical effects discs, patterned glass or coloured gel inserts.

The label’s 10th anniversary party is tonight, Sat 14th at The Couch in Bracknell – compilation and ticket here
https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/decapoda

The track was made live using my Quadraphon turntable, edited down and given a sonic scrub on the mix by Osymyso. The video footage was filmed using an original Strand theatre light with 18″ rotating glass disc attachments and other visual tricks. Thanks to Rob Halliday for access to the lights and for working the FX.

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Opti launch their Kino projector


Opti(kinetics) have launched their mini projector the Kino via Kickstarter including an array of wheels, mirrors and even my Wheels of Light book as added incentives. One of the wheels on offer is an original vintage Pluto wheels from the 70s, the company bought the remaining stock from the company many years ago and once these are gone they’re the last of the surviving stock. You can pledge your support here for this lovely little projector that will take magnetic 6″ FX wheels and can be controlled via a phone app. I’ve used a prototype and they are beautiful and work straight out the box, perfect for home use rather than clubs and gigs.

Kino projector

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Sound Affects Wheels of Light talk

INVERT FIRST Wednesday QR Code Sound Affects poster
I’ll be at the East Street Tap in Brighton on June 7th to talk about my Wheels of Light book and show some projections for the monthly Sound Affects night. It’ll be a brief talk with a Q&A as I’m sharing the bill with sound artist Fiona Miller and author Richard Evans who will be talking about their own projects respectively.
Tickets and info here

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