transform009 | Various Artists | CRANIA DRAFT MASSIF

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Here's a who's-who of contributors. We're very, very grateful to all of the following for their hard work, generosity and deranged music:



* The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age
* Beginning of the Ottoman Empire, early expansion into the Balkans
* The Avignon papacy transfers the seat of the Popes from Italy to France
* The Great Famine of 1315-1317 kills millions of people in Europe
* Being forced out of previous locations, the Aztec found the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325
* The Vijayanagara Empire is founded in South India by Harihara in 1336
* The Hundred Years' War begins when Edward III of England lays claim to the French throne in 1337.
* Black Death kills almost half of the population of Europe. (1347 - 1351)
* The end of Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368)
* The heresy of Lollardy rises in England
* The Great Schism of the West begins in 1378, eventually leading to 3 simultaneous popes.
* An account of Buddha's life, translated earlier into Greek by St John of Damascus and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, became so popular that Buddha (under the name Josaphat) was made a Catholic saint.
* Singapore emerges for the first time as a fortified city and trading centre of some importance.
* Reunification of Poland under Ladislaus I of Poland
* Peasants' Revolt in England
* Islam reaches Terengganu, on the Malay Peninsula.
* The Hausa found several city-states in the south of modern Niger.
* The Mali Empire expands westward and conquers Tekrur.
* The poet Petrarch coins the term Dark Ages to describe the preceding 900 years in Europe, beginning with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 410 through to the renewal embodied in the Renaissance.
* The Scots win the Scottish Wars of Independence.
* Union of Krewo between Poland and Lithuania.
* Work begins on the Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe, built of uncemented, dressed stone. The city's population is now between 10 000 and 40 000.
* Beginning of the Renaissance in Italy
* The English word "abacus" used to describe the calculating device from China.
* Wang Dayuan, the first Chinese to sail into the Mediterranean while visiting Egypt and North Africa from 1334-1339.

Significant people:
* Dante Alighieri, Italian poet and writer (1265 - 1321).
* King Robert the Bruce of Scotland, victor of the First War of Scottish Independence against the invading Kingdom of England (1274 - 1329).
* Juan Manuel, Duke of Penafiel, Spanish author (1282 - 1349).
* William of Ockham, English Franciscan friar and philosopher (c. 1285 - 1347).
* Charles I of Hungary, military, diplomatic and financial reformer, restoring the Kingdom of Hungary to power (1288 - 1342).
* Isabella of France, queen consort and regent of the Kingdom of England (c. 1295 - 1358).
* Guillaume de Machaut, French composer and poet (c. 1300 - 1377).
* Ibn Battuta, Arab Muslim traveler (1304 - 1368/1377).
* Jiao Yu, Chinese general and author of the Huo Long Jing military treatise
* Dafydd ap Gwilym, Welsh poet (ca.1315/1320-ca.1350/1370)
* Liu Zhi, an Chinese general, court advisor, philosopher, and co-editor of the Huo Long Jing
* Francesco Petrarch, Italian poet and writer (1304 - 1374).
* Casimir III of Poland, expansionist and financial reformer (1310 - 1370).
* Hafez Persian poet (c. 1310 - 1379.
* Edward III, King of England. His claim to the throne of France resulted in the Hundred Years' War (1312 - 1377).
* Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian author (1313 - 1375).
* Timur, Central Asian warlord and founder of the Timurid Dynasty (1336 - 1405).
* Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet (c. 1343 - 1400).
* Mansa Musa (d. 1347), King of the Mali Empire while it was the source of almost half the world's gold.
* Christine de Pizan, French writer (1364 - 1430).
* Hongwu Emperor, founder of the Ming Dynasty in China (1328 - 1398)

Significant inventions:
* Knitting

www.thisisom.com

I do not have time to tell you how many wonderful anagrams one can make from SPICE GIRLS MAMA - it's truly wonderful.

Some of the ones I considered, but didn't use to title my tracks are:

* Am classier gimp
* Special mag rims
* I psalm grimaces
* Miss Glacier map
* Primal cage isms

However, I have two tracks to send you
Each based on two of my favourites from the larger anagrammatic list

One may be inappropriate for a charity website
So please in that case only use the less lewd one

The two tracks are the same
But at different speeds

here is my text:

artist: bamdotbos
He was born on the 27th of November 1975
He lives Bradfield, West Berkshire, with a woman and a dog.
He loves making music and making food.
His favourite current evening meal consists of the following:
To open: Oven chips with shallot puree, asparagus foam and pea steam
To follow: Fricasee of wild rabbit and tortoise on a bed of Sea cucumber Dauphinoise
To end: Jerusalem artichoke jelly and rose ice cream
To drink: Fizzy Vimto and milk

Notes on Cardiff & District Samaritans Annual Report (disc 3, track 11): this track is the result of interpreting the binary code in an electronic version of the 2005 Annual Report as audio data rather than as graphical data. Which basically means I imported a PDF document into some audio processing software and fiddled with it a bit. As the track contains a combination of both very high and very low frequency sounds, care should be taken when listening to the piece and may cause damage to speakers and/or ears if played at high volume.

myspace.com/nationalsubnormal

The Bunny Slippers contribution arrived in the post with no return address, no accompanying note and no contact details, so I have no idea who they are, what they do, how many of them there are or where they live. The post mark on the envelope suggested that it came from the West Wales area. In lieu of any actual information (not that many of the other contributors have provided anything other than ridiculous made-up biographies), here's a picture I drew of some bunny slippers of the kind that might have inspired the band name. If you're reading this, Bunny Slippers, and are offended by how literally I've taken your name, then, well, you should have sent me something better. Thanks for the music, though, I like it.

- Simon P



Something happened to this lovely and charming song on its way through my studio. I swear it was just fine when I was repeatedly listening to its video on YouTube, but it got into my equipment and this terrible, terrible accident happened. And kept happening. And after I saved the file, it happened some more. It was like watching a trainwreck happen, I just couldn't ignore it while it was happening. It just goes to show that you can't trust recording technology at all. Nope. Uh-uh. Patchcables, neither. They just seemed to sprout all over the place and just...sort of wired up...something. For the record, I had very little to do with this, perhaps only 90% to do with it, which is very little when compared with other very large numbers that are known to exist. I blame TV violence for this. Yeah, that sounds plausible. The TV made me do it. Or maybe all the easy listening radio I listen to when not working on nice, safe, pretty ambient pieces. It's not my fault. Really.

myspace.com/daccrowell

Daf likes to think of himself as the poor man's Chris Watson, stalking around various South Wales locations with a Maplins microphone and minidisc recorder. Here he has captured a medium quality field recording of a group of middle-class twentysomethings in their natural habitat - the urban barbecue. A variety of well known pop stars urge them from afar to 'let it be'; the twentysomethings oblige, and drink beer while playing clever little fragments of song on an acoustic guitar.

Early reports indicate that the couple in question are in their early fifties and from East Anglia.

Discography
Garibaldi Wants Rome: Rome or Death (Aspromonte, 1877) Wax Cylinder
The Fall of Prussia (Russell Harty, 1878) 2x12"
Slovenian Peasant Songs (Redirection Records, 2005) CD


WHAT LITTLE WE KNOW ABOUT ADELINE STREET

We hear many rumours, but
Have few confirmed reports.

We believe there to be a pub, a garage -
- also premises which once housed
A funeral parlour.

At our monthly meeting, we wonder about
The undertakers' redundancy. Ken contends it is clear:
The Adelines have between them conquered death.

Sheila disagrees, offers that this mystery's answer lies
In a primitivist direction:

On Adeline Street, man-bodies are committed
To back yard bonfires. The vigour of the honeysuckle,
Jasmine and buddleia in their gardens, is, Sheila says
Thanks to regular infusions of bonemeal and skin-ash.

Sheila continues: the seething gull-clouds
Over Adeline airspace indicate
Sky burial is the preferred method
For disposal of ladies. Children
Are eaten at the first sign of defect, though not without
Some regret. (This last though
Is a pure hunch, she admits under close questioning).

Ken is of an older school, which teaches that the Adelines'
Grasp of basic science extends far
Beyond ours. Plus he is eighty, half-blind, and
Open to hope. He has a cat, Chloe,
Who raids into Adeline territory and comes back
Still herself and according to all tests we have, unharmed.
Ken orders electronics kits from the internet, is prototyping
Solar-powered cameras which can attach
To a cat collar, and may bring us back hints
Of Adeline secret knowledge. The camera, he says,
Is a doddle, he cracked that months ago. The real bugger is
Getting madame le chat to keep a bloody collar on.



djnarration@gmail.com

After his release from prison for aggravated wounding with intent to disfigure, Jack was looking for a way back in to the front line of music hall playing. This he managed eventually through such pieces as "You're a winner!" (Winnnstay Records - 1985) and "Who dat" (Banzai Releases - 1991), both of which he wrote in collaboration with Eric "El Presidente" Traubensaft.

He has since revelled in his easy acceptance by his peers, and now maintains a quiet 3 piece quintet who play at Shifties, a bar in the dock area of Zurich - where Al Jolson first introduced ham sandwiches to Mama Cass. He has 4 sons, all of whom are named "Baldy Gonk".



Think back to your teens and consider the difference between 'found' porn and 'intentionaly acquired' porn..........everybody's got a story - where did YOU find yours in those innocent pre instant fix internet days?

djhgdjhg@ntlworld.com



Found objects, music, video, photography and performance, explore themes of memory and nostalgia. The work ask us to reassess the nature of the objects and their 'useful' life, examines the fallibility of memory and preconceived notions of musical consistency or narrative.

jacobwhittaker.co.uk
jakewhittaker@hotmail.com

About Charity Singles:
Charity singles, perhaps even more then most other pop music, are very time-tied. Like the music for a commercial the charity single is trying to reach people to achieve something specific at a very specific moment. It is communicating a specific message often about an at-that-moment very urgent matter. That message plays with your feelings, it's trying to create a feeling of bonding, a feeling of "together we can..."

I really like the initiative Fourier Transform presents here. I like the idea behind charity singles and the maybe naïve idea that music can change the world. I specifically like the initiative to help the Cardiff Samaritans as it is a local/regional organisation. Keeping lines short.

What message am I trying to communicate with my music?
Of course my contribution is communicating a message too. At first glimpse this may seem to be a totally different message than the original singles did. But I can assure you it's not. Most contextual meaning has of course been abstracted from the original sounds leaving them indeed as just sounds.

There are also points of reference from the original songs. This means not all sound is innocent. Some sounds are so recognisable they become direct links to the original works and thus can work as a cross-reference between my work and the originals. Linking not only the actual songs but also the associated memories, opinions and feelings. Like a true network of nodes.

Essential to my contribution nevertheless is the intention I put in there. And what I wanted to capture was the feeling of a charity song.

More specifically about the work itself:
I wanted this work to evoke a mystical, a - for this music perhaps strange comparison - silent-abstract feeling. I wanted it to be viewed as a snapshot. Modelled in such a way that it can be viewed from various, different angles. To let the work be changeable and slippery.

Normally I am very picky about the sounds I use. In this case I couldn't be that strict; all sounds were already there, regardless of the fact I liked them or not. The were also recorded by a lot of different people and thus lacking any coherence. I decided not to work on the sounds and change them. I simply did not have time for that. I had to find a way to abstract the sounds from their existing environment and to present them in such a way a whole new form and feeling was found for them – a new home for them to live in.

The final form the work takes is just a way I looked at things at the time I made the work. If I had the chance to redo the work it would probably be totally different.

Finally:
I hardly listen to pop music nowadays. When I do it is either for sentimental reasons or that underbelly rock-and-roll feeling (that's a sentiment too isn't it?) that so much other music lacks. This of course implies I used to listen to pop music. Well I did. A lot. Even to charity singles.

myspace.com/michieldehaan
myspace.com/haanspruit

microsoft sam is the voice of narrator
microsoft sam is?
microsoft sam is gay
microsoft sam is the only voice



Min's first ever record purchase was Tears For Fears' charity pop single Everbody Wants To Run The World, but believes it to be their weakest song by some distance. She would have preferred a re-recording of the surging industrial funk classic Mothers Talk (Mothers Run?) or the hands-aloft ecstatic singalong Head Over Heels (not sure how they'd rename that one).



Formed in June 2006 by Kenny Mooney after he left Glasgow post-rock/punk band Viola Dub. Initially an outlet for his more experimental musical leanings, Novak began to develop into something more complex and structured. Employing swirling guitar noise, feedback, samples and field recordings, Novak paints a dark, sinister picture.

Kenny also runs the label Dragline Recordings, started to release music by Novak and his other occasional drone project, L.I.N.E.

Discography
Viola Dub/Karhide - Trust Me I'm a Professional/Wait Till I Start Nautilus (Field Records, 2006) Split 7"
L.I.N.E - From the Lino Factory to the Shipyards (Dragline Recordings, 2006) CD-R
Novak - In Ruins (Dragline Recordings, 2006) CD-R

Contact Info
kenny@dragline.co.uk
www.dragline.co.uk
www.myspace.com/novaknoise





It's all about the benjamins

simonminter@fouriertransform.com

I'm interested in theoretical maths versus practical maths. In theory, 1 good thing + 1 other good thing = 2 good things. Or rather, 1 thing that's twice as good as either of the original things. And 1 bad thing + 1 other bad thing = 1 very bad thing.

This kind of maths rarely has any basis in reality, however. Theoretically, 8 things intended to appeal to the general public should add together to form one perfect, irresistable blob of happy goodness. What most people might believe to have happened in my contribution to this album is best summed up by the following equation:

8 x popular charity record = unlistenable tripe.

It's my belief, though, that the following applies instead:

1 terrible song + 1 awful song + (2 x sentimental crap) + (2 x worthless novelty record) + 1 boring song + 1 lame re-recording of a boring, sentimental song = 5 minutes of immersive, brain-expanding difficult fun. I'm just making an interesting sculpture out of old junk.

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