Jonny Mugwump's (Exotic Pylon) Residency 13-17 Nov

Jonny Mugwump's whirlwind residency at Centrum finished over a week ago, so a chance to catch breath and look back.

Landing in Berlin (that morning) Jonny started on Sunday 13^th November with his Sonic Lecture (the second in our series), using the opportunity to discuss and play the music that has influenced his various music projects, plus some of his favourite moments on his Exotic Pylon and Weird Tales radio project. The lecture, which will soon be broadcast on NTS Radio and available to download (link here soon), allowed Jonny to pull together some of the themes that cement his music interests and how they have led to the ethos behind his radio, nights and label projects.

Then, for the next four evenings, Jonny hosted City Symphony - a live radio event broadcast on Ustream and soon to be on radio (and available to download). Each night offered a very different experience.

Infinite Livez, live with video installation by Jade Boyd, Jonny Mugwump's Exotic City Symphony at Centrum Berlin from Jade Boyd on Vimeo.

Monday night based around two stunning live performances from Infinite Livez and Wermoster (who was interrupted by Berliner Polizei mid set).

Tuesday included an interview with Tapeworm, discussing his various music projects and playing some of his music choices, and an audio/visual performance from Jans Martin and Jade Boyd.

Wednesday night developed into chat-show format as Jonny and Leyland James Kirby shared their favourite Youtube moments, preceded by an interview with Sohrab and followed DJ set from Dalglish.

On Thursday, the show was given over to singer Billie Ray Martin and video artist Ceven Knowles to launch their collaboration ‘The Opiates’ (some footage here). DJ Zhao's DJ set brought things to a close.

video lyd VHS installation/ live manipulation by Jade Boyd, Jonny Mugwump's Exotic Pylon: City Symphony at Centrum Berlin from Jade Boyd on Vimeo.

Each night also had Jonny's exemplary DJing and Jade Boyd's awesome video splicing visuals and the 'studio audience' who came each night, were also an important part of proceedings. Overall it was a great week and fantastic residency from Mugwump, who (I'm sure, though it sounds like he has this kind of schedule every week) went home quite exhausted, particularly evening ended in its own impromptu after party.

Exotic Pylon (Jonny Mugwump): City Symphony Residency (Nov 13-17)

Our next Centrum resident is Jonny Mugwump aka, the Exotic Pylon.

Jonny Mugwump has become an important figure in the development of strange collage music, in his role as a radio broadcaster (on Resonance and Fnoob/NTS), music night curater (Exotic Pylon@ the Vortex), Weird Tales for Winter creator and now as record label head (Exotic Pylon Records).

Called 'Exotic Pylon: City Symphony' and running between 13-17 November, the residency will involve Jonny turning Centrum in live radio studio, with an invited audience, with interviews/chatter/performances from Caretaker (Leyland James Kirby), Ectoplasm Girls, Zhao, Infinite Livez, Wermonster, Chrisoph De Babalon, Dalglish and others still to be confirmed. (updated 7th November)

Jonny will be posting on his new residency blog, so any new announcements will be posted there...we will also confirm details of the radio web location soon.

Also, to support a special feature on each show, Jonny would like Berliners to send in field recordings of their favourite sounds in the city - these can be of any quality, recorded on any device, preferably with the time, date and location of recording accompanied with a short description of what the sound means to you (a photo too). Jonny will build a collage of these to play out in the gallery and mount them all separately on the blog as well.

There will be 4 week night broadcasts (Mon 14 - Thurs 17 Nov) and Jonny will kick off the residency with the second in our series of Sonic Lectures entitled 'nothing but a bit ole collage' drawing Berliners’ attention to some of the music he has be championing through his radio/night/label.