Cambridge Junction’s zine issue #4 autumn 2014 free
Welcome
Welcome to Autumn at Cambridge Junction. In Adjunct you’ll find a listing of our arts programme and contributions by and about artists. Adjunct gives a flavour of what’s on in the arts but also draws in ideas from across our music, comedy, family and creative learning programmes. To find out more about all of our work check us out online at junction.co.uk or come into the box office and chat to our staff.
One reason I enjoy participating in and watching the arts is because artists continually help me see the world through fresh eyes. This season is no exception and we have three strands – ‘collecting Cambridge’, ‘classics retold’ and ‘around the world’ – which weave their ways through our season and provide alternative views on our city, our lives and the world.
We are presenting two works – Museum of Water and Things of Cambridge: A Pub Quiz – as part of Curating Cambridge an initiative of the University of Cambridge Museums and the Festival of Ideas. Both of these projects are presented in city sites and encourage Cambridge residents to take part and think about our relationship to the city.
From the local to the global we take a world view with projects including Women of the World, and Going Nowhere which both consider how we can share ideas about the world through collaboration and dialogue.
In Adjunct, Dani Kolanis’ The Twelve Labours of Hercules provides the classic myth with a cheeky reworking and a modern twist. Reinterpretation and reinvention are at the heart of a number of performances this season including Don Quijote, Blind Hamlet, and This Last Tempest.
We had such fantastic feedback from audiences about NIE’s Hansel and Gretel (our Christmas show in 2011) we had to have them back. This year NIE invite you to join them on the greatest adventure ever imagined... Around the World in 80 Days. Based on Jules Verne’s famous novel and combining clowning, live music, storytelling and an international ensemble, Around the World in 80 Days takes you on a high speed, mad-cap, transcontinental, race against the clock and just 80 days to get back in time for Christmas!
Daniel Brine Director, Cambridge Junction
3 Cambridge Junction Autumn Arts Season Calendar
September The Hand That Takes CJ Mahony and Season Launch Georgie Grace Now a regular date on the Cambridge calendar, our An immersive promenade performance using live Season Launch Night is back to celebrate the start voice, recorded sound and darkness to set the stage of the Autumn season. The Season Launch consists for a journey into loss, financial abstractions, and of tasters of events in our season including live the mysteries of the market. A visceral experience music and theatre, as well as talks from Cambridge of performance, space and sound. A test piece Junction staff about the upcoming programme. supported by Escalator Performing Arts. Get a free drink when you donate a record or CD Tuesday 16th, Wednesday 17th, (or cassette, 8-track, wax cylinder etc) to our second and Thursday 18th September hand store (junction.co.uk/about-us/support-us). Limited capacity slots Thursday 4th September 7.30pm J2 at 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm J3 Be Here Now Don Quijote TOOT Tom Frankland Be Here Now is an irreverently comic yet tender and Keir Cooper look at how music seeps into and influences our An exploration of Cervantes’ classic novel, lives. TOOT will immerse you in a world of CDs, combining incredible visual imagery, anarchic cassettes and videotapes; rewinding, fast-forwarding performance and original music. The title role will and pausing fantasies, memories, the rawness of love be played by a secret guest performer, unique to each and the music that defines it. Hit repeat and relive date. Don Quijote is a playful study of someone who together the scenes you play over and over in your follows their dreams without forethought or fear. It head, the moments you can’t change - all set to a is about standing up for what you believe, regardless soundtrack of ‘90s classics. of recrimination from a cynical world. Wednesday 10th September 7.30pm J2 Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th September 7.30pm J3 Artificial Things StopGap Dance Company Slowly suffocating in each other’s company, a October group of individuals seek escape in a bash of riotous rock-n-roll. However, their wild disorder Reduced Shakespeare descends into playground politics and reveals some Company in The Complete uncomfortable truths. The UK’s leading dance Works of William company that integrates exceptional disabled Shakespeare (abridged) and non-disabled dancers. [revised] All 37 Plays in 97 Minutes! An irreverent, fast-paced Tuesday 16th September 7.30pm J2 romp through the Bard’s plays. Join these madcap men in tights as they weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter. Wednesday 1st October 7.30pm J2
4 Blind Hamlet by L’aprÈs-midi d’un Foehn Nassim Soleimanpour Company Non Nova actors touring company Watch in wonder as ordinary plastic bags are Blind Hamlet transforms Shakespeare’s tragedy into magically brought to life by a mysterious ballet an interactive theatrical battle and reimagines the master. Borne aloft on currents of air, see them bloody struggle for Hamlet’s Elsinore. The plots and transformed into heavenly dancers capable of machinations of Shakespeare’s drama are played out astonishing performances. Prepare to be enchanted by the audiences themselves, each night creating by a company of prima ballerinas... made entirely their own version of the most famous play in the from a handful of plastic bags! An experience English language. What happens if Polonius doesn’t of true wonder guaranteed to charm the young die? Could Rosencrantz and Guildenstern succeed and the young-at-heart. in their mission? What if Hamlet kills Claudius? Thursday 23rd October An innovative piece of game-theatre, Blind Hamlet 5.30pm and 7.30pm J2 and will give audiences a chance to shape the course of Saturday 25th October each performance. 12.00pm and 2.30pm J2 Wednesday 8th October 7.30pm J2 WOW – Women of the World Views From The ‘Bridge Cambridge A night of short Cambridge-based contemporary The Southbank Centre’s Women of the World Festival performance made by you. Featuring any of theatre, now comes to Cambridge! Join us for a packed day dance, comedy, live art, spoken word, circus. of events that celebrate the incredible achievements Got a project on the go? We want to hear from you. of women and girls as part of this year’s Cambridge See website for application details. Festival of Ideas. Explore the most potent topics Tuesday 14th October 7.30pm J2 for women today with fascinating talks, heated debates, lively workshops and exciting activities Off for all ages. Share your challenges, exchange ideas Company Kiaï and work out what it really means to be a woman, Darkly comic, fun and mischievous circus with a in the inspirational company of some of our best very big trampoline! This new show from gifted journalists, mums, daughters, scientists, artists, French ensemble Cie Kiaï explores the mysteries of campaigners and next door neighbours. the mind and communicates a spectrum of emotions Sunday 26th October from 10.30am using the physical skills of a contortionist, a hip-hop throughout the venue dancer, a handstander, an acrobat, and a clown. A feast for the eyes, Off is accompanied by hypnotic Women of Cambridge – electro music driven by original pulsing bass lines A Cabaret and rhythmic beats. Stay into the evening for an upbeat, cabaret-format Tuesday 21st October 7.30pm J2 celebration of local women with something to say and their performing talents. Expect a selection of spoken word, comedy, dance, burlesque and more. Compered by Fay Roberts and headlined by Hannah Jane Walker. Sunday 26th October 6.30pm J2
5 Cambridge Junction Autumn Arts Season Calendar
Fiction SONIC PI: David Rosenberg LIVE & CODING SUMMIT and Glen Neath This day-long summit will share the outcomes You are invited to a lecture. You know that the of Sonic Pi: Live & Coding - a ground breaking subject is probably important and it would be useful research project that is introducing live coding to hear what the speaker has to say but you can’t and digital music into the classroom using keep your eyes open. You will fall asleep and you will Raspberry Pi computers. dream. Fiction is the second performance by Glen Tuesday 4 November 10.00am - 6.00pm Neath and David Rosenberg using binaural sound and absolute darkness. It is an anxious journey Park through the sprawling architecture of our dreams Jasmin Vardimon Company and an exercise in empathy. Commissioned by Park is an urban oasis, a place of refuge from Cambridge Junction and Cambridge Festival ordinary life where eight characters play, fight, fall of Ideas. in love and learn to survive. In this playground Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th October of relationships, young lovers wrestle in a historic 7.30pm J2 fountain, a graffiti artist sprays his story, a busker finds his only appreciative audience in a bag lady and a flag-waving bully rants worn out political beliefs. November A breathtaking collision of highly acute physical theatre, text, athletic dance and funky music. Museum of Water Amy Sharrocks Thursday 6th November 7.30pm J2 Museum of Water is a collection of publicly donated water and accompanying stories, an encouragement to consider the many ways we access and enjoy water: Do you swim in pools? Do you splash in puddles? Do you drink from a tap? Accumulating over two games and peformance years in different sites worldwide, Museum of Water masterclass is an invitation to ponder this precious liquid and Blast Theory how we use it. Join Blast Theory for a two day masterclass exploring Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd November performance and interactive art. Blast Theory are 9am-6pm & 11am-5pm Grand Arcade one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using Free walk-up event interactive media, creating groundbreaking new forms of performance and interactive art that mixes Things of Cambridge: audiences across the internet, live performance and A Pub Quiz digital broadcasting. Tom Roden Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th November Irreverent, intellectually stimulating and downright By application. stupid, here is a show that questions the usefulness of knowledge and the values we give to things. Expect stupid prizes and real artefacts from Cambridge’s rich museums and city. Questions will range from trivia to hypothetical, philosophical to personal. Monday 3rd November Pub venue and times to be announced at junction.co.uk
6 Islands (or how This Last Tempest to play dirty and Uninvited Guests get away with it) Part theatre, part gig, This Last Tempest is a sequel to Caroline Horton The Tempest and begins where Shakespeare left off. and Company Caliban and Ariel are left alone on the enchanted Islands is an illuminating, absurd and powerful new island, watching Prospero’s ship sail over the horizon show about tax havens, little empires, enormous and out of view. As the storms rage endlessly around greed and the few who have it all. Hilarious and them they conjure-up their own brave new world, unnerving, this ink black comedy with music with new rules for a new society - where spirits and plunges you into a monstrous, secretive world where monsters are people and inanimate things are alive. it really seems that no-one has to pay... for anything. Wednesday 26th November 7.30pm J2 Head off-shore and play with those who have it all worked out, as they feed their addiction to wealth, power and material stuff. Wednesday 12th November 7.30pm J2 R.I.O.T. December PanicLab A comic book come to life. Four performers playing Around the World at superheroes are caught in a series of conflicts in 80 Days which are both personal, and intricately political. New International Spiced with comic book and action hero references, Encounter (NIE) their epic adventure unfolds through action-packed Join Phileas Fogg and his faithful servant choreography and projected illustrations, as they Passepartout in their audacious plan to navigate the question what a superhero might look like in today’s globe in just 80 days. With only a bag full of money, complex and troubled world? a pocket watch and a wager to win, Fogg sets out on Thursday 20th November 7.30pm J2 the most celebrated literary journey of all time. Based on Jules Verne’s famous novel and Going Nowhere combining clowning, live music, storytelling Presented in partnership and an international ensemble, Around the World with Arts House, in 80 Days takes you on a high speed, mad-cap, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA transcontinental, race against the clock. One event on two sides of the globe – in Melbourne, 1 policeman, 2 comrades, 3 cab rides, 4 continents, Australia and in Cambridge – exploring how artists, 5 trains, 6 ships, 7 lords a’ leaping (well maybe not) communities and audiences can sustainably generate and just 80 days to get back in time for Christmas! international creative experiences without getting Monday 8th December – Sunday 4th January on a plane. Through four local/international arts Various times J2 collaborations and a programmme of interactive forums and workshops, Going Nowhere rehearses possible futures and embraces the shared delights of staying put and reaching out. Saturday 22nd November
7 JUNGLE
8 JUNGLE
Jungle London based electro-funk collective Jungle take to our J1 stage in October following a hugely successful summer of airplay and appearances at Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds festivals. junglejunglejungle.com Tuesday 28th October Doors 7.00pm J1
9 Museum of Water Amy Sharrocks
I run a Museum of Water.
AMY SHARROCKS AMY Yes, you heard me, a Museum of Water.
Just like - and also a little bit different from - the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Design Museum.
A museum can be defined as a place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed. It seems strange that we have a Cartoon Museum, a War Museum, a Pram Museum, hell we even have a Dog Collar Museum, but we are quite happy to exist without giving a second thought to a substance that is our most basic need and offers some of our greatest joys. We have a Maritime Museum, to do with exploration and endeavour at sea. Museum of London Docklands focuses beautifully on life around the Capital’s river, and the Museum of Water & Steam deals brilliantly with the history of our water usage, concentrating on steam engines.
So, we drink (on a good day) two litres of water, use gallons of it daily to wash ourselves and take our crap away. We bathe in it, swim in it, water fight, play in fountains, rivers and seas. We take our metaphors for thinking from noticing its movements, feeling our ideas flow, meander and surge. We can be flooded or deluged with emotions, and perhaps our worst fear is of ideas stagnating and drying up. Do you catch my drift? We claim a connection with water every time we use its language.
10 Photo: Ben Blossom
11 Museum of Water is a live artwork, which invites you (yes, you) to bring water, and to come and talk about what water you chose, and why. We are like an old married couple, water and us. We’ve been around each other so long we have forgotten to notice each other any more. I’m asking you to take another look, and to try to notice exactly what it might be that you prize most about water: Is it the long cool drink after running around a football pitch... Is it the water from your bedside table, after a night full of dreams… the water from all the water bombs you threw last Tuesday… the rain water you so carefully hoard for your plants… perhaps the water fountain at the top of Montmartre where you saw the finest view of the Eiffel Tower… or the water which held in suspension the medicine that saved your eyesight?
And what does a Museum of Water look like? Anything you like. Really. It depends entirely on what you bring me.
At the moment it looks like 541 bottles of a huge variety and shape,
AMY SHARROCKS AMY filled to different heights with liquids of all kinds: we have tea, rain, spit, piss, breath, steam, condensation, icicle, hail, an ice painting, a melted snowman and a (still frozen) snowball. We have bath water, shower water, fountains, drips and tears. We have a woman’s birth waters and the last drop. We have water from the last ice age, and we also have water from 129,000 years ago, from the warm period before the last ice age. Imagine that.
And what are you going to put your water in? We have Bonne Maman jars and Nutella pots, homeopathic remedies, test tubes and an assortment of plastic water bottles. We have sports flasks, pint glasses, beer bottles and kegs, face cream jars and exotic glass containers. Sometimes the Museum is on a street corner, sometimes in a grand palace… In Cambridge I will be bringing our front room cabinets to the Grand Arcade Shopping Mall. We will put our best things on display alongside all the shops, exploring an alternative consumer culture there, posing questions of permanence and value. We have nothing to sell, and we are certainly hoping you will bring a little something for us. We are giving a whole new meaning to the term hawking your wares.
Museum of Water offers a look at water in the 21st Century, begun in a year of critical flooding in the UK, and in a time of Climate Change, with an eye on a drier future. It is left to us now to create a space to think about it, to cherish it and treasure it, to pay it due attention, instead of taking it for granted, turning on a tap and
12 just expecting it always to come gushing out. (Perhaps paying it due attention is scary because it also carves a space for the possibility of water not being there, and that is an idea so altogether terrifying, that it is much easier to think about something else and turn on the kettle for a nice, hot cup of tea). In Australia and South Africa the Museum might look very different to how it will look in Denmark or here. I wonder if I will get any Cam? I am hoping of course for some punting water (a girl can dream, can’t she?)… I already have water under the bridge, and exam water… But perhaps I am dealing in clichés because I don’t know Cambridge so well… I wonder what other waters Cambridge holds..?
Go ahead and surprise me. I am very much looking forward to finding out.
AMY SHARROCKS
Cambridge Junction is proud to be a partner in Curating Cambridge: our city, our stories, our stuff - five weeks of exhibitions, events, workshops, performances, talks, trails and hand-on fun bringing together culture and creativity across the city. Presented by the University of Cambridge Museums with the Festival of Ideas, cultural partners and community organisations (20 October – 23 November). Check out www.curatingcambridge.org.uk for details of all festival events.
Museum of Water Amy Sharrocks Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd November Grand Arcade
Things of Cambridge: A Pub Quiz Tom Roden Monday 3rd November Pub venue tbc
13 TIM KEY
14 TIM KEY
15 TIM KEY
16 TIM KEY
17 TIM KEY
18 TIM KEY
Follow the poetry of Tim Key at instagram.com/timkeypoet. Single White Slut Tim Key Saturday 27th September 7.00pm and 9.15pm J2 19 The Twelve Labours of Hercules Dani Kolanis
Hercules sat at the kitchen table, lemon. And you had nine, mate. his head buried in his arms. The Nine! Nine headed beast and you fluorescent lights were humming destroyed it! And bam, straight with discontent. He heard footsteps onto the third round. Deer hunter: creep up behind him. Jagermeister, vodka, beer, some “My head” Hercules said, his head lemons.” cradled in his arms. “Why so many lemons?” Hermes laughed, and slapped him “Keepin’ your citrus intake up, my on the back. “You were epic last boy. Don’t want you getting scurvy.” night!” CLASSICS RETOLD “I’m not getting scurvy.” “What happened?” Hercules “Not yet. See in my years I’ve seen a groaned, pulling his university lot of crap. This one kid in my year hoodie over his head. got rickets.” “Initiation!” “What’s that?” Hercules gagged. The chirping from “It’s when your bones start going all the sparrows outside irked him. weak from bad nutrition.” “The legend. Hercules.” Hermes “Is he alright?” Hercules asked, continued. “Everyone will remember sitting up. He could feel his head your name. You took on the Red whirring, like a snow globe, the dust Lion!” attempting to settle. “Oh God.” Hercules said. He could “And then you went straight onto smell the sticky beer on the table. number four: Big Bull. Liver of the “Tanqueray gin, orange liqueur, Gods you’ve got. Who knows how some orange and lemon juice,” you could stomach tequila and coffee Hermes said. “And that was just the liqueur.” beginning. On to Serpentine, I told “I couldn’t” Hercules said eying up you to take a break but you wouldn’t the kitchen. It stank of beer and listen.” burnt toast. His flatmate had bags “Why didn’t you stop me?” Hercules under his eyes. Hermes put his said, rolling over to one side to face hands into the pockets of his purple his friend, the morning light stung dressing gown and smiled. his eyes and he squinted. “Five: Royal Flush. Royal Canadian “Serpentine. Heavy stuff man.” Whisky, peach schnaps and …“ “Sounds fancy.” “Stop” Hercules cried, closing his “Bit of rum and brandy. Some eyes trying to centre himself.
20 21 “Six: Bird bomb. You downed that “She’s gonna be okay.” Hermes said. vodka like a monster!” “Where is she? I’m gonna kill her!” “I said stop!” Hercules said. He “She’s with Hera.” rubbed his eyes and looked over at “That evil little-” the oven clock. 9:13am. “Dude, she’s with your girlfriend! “You were a legend” Hermes said. Just be happy she’s alright.” “Yeah great. Can you just- get me “No. Hera made me drink that like, some water. Please.” ‘oh haha let’s watch the new guy get Hermes gave a glass to Hercules. drunk, let’s do that!’” Hercules looked at the cloudy water “It’s not her fault.” for a second before sipping it slowly. “Yes it is.” “What happened before?” Hercules “You were the one drinking it.” asked. “You were the one cheering me on!” “Before Bird Bomb? Royal Flush. It “Cos you’re a bloody legend! Mate, had some raspberry stuff too.” don’t be pissed she’s gonna be alright. “No before I got back. Meg. Where You did twelve drinks mate. Twelve! is she?” That’s worth it. Not the hitting CLASSICS RETOLD Hermes turned away and picked up but- you know Meg will forgive you. some empty beer cans. She probably doesn’t remember it. “You should sleep. Got a lecture Twelve!” today?” Hercules smiled and Hermes gave Hercules stood. him a jovial punch on the arm. “Where are you going?” Hermes “Yeah that’s right, crack a smile. You asked. had the Bloody Bull.” Hermes said. “Bed.” “The bloody bull?” “No, just - Meg’s a bit shaken up” “Number seven. Tomato juice and Hermes said. vodka”. Hermes grinned. “Why? What happened?” “God. And a lemon I’m guessing.” Hermes brushed the cigarette “Lime.” butts off the table. He looked up at “It was a good night though.” Hercules. “You hit her.” “It was.” “What?!” “I think it was when I was downing “She’ll be alright.” something with nutmeg taste-” “No. Meg. Meg!” “Bay horse, I think. Yeah that was “She’s not here.” number eight. With heavy cream.” “Where is she?” “Nah it was when I was between the “A&E.” nutmeg and the kinda like sherry “Oh my God, what did I do?” taste.” “It’s okay.” Hermes said. “You drank “Number nine, the Queen Bee” way too much.” Hermes added. “Hera! That was Hera, she forced “Yeah I really felt part of it, part me to.” of the team yeah. And we were all
22 laughing and, and I think the lads Hermes had a sip of cloudy water. really got me in that moment, they “There’s this dude, last year, crazy really accepted me.” guy. He was a legend. He did like “Course they did. They were proper twenty different cocktails.” Hermes proud of you. Fresher on number said. nine!” “Twenty?” “Yeah I suppose. But it all went tits “Yeah, crazy mofo.” up after that”. Hercules said taking “Who?” another slow sip of the water. “Ryan, or Brian something. Can’t “Green Monster. That’s what tipped remember. I think he did History or it. Ten: Absolute monster. Vanilla Geography or something. Graduated vodka and energy drinks.” now.” “Not a good mix.” “Cool.” “Not a good mix at all. No wonder “With liver damage though. Organs you barely kept down the Golden that shows his battle scars. The true Apple and the finale number twelve, hero. Brian.” Absolute Monster. But you made it. “Or Ryan.” You made it.” “Yeah.” Hermes said. He patted “Great. So what do I get?” Hercules on the back and sat down. “Eternal glory. They’ll never forget Hercules looked at the oven clock. you. Hercules: Liver of the Gods. He thought of Meg. He thought of Forever known as Hercules. The the lads. He thought of the twelve twelve drinks. The twelve- the twelve drinks. The twelve labours. He labours of Hercules!” smiled.
“They were labours!” Hercules RETOLDCLASSICS laughed.
Dani Kolanis is a graduate of Menagerie’s Young Writers Workshop , which enables young people to develop their talent by writing for theatre. Dani is a playwright/actor in her final year studying Drama and Literature at the University of Essex. Her playCadets was presented as part of Hotbed Young Writers’ Showcase 2014.
This autumn join us at Cambridge Junction to experience classic tales retold.
Don Quijote L’apres midi d’un Foehn Tom Frankland and Keir Cooper Company Non Nova Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th Thursday 23rd & Saturday 25th September 7.30pm J2 October various times J2 Reduced Shakespeare Company in This Last Tempest The Complete Works of William Uninvited Guests Shakespeare (abridged) (revised)] Wednesday 26th November 7.30pm J2 Wednesday 1st October 7.30pm J2 Around the World in 80 Days Blind Hamlet New International Encounter (NIE) Nassim Soleimanpour Monday 8th December – Sunday 4th Wednesday 8th October 7.30pm J2 January Various times J2 23 COMPANY NON NOVA NON COMPANY
L’apres midi d’un Foehn Company Non Nova Watch in wonder as ordinary plastic bags are magically brought to life by a mysterious ballet master. Thursday 23rd & Saturday 25th October various times J2
24 COMPANY NON NOVA
Photo: Jean-Luc Beaujault
25 Travel with your Ears Katerina Pavlakis
Music has the peculiar nature of being a deeply personal as well as a shared experience at the same time. Whether you are listening alone on headphones, or find yourself in a posh concert hall or a packed club, music has a way of conveying emotions and bringing up memories, both for yourself and for the listener next to you. What’s more, music can communicate all this without words, purely through sound, through melody and rhythm, and that elusive something (the K aterina P presence of the performer?) that turns the sum of it all into more than its parts. The way most concert goers talk about their experience often reflects that, as in this random selection of comments after five different avlakis Making Tracks concerts, featuring artists from such diverse cultures as Mali, Finland, India, Zimbabwe and Brazil: Immediately warm and absorbing. A much needed injection of joy and light-hearted humour. Seeing your show has refreshed my inspiration and made me realise why I love music again. The most amazing night… never seen so many happy people in one room. Beautiful, thrilling concert... a great spirit of communion. It is likely that none of the commentators would have been familiar with the music they were hearing, yet the music provoked, perhaps surprisingly, familiar feelings. Although no one seems to be referring to the ‘sound’ of the music as such, all speak of the emotions it evoked, so fundamental for the human experience. Music communicates across the barriers of our differences (of language, culture, religion, but also of age, background, class etc). Experiencing the other, the foreign, the strange, and finding that you can relate to it can make us aware of just how similar we are as humans, across all those borders and barriers. Discovering that all
26 Cigdem Aslan by Tahir Palali
27 these different cultures still express the same basic human emotions in ways that can be somehow understood by everyone brings the realisation that we have more similarities than differences. Istanbul-born singer Çigdem Aslan (finishing her Making Tracks tour at Cambridge Junction on 7th October) took this insight as a cue for her performance: On her award winning album Mortissa she takes inspiration from a (sub)culture and music tradition that is usually associated with Greece but actually came to life on both sides of the Aegean: Rebetiko is a style of urban folk music that emerged in the turbulent years of the early 20th century, fuelled by a stream of immigrants & refugees settling in the newly booming cities of Athens, Piraeus and Istanbul, becoming a new class of social ‘underdogs’. Singing poignant songs of hardship, loss, sorrow and hope became their way of coping with their situation; songs that were initially frowned upon and even banned by society at large in both countries but eventually found their way into mainstream popular music. A revival of interest in rebetiko today, not least in Istanbul,
K is one way in which two famously divided peoples are rediscovering aterina P their common history and culture - often in a side street bar over a strong drink and singing along to distant yet not-forgotten lyrics. By looking for the roots of some of these rebetiko songs, Aslan found that many of the melodies existed in a Turkish version too; what avlakis her grandmother had sung to her in Istanbul was the same tune she discovered among the old rebetiko records she researched in Greece, and once she started looking for those similarities she began to see them everywhere in the repertoire. Looking through that prism of similarities and uncovering the ties between these two, often seen as antagonistic, yet closely connected cultures (and communities), has allowed her to build a unique bridge between Greek and Turkish music that feels as natural as it is creative. Discovering new music is akin to journeying far from home: If you travel with an open mind you will find yourself immersed in new, often unexpected but all the more captivating experiences, which not only give you some insight into a foreign culture and people different from yourself, but also act as a mirror for discovering new sides to yourself and your own culture too. Through that, you can begin to understand yourself, your own world and your own culture as part of the larger picture - not as the centre of the universe, but rather, as part of it. This is one of the reasons why we like to avoid describing (and thus labelling) Making Tracks as a series of ‘world music’ concerts: Labels like this narrow down our perception to something which we think we ‘know’ (and hence ‘like’ or ‘dislike’) because we ‘know’ the label.
28 Rather than ‘world music’ it is music from around the world: We promise each concert will be different, fresh and exciting, exploring as many different places, angles and ‘faces’ of world-wide music as we can possibly cram into the series. Exploring music that is new to you is a bit like discovering and savouring a new dish or cuisine. Sometimes it’s an instant hit, sometimes it can be a bit of an acquired taste, or you may put it down as an experience not to be repeated; but the reward for trying something unfamiliar and finding it enjoyable is a widening of your horizons - and a lot of fun too! Making Tracks invites people to come on a journey of discovery, to expand their curiosity for the world through the shared experience of listening to music. And you don’t have to go far to go on this journey: you don’t have to get on a plane to Senegal, or even on a train to London: Making Tracks brings the music to you, to your local venue. All you have to do is bring along a bit of curiosity and an open mind, and let the music do the rest. Making Tracks brings brand new music from the far-flung corners of the world to you and your local music venue. From the almost classical to the hot and groovy, from big and bold to small and intimate. www.makingtrackslive.org.uk avlakis P aterina K
This autumn we offer many ways to travel the world. Join us at Cambridge Junction for these adventures with a global perspective. Çigdem Aslan Tuesday 7th October 8pm J2 Women of the World Presented by Cambridge University Festival of Ideas Sunday 26th October all day throughout Cambridge Junction Islands Caroline Horton and Company Wednesday 12th November 7.30 pm J2 Going Nowhere Saturday 22th November J2 Around the World in 80 Days New International Encounter (NIE) Monday 8th December – Sunday 4th January various times J2 29 R.I.O.T. PanicLab Thursday 20th November 7.30pm J2 PANICLAB
30 PANICLAB
Dance this Autumn at Cambridge Junction: Artificial Things L’apres midi d’un Foehn StopGap Dance Company Company Non Nova Tuesday 16th September 7.30pm J2 Thursday 23rd & Saturday 25th October various times J2 Off Company Kiaï Park Tuesday 21st October 7.30pm J2 Jasmin Vardimon Company Thursday 6th November 7.30pm J2
31 Sonic Pi: Live & Coding is an exciting new digital research project run SONIC PI: LIVE & CODING by Cambridge Junction and key partners Cambridge University and The Raspberry Pi Foundation. This ground-breaking project focuses on the low cost (£25), highly accessible, credit-card sized Raspberry Pi computer which was created to encourage children and young people all over the world to learn computer programming. Sonic Pi: Live & Coding explores the computer’s use in education, particularly the creative potential of live coding to provide new routes for young people into digital music. The project works with Sonic Pi Live software, which uses code to turn a Raspberry Pi computer into a fully customisable musical instrument. Young people have been working closely with artists Juneau Projects, teachers and musicians, and Dr Sam Aaron the creator of Sonic Pi Live. The project has included two six-week trials in two secondary schools, giving young digital musicians the chance to produce and perform their own live coding compositions and a five-day Sonic Pi Live summer school at Cambridge Junction extended the project beyond the classroom. Sonic Pi: Live & Coding culminates with a summit on Tuesday 4th November, when a free online toolkit will be launched. There will also be a chance to see live coding in action, view ten specially commissioned Pop-Pi videos and find out the results of the project’s research.
Sonic Pi: Live & Coding Summit Tuesday 4th November. Full details available online. Throughout Cambridge Junction 32 Sonic controllers by Freman College students and Juneau Projects.
33 Casting our code-spells Sam Aaron
One of the things that truly excites me is the creative potential of code. It’s not only a wonderful medium for exploring and exchanging ideas at lighting rates through beautifully rich and detailed conversations. It’s also a medium for making those ideas and thoughts real. This is something I’d love for everyone to experience which is why I think it’s so amazing to see so many people starting to get excited about coding. The floodgates are really opening and it’s inspiring to see so many people diving in to learning to code and start working on their own programming projects. However, this is
SONIC PI: LIVE & CODING really only the beginning. I personally want people to start to look beyond using code to build apps and websites and to see the bigger picture - that code is a new way for us to express ourselves. Code offers us amazing new potential for being creative allowing us to dream up new ideas and then to program them into reality. It’s the closest we’ve managed to get to being wizards - casting our code- spells to make computers do wonderful new things. I use code to make music, conjuring up new sounds, bringing in beats, melodies, textures and then manipulating things all with some special text. This special text is code that the computer understands and knows how to turn into sounds. By learning the special text, I’m essentially learning how to commmunicate with the computer like a conductor might communicate with an orchestra, except I’m also the performer, the composer and the instrument all at once. All with code. It’s truly magical and wonderful and I’m so excited to share these ideas and skills with everyone. When you learn to code you’re also learning a new powerful way to express yourself. The key is knowing that code is the means by which we get control and we get to tell the computer exactly what to do. Think about it - when we use apps, we’re limited by the features of the app. Yet, when we use code, we’re limited by our imaginations alone. Sam Aaron is the creator of Sonic Pi Live and a member of live coding duo Meta-eX. Meta-eX will perform at the Cambridge Junction Season Launch.
Season Launch Thursday 4th September 7.30pm J2 Free event and get a free drink when you donate a record or CD to our second hand store (www.junction.co.uk/about-us/support-us). 34 35 Defiant, robust, political, northern, poetical folk music for the times we live in O’Hooley & Tidow
We are Yorkshire folk duo O’Hooley & Tidow, (Belinda and Heidi). We’ve been singing and writing songs together for about 5 years now
O’H on the contemporary folk scene after Belinda left Rachel Unthank & The Winterset in 2008. Our latest album The Hum, released & T ooley in February this year, was described by one reviewer as ‘Everything David Cameron hates in one album’. Whether this is true or not, we felt it was important to write about the world we live in and this resulted in ten songs covering all sorts of topics from suicide ido bombers to adoption, the decline of the bee population to the real
w ale revolution! Folk music is such a broad genre, and we love the history of story telling through music, and that it is the music of ordinary folk, and also that there is a protest element to it – Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, Peggy Seeger, The Dubliners and so many others that spread messages through music.
We wouldn’t describe ourselves as protest singers, as such, sometimes our songs are intensely personal, other times they are socially conscious, but not preachy hopefully. We like to let the listener make up their own minds. The Independent review of our album said it is ‘defiant, robust, political, northern, poetical folk music for the times we live in.’ And at this time with the austerity measures, the dismantling of public services and the NHS, the perpetual blaming of economic issues on the poor and vulnerable, it felt like we had to make an album that reflects these times.
This is our third release on the Northern Cooperative label No Masters, whose members also include the wonderful a cappella trio, Coope Boyes and Simpson, anarcho-pop band Chumbawamba and the late Lal and Mike Waterson.
36 w ido ooley & T O’H
37 Our neighbor; Mrs Peace provided the initial inspiration for the title track The Hum. She told us how the sale of a nearby house had fallen through due to the buyers noticing the humming noise of the local factory. Her response was; ‘the sound of the factory gives me comfort, as it’s the sound of people working.’ The humming of this factory and the buzzing of the local bees connect a fragile eco-system, of both community and wildlife.
The Hum took us about two years from start to finish, and once we’d recorded the piano and vocals, the arrangements were developed further by the vivid imagination of Mercury nominated producer and sonic architect Gerry Diver. Like the pneumatic drill percussion loop in Ewan MacColl’s ode to the navvy; ‘Just a Note’, to the defiant, punky, feminist stance of Pussy Riot’s infamous protest against Putin in ‘Coil & Spring’ (co-written with Boff Whalley of Chumbawamba), each song thereafter explores a different aspect of the powerful hum
O’H of life, the hum of the people.
& T ooley Gerry and us share an Irish immigrant background, with economic migration being one of the recurring themes in our music. Learned from the singing of Lal Waterson,‘Just a Note’ gives a glimpse into the lives of the navvies who built the M1, and the hardship of being ido away from their families. While self-penned ‘Come Down From The
w Moor’ is a stark look at how Ireland’s history of struggle and poverty continues, and how this connects with the music of its people. Our ballad ‘Two Mothers’, partly inspired by the film Oranges‘ and Sunshine’ (Jim Loach) was initially written for Jackie Oates’s Lullabies tour, and tells the story of a woman, who as a baby was sent away from England to Australia as part of Britain’s controversial child migration scheme.
You might think on first listen, that Summats‘ Brewin’ (recently crowned ‘The Huddersfield Beer Anthem’) sounds like a joyful celebration of the craft of real ale-making in our hometown of Huddersfield, referencing the traditional refrain of Oh‘ good ale, thou art my darling’. However, further listens betray the obsessive real ale anorak as a revolutionary, offering flavourful alternatives, stirring up, and bringing together communities to stand up against corporate domination and the destruction of the local British pub.
38 The natural world has always been central to our songwriting; always running in parallel is the interaction of humans with animals and the environment; the contrasts, the connections. ‘Peculiar Brood’ looks at suicide bombing, but from the mother’s perspective, using bird imagery, in part inspired by Hany Abu-Assadis’s 2005 film Paradise‘ Now’. This leads into the anti-war ‘Like Horses’, a compassionate Michael Morpurgo-style rumination on fear, gender and capitalism, with a plea for humans to be both gentle and strong, like horses. The album’s finale Kitsune‘ ’ is a multi-layered portrayal of forbidden love. Initially inspired by Japanese folklore of the Kitsune; a fox who transforms into a human woman, with echoes of Jeanette Winterson’s unflinching Northern honesty, and references to the ongoing ostracising of foxes and asylum seekers.
We’re really looking forward to returning to the beautiful Cambridge Junction in November, and this will follow on from our performance at the 50th Cambridge Folk Festival in July. We played the festival as a showcase in the Club Tent in 2012, and little did we know a w
Guardian journalist was in the audience, and said in their review that ido we were the best act of the whole weekend. This time we play Stage 2, and we’re really excited as Cambridge Folk Festival always has a special atmosphere. We also played the Leftfield Stage at Glastonbury
this summer, after activist and singer-songwriter Billy Bragg listened ooley & T to The Hum and invited us to perform at his Radical Roundup. That was an incredible experience, and it was great to see how many people O’H came to support the Leftfield stage, showing that many people are politically engaged and want to hear music and art that has a message.
The Hum is a factory, is a mine, is a playground, is a hive, is a garden, is a school, is a village, is a choir, is a forest, is a town, is a person, is a group, is a heart, is a mind, is a voice, is the hum.
From the local to the global we consider how we can share ideas and the world through collaboration and dialogue. WOW - Women of the World Cambridge Sunday 26th October from 10.30am Going Nowhere Saturday 22nd November O’Hooley & Tidow Thursday 13th November 8pm J2 39 Once in a Blue Moon Wriggle Dance Theatre Sunday 21st September 11:30am and 2:30pm J2 FAMILY
40 FAMILY
Family this autumn at Cambridge Junction
Traditional tales of Hansel and Gretel to books you’ve read from Tall Stories, have a dance or get dressed up – there’s something for everyone. Highlights this season include the world premier of mechanical wonder The Assembly of Animals and international hit L’apres-midi d’un Foehn – a beautiful ballet performed by plastic bags! Look up the Family programme online or pick up a copy of the flyer in our foyer.
41 Around the World in 80 Days New International Encounter (NIE) Follow Phileas Fogg and his friends on a festive family adventure this Christmas! Monday 8th December – Sunday 4th January Various times J2
42 book online at junction.co.uk
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