Ang Song Ming + The Observatory (The Substation Theatre, 29 Jan 2011)

"No Man’s Band is an ongoing project by Song-Ming Ang, consisting of audio recordings of school band rehearsals before they formally begin. In some recordings, the individual warm-ups coalesce into collective improvisations. In others, cacophony ensues. To date, fifteen school bands have been recorded. For this presentation of No Man’s Band, Song-Ming Ang will collaborate with members of The Observatory – Evan Tan (turntable, lapsteel guitar, mic), Dharma (guitar) and Victor Low (bass, guitar, contact mics) – in which the trio will respond spontaneously to Ang’s samples in a free improvisation concert."

There was a portion I quite enjoyed in near the middle section which sounded like a UFO rising up from a golden, cloudy sky at sunset, on top of which an antennae then extended, noisily with the clattering of a tin can, and a small monkey or child scurries up to the topmost point of the antennae, and then screws on a light bulb at the very top of the floating structure in the clouds. Well that was just my interpretation.

Ang Song Ming + Evan Tan, Dharma, and Victor Low of The Observatory
Live full set (40 minutes)

zai tang + zai kuning + amino acid orchestra (The Substation Gallery, 27 Jan 2011)

Amino Acid Orchestra, Zai Kuning, and Zai Tang play an improvised set together in the Substation Gallery.

This one is a gem:

Amino Acid Orchestra, Zai Kuning, and Zai Tang Live Improvsation - Excerpt 3:


Other excerpts from the set:

Amino Acid Orchestra, Zai Kuning, and Zai Tang Live Improvisation - Excerpt 1:


Amino Acid Orchestra, Zai Kuning, and Zai Tang Live Improvisation - Excerpt 2:


Amino Acid Orchestra, Zai Kuning, and Zai Tang Live Improvisation - Excerpt 4:

Andy Yang + The Observatory (Earl Lu Gallery, Lasalle, 24 Jan 2011)

Live improvisation by The Observatory to Andy Yang's ritualistic and sometimes rhythmical painting on a large canvas with various materials and mediums.

From Andy Yang's site: "Borrowing from the Buddhist mandala ritual, Singapore art-rock band The Observatory presents Anitya, a performance series exploring the relationship between music and a non-musical art form.

In the first instalment, The Observatory and artist Andy Yang enact this ritual with sound and painting. From start to end, the musicians and the artist search for inter-connectedness and synchronicity. There is no script, no rehearsal, and no grand design. Everything is created instantaneously and destroyed as soon as the point of completion is reached."

Under the Velvet Sky + Zai Kuning (The Substation Gallery, 23 Jan 2011)

Under the Velvet Sky plays with some guest vocals from Zai Kuning, and projections by Wu Jun Han. Held in the middle of an exhibition of random works from Zai Kuning (which adorn the walls of the gallery), this is the first time a gig is held in the Substation Gallery itself, in the absence of the Blackhole...

Under the Velvet Sky & Zai Kuning Live Excerpt:

The Pearly Gates (Post Museum, 15 Jan 2011)

A collaboration between Marc Gabriel Loh, Clare Marie Ryan, Jon Stahn and Jes Brinch.

"THE PEARLY GATES is a collaboration between 2 Singaporean and 2 Danish artists. It is an installation incorporating murals, landscape paintings, sculptures, objects, lights and music, integrated into a total experience. The theme of sexual liberation has fueled a series of humorous artwork that equally depicts and transcends the conventional stereotypes of both art and sexuality."

The merlion dick is a personal favourite.

There is also a story involving us standing outside Post with cans of GODFATHER when a strange, possibly slightly drunken arabic man from yemen carrying a bottle of gin walks past and insists that me and Ivonne eat this box of mexican chili with him immediately. We determine that the food is not drugged after inviting more people to eat (and no one falls over dead). I ask him, "would you like to come in to see the art?", but to our great confusion he seemingly mishears it as "would you like to smoke a joint", because he suddenly bursts into a diatribe as such: "YOUNG GIRL YOU MUST NOT SMOKE WEED IN SINGAPORE!" "No no I did not say anything about drugs, I said, would you like to see the art inside?" "NO! DRUGS ARE BAD FOR YOU! STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS!" "Sure, but I said, art, not drugs..."

(WHAT?)