Forms of Things Unknown

moon phases

NEWS

August 2008

Forms Of Things Unknown has struck a deal with a new music label going by the name of Pimalia. Launched by Craig Varian of the plunderphonics duo 400 Lonely Things, Pimalia will begin by issuing new releases of unusual and 'experimental' music from a variety of marginal and unconventional or genre-defying artists in the format of strictly digital distribution (meaning downloadable music files available through iTunes, Amazon, Zune, Rhapsody and all other major - and several minor - download retailers). Among the first batch of Pimalia releases will be a newly remastered version of Cross Purposes (including a previously unreleased eight-minute bonus track) and a collection of demos, compilation appearances, and unreleased recordings by FOTU to be entitled Black Trenchcoats & Swastikas 'n Shit. Both of these albums should become available in late summer or early autumn as downloadable purchases, with short-run, limited edition CD-R pressings of each available for those who prefer hard copies of uncompressed audio.

In other news, Alan Herrick of Nux Vomica and Auricular Records has resurrected his Auricular Audio Magazine series of ambient/industrial/experimental compilations. A.A.M. #13 is scheduled for release this month in a limited CD-R edition as well as through Rhapsody, Napster, iTunes and other online distributors. Forms Of Things Unknown makes an appearance on the album with a work for solo harmonium called "The Fifth Path." For more info, look here.

Meanwhile, other projects in the pipeline for Ferrara Brain Pan include an emergent recording project with UK artist Patrick Leagas (founding member of Death In June and leader of his own darkwave/experimental project 6 Comm since 1985); a submission for The Method Learned, that being the most excellent multimedia project of poet G. James Wyrick; and intermittent work on the eventual new FOTU album, now being planned as a double-CD and featuring guest vocals by the weird and wonderful Pixyblink.

Finally, this news update must not pass without mentioning FOTU's upcoming appearance at the spectacular 1st Annual International Ambient Industrial Music Festival (or IAMINDUST), to be held in Oakland, California, on the weekend of October 3-5, 2008. FOTU performs on the opening night of what promises to be an event of galactic proportions, featuring a diverse array of world-class performers including Troum, Aidan Baker & Nadja, Voice Of Eye, and many more. For full details and all the latest news on IAMINDUST, please visit the IAMINDUST MySpace page, or go directly to the official IAMINDUST website where tickets are now available for purchase.

May 2008

San Francisco Bay Area residents have two opportunities this month to catch Ferrara Brain Pan in performance. Both concerts will take place on subsequent Thursdays as part of the long-running Luggage Store Gallery New Music Series.

On Thursday, May 8, Ferrara appears as a performing member of That Hideous Strength. That Hideous Strength is an ongoing audio and performance project of sound artist Benjamin Tinker. Since 1999, Benjamin has used his experience as an audio engineer and his fondness for vintage synths to create sound worlds that function as an extension of his background as a visual artist and his enthusiasm for all things sonic. Assisted by a revolving door of electric and acoustic musicians, fellow non-musicians, and spoken word artists, That Hideous Strength creates an otherworldly collage of music, sounds, voice, improvisation and composition, in both live performances and studio recordings.

Then on the following Thursday, May 15, Ferrara makes an appearance as Unknown White Male, performing live and unprocessed solo improvisations on bass clarinet, saxophones and flutes. Headlining the bill, Animal Vegetable Television make their debut performance. AVTV is a duo featuring windplayer/producer Gary Schwantes and percussionist Ron Chornow. "Animal, vegetable, television - these are some of the basic elements we use to create and inform our music, as well as three staples of our daily diet. Given this input, experience has shown that our expected output encompasses noise constructions, delicate sustained melodic textures, and urban tribal improv."

Both concerts begin at 8:15 pm sharp and take place at the Luggage Store Gallery, located at 1007 Market St. (near the corner of Sixth St.) in downtown San Francisco. Admission at the door is $6-$10, sliding scale.

March 2008

Forms Of Things Unknown has now set up a page at Last.fm, with all previously released albums and tracks online for full-length preview and playlist inclusion. All FOTU tracks are still available for listening and free download here at the Audio page. The one new addition is a Darmstadt Pharmacy page. Darmstadt Pharmacy was the inauguratory collaborative project by Ferrara Brain Pan and Ure Thrall, a pair whose creative relationship informally continues to this day. During its brief existence, Darmstadt Pharmacy issued one limited edition CD-R in 1999 entitled Ether, long since scarce and out-of-print. Ether is once again available in its entirety, as a free download, by clicking here.

A full-length video documenting last year's live performance by Forms Of Things Unknown (as previously mentioned, a ten-minute excerpt remains online at YouTube) is now available for viewing at Google Video. The 23-minute solo electronic set took place on 13 October 2007 at The Lab in San Francisco as part of the PlugDose international two-day 'headphone' festival.

February 2008

The Two Shaves And A Shine Remix Project CD by Nurse With Wound (including a remix by Forms Of Things Unknown) is now available for purchase from United Jnana Records. From the liner notes by Steven Stapleton:

"A couple of years ago David Tibet and I were moochin' around the Virgin Records store in Glasgow. David was patiently waiting for me as at that time I was feverishly into female MCs and I wanted to study the sleeves of all the CDs in the shop's hip-hop section. "You’re on this," he said, tapping me on the shoulder with a dance compilation in his hand, and sure enough, there it was: "Nurse With Wound: Two Shaves and a Shine" - remixed. So, somewhat surprised by this discovery, I purchased a copy and promptly got in touch with the label, who led me on a merry song and dance for over six months until I gave up, neither sending [me] any copies or paying any royalties.

"The one thing they did give me was the idea of remixing "Two Shaves," so when I was considering the extra material for the upcoming reissue of An Awkward Pause (which had been out of print since the collapse of World Serpent Distribution several years back), the concept of supplying the essential ingredients of drums/bass/guitar and giving everybody a chance to fuck with the track and make their own versions really appealed to me. 'El Duderino' Mark Logan of Jnana then came up with the stroke of genius: a remix competition, open to everybody - first prize [being] the original artwork from the front cover of this album.

"For three months, on my car stereo, I listened to over a hundred versions. I listened to them anonymously, not knowing who the remixers were, judging them on their own quirks and musical merits. It was so difficult to choose the versions that appear on this compilation as all entries were intriguing and full of cranky invention. Eventually I honed it down to these gems. Taken as a whole it's quite an intense ride, especially as all the tracks are crossfaded into one mightly mother of a jam - enjoy!"

The 62-minute CD features a total of fifteen winning remixes by the following artists: Nelson Ford Templeton, Crab Fisher, Lithopedion, Horst Jankowski's 21st Century Swingers, Forms of Things Unknown, Vivian Girls, Xambuca and the Alcatraz Barbershop Quartet, Pepe Wismeer, (dell.tree), Balog, Anemone in Toto, BB3, James Hill, and the Stomach Aches. To hear the FOTU remix, entitled "Shave 'Em Dry 'Til The Cows Come Home," just visit the Audio page and scroll down to the bottom.

January 2008

A ten-minute video excerpt documenting a live performance by Forms Of Things Unknown from last year is now up on YouTube. The 23-minute solo electronic set took place on 13 October 2007 at The Lab in San Francisco as part of PlugDose, an international two-day 'headphone' festival featuring live performances by over three dozen acts.

And feel free to visit the newly revamped and tricked out FOTU MySpace page (including expanded text content, exclusive pix of Ferrara Brain Pan in action, and so much more). Send an add request... post a comment... knock yourself out!

July 2007

The remixed Nurse With Wound track which Forms Of Things Unknown entered in last December's "Two Shaves and a Shine" Remix Contest has been selected by Steven Stapleton as one of fourteen best entries to be released on a CD by Jnana Records sometime around late Summer 2007. The four-and-a-half-minute remix, entitled "Shave 'Em Dry 'Til The Cows Come Home," may be heard in its entirety (and downloaded for free) on FOTU's MySpace page. Click here and select the fourth song on the music player. A full list of contributing artists and remixes will be announced here as soon as the CD is made available for purchase.

June 2007

The new MySpace FOTU track for this month is a four-minute as-yet-unreleased instrumental (recorded in late 2006) entitled "Vallatar." It is performed by Ferrara Brain Pan on solo sopranino saxophone, and is inspired by and adapted from a piece by Susanne Rosenberg, which is itself an example of the ancient Scandinavian women's vocal tradition known as kulning. (For more on kulning, visit the Wikipedia entry or this page for an MP3 example of a traditional kulning recording). The track is available for listening and unlimited free downloads. Go to the Forms Of Things Unknown MySpace page and select the fourth song on the music player...

March 2007

FOTU will be performing live in San Francisco this month as part of the Exp.Folx series of Wednesday night experimental music programs. The concert will take place on March 21, 2007, at the G3 Lounge, located at 3910 Geary Blvd (at Third Ave) in San Francisco. Three or four other artists (as yet unannounced) will also perform on the bill. Showtime is 9:30 pm and admission is free (please note: this is a 21-and-over event). Check the Exp.Folx page for more info.

A new Forms Of Things Unknown track entitled "The Fifth Path" is now up for listening and free download (through the month of March) at the FOTU MySpace page.

February 2007

In lieu of any scheduled CD releases in the near future, new FOTU tracks will be made available periodically for free download at the Forms Of Things Unknown MySpace page. Several tracks were recorded in late 2006, including a remix of the Nurse With Wound track "Two Shaves And A Shine" which has been entered in the Durtro/Jnana NWW Remix Contest. The first of these unreleased songs is entitled "Cobblestones" and is now up for listening and download here. The plan is to post a new track on the first of each month (at that time deleting the one from the previous month), so you have from now until the first of March to check it out. Enjoy...

October 2006

After a long hiatus, Forms Of Things Unknown is presently recording new material, with at least five brand new tracks in the can (two of which are slated for release later this year on forthcoming compilation albums). News will be posted here, of course, as these releases are made available. In the meantime, advance previews will at some point be posted online at the Forms Of Things Unknown MySpace page, and as freely shared files to SoulSeek users.

Ferrara Brain Pan may be heard as one of the contributing musicians on the newly released album by longtime associate and former Darmstadt Pharmacy colleague Ure Thrall entitled Arabian Knightmares, now available as a splendidly packaged CD folio edition on the esteemed German label Tesco Distribution.

August 2006

The complete back-catalog of Forms Of Things Unknown is now available for free download on the Audio page. All FOTU tracks, licensed through Creative Commons, may henceforth be freely copied, shared and distributed for noncommercial personal use. CDs will continue to be available for those who wish to support the artist by purchasing the album(s).

March 2006

Forms Of Things Unknown will perform a live set of new and unreleased material on the No Other Radio Network on Tuesday, March 21 at midnight (technically March 22 @ 12:00 am, Pacific Standard Time). The No Other Radio program airs live on KPFA-FM, which is at 94.1 on the local radio dial and also heard worldwide on the Internet at www.kpfa.org. For those unable to tune in live, the program will be made available on the KPFA archives, beginning the day after broadcast, for a period of sixteen weeks. Thanks to Das Ubuibi for making this performance possible.

Forms Of Things Unknown will stage a live performance at the Luggage Store Gallery on Thursday, March 16, at 8:00 pm. S.F. Bay Area flautist & composer Polly Moller (pronounced 'molar' not 'Mahler') will headline, presenting material from her forthcoming CD release.. The Luggage Store Gallery is located at 1007 Market Street (near Sixth St.) in downtown San Francisco. Admission is $6-10 sliding scale (all ages welcome, no one refused for lack of funds).

Please subscribe to the mailing list above to stay abreast of future performances...

MySpace users may be interested to know that FOTU now has a page on that oh-so-trendy site. Please visit the auxiliary FOTU home page and send me a 'Friend Request' to add Forms Of Things Unknown to your MySpace network.

October 2005

Marc Weidenbaum of www.disquiet.com - a website worth investigating, described as "reflections on ambient/electronic music, and interviews with the people who make it" - has posted a review of last month's Disquiet Festival, including comments on the Friday night set by Forms Of Things Unknown, appearing below. You can read the review in its entirety on the Reviews page here.

DIM LIGHT / WHITE NOISE

The Disquiet Festival brings together gothic industrial music and sound art

[ October 2, 2005 ] OAKLAND, CA. It began with someone playing a renaissance melody on a recorder and ended, four hours later, at midnight, with rough scraping noises amid a machine whine. In between there were dead bodies, a wicked game of Tempest and, according to the evening's host, "the only goth DJ who matters." It was the first night of the first ever Disquiet Festival (the name is a coincidence - the festival has no affiliation with this website), which brought together gothic industrial music and sound art in one dim white room. Held at the 21 Grand in Oakland, California, the September 30 concert featured four acts, with a DJ playing what the program noted as "interstitial" music in between. (The second night, October 1, which I was unable to attend, was set to feature four more acts: nO thiNg, a project by Loop.pooL's Rick Walker; the duo nullspace; Dark Muse; and Frozen in Amber.)

Forms of Things Unknown, a solo act by a fellow who goes by the name Ferrara Brain Pan, took the stage first, playing a melody on his recorder that wouldn't have been out of place in Sherwood Forest. This shifted to a tape of a voice speaking, and soon a single phrase, an older man saying the two words "and sound," [correction: one word, "unsound"] started to loop. For the remainder of the FoTU performance, looping was the focus, layering the blurts of a kazoo, the sinuous intonations of a bass clarinet, and a unique setup in which each of the performer's hands held a separate bow. When FoTU took a breath during his clarinet sequence, it became clear that the loop, about four seconds with an attenuated fade, gave the impression of intense breath control. The layering had a different impact depending on the instrument. With the kazoo (perhaps a duck call) it had a muezzin resonance, like a shofar call to worship. With the clarinet, phrases were able to overlap enough to present a patient, slowly developing sequence of long lines; he sounded like Eric Dolphy visiting Tuva. The bows were particularly remarkable. Though he wasn't especially ambidextrous, he was able to crosscut what sounded like two violins. Furthermore, the loop delay allowed him to build up a fast Hitchcockian run on one bow and a more sedentary line on the other. FoTU closed by returning to the recorder, which brought the listener out of the trance of those more extended interior pieces, in part because the recorder melody made little to no use of the delay, but also because it was a familiar sound, reprising what had opened the piece...

September 2005

On Friday, September 30th, Forms Of Things Unknown will be the opening performer of The Disquiet Festival, a two-night presentation of live music by artists loosely designated as 'dark ambient'. FOTU Opens the Friday night program at 8:00 pm sharp, followed by Whormongr, S.S.S., and the duo of Thomas Dimuzio & Dan Burke (Illusion Of Safety). On Saturday, October 1st, the line-up consists of nO thiNg, nullspace, Dark Muse, and Frozen In Amber (Kris Force of Amber Asylum). DJ Merrick will be spinning records between sets on both evenings. The events take place at 21 Grand, which is at 416 25th St (near Broadway) in downtown Oakland. Tickets are $10 each night or $15 for both nights. A complete schedule with artist descriptions and program times is available here.

August 2005

Hurtling Elephants of a Sort, a newly launched side project of the 'improvisational squall' variety and featuring Ferrara Brain Pan (bass clarinet & saxophones) and Ron Chornow (drums), will make its debut performance at the 5th annual Transbay Skronkathon BBQ, which is to be held all day Sunday, August 14, at 21 Grand in Oakland, CA. From the Bay Area Improvisers Network press release: "The 5th annual Transbay Skronkathon BBQ is an all-day marathon music and BBQ extravaganza. We'll have a couple of charcoal grills out in the alleyway for your gustatory pleasure and a double load of the Bay Area's best creative musicians inside for your listening pleasure..." The event is free of charge, and the music commences at 12:00 noon, running straight through to midnight. Hurtling Elephants of a Sort will perform at approximately 5:35 pm. A full schedule of performers and times can be found here. The recently relocated 21 Grand is at 416 25th St (near Broadway) in downtown Oakland.

Forms Of Things Unknown is one of the featured artists on t02, a supplementary CD-R issued with the July 2005 issue of the new German CD-ROM magazine Taucher. This is the second issue, subtitled "Zuhause (Home)." Other artists contributing audio tracks and text interviews to t02 include Jack or Jive, People Like Us, Shock Headed Peters, Veil Of Secrecy, Novy Svet, Fear Falls Burning, Arkkon, and Llovespell. Please visit the Taucher website or send an email to redsub@gmx.net for information on how to obtain a copy of this recommended release...

June 2005

FoTU mastermind Ferrara Brain Pan will be performing as a member of Moe!Kestra in a benefit concert to raise money for the medical expenses of Dax Pierson, a local musician and well-loved Amoeba Records employee who was severely injured in a van crash recently while on tour with his band. The full program of bands will include Soft Pink Truth, irr.app.(ext.), French Radio, and Moe!Kestra. The concert takes place Friday, 24 June, at 8:00 pm, at the Lobot Gallery in West Oakland.

Ferrara has also recently contributed a track to The Dronezone, an ongoing collaborative process work in which participants are asked to submit a five-minute 'drone' piece as part of a group mix which is then made available for listening and download to anyone with computer access. This engaging project is being facilitated by Colin Blakey of The Shipbuilders, an artist & musicians' collective based in Scotland. Listen and learn more (or contribute your own drone) by visiting here.

Local S.F. Bay Area photographer Peter B. Kaars has posted photos from the recent Forms of Things Unknown performance at the Luggage Store Gallery on his site at www.peterbkaars.com.

On a somewhat trivial note, Ferrara Brain Pan now has a blog and profile located in his own personal dark corner of Tribe.net. Those with an interest and some time to kill may go to people.tribe.net/ferrarabrainpan.

And while having your own 'official' band website is more or less a given for any working musician - you can't make music nowadays without a website to promote it - you know you're making serious progress in the fiercely competitive world of popular music when you get your first fan page! Here it is...

MeLiSsA's *FOrms oF tHIngs UnknoWN* TOE-tullee Un-AWE-ther-EYEZ'd PHAN PAYJE!!!

So what's next? A Ferrara Brain Pan 'Adonis' photo spread in Tiger Beat??...

April 2005

Ferrara Brain Pan has begun recording preliminary tracks for a long overdue follow-up to the Cross Purposes CD. Subterranean incursions into reptilian domains of dark amphibiance with unpredictable detours through astral realms are forthcoming...

On the 'live concert' front, Forms of Things Unknown has two upcoming performances scheduled in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first event will take place at an 'undisclosed location' in the Visitacion Valley district of the city of San Francisco on the night of Saturday, April 16th. Also appearing will be the Sixteens, Master Moth, and Spector Protector. For details and directions, email panaxis@formsofthingsunknown.com.

A subsequent performance will occur at the Luggage Store Gallery on Thursday, May 5, at 8:00 pm. Forms of Things Unknown will co-headline with longtime Darmstadt Pharmacy associate Ure Thrall in what promises to be an engaging evening of dark ambient explorations. The Luggage Store Gallery is located at 1007 Market Street (near Sixth St.) in downtown San Francisco. Admission is $6-10 sliding scale.

Some photographs of Ferrara Brain Pan at the Drone Shift (a recent collaborative performance event) can be viewed at the website of photographer Peter B. Kaars here...

Please subscribe to the mailing list above to stay abreast of future performances...

September 2004

PsychoChrist Productions has released a new compilation CD entitled The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig, featuring new works by fifteen different experimental / electronic artists. Forms of Things Unknown contributes a new 9-minute track entitled 'Interrupted By Interior Design', a two-part homage to Marcel Duchamp and Parker Posey which runs the gamut from abstract electronic sound art to psycho-tribal dada trancebeat. As a special limited time offer, the CD is obtainable at no charge with purchase of the debut Cross Purposes CD by Forms of Things Unknown - For details visit the Audio Page.

Forms of Things Unknown will give a premiere live performance in the San Francisco Bay Area on 13 Lunar Moon 5117 (Gregorian date 4 September 2004) at 21 Grand, a prominent alternative gallery / performance space in Oakland, California. Headlining will be the Broken Human Machine (Seattle) and Bellona (San Francisco). Forms of Things Unknown will open the program at 9:00 pm sharp.

A recent in-depth interview with Ferrara Brain Pan (conducted in Spring 2004 by Michael Gottert) appears in the current issue of the German-language Post-Industrial music magazine Equinoxe. The complete text of the interview may be read over at the Interviews Page.

February 2004

Forms of Things Unknown has completed a new 8-minute track which will appear on The Bone Tickling Nightmare Pig, a compilation CD currently in preparation by PsychoChrist Productions and scheduled for release in early 2004. Entitled 'Interrupted by Interior Design', it is an homage (in two parts) to Marcel Duchamp and Parker Posey, with content veering wildly from electronic sound collage to headhunter trancebeat. Please check back here for mp3 samples and CD purchase info in the near future.

Of related interest is a brand new track by Darmstadt Pharmacy, a side project featuring Ferrara Brain Pan and Ure Thrall of Cruor and Asia Nova. 'Mesozoica' is the first new recording by Darmstadt Pharmacy since disbanding in 1999. Plans for release of this and possible other new tracks by DP will be posted here when available.

Projected activities for Forms of Things Unknown in 2004 include live performances in the San Francisco Bay Area, a full-length CD follow-up to the Cross Purposes debut, and development of an as-yet-unnamed side project focusing on extended drones and ambient atmospheres.

Deluge magazine has recently posted a long and informative interview with Ferrara Brain Pan, which is reprinted in its entirety at the Interviews Page.