Anabas Calls the Tune

Anabas Calls the Tune was a collaboration between myself and Nigel Hobbins. We both studied Fine Art at Canterbury Art College, and had been making music together since 1976. Our musical explorations gave birth to a number of bands - The Metallic Pooh Poohs, Tom's Boys, Nigel William & Richard, Emotional Play and The Happy Accidents, as well as Anabas Calls the Tune.

Anabas Calls The Tune - 1984 compact cassette release on Edible Music - EM004

Side A
Upstreet Relish
Singing Ringing Room
Shoulders
We Shall Make Errors
Who's To Say
Jealousy
For Bass & Clarinet

Side B
Sequences based on a performance at King's Wood, Challock on 1st July 1984

1. Upstreet Relish

2. Singing Ringing Room

3. Shoulders

4. We Shall Make Errors

5. Who's To Say

6. Jealousy

7. For Bass & Clarinet

In 1984 we arranged an improvised music performance in a pine plantation in King's Wood, Challock. We made a xylophone from beech which had already been cut. We took our regular instruments and brought along a range of percussion instruments. We also played the trees, working with the very particular acoustics of that wood. We printed out invitations for our invited audience to come and find us in the woods. We provided a map, and on the day the sounds we made drew our audience to us. A Parochial Performance began in daylight and moved through dusk into darkness. The event was recorded and photos taken which were later used to create an audio/visual piece using tape/slide sequencing. This was played at the Sydney Cooper Centre as part of the Canterbury Fringe Festival in October of that year.

Stills from the performance

10.12.84 Canterbury Art College - Anabas Calls the Tune play support to Ivor Cutler.

We played an improvised set inspired by recordings of whale songs which we incorporated as the 'ground' to our sonic offerings. I made a series of painted glass slides which were projected onto the stage, morphing through each other as we performed. Unfortunately there is no recording of the evening.