That Happy Breed Rehearsals

"That Happy Breed", a Brexit Science Fiction Operetta, premieres at Worm, Rotterdam, with a cast of Rotterdam's finest, on November 20th 2016. More information and tickets here.

That Happy Breed

Back in Ubik, Worm, Rotterdam, directing "That Happy Breed", Brexit opera.... plays 1300 and 2030 on Sunday November 20th ... sportswear, anybody?

That Happy Breed

 

COMING NOVEMBER 2016

at UBIK, WORM, ROTTERDAM

"THAT HAPPY BREED"

A BREXIT SCIENCE FICTION OPERA

by

DOMINIC ROBERTSON

What happens if, after Britain leaves the EU, the rest of the planet destroys itself through some kind of ethical-nuclear misunderstanding? What happens to an independent England in total isolation?

"That Happy Breed" is a science-fiction vision of 'an island in the moon', adrift on shared history and past glories, visions of empire and sightings of rabbits on the copse.

A family home and the Houses of Parliament provide the setting for a Menippean satire on patriotism and propaganda. A community play in words, song, and electronic music, "That Happy Breed" is a caustic cavalcade comedy, with appearances from St George, Queen Elizabeth II, Boris Johnson, Morris Dancers, and the IRA. 

So keep your temper, 

dissidence is not a word a British true 

should ever be resorting to,

you are looked after,

pampered, preened,

your life in England is a dream.....

DW Robertson is resident at Worm, Rotterdam, this week, with compadre and collaborator Andrew Dickinson, creating sets and costumes for "That Happy Breed".

Set designs for "That Happy Breed" in-progress.....

Follow Dominic's adventures on the Worm Residency blog.

 

DISCO CAROUSEL! New LP out on Discrepant

The marvellous label Discrepant recently released a 12" LP from DW Robertson, called DISCO CAROUSEL.

 

''Everybody knows that mechanical music is the highest form of entertainment, that's why the fairground, that age old uber-entertainment, rang with the chaotic splendour of Barrel Organs, Orchestrions, Bellenoens and Serinettes.
In the 20th century, as the delicate mechanisms of automata fell out of favour to the machismo of electricity, all the music-boxes left the funfair, to be usurped by Euro-Techno.
"Disco Carousel" is an attempt to redress this balance with a little bit of time travel, a little bit of tlc, and atomic fusion between the discreet windings of the Pianola and the whirring innards of the computing-machine.
Each piece is "Programme Music", and comes with a title that should take you straight to the electro-mechanical fairground you've always dreamed of. You can ride the big dipper, the ghost train, ace the shooting gallery, win a prize. In the safe knowledge that, all around your head, in multiple permutations, the highest form of entertainment is taking place.''
DW Robertson, 2016

Tracks

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1. A1 Big Dip on the Big Dipper
2. A2 The Shooting Gallery
3. A3 Prizewinner
4. B1 Brief Sojourn on the Ghost Train
5. B2 Disco Carousel

Pressing Information

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Artwork collage by Portuguese artist Ruca Bourbon
500 units pressed at Optimal, Germany

DW Robertson interviewed on Music Manumit

The Creative Commons podcast Music Manumit recently interviewed DW Robertson all about the past, present, future, and so on. Listen here.

Live in De Perifeer, Deventer

DW Robertson will be performing new radio-opera material at De Perifeer, the atelier of Harco Rutgers, in Deventer, the Netherlands, on 01/10/16. From 2.30pm.

The Royal Danish Mix on Radio Ouiedire

DW Robertson recently put together this sound-collage for Radio Ouiedire. Stream and download  here.

Within you will find dices and slices of the following musical nuts, tossed into relief with one another in a savoury and sweet montage, in roughly this order...

1. 00:00:00 Claudio Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
2. 00:00:00 John Cage - Solo for Flute, Alto Flute & Piccolo
3. 00:02:12 Miles Davis - Spanish Key
4. 00:02:50 Matsuo Ohno - Electronic Sound
5. 00:05:25 Dabka - Ya Gazayal
6. 00:08:40 Silver Apples - Cannonball Noodle
7. 00:09:13 Conlon Nancarrow - Quartet Nr 3
8. 00:11:05 Jacopo Peri - Euridice
9. 00:12:30 Dastan Ensemble - Asheghaneh
10. 00:12:53 Moondog - Ostrich Feather
11. 00:13:30 Charles Ives - The Rock Strewn Hills
12. 00:14:44 John Cage - Sonata No 3
13. 00:15:35 Arnold Schoenberg - Adagio
14. 00:19:07 Morton Feldman - The King of Denmark (Optimised)
15. 00:24:02 Bohislav Martinu - Four Madrigals for Oboe, Clarinet & Bassoon
16. 00:26:21 Erik Satie - Socrate
17. 00:29:11 Igor Stravinsky - Agon
18. 00:29:34 Tod Dockstader - 01
19. 00:29:50 Brigitte Fontaine et Areski - Apres le Guerre
20. 00:32:24 He Zemin & Huang Peiying - Big Idiot Buys a Pig
21. 00:33:20 Dashiell Hedayat - Fille de l'ombre
22. 00:34:02 Jean Michel Jarre - Eros Machine
23. 00:35:50 Erik Satie - Furniture Music
24. 00:36:22 Albi Ala Albak - Ataba
25. 00:38:09 Erwin Schulhoff - Flammen
26. 00:41:21 Morton Subotnick - The Wild Bull Part One
27. 00:43:04 Zdenek Liska - Uncertainties
28. 00:45:42 Sun Ra - Disco 2100
29. 00:48:52 Gyorgy Ligeti - Musica Recerceta (Adaptation for Barrel Organ)
30. 00:48:52 Kurt Weill - Kanonensong
31. 00:51:26 The The - Giant
32. 00:51:28 Gyorgy Ligeti - The Lobster Quadrille
33. 00:53:06 Ivor Cutler - The Shapely Balloon
34. 00:55:40 Iannis Xenakis - Diamorphoses
35. 00:56:03 Claudio Monteverdi - Vespro Della Beata Vergine
36. 00:56:40 The Bohman Brothers - Thairish Variations