Blank Media Collective

Wednesday July 09

Blank Media Presents… Rodrigo Constanzo, The Farthest Thing & Shoshin

Blank Media Presents…

Rodrigo Constanzo, The Farthest Thing & Shoshin

Photographs from the recent gig on Tuesday 8th July at Fuel Cafe Bar

Blank Media are delighted to introduce…

Rodrigo Constanzo
(http://www.myspace.com/rodrigoconstanzo)

Rodrigo Constanzo was born in Madrid, Spain. He moved to Miami, Florida at the age of two. There he began studying piano with his grandmother at the age of four. In high school he formed, and directed, the South Miami Senior High School Rock Band, which performed regularly at school functions. He graduated in 1994 and went on to study at Miami Dade College under Jane Pyle, Jo Foster, and Linda Fowler. While there, Rodrigo won, and placed in, several composition competitions, met future collaborators, and eventually earned an Associate of Arts degree in Music.

In 2004, Rodrigo formed failure, arc of beauty with Gilbert Kong. The group would eventually grow to include his future wife, Angela Guyton, whose participation allowed for the exploration of the ways sight and sound could interact on a performance level. This is something Rodrigo always had an interest in and worked hand in hand with his passion for improvisation. It was improvisation which would lead to the formation of MUS2301, an improvisation-based group/class that continued until Rodrigo and Angela moved to Manchester, England in 2007.

Although he is classically trained, his primary interest lies in contemporary music. For the past ten years he has occupied himself by creating a number of instruments made from modifying electronic devices, in a process called circuit–bending. As a composer he is heavily influenced by visual art, and tries to make each composition self–standing — each idea being a unique one, and demanding a unique outcome. The one thing that ties most of his work together is the surrendering of part of his control as a composer, be it in aleatoric or arbitrary decisions at the composition level, or through largely improvised forms at the performance level.

He is currently involved in several projects, the main one being a performance art duo with Angela called Takahashi’s Shellfish Concern. He also plays drums in Taihanis, and misc. instruments in April Fool, and has recently started a UK chapter of MUS2301. 

The Farthest Thing
(http://www.myspace.com/farthestthing)

The Farthest Thing (aka Matt Farthing) grew up in south-east London and moved to Manchester to study at the Royal Northern College of Music when they threw a scholarship at him. After playing in a vast number of different bands/orchestras/ensembles over his career, he found himself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with playing ‘other people’s stuff’ and decided to go solo. A multi–instrumentalist — playing (amongst other things) guitar, harmonica, bass, piano, mandolin — his passion was always the violin.

Descended from Romani gypsy’s and raised on a combination of his mum’s old Motown, soul and extensive Bowie records and his dad’s vast experimental rock knowledge — classical music wasn’t the most obvious choice of passion, but it happened nevertheless. As he grew older however, the passion grew to include hard rock, metal, then rap, electronica and dance - and finally indie, world, folk and experimental music. So now he‘ll listen to pretty much anything…as long as it’s good.

So basically — The Farthest Thing — is one guy, with a violin, a gibson echoplex, a plethora of assorted instruments, some seriously 80’s fx, a drum machine, and quite a lot of random ideas for how to use them.

Shoshin
(http://www.myspace.com/shoshinmusic)

Hello everyone, This is Nkosi, I’m the beatboxer for Shoshin. I met Pete in Manchester in August ’06. I was co–hosting a Jam night at a bar in Manchester City Centre and I left the place briefly to buy some cigarettes. That’s when I saw this dude jamming on the street. Me being me, I went over and started talking to him, I invited him to come and join in the jam at the venue and he looked at me in a surprised kind of way, probably thinking ‘whats this guy on?’. I didn’t expect to see him show up, but later on he came in, sat down, and watched everybody, seeing what was happening. I was all over the place doing a bit of everything, djing, rapping, singing, playing the drums, just doing what I do.

Then this guy gets on stage and starts playing, and even though it was blowing everyone away, I thought it could use something, so I jumped up on stage and started beatboxing along with his songs! It really got the crowd going, and we a had a blast jamming together. After rocking the place we found out what each others names were and swapped numbers, and thats how I met Pete Haley. Two weeks later I was on the train back from Notting Hill Carnival in London, and I got a call from Pete asking if I wanted to perform a couple of shows that night, when I arrived in Manchester I went straight to the venue, and we blew everyone away again. We did four more shows that week, and were approached by a record label for the first time. Since then, we have decided on the name Shoshin, and have been gigging all over the country, so watch out, cos were coming!