Just over a year ago my friend Andrea Thal - facilitator of the artist-led space Les Complices* in Zurich - was invited to curate the official Swiss off-site project at the 54th Venice Biennale 2011. The concept Andrea brought together - under the banner Chewing the Scenery - was a community of people working within film, music, theatre and theory to contemplate and play with post-colonial and queer discourses on identity and temporality. As she pieced together the exhibition I was thrilled to be invited to join this collective of misfits to help devise a live music programme as one-third of the MOTHER team led by Dafne Boggeri and Noga Inbar.

Although I cannot possibly communicate all the sounds, sights and sensations of the many warm wonderful days I spent in and around the Teatro Fondamenta Nuove on the Venetian lagooon, here at least is a peek behind the scenes and below a mixtape of what it might have sounded like along with some of my personal musings. For full details of the project please visit the Chewing the Scenery website.

“No Future / No Past”

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz’s film “No Future / No Past” played continuously on a screen dominating the space. An imagined punk archive between 1976 - 2031. No punk future, no punk past. Calling on Vivienne Dick, The X, Darby Crash, Poly Styrene, Joey Ramone and Alice Bag. Ridiculous. Dsytopian. Ginger smashes the guitar to bits. More on Pauline and Renate’s work can be found on their website.

MOTHER presents…

MOTHER’s contributions were the most ephemeral. We invited first Mary Ocher from Berlin to join us in June. Then in September came Vera November from London, Maya Dunietz from Tel Aviv and Alona Rodeh from Tel Aviv. Together they brought moments that lingered and temporary collaborations that sparkled. Completely unpredictable. So typical. Find out more about MOTHER. .

The Publication

Then there is this bit with the longest timeline, started before the exhibition doors opened and completed only after the end of it all. Edited by Anna Frei and Georg Rutishauser and the only remnant left now. A constant reworking of the themes - contemplative chewing and regurgitation within a single publication in three separate editions. Available from the publisher edition fink.

The Soundtrack
The last and mostly totally unrelated part of the whole thing - a love letter in sound based on memories of moments now passed. It sounded like this, I think. It’s all a bit queer. Wish you had been there.
Beth Anderson - Country Time
Cold Dogs In The Courtyard - Video Is Not Art
Club Tango - Get The Picture
Judy Nylon & Crucial - Live In A Lift
Klack Klack - 1919
Kate Fagan - I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool
Covergirl - Paris Burns
LiLiPUT - Do You Mind My Dream
Rhythm King And Her Friends - Frankie
MEN - Who Am I to Feel So Free
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Fire
Mary Ocher - Address Yourself
Austra - Beat And The Pulse
Planningtorock - Living It Out
tUnE-yArDs - My Country
Trash Kit - Cadets
This Beat is Lezbotronik - This Beat is Lezbotronik
No Bra - Munchausen
Inflatable Boy Clams - I’m Sorry

DOWNLOAD: Chewing the Scenery mix.mp3
Tracklisting

While I am a punk girl at heart I have soft spot for all things italo disco, especially when there’s a bit of outer space in the mix…

I happened upon The Ann Steel album recently and was delighted by its futuristic pseudo-robotic sound and aesthetic. Masterminded by Italian electronic composer, Roberto Cacciapaglia, the persona Ann Steel was created when Robert met an American model-to-be shortly after her arrival in Italy, dressed her in a red jumpsuit, wrote her some fantastically nonsensical songs and produced an album with her in the late 70s. Unfortunately, Ann’s career never took off and she soon faded into obscurity. The album itself however, initially only available in a limited run, was reissued on vinyl in late October 2011 by Half Machine Records. Buy your copy here or download a digital copy below.

Also, for your listening pleasure is a mix of some of my favorite outer spacey disco dance tunes. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: The Ann Steel Album.mp3

DOWNLOAD: Spacer Woman mix.mp3

SPACER WOMAN MIX TRACKLIST
Boney M. - Nightflight To Venus
Venus Gang - Love To Fly
Herman’s Rocket - Space Woman
Sheila B. Devotion - Spacer
Space - Magic Fly
Charlie - Spacer Woman
Ann Steel - My Time
La Bionda - I Wanna Be Your Lover
Dee D. Jackson - Automatic Lover
Video Kids - Woodpeckers From Space
Andreas Dorau und die Marinas - Fred vom Jupiter
Spizz Energi - Where’s Captain Kirk
The Space Lady - Major Tom
ESG - UFO

I am pleased to have been a small part of the Making Waves fanzine, contributing my recent interview with Marlene, Klaudia and Astrid of LiLiPUT. This first issue also features interviews with Jeri Cain Rossi, Debsey Wykes from Dolly Mixture, James Hoare, All Girl Summer Fun Band, Verónica Ortuño, Stef Petticoat, Chalk Circle, Alice Bag and more.

The fanzine is the result of a year long transatlantic collaboration initiated by Camille Lan in Paris and Mary Regalado in Los Angeles. The aim of the project is to explore the intersections of punk, feminism and womanhood by getting a group of contributors together that share a common enthusiasm for music and featuring women that make the songs we love.

You can download a PDF of the issue below, but of course the only way to truly experience this zine is in print form, so order your copy via Lulu here! Follow the progress of the project on tumblr as it continues: http://mwzine.tumblr.com.

DOWNLOAD:  Making Waves issue 1 (PDF)

DOWNLOAD: Making Waves issue 1 mixtape (MP3)

tracklist:
01. Jeri Rossi - I Left My Heart But I Don’t Know Where
02. Dolly Mixture - Shonay Shonay
03. All Girl Summer Fun Band - Charm Bracelet
04. Finally Punk - Environmentality
05. Ludus - Too Hot To Handle
06. The Petticoats - I’m Free
07. Chalk Circle - Easy Escapes
08. LiLiPUT - In A Mess
09. The Bags - Violent Girl
10. Devil’s Dykes - Fruitless

The third and final dot of the Mother Festival ephemeral triangle will now be drawn… The traveling wowmen’s music spectacle takes over Berlin on the 22 and 23 September 2011 with a stellar line-up of female bands and DJs.
Here’s all you need to know, plus an exclusive Mother Mixtape below to get your heart and ears ready…

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Thursday, 22 September
HBC / Karl-Liebknecht-Str 9 / 10178 Berlin
Agathe Max (Lyon)
Sonja Cvitkovic with Michaela Meise and Kritkrom (Berlin)
Penelope Edmund (London)
Roxymore (Paris/Berlin)
La Chatte (Paris)
DJ S/HE (Milan)

Friday, 23 September
CHEZ JACKI / An Der Schilling Brücke / 10243 Berlin
Kool Thing (Berlin)
Maria & The Mirrors (London)
Molly Nilsson (Berlin)
Cassexxe Vibrato (Tel Aviv)
Anna Otto (Berlin)
plus performance by Barokthegreat and DJ sets from Pauline Boudry (Berlin), Pippi Langstrumpf (Milan)  and Mary Velo (Berlin)

DOWNLOAD: Mother Berlin Mix.mp3
Tracklist:
Kool Thing - The Sign (Chance in the Dark Mix)
Molly Nilsson - Never O’Clock
La Chatte - Apache
Penelope Edmund - This is Romance
Cassexxe Vibrato - Dark Seduction
Maria & The Mirrors - Travel Sex
Kool Thing - Line Drive
La Chatte - Jacques (Hypo Extended remix)
Molly Nilsson - Europa
Agatha Max - Black Needle
Sonja Cvitkovic & Kritzkom - German Playback
Anna Otto - Forest

Summer has sprung! So here are some brilliant and delightful girlpunk sounds for all your holiday and party needs - featuring two of my all time favorite blogs and a lovingly done compendium of early punk tracks.

Gunilla Mixtapes is a regularly updated blog featuring 30 minute mixes of (mostly) 80s female fronted punk. Here’s a sample of what awaits…visit the blog to download all the current episodes.
DOWNLOAD:  Gunilla 1 mixtape
01. Deutscher Kaiser - Halli Galli Tanzt Für Sie
02. A-Gen-53 – Stalingrad
03. Die Egozentrischen 2 – Parallelverschiebung
04. Househunters – Dorsal Fin
05. Silver Abuse – Plastic Rows
06. Plastix – Konsumier Mich
07. The Liggers – Pretty Girl
08. NON baNd – Duncan Dancin’
09. I.U.D. – Charm
10. Jungle Nausea – Uniform
11. Silver Abuse – Cuban Homo Farm
12. Good Samaritans – Dotted Line

The TV Dinner Mixtapes are another series of well selected girlpunk mixes incorporating bands from the last four decades. Download the first episode here and then visit the website to access the other 20+ mixes!

DOWNLOAD: TV Dinner 1: Consuming New Frontiers
01. As Mercenarias- Trashland
02. Bags- TV Dinner
03. Clothilde- La Queue Du Chat
04. DNA- Taking Kid To School
05. Thee Headcoatees- Wildman
06. Neo Boys- Time Keeps Time
07. Chantal Goya- C’est Bien Bernard
08 Mika Miko- Blues Not Speed
09. JFA- Baja
10. Suburban Lawns- Pioneers
11. Grass Widow- Uncertain Memory
12. Clothilde- Je T’ai Voulu Et Je T’ai Bien Eu

If that doesn’t satisfy your yearning for prime punk sounds, download the digitized version of the 12 CD-R set A Reference of Female Fronted Punk 1977 - 1989. The compilation was personally put together by a guy named Vince in a limited run and digitized for the benefit of us all by Kängnäve blog.

Earlier this month saw the launch of the Women’s Liberation Music Archive, a small corner of webspace focusing on “feminist music-making in the UK and Ireland from 1970 - 1990.” The project, an initiative of Deborah Withers and Frankie Green, is actively and openly seeking contributions, corrections and all forms of support to make the website a fun and useful tool.

The bands featured in the archive represent the ideals of second wave feminism with a “sisterhood is powerful” attitude and leanings towards jazzy/folk/rock sounds. After a bit of digging I’ve come up with a few of my personal highlights from the collection, have a listen here and then visit the site and have a trawl yourself!

“Didn’t Affect Me” by The Fabulous Dirt Sisters

“Self Defense” by Ova

As an added bonus I offer you here a digitized version of  the “Making Waves” compilation put out by Girlfriend Records in 1981, featuring twelve women’s bands from the UK. Here’s to you,  sisters in song!

DOWNLOAD: Making Waves compilation (.rar file/35MB)

The symposium Wissenschaft, Künste + Alles Andere (Science, Arts + Everything Else) took place over three days from Friday, 9 November 1990 – Sunday, 11 November 1990 at the Museum für Gestaltung in Basel, Switzerland. The event brought together over 100 women, from across German speaking countries and around the world, to discuss current affairs in the areas of art, politics, literature, activism, philosophy and more.

The symposium manifesto offered “contradiction, commonality, different working and communication methods, concentration, information, opinions, arguments and enjoyment: talking, seeing, listening, moving thorough spaces, thinking – an experiment from which new insights can develop.”

The invited participants included, among many others:
Kathy Acker, late American writer
Valie Export, Austrian artist and filmmaker
Helga Fanderl, German filmmaker
Gisele Freund, late German/French photographer
Diamanda Galas, American performer
Natalia Ginzburg, late Italian writer
Almudena Grandes Spanish writer
Guerrilla Girls, American art activist group
Zaha M. Hadid, Iraqi architect
Friederike Mayröcker, Austrian poet
Luisa Muraro, Italian philosopher
Pauline Oliveros, American musician
Peggy Parnass, German writer
Pipilotti Rist,  Swiss artist and filmmaker
Marianne Schuller, German professor and writer
Alice Shalvi, German educationalist
Silvia Staub-Bernasconi,  Swiss human rights activist
Marcia Tucker, late American curator
Zhang Xin Xin, Chinese writer

Kathy Acker, photo by Ute Schendel
_______________

In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the symposium, Monika Dillier and Dagmar Reichert, themselves participants in the event, began digitising over 40 hours of video filmed during the three days. With the exhibition Chambres d’Echo in November 2010, Les Complices* Gallery in Zurich, Switzerland exhibited outtakes from the footage and hosted a series of events around the themes of the archive. Journal d’Echo, a publication of new written works inspired by the symposium and produced during the exhibition, was published in March 2011 by edition fink.

There are plans to make the videos openly available over time, but until then have a look at the programme and imagine what arguments and enjoyments might well have taken place… Here also is an early work from Pipilotti Rist, courtesy of the amazing UbuWeb.

DOWNLOAD:  Wissenschaft, Künste + Alles Andere programme (PDF)

VIEW: Pipilotti Rist - Entlastungen, Pipilottis Fehler from 1988 (courtesy UbuWeb):

The player will show in this paragraph

image from “Born in Flames” publication by Kaisa Lassinaro

From early February 2011 until end March 2011, London’s The Showroom gallery is host to the exhibition “Reproductive Labour” centering around the films, videos, politics and discussions that make up Cinenova – a volunteer-run, charitable organisation dedicated to preserving and distributing the work of women/feminist film and video makers. Visitors are  invited to step into the archives and interact with its contents whether viewing a film or browsing the paper catalogs, posters and publications.

The exhibition ends on a particularly high note on Sunday, 26 March with a screening of Lizzie Borden’s 1983 mockumentary feminist fantasy film Born in Flames, along with the launch of an illustrated comic book style script of the film produced by Finnish graphic designer Kaisa Lassinaro. The project is still in progress and the production of a full version of the comic book is in need of support, so pre-order your copy or make a donation.

Another international female film archive of note is  Bildwechsel which was started in Hamburg in 1979 and has since grown to include satellite groups  in Glasgow, Basel, Nurnberg, Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest. Have a look at this charming video telling the story of Bildwechsel in pictures and narrated by Durbahn, one of the founders.

image from “Born in Flames” publication by Kaisa Lassinaro

Mary Ocher is a Berlin based singer with roots in Tel Aviv and Moscow. She headed up the band Mary and the Baby Cheeses for several years but is now venturing out on her own again with a set of simple, poetic punk/folk anthems.
Her 2008 limited release lp “War Songs” is being re-released on Haute Areal Records on 11 March 2011 and is available here as CD or download.

I caught up with Mary recently and here’s what she had to say for herself…

JW: What is one of your favorite sounds and what does it mean to you?
MO: the sound of my phone receiving a long awaited text message. yup.

JW: Tell me about one of your most cherished records and why it is so important to you.
MO: That’s a tough one! I might go with Lou Reed’s “Transformer” which I first discovered in high school - then it had some brilliant tunes and great lyrics and a very interesting presentation/story telling and that’s all it was for me.
But I’ve been listening to the Velvet Underground for a while and I’ve recently rediscovered something in Reed’s fascination with an outsider’s persona in his solo work. I’ve read his biography and listened to most of his other albums but none dealt specifically with this theme, only the notion of romanticized violence popped
up here and there. Of course, having already been a fan of David Bowie and his glam-era guitarist Mick Ronson, their participation in the record was a bonus along with the playful cabaret style.

Since I moved to Berlin and most of my friends here are trannies and divas of all kinds, genders and preferences, the album changed into yet something even more personal and the sadness behind the make-up was not just another vague expression. New York of the 70s has become an everyday scenario for me.

JW: Who is a woman that has inspired you in your life, musically or otherwise?
Oh, I can’t think of just one.  I guess it’d have to be a Frankenstein creation made of bits of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a young Patti Smith, Nina Hagen, Odetta, Peggy Lee, Nico, Marlene Dietrich, Eartha Kitt, Diamanda Galas, Grace Jones, Dusty Springfield, Lydia Lunch and recently Betty Davis (the foxy 70’s funk singer). Maybe also a little of Sylvia Plath, though i think that today she seems much less impressing to me than she used to.

Here concludes my interview with Marlene Marder, Astrid Spirig and Klaudia Schifferle, aka LiLiPUT.

Check out the the mital-u website for more info and a discography of the band. A good introduction to the band is the 2001 Kill Rock Stars reissue of a CD compilation of their studio recordings. Diehard fans will enjoy the double CD/DVD of live recordings and video clips that KRS released in 2010, while vinyl aficionados will appreciate that Mississippi Records has just released a 4x LP vinyl version of the 2001 studio recordings compilation.

Jenny Woolworth: So where you all still working day jobs while in the band?

Klaudia: I was working in Booster, the clothing store,  but not much longer after the band started. Early on Marlene always had some kind of job and usually had a little something for me too. Lislot worked for Polaroid for a bit but really hated it and said she knew someone who could take over so I worked three months there. Then in the end I worked with Marlene, she was my boss at a big corporate company.

Astrid (to Klaudia): How was that?

Klaudia: It was cool! It was fine! Then I started to take my art work more seriously and I got a studio at the Rote Fabrik. I met another artist there who encouraged me to stop with these office  jobs and, because he had come into a bit of money, he offered me a 1000.- CHF to stop working and focus on my art.  Which I did!

.

Jenny Woolworth: Can you tell me about your songwriting process?

Astrid: Often we just jammed and recorded everything, then if an interesting riff came out of that we’d develop a song around it.

Marlene: At the very beginning it started with my harmonies or my riffs and a song developed from there.

Klaudia (to Marlene): Yeah, I just followed your instructions… you told me wait until the fifth fret then go crazy! But the process developed over time, I remember when Astrid and I lived together,  we’d sit together in the evening and write lyrics… lying there on the bed, reading the dictionary picking out words. For example with Split, I picked out all these weird words and then came to you (to Astrid) and said “hey I have some lyrics!”

Astrid: That’s right we did that together. We’d even pick out whole phrases like with Like or Lump It. I remember that well.

Klaudia: We were always looking for that oracle text!

Astrid: But normally we had the music first and then the text came after. Except that one song on the LP, when you (to Klaudia) brought the lyrics and we jammed to them - that was our free jazz phase. Then we had the other one about mourning, In a Rush, we had the lyrics for that one first.

Klaudia: No I think that was Might is Right, when Revo died…

Astrid: I mean the actual recording process…

Marlene: I remember on time, we were jamming well into the night and at sometime around four in the morning we got to the best part of the jam and wanted to record it. But the studio technican was sleeping somewhere and by the time we could wake him and get him to the mixing desk the best part of the song was already gone!

.

Jenny Woolworth: When you look back can you sense how this time influenced the rest of your life or what it meant to you then and now?

Marlene: For me it certainly had a big influence on my life. It’s hard to sum it up in one or two sentences but yes my life would have been very different otherwise.

Klaudia: For me it means something different now after going through all this archival material recently. We were together a lot lately and I realized how much that means to me. That was such an important time back then and now, when I’m with these two, I feel totally at home. That’s a special feeling and although we all had different experiences after the band it’s still really important to all of us.

Astrid: For me it was like I was always searching for this intensity and during that time I could fully live that out. I took that feeling with me and it has never stopped inspiring me - that authentic intensive stick to it and do it attitude.

Klaudia: It was great to share that within a group. At that age you already know a lot but you can learn even more together about how to set up boundaries, deal with issues and then carry that with you later when you’re on your own. My experience with the band was a base and a grounding for me.

We didn’t do any of this out of professional reasons - it was all based on a deep friendship. So it was difficult for me when someone left the band because it wasn’t just about the group, it was an emotional experience.  It only got better over the years and the high point of the three of us together in the final formation of LiLiPUT is something you can’t fabricate.

Astrid: Yeah, that was a really unique time.

Marlene: That’s exactly it. People ask why I don’t keep making music but I can’t just put out an ad looking for musicians to perform with because it just won’t be the same as what I had already experienced.

.

Jenny Woolworth: It’s about more than the music.

Marlene: Yes, it was about more than the music It was about the people. People ask me if I define myself as a musician and I sometimes wonder if I can honestly answer yes to question. Musicians play all over, everywhere at any opportunity and that is definitely not the case with me.

Astrid (to Marlene): You’re a true Herzblut musician, always! It wasn’t about the music it was about the feeling and the creative act.

Klaudia: It was a deeper connection and like any big relationship you can’t revisit it again in the same way. During that time period we opened ourselves up so much, even though I’m actually a really shy person!

Astrid: That’s an important point. I could never stand in front of another band and sing the way I did with you two! The music was a transport vehicle for something else actually.

.

Jenny Woolworth: What are the feelings that come up when you look back?

Astrid: I feel so grateful that I lived this experience. I know I can still call on it for inspiration if I need it.

Marlene: Me too. It’s incredibly inspiring when I see that Kill Rock Stars wants to re-release our recordings, thirty years later and that a whole new generation is interested in our music and who we were. I get correspondence from around the world from people saying that they wish they could have seen us live and I realize just how important we are for them. I’m honored that we are still listened to and respected.

Astrid: What pleases me most of out all of this is another aspect. I hope this doesn’t come across arrogant but I think we really authentically put our energy into this and the people that are listening to our music are picking up on that feeling. As a mother I can make the comparison that it’s like when you kid leaves home and you realize all that you’ve given them to take along the way. It’s such a great gift to get back this gratitude and appreciation from fans.

Marlene: In the process of putting out these re-issues we had to listen to every song again and decide how to divide it all up on the four LPs. We couldn’t just transfer the CDs to the LPs because they are very different formats. So we had to rearrange everything and the process was great fun.

Astrid: It must have been like a totally new project for you two. With the LP we never planned it or said here goes a long song, here goes a short one - it was all by feeling.

Marlene: They are good songs, I have to say. Now to listen to it all with thirty years of distance and hear the progression from the early days of Kleenex through to LiLiPUT, I really enjoyed hearing the development.

Klaudia: The coolest thing for me during this whole process was when I told my mom about it. She’s in her 80s, and she said to me “Hey I want one of those cds!” So I sent her one and about a week later she calls me and says “Well let me tell you, I just love it! It makes me feel so good to listen to this!” Of course at the time she kept telling me to do something more sensible with my life, now she says it gives her great energy!

Jenny Woolworth: Well I think that’s a good note to end on. Thank you!

All: Thank you!