Timeline: 2011
Songs for Drella - the ballet
Ed Wubbe & Marco Goecke create a choreography for Songs for Drella for Dutch ballet company Scapino. The production is on tour in The Netherlands (February 18 - May 20, 2011). Wubbe considered asking Reed and Cale to come over and play on stage, but thought better of it. Nobody would be watching the dancers then.
Ed Wubbe previously teamed up with Cale in 1997 for a ballet about Nico.
Noah and the Whale cover "Barracuda"
UK band Noah and the Whale Barracuda live on the Zane Lowe show for BBC Radio (March 9).
Manic Street Preachers cover "The Endless Plain of Fortune"
The Manic Street Preachers record a cover of The Endless Plain of Fortune for BBC Radio Wales, which airs during Wales Music Day (March 25).
The album from which it is taken, John Cale's Paris 1919, is one of lead singer James Dean Bradfield's favourites. "In our heads, it was our chance to be in The Band, backing our version of Bob Dylan, which is John Cale." says Bradfield.
New song "Don't Get Sentimental"
Performs a new song, Don't Get Sentimental, at the Donaufestival in Krems, Austria - April 29.
What's Welsh For Zen in French
A French translation of What's Welsh For Zen is published in May. Translator: Jean Cuesta. Cale attended the presentation of the book at the Librairie Atout Livres in Paris on May 30 for a Q&A and book signing.
What's welsh for Zen? Une autobiographie de John Cale
Broché: 272 pages
Editeur: Au Diable Vauvert
Collection: ALBUM
Langue: Français
ISBN-10: 2846262934
Beyond The Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad and the Arts after Cage
Branden W. Joseph, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, publishes his in-depth study Beyond The Dream Syndicate: Tony Conrad and the Arts after Cage:
"Tony Conrad is exemplary of the 1960s artist who remains inassimilable to canonic histories. Creator of the "structural" film, The Flicker, collaborator on Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures and Normal Love, follower of Henry Flynt's radical anti-art, member of the Theatre of Eternal Music and the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, and early associate of Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler, and Cindy Sherman, Conrad has significantly impacted cultural developments from minimalism to underground film, "concept art," postmodern appropriation, and the most sophisticated rock and roll. Yet Beyond the Dream Syndicate does not claim Conrad as a major but under-recognized figure.
Rather, by drawing on Deleuzian notions of the "minor" and the Foucauldian problematization of authorship found in Conrad's own artistic/musical project, Early Minimalism, it disperses him into an "author function." Neither monograph nor social history, the book takes Conrad's collaborative interactions as a guiding thread by which to investigate the contiguous networks and discursive interconnections amongst the arts of the time."
Paris 1919 in Barcelona, Essen and Malmö
Once more performing Paris 1919 in full. On May 28 Cale performs at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. The show is reprised in Essen on October 6 at the Ruhr Triennale and Malmö (November 21). The latter show is filmed by Swedish TV and it was broadcasted on March 24, 2012 (full album + Captain Hook and Hedda Gabler).
"Dyddiau Du / Dark Days" in Wales
Following its stint at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, the multimedia piece Dyddiau Du/Dark Days that he created for the Venice Biennale in 2009, is displayed during the summer of 2011 as part of the opening of the extended new art galleries at the National Museum in Cardiff.
Extra Playful
The Extra Playful EP is released on September 19. Forerunner Whaddya Mean By That is released as a digital single on July 25. An official video premiered on YouTube on September 20, 2011.
A limited special edition (2000 copies) has two extra tracks was made available in the USA on Black Friday (November 25) at indie retailers across the country. The CD version of Extra Playful features two tracks: Bluetooth Swings and The Hanging, as well as a redesigned black cover:
"It's a great pleasure to know the indie market is alive and well - still kicking sand in the face of those corporate behemoths. Without the true believers of real music - our neighborhood indie music shops - so many would have simply missed out on some of the most ground-breaking music yesterday and now. Characteristic of most indie stores is they have limited stock of their hand-picked favorites which drives the buyer to other stores that would invariably have their own focus and style - now go forth and multiply!"
"Catastrofuk" video
Cale's daughter Eden directed the video for Catastrofuk:
To herald the release of John Cale’s Extra Playful EP, Domino imprint Double Six are happy to share a new video for the EP track “Catastrofuk,” directed by his daughter, Eden Cale. In keeping with the Extra Playful spirit of the EP, the video sees him exploring outer space. The new world in which he finds himself appears inviting on the surface, but slowly, its darker elements reveal themselves and it becomes apparent that all is not quite as it seems.
"Un été brûlant" soundtrack
Cale composes music for the soundtrack of Un été brûlant, a movie directed by Philippe Garrel. They had previously worked together for 23 Solo Pieces For La Naissance De L'Amour movie in 1993 and Le Vent de la Nuit in 1999.
Niteflights cover "Paris 1919"
UK indie pop band Niteflights cover Paris 1919.
Close Watch on "Sonar 1000" compilation
(I Keep A) Close Watch makes the Sonar 1000 list of 1000 songs you should hear before you die. It's on Sonar 1000, a 3CD set compiled by Radio 1 (Belgium). Also included I Can't Stand It by The Velvet Underground.