In The Black Box

In 2009 the aims were simple: make as much of whatever happens as humanly possible… And it started quite well.

My time in Paris gave me the time and space to work on my music without much distraction. I was surrounded by a whole new world to photograph and the stuff i was seeing was coming through in the music. There was at first an effort to create longer more cohesive “month long” tunes that would include all the individual tracks of each month as one 30 or 40 min track… while this happened for January and February, it was decided that the music was being sacrificed to sort the idea rather than the other way around. By the time March rolled along the music was becoming varied again… I was getting involved in the ambient sounds of the city, recording it with my video camera where possible and hiding it below the music. The images i was recording were becoming increasingly involved in what i was doing.. and in this time there was an effort to find the links between the sounds and images of the city… and in turn throw that into the musical mix. From my couch i was trying to get my music ready for a return to Dublin in early June. Trying to find the cheapest equipment with the best options to optimize a truly live experience. That opportunity wasn’t going to arise in Paris… and so with the intent to get the show on the road in Dublin the music was becoming far more live orientated with heavy house and techno mixes seeing the light of day and older tunes from 2008, 2007 and early 2009 were given the once over and readied for listening ears.

From January a new website was put together www.intheblackbox.euversion 2 was born with new flash design. The blog remained independent to the website and the writing on the website was input manually. However the flash design of the site was a huge step forward for the look of the site and enabled music, photography and video to be displayed in an impressive and reliable way on the website.

The flash design also allowed for constant change and with each month the site would morph into a new look and would display the new tracks as they were being created. These updates were advertised on Facebook and Myspace while the Bebo page was set aside to stay with the times…

While in Paris, near the end of the stay In The Black Box became involved with DirtyRadio or as it was at the that time known “Rowla.music” a new show was set up to be broadcast as a weekly podcast. The range of music was to be extremely varied, underlining the eclectic mix of influences and interests that have their effect on the music created by In The Black Box…  This show started modestly with a podcast, however with the guidance and direction of Mr. Mike (Dancecast, www.dirtyradio.org) the show soon began to grow with the radio station, and now is broadcast live over the web each week and displayed as a podcast on the website (www.dirtyradio.org/blackbox). Listeners have grown from their tens and twenties in the early days.. to their fifties by mid summer.. and now, at the start of 2010 the Black Box Radio Show now has a solid base of regular live listeners as well as podcast downloads in the hundreds each week. This is set to grow as the dirtyradio.org website is developed and improved upon in the new year.

In The Black Box would like to thank all those involved with www.dirtyradio.org behind the scenes and all the listeners for their support and interest over the last few months… more to come in 2010.

Meanwhile, upon returning to Dublin plans were set up to perform live for the first time in 11 months. Armed with a whole lot of new music I was on stage within a week, this was followed up with successful performances for The Sunday Roast and The King Kong Club. The was a need after these gigs, however successful they were, to look at the live set up.

New technologies were embraced and some other technologies were temporarily set aside for  the time being. This new way of performing was first tried out at the Sunday Roasts DEAF gig. DEAF (Dublin Electronic Arts Festival) was seen by In The Black Box as a huge opportunity to get their electronic music across to those who were interested as only too often they were performing in an environment that was totally foreign to electronic music.

In the Black Box would like to thank those involved with these gigs, and especially Kieran Black from the Sunday Roast and the King Kong Club for their support of the music.

The increase in live performances and a return to full time education gradually reduced the amount of music being created, while in January 2009 up to 10 individual tunes were being produced, by October that number had been severely reduced with only 1 or 2 tracks being released.

In The Black Box was involved during this time with a project entitled “Sweet in Winter, Sweet in Rain“, a collection of music produced by the members of the Dirty Forums. In The Black Box submitted the song “Thirst” to the collection which can be downloaded HERE.

In December, photography by In The Black Box was exhibited in “The Exhibition”, an independant exhibition organised by the Visual Arts Society of  Trinity College Dublin and curated by the head of this society Carolyn Kelly. The work “Self Portrait, Reflections in Paris” was displayed.

In The Black Box would like to thank Carolyn and all those involved for their interest in the photography and for the opportunity they gave to the staff and students of Trinity College.

Looking forward into 2010 there are as always many new ideas and aims.

The monthly format is set to continue as it is not only a good way of showcasing the music but also a excellent form of documenting the progression of the ongoing musical exploration that is In The Black Box. However with the decrease in produced work, continuing at least until early May 2010, there will have to be a change in the way new music is being released. While the music output is decreased there will be an effort to increase the quality of that output and perhaps limit the immediate release of the music.. so that larger, more complete works are released and therefore the music will receiver more interest.

The website has been changed recently and this will be completed hopefully by the end of January. The ownership of www.intheblackbox.euhas meant more independence for the experiment. In recent times more web space has been secured and the site has been transferred to a new format. While maintaining the flash header the website will gradually become more content heavy.. and hopefully the site will finally have a complete mix In The Black Box’s creative output with video, photography, music and writing being fully documented and constantly updated.

In The Black Box would like to thank everyone for their interest over the past year. 2009 has been huge for the experiment and we hope to continue that into 2010. Stay tuned!

Dave