oscillate sound system
intro by the compiler of these pages
our
oscillate club events ran from 92 - 97 . oscillate remains the overall name
for these pages since everything on them has some link to, or partly developed
out of this period.
during the first few years, there was unfortunately very little visual documentation
of the events,so here i' ve included more written bits , where as for some
of the later events, the pictures speak more for themselves.
in
the begining of this website, (around '94), the technical help with putting
it together was given by chris mcgrail (then a fresh faced b'ham student ,
now of kleber). then begun to do it myself,
though as will be apparent to any web design professionals out there , i'm
still a far from being an expert.
many
people contributed to making the oscillate nights come together - see 'oscillate
co-conspirators' . my involvement , with both oscillate & with hia over
these years, was mainly as a creative organiser / promoter - & music enthusiast.
with the club this meant finding venues, inviting acts, dealing with club
owners, keeping the 'security' (?) under control, doing promotion , as well
as contributing ideas : having a cafe, booking magicians, artists & sound
sculptors as well as electronic acts, introducing web casts, & generally
trying to look after the people who came to the club. in
this way the organisiational structure was taken care of, leaving other members
free to develop their djing / playing live / creating visuals skills .
we
all learned a lot over these years , the higher intelligence agency's development
as a live act was linked to the experimental space which oscillate provided
, oscillate 'non dj' wheels became so polished we dropped the non, while fosit
begun creating ever more imaginative lighting & sculptures, which eventually
led him to exhibit as an artist.
of those who came to oscillates too, many, especially the younger ones , have
since told us that our nights were a formative experience for them , some of
them being subsequently inspired to take sound recording courses , to create
visuals , or to start their own nights.
much as we loved doing these events, they took up a lot of time & occaisionally
we all thought how great it would be just to come to an oscillate & not
to be there either as an organiser or as a performer .
eventually we decided to end the club ,after i decided to quit organising on
a regular basis,&
others too were ready for change, either moving on , or moving out of birmingham
.
who knows, perhaps one day we'll get together again & organise a one off oscillate event, for the time being we're doing our own things, & , like many of those who came to the club, have oscillate to thank for heading us off towards new possibilities
magda