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We are all trying to plan our photographic trips in advance, but always something takes you by surprise.
This image was taken in Marken, Netherlands and the wind was blowing so hard that our travel tripods didn't stand a chance. Unfortunately, this is one of the few photos that was actually in focus. We love overcast days because of the good opportunity for capturing some nice contrast black and white pictures.
This one came up pretty good. Hope you like it, enjoy!
Günter Müller / Hans Joachim Irmler / A23H
There are two more unreleased live recording special mixes of Taste Tribes, one at Faust-Studio and one by Günter Müller in the archives.
Subterranean Collectives: Taste Tribes and the Entelechy of Sound:
If 7k Oaks openly aligned itself with Joseph Beuys’ “social sculpture,” Taste Tribes may be seen as its more subterranean counterpart—less oriented to ecological symbolism and civic space, more attuned to the cryptic energies of the urban periphery, where graffiti marks the wall and sound marks the ear as parallel inscriptions of collective life. Both ensembles were founded by Alfred 23 Harth in 2007: 7k Oaks in Rome with Massimo Pupillo, Luca Venitucci, and Fabrizio Spera, and Taste Tribes with Hans-Joachim Irmler (Faust) and the Swiss electronic improviser Günter Müller, later joined by Wolfgang Seidel (Eruption). Their emergence corresponded to a moment when Harth, after years in Asia and collaborations in Japan, returned to re-situate himself within European avant-garde traditions—yet not simply to return but to reimagine them through dialogue across generations and geographies.
The very name Taste Tribes emphasizes plurality, nomadism, and the refusal of hierarchy. “Tribes” designates both solidarity and fragmentation—temporary affiliations forged in ritual rather than fixed institutions. Their covers, emblazoned with four graffiti-like figures across both the 2008 and 2023 releases, act as surrogate signatures. Not portraits in any conventional sense, these glyphs instead function as visual analogues of alter-egos, painted marks that echo the very logic of improvised sound: provisional identities traced against a mutable background. Just as graffiti asserts a presence in anonymous public space, the Taste Tribes inscriptions claim the space of sound as a site of ephemeral authorship—collective, corrosive, and resistant to commodification.
Where 7k Oaks invokes Beuys explicitly—through its name, its ecologically charged dedications, and even track titles like Soziale Plastik—Taste Tribes embodies a more veiled articulation of the Goethean–Steinerian–Beuysian lineage. Goethe’s concept of entelechy described the inner formative principle by which the plant “makes itself out of itself”—an organic self-unfolding irreducible to mechanical repetition. Steiner, taking Goethe as the “Copernicus and Kepler of the organic world,” emphasized that Goethe had discovered the hidden laws of living form, just as astronomers had charted the laws of the cosmos. Beuys, inheriting this current of thought, transposed it into the social domain: art, like life, was no longer an object but a vital process; every human action could become sculpture, a force within the living organism of society.
It is precisely at this nexus that Taste Tribes situates itself, though in sound rather than in visual or ecological form. Their improvisations are not “pieces” but processes of emergence, sonic entelechies that unfold from within rather than being imposed from without. Noise-fields, electronic scatterings, the guttural breath of Harth’s reeds, the drone and churn of Irmler’s organ, the digitized flicker of Müller’s electronics—each gesture seems to contain the seed of its own self-determination. Improvisation here is not chaos but a morphology, akin to Goethe’s archetypal leaf, in which variation is the manifestation of a deeper, lawful principle.
In this light, the graffiti-figures that adorn their albums are more than decoration. They may be understood as glyphs of entelechy—graphic correlates to the music’s organic unfolding. Just as Beuys’ “7000 Oaks” made visible the slow work of transformation in the city’s ecological and social landscape, Taste Tribes inscribes transformation sonically: an acoustical “urban forest” grown from noise, feedback, and communal breath. If 7k Oaks plants the tree, Taste Tribes tags the wall—both reimagining art’s place in lived space, one through ecological grafting, the other through acoustic insurgency.
Ultimately, Taste Tribes challenges the listener to hear improvisation not as arbitrary play but as a social and organic law of becoming. Their soundworld exemplifies how the avant-garde, in the wake of Goethe, Steiner, and Beuys, continues to insist on creativity as an irreducible vitality: anarchic yet ordered, ephemeral yet archetypal. By foregrounding ritual over authorship, graffiti-mark over signature, process over object, Taste Tribes demonstrates that in the realm of sound as in life, the most radical art is not constructed—it grows.
W9 and I just had a new and colorful bird under our belt: The Summer Tanager. Los Angeles was being showered by something called "rain." Were the planets beginning to align? Was the Moon in the 7th house?
Packing the typical gear, we headed out to the South Coast Botanic Garden to find the reported Green-tailed Towhee. We have wanted this bird for years but were not willing to go to sketchy areas unless Jerry was with us. So this was our chance to nail this bird. And the garden is lovely! Nice clean bathrooms! Flush toilets! Free parking!
No sooner do we go into the Children's Garden (I know!) where the bird was reported seen than BINGO. The target bird is there! And singing his pants off! We can't believe our luck!!!!! If only it was this easy. Easy peasy. We are firing off shots and breathing ... all is right with the universe. No one is hungry, tired, lonely, or lost. Focus now. Get the bird. Get the shot. We have time to set up our camp stools.
And then it happens. Two parents with cameras and a child in tow zero in on us. It will be "what are you looking at?" time. (After all, we were in the “Children’s Garden.”) It is a lifer bird for us both. To make the situation worse, the child, a bit older than a toddler, has a camera equipped with a sizable lens. Not a bridge camera. I think it's a Nikon, but I'm doing that semi squeeze my eyes shut thing so that I don't take in any more information.
The trio is heading our way. My brain is shrieking Nooooooooooooo. The father is explaining things to the child about “background.” They stay a reasonable distance away but that's not good enough. With this camera hog of a bird we can just try to draw the family away. Try to get them distracted or better yet, bored.
W9 and I leave this posing beauty and whisper "We'll be back, my love. Wait for us."
But here's how it breaks down. The family sets up camp. We sneak back to check. We try shooting in an area close by with hummers. Who doesn't like hummers???? The mascot and symbol of this Botanic Garden! It’s almost working. The family moves closer to us. They aren't rude or pushy but I have no faith that they can resist the pull ... W9's monopod and all...
After an eternity they move on. We dive back in to get the Green-tailed Towhee. But now the little fart wants nothing to do with us. W9 tracks him, finds him. He briefly visited a puddle and then bolted. W9 finds him again, but this time he’s under bushes, foraging in the shadows. What the hell happened to the showy diva we met earlier when we arrived at the garden party???
So, allow me to present our latest lifer bird.
"There’s nothing quite like the color that gives the Green-tailed Towhee its name—a deep olive lightening to yellow-green on the edges of the wings and tail. Set off by a gray chest, white throat, and rufous crown, this large sparrow is a colorful resident of the West’s shrubby mountainsides and sagebrush expanses—if you can see one. They spend their time scratching at leaf litter under dense cover, occasionally popping into view to whistle a song or give a querulous mewing call." allaboutboids
Venus,Mars and Jupiter all lined up. After a week of waiting for cloudy skies to clear it was a great sight just as the sun began to rise.
I am very pleased with this photograph of Baobao.
All the necessary elements are present and purrfectly aligned. I thought his expression was very sweet too.
Thank you for all your kind comments.
This artwork represents my aligned state — where energy moves, but doesn’t erupt.
Not the storm.
The current.
Some minds need stillness to function.
Mine needs motion — just not overload.
In this state, thoughts flow like a living stream.
Ideas connect naturally.
Focus stays wide, yet precise.
Nothing rushes. Nothing stalls.
It’s not calm in the sense of silence —
it’s calm in the sense of continuity.
The circulating symbols represent ongoing processes:
patterns running smoothly in the background,
without demanding attention.
The energy isn’t explosive here.
It’s sustained.
Serene, alive, and responsive.
This is the state where I work best.
Where creativity doesn’t burn — it breathes.
If hyperflow is a track at 160 BPM,
this is the same song at 125.
Still powerful.
Still detailed.
Just… in sync.
— Amon the Purple
CN L549, aka the West Toronto Turn is seen here in the early morning hours of June 4th as they head north out of Lambton Yard using the Galt/Mactier connecting track after about an hour and a half of work. They will run on the Mactier for about half a mile, then switch onto the Weston Sub via the CN connecting track and hightail it back to Mac Yard from there. Since 549 is a competing train, once they are on CP tracks they are effectively the lowest priority train in the area, therefore any CP train in the vicinity that needs to run will be able to go before them. This was exactly what I had hoped for, as 549 having to wait for multiple CP trains on the trip to and from Lambton lead to them being a daylight run on the trip back north as you can see here. Seeing this train in daylight is something I’ve been looking for ever since I heard about 549s existence, and finally the stars aligned for it to happen. Perseverance pays off!
©
All comments are very welcome, however please no graphics, invites or links.
Should you wish to use this image elsewhere, please contact me first for permission.
.. love the sailboats, all lined up for the HS sailing team to take them out when the snow goes and the temps get warmer
Well here goes nothing! I am finally sharing my favourite shot of 2015. A sprawling panorama of the Milkyway arching over a setting moon. This type of shot needs to be timed perfectly as there are very few nights of the year that it would be possible and I was so proud of myself when I managed to capture it! I really hope you enjoy it and it would make me so happy if this was shared, liked and commented on and even more so if a print was purchased! I personally think it would look AMAZING! nikon D750 and sigma 24-70mm 2.8
This is the bright region of the Milky Way known as the Scutum Starcloud, in the constellation of Scutum the Shield. The bright Messier star cluster. M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, is embedded in the starcloud at left. This is a wonderful area to scan with binoculars and this field of view with the little RedCat astrograph is similar to what binoculars would show.
The mass of dark dusty nebulosity at top is Barnard 111 and B110. The dark nebula at right is B103. The smaller Messier open star cluster M26 is at bottom. At lower left is the small globular cluster NGC 6712 with the tiny (on this scale) cyan-colored planetary nebula IC 1295 beside it at left. At lower right beside the orange star Alpha Scuti is the star cluster NGC 6664 with smaller Trumpler 34 to the left of NGC 6624. Above M11 is the small open cluster NGC 6704.
This is a stack of 6 x 6-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/5 and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 with LENR on as it was the warmest night of the summer, August 18, 2020. Aligned, stacked and median combined in Photoshop to eliminate some satellite trails. Autoguided with the ZWO ASIAir and ASI120MM guide camera with the RedCat on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. No filters employed here.
When banks align in still waters
gravity declines and takes a breather
and so does mind
scanned B&W negative - all photos handheld and unaltered - click for larger - taken upside down and rotated - Sugar Land Run Stream in Herndon, Va.
Golden Monoliths
par/by SpY
Rue Faidherbe (Rambla), Lille
Imagined for lille3000’s 7th edition, the Golden Monoliths by Spanish artist SpY guide the visitors and participants of the parade to the heart of the city and its Fiesta. The gold titans seem like a modern take on the 17th century city gates, that welcomed the opening of carnivals and processions. They transform the urban landscape of Lille through the installation of fourteen golden shipping containers in a vertical position, aligned along its main street.
This monumental intervention reconfigures the everyday perception of the public environment, turning industrial objects into symbols that alter our understanding of space.
The street ceases to be a simple space of transit and becomes a ritual corridor, a passageway between
Originally conceived as utilitarian structures for global transportation and trade, the containers are decontextualized and coated in gold. Far from being a decorative gesture, this treatment converts their industrial purpose into an artistic resignification that oscillates between the functional and the symbolic.
SpY subverts the original identity of the containers through an installation that transforms the utilitarian into the mythological, in an exercise in spatial perception that invites reflection on the cult of consumption in modern society.
Source: fiestalille3000.com/en/exposition/golden-monoliths-2/
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À l’image des portes de ville du 17ème siècle qui accueillaient l’ouverture des carnavals et des processions, les Golden Monoliths de l’artiste espagnol SpY guident le public et les participants à la parade au cœur de la ville et de sa Fiesta. Ils transforment le paysage urbain de Lille avec quatorze conteneurs dorés érigés à la verticale le long de la rue Faidherbe.
Cette intervention monumentale reconfigure notre vision quotidienne de la ville, transforme des objets industriels en symboles qui modifient notre perception de l’espace.
À l’origine conçues comme des structures utilitaires pour le transport et le commerce global, les conteneurs sont décontextualisés et peints en or. Loin d’être un geste décoratif, cette métamorphose vient bouleverser leur essence industrielle et leur confère un sens artistique entre fonction et symbole, utilité et mythologie.
En route from Carnforth to York NRM on 14th February 2020, Gresley A4 Pacific No. 60009 Union of South Africa paused at Hellifield to pick up water.
This is an impressive area of sky rich in bright and dark nebulas and open star clusters in Sagittarius and Serpens.
This is closeup of the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka Messier 24, at bottom right, with the field extending north to include the nebulas M17, the Swan Nebula, and M16 at top right, the Eagle Nebula. Between M17 and M24 is the small star cluster M18. Patches of red and blue nebulosity at bottom right below M24 are IC 1283 and the blue reflection nebulas NGC 6589 and 6590. The prominent dark nebula at the right (west) edge of the Starcloud is Barnard 92 with its lone star embedded in it, with smaller B93 above it. At the left are the star clusters M25 (bottom) and NGC 6645, with the large dark nebula B312 above.
This is a stack of 3 x 6-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/5 and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 with LENR on as it was the warmest night of the summer, August 17, 2020. Aligned, stacked and mean combined in Photoshop. Autoguided with the ZWO ASIAir and ASI120MM guide camera with the RedCat on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. No filters employed here. Clouds thwarted more exposures.