Since returning from the LA Villa Aurora residency in October 2016 (which culminated in a fantastic west-coast US trip wth Magda Mayas and SPILL), I have been very busy touring with The Necks mostly. The Necks have, in the following 12 months since then, toured Australia twice (once, in January 2017 opening for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and again, in June 2017, under our own steam), toured the U.S, Japan, and three extensive tours of Europe.
We also released our double vinyl album “Unfold” on Stephen O’Malley’s label Ideologic Organ.
The other big thing that happened on The Necks front was our 30th anniversary concerts in Amsterdam and New York. In Amsterdam we presented an 8 hour music relay with special guests and friends including bands Contest of Pleasures, Dans les Arbres, and The International Nothing. In New York we played a similar 6 hour concert with guests including Andrea Parkins, Ned Rothenberg, Nate Woolley, David Watson, Ira Kaplan, Kato Hideki, Shelley Hirsch and Joshua Abrams. Both concerts were a real blast!
The big news outside of all that is the release of my first, fully fledged solo recording for sometime. Unearth, just out in September 2017 on the Room40 label. It is early days but seems to be garnering some nice reviews and interest! I have also been working on ways in which to present this music in a live solo setting which I started developing during the Villa Aurora residency. At present it look like it will incorporate many aspects of my work including sound-sculpture, video and performance using percussion, guitar and electronics. More on that to come. Already a few solo gigs booked for later this year.
Transmit managed to have one concert in November 2016, that was fun and felt very successful after such a long break.
Trophies released another recording called Family of Three (Band Photo) on Andy Moor’s Unsound label.
I found time to collaborate with some fine musicians on their projects including new recordings by Kim Myhr and by Lawrence English and Massimo Pupil.
Some festival highlights included another chance to put the orchestral graphic score ideas to the test, again with Ilan Volkov, this time with the Scottish BBC Symphony Orchestra during the Glasgow Tectonics festival 2017.
The rest of 2017 into 2018 looks to be quite busy with tours and concerts all over the place. Looking forward to SPILL in Helsinki and Moscow in the coming months, The Necks across Europe again and the solo concerts all leading towards more activities in Australia in January and February.
….and hey.. I embraced Facebook, to a certain degree.! (facebook.com/tonybucksolo). HA !