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Newsletter – August 2010

Download our 30 minute live mp3 for free

Well it has been a long time but we have managed to get SystemCulture.org back up and working here are a few reviews we have done:


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This 30 minute set was recorded live in Woolacombe (UK) and streamed to the Plac.Art.X event at Leerer Beutel/ Regensburg Germany on the 18th August 2007.

Plac.Art.X was a ‘placard’ taking place on the 18 th august 2007 at Leerer Beutel in Regensburg/Germany. Placard = headphone festival and is an alternative form of participating in music, both as a listener and as a performing artist. Headphone festivals are a social and musical experiment.This placard was one of the happenings during the art.xxXtenxions weeks during august from Pomodoro Bolzano media art group and the placard was curated by their artist in residency Björn Erikson (aka Miulew) from Sweden.
…still available from ReverbNation free download “Where Is My Jesus?“ 

Jim Robson – Review

I often dip into Jim Robson’s music, relaxing, beautifully constructed and executed. The production is first rate  – ‘Equilibrium’ is a cool chill out track which is perfect from where I’m sitting,  looking out to the sea with the sun just beginning to set after a wonderful warm Summer’s day.
‘Bridge’ gently pulls you into its atmospheric swirl and cocoons you safely in a piano, feather filled duvet – Splendid!


This is what is said on Reverb Nation: Around the 80’s JIM ROBSON bought a 4-track tape-recorder and wrote like mad. Then MIDI came on the scene and he embraced that like it was going out of fashion (which it hasn’t). The keyboard has always been a favourite medium of musical expression of his and although he have never had any lessons, he continues to use it as a compositional tool.

Speaking as an ‘old man’ who cut his teeth on 2 and 4 track tape recorders, you can tell when a piece of music is not over produced with a zillion tracks. Using tape taught me not to be overly excessive when laying down tracks – only play and record what you need. I think I can spot the same philosophy in this music, the temptation to over produce has been avoided, you are only given what is precisely required. That is a rare skill these days.

Nika Shoot – Concert

I watched Nika Shoot play last year and it was jaw dropping. To feel a grand piano rumble and hear it cry is an experience that is up there on any to do list.

West Buckland Festival 2010
Thursday 9th September, 7.30p.m. to 9.45p.m. Pianist Veronika Shoot currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London presents a special program of classical Piano Music.

Interval at 8.20 p.m. refreshments.

Tickets £12

Russian-born Nika Shoot moved to England aged 5, and gave her first recital aged 7 in Dartington International Summer School. She began her musical training with her mother, and at the age of 7 was offered a full scholarship to study at the two leading music schools in the UK, but continued her private tuition with Ilana Davids until the age of 10, when she took up a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School of music to study with Irina Zaritskaya. Later, she continued her studies at the Purcell School of music under a full scholarship, and is at present in her third year at the Royal Academy of Music where she is a recipient of the Frederic Jackson Award, studying with Tatiana Sarkissova.
Nika has performed at numerous venues throughout England and abroad, notably, London’s Wigmore Hall on 3 occasions, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Steinway Hall, The Purcell Room and Jaques Samuels. Concerts abroad include ; The Amsterdam Conservatoire, The Royal Conservatoire in the Hague, the International Mozart Festival in Istanbul, The Coblenz Gymnasium in Germany, the Hudební Škola in Prague and L’Opera Gabriel at the Chateau de Versailles, France. A recipent of numerous prizes and awards, including the musicas fund and the Michael Hamburg trust, Nika received a special award at the 2008 Final of the Yamaha International Piano Competition (YMFE),inviting her to attend that years’ Birmingham International Piano Academy under a full scholarship. Nika has given many recitals and concerto performances in venues throughout Devon, including Plymouth, Dartmouth, Exeter, Torquay, West Buckland Festival, and Dartington’s Great Hall. Nika was a winner of the Young Musicians’ Competition at the Two Moors Festival, where she also gave a recital.
She has had masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Murray Perahia, Jean-Bernard Pommier, John Lill, Boris Berman, Joanna Macgregor and others. A participant of the Tel Hai International Piano Masterclasses in Israel, she studied under Emanuel Krasovsky, playing in a number of masterclasses and performances. In July 2009, she was selected by John Lill to perform in Dartington’s Great Hall in a concert for the Dartington International Summer festival. Recent performances include Rachmaninov’s 2nd piano concerto with Torbay Symphony Orchestra under Richard Gonski. 

The Maverick Way – Book

The Maverick Way is an interesting book which puts forward a blueprint and shows (first hand) how subversion within companies, networks, and groups can be a massive creative tool. These days creativity is confined and controlled by ‘the big boys’ but if these bigger organizations are not careful anarchy outside the system will conquer. It is therefore imperative that larger companies listen and be prepared to make massive cultural changes.

The word Maverick comes from a 19th century Texas land baron. Sam Maverick decided not to brand his stock; therefore any newborn or unbranded cattle wandering around on the free range could belong to him. Needless to say he was not a popular man.

A ‘Maverick’ is a person who is constantly having ideas and chasing their tails. Beginning projects with an energy that is uncontrollable. Staying up, working through the night. Forgetting to eat, forgetting to have a bath. Generally being self-absorbed in their own little world. ‘Mavericks fly beneath the radar. They possess the freedom to detect the creative vision that can lead to new products or businesses. But no one – in business …..from the chief executive to middle managers …… really wants to acknowledge their existence.’ Mavericks consider their projects to be different and new. ‘By their nature, they are not people who want to be noticed. Their ability to function as mavericks is to have a great deal of independence. They don’t want to get locked into anything.’ However they could revolutionize the Art World, make a computer loop the loop, make air travel safer or maybe run rings around the latest search engine optimization guidelines, getting web pages to number one by bending the rules (without breaking them). Mavericks are generally lateral thinkers and innovators. Mavericks very rarely finish or complete anything and as a result they usually get fired; that’s not really too bothersome, the next innovation/idea is far more interesting. This means that Mavericks are prone to under achieving if left to their own devices.
This definition of a Maverick could quiet easily be the definition of an Artist, Writer or Performer. and is a definitional description of a top Search Engine Optimizer. The principal definition of a Maverick is being able to look at things from a different perspective see the other alternative possibilities, use this when planing your creative strategy.