We’re thrilled to announce a wonderful event in partnership with Vivid Projects. A presentation of amazing footage from the Alan Lomax archive and Mississippi Records, featuring rarely seen film shot during Alan Lomax’s North American travels between 1978 to 1985 and Mississippi Record’s own enormous library of folk blues, gospel, esoteric, international and punk music. I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE takes place on Wednesday 26th June.

Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records will be present and will screen a film of musicians associated with the Mississippi Records label such as one man band Abner Jay, angel channeling Bishop Perry Tillis, Rev. Louis Overstreet and his four sons, legendary folk singer Michael Hurley and many more. Each film segment will be introduced with brief stories about the musicians. There will also be a short slide show that tells the story of the underground music industry and Mississippi Records.

“Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was one of the great American field collectors of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax also produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the U.S and in England, which played an important role in both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s. During the New Deal, with his father, famed folklorist and collector John A. Lomax and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.”

“Eclectic independent record label named after the record store located in Portland, Oregon, Mississippi Records specializes in vinyl reissues of American roots, blues, gospel, art punk, and world music, among other recorded obscurities. “

This event takes place on Wednesday 26th June at Vivid Projects. Tickets are £5 and available via theticketsellers.co.uk

Our friends at Small but Hard Records return to Birmingham on Tuesday 9th April. Devilman and new signing Walter Gross perform at Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath – thoroughly recommend!

Facebook event page with ticket link here

The forthcoming Grumbling Fur album ‘Glynnaestra’  will be released on 22nd July 2013 by Thrill Jockey records.

“As their history attests, this is a group unbound from the restrictions of traditionalism and unafraid to shed the pretence of pure abstraction. There’s a tradition of subterranean Englishness at play, harking back to This Heat’s Deceit and Eno’s Another Green World. In their first fully realised album as a duo, the process and texture ripple with a kind of electro-gnosis. Glynnaestra herself (an archaic goddess divined by Tucker and O’Sullivan) presides over the record, transcendent and sphinx like: an apt muse for an album of such lovely and powerful music.” Thrill Jockey

You can see them perform in Birmingham on Saturday 27th April with Barn Owl and Ex Easter Island Head at St Paul’s Church. We can’t wait. Tickets are available now via theticketsellers.co.uk

Highlights of the new Library of Birmingham’s four-month Discovery Season, which will run from the opening on Tuesday 3rd September until 31st December, are announced. Arts Council England support for the Discovery Season was confirmed earlier this year.

Taking its inspiration from the Library’s internationally-important archives and special collections, the Discovery Season will include:

Playground of Discovery – a specially-commissioned Cabinet of Curiosities created by multi-award- winning artist, Morag Myerscough, housing a rolling programme of creative residencies throughout the Season. Capsule are taking applications for the residency programme until Monday 29th April, learn more here. The Commentators from Stan’s Café, the Birmingham-based artists’ group, will be broadcasting from the Playground of Discovery, as the first of the creative residencies, in the opening week.

In a collaboration with Flatpack Festival, a weekend of cabaret and cinema to celebrate Birmingham’s long and colourful association with Early Cinema and the development of the Magic Lantern with a focus on the Library of Birmingham’s archive of 60,000 lantern slides dating from around 1890 to 1940

Theatre Jukebox by Stand + Stare

A trail of artworks will be situated across the building, each making reference to the Library’s rich collections and archives. To include Theatre Jukebox created by Stand + Stare using the Library’s Wingate Bett Transport Ticket collection, an arcade-style cabinet installation that plays stories instead of records housed on the Library’s fourth floor

The Library of Lost Books – an exhibition celebrating the history of the book, with related workshops, featuring contemporary artists and printmakers, inspired by and breathing new life into books that have reached the end of their natural lives

Carol Ann Duffy and Lionel Shriver will appear at October’s Birmingham Literature Festival (formerly the Birmingham Book Festival)

Reference Works, an exhibition of Birmingham’s largest ever photography commission which has seen four photographers – Michael Collins, Brian Griffin, Andrew Lacon and Stuart Whipps – create work in response to the building of the Library of Birmingham

Volume, the Birmingham Art, Book and Print Fair in December has been created as a unique event for the Discovery Season by bringing together existing organisations in collaboration (Writing West Midlands, Birmingham Zine Festival, An Endless Supply, BCU Typography Hub, Grand Union and Eastside Projects). Volume will open with a keynote speech from artist, musician and writer, Bill Drummond.

The Discovery Season is being produced on behalf of the Library of Birmingham by Capsule and is supported by Arts Council England.

The Season will throw a completely new light on the Library’s collections and bring to life the library’s stunning new spaces with installations, events, performances, workshops, and music and dance for every age and interest.

Robinson Crusoe, The Clever Cats & Co. (1881) London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. Parker Collection

The Library of Birmingham have been releasing images from the Parker Collection via their website and we must say, a lot of them are right up Capsule’s alley (animals in clothes you say?).

We’ve just announced a number of opportunities for artists to develop and exhibit work as part of the Library of Birmingham opening season. One opportunity is to develop a number of illustrative characters to be displayed in the Children’s Library. Artists might draw inspiration from the Parker Collection of Children’s Book and Games and can find more information via www.libraryofbirmingham.com/parkercollectiongallery

More information on this commission, as well as the Creative Residencies programme can be found via www.capsule.org.uk/project/library-of-birmingham-opening-season where you

can download the briefs and assessment criteria.

Sketched design by Studio Myerscough

We have announced two call outs for artists to produce exciting work for the Library of Birmingham opening season, curated by Capsule. We are looking for artists/organisations to take on week long residencies within an exciting space designed by Studio Myerscough (draft image above), and we will also commission an artist/illustrator to create new work to sit in the new Children’s Library.

See below for more information and details on how to apply. You can learn more about the opening season for this exciting new public space in Birmingham via www.capsule.org.uk/project/library-of-birmingham-opening-season

Children’s Library commission

Artwork: We require a series of illustrations – of characters and their environment – that will be produced as large-scale soft toys/furniture and as vinyl illustrations on specified walls and floor. It is expected that children will be able to develop their own narratives and play with the characters in both informal and workshop contexts.

Schools Workshops: Artists will be encouraged to research or test their ideas in consultation with local children through the Library of Birmingham’s established relationship with local schools (4 – 11 yrs). Where community engagement is not normally part of the artist’s practice, Capsule will work with them to realise appropriate workshops and activity, bringing in additional personnel as required.

Click through for further information, including how to apply, fee and criteria.

Creative Residencies

As part of the Discovery Season Capsule and Library of Birmingham are inviting artists, creative practitioners and arts organisations to propose ideas for week-long residencies in the ‘Playground of Discovery’: an exciting and dynamic structure designed by Studio Myerscough to be situated in the foyer.

Residencies will need to offer free drop-in activity for visitors to the Library of Birmingham around the central principle of Discovery. The structure will be able to accommodate between 10- 20 people. All residencies must engage with visitors to Library of Birmingham and offer opportunities for them to actively participate. Unless otherwise stated, you will be required to work with all ages.

Click through for further information, including how to apply, fee and criteria.

Deadline for both opportunities is 5pm on Monday 29^th April

Here’s how we chose to introduce Barn Owl to the uninitiated in the lead up to Supersonic Festival in 2011.

“Supersonic 2010 attendees will perhaps need no introduction to the stunning dust-trails of sound that San Franciscan duo Barn Owl create. The band were so well received that we just had to get them back for Supersonic 2011. In the past year, the praise for their mesmerising drones and layered feedback has slowly built up into a huge wall of superlatives. It’s taking all our strength here at Capsule to avoid waxing lyrical about “hauntingly beautiful sonic waterfalls” and the like! Rock-A-Rolla even went so far as to say that their 2010 album ‘Ancestral Star’ on Thrill Jockey was “the most significant experimental drone album since [SunnO)))’s] ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’”.

What you definitely get with Barn Owl is a hugely powerful immersive experience. Frequently playing in front of modified super 8 footage, the twin guitars of Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras intertwine instinctively, equal parts slow-burning twang and spaced-out feedback drone. It’s hard to stop those superlatives flowing. The band have just released a new EP ‘Shadowlands‘ that adds a devotional aspect reflective of artists like Popul Vuh (especially their soundtrack for the Werner Herzog film ‘Fitzcarraldo’) and Alice Coltrane, and their new full-length ‘Lost In The Glare‘ will be out on 13th September. (Free mp3 here.) Both Caminiti and Porras are solo artists releasing on labels like Root Strata and Three Lobed Recordings and Caminiti is also an established visual artist.”

They’re back in Birmingham on Saturday 27th April at St Paul’s Church with Grumbling Fur and Ex Easter Island Head. Tickets are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

More information on their Electric Totem site.

Barn Owl & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Live At The Cube (Bristol) from Fluid Radio on Vimeo.

Barn Owl – Light from the Mesa from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Ex Easter Island Head are a Liverpool based ensemble who usually perform as a trio but are known to expand to up to 30 players. An inventive and surprising group, their experimentation with rhythm and minimalism makes for a captivating live show. We’re thrilled that they’ll be performing at St Paul’s Church on Saturday 27th April, along with Barn Owl and Grumbling Fur. Tickets are available via theticketsellers.co.uk

“In the tradition of minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Rhys Chatham, Liverpool’s Ex-Easter Island Head draw a great deal of resonance from a stripped back set-up, consisting largely of guitars laid out horizontally and played as percussion instruments (hence the name of 2012’s Mallet Guitars Two). Their sound gradually ebbs and flows, building up to vast tropical storm clouds of rhythm and natural reverb.” The Quietus

Ex Easter

Island Head performing Mallet Guitars One: