aUDIOMAPS vs Exquisite CORPS.
REMIX / replay.
“Only with distance can you see the landscape and understand where to make your stand. So walk. Until there is silence. Until you can see the horizon. Walk. And, where you find peace, clarity, drive your stake. Own the terrain and anchor yourself.” James Patrick.
Some context. Sitting here typing, June 23rd 2020. A stunning summers day. I can hear the neighbours lilting music drifting across the back gardens; East African, he tells me, Eritrea. His name is Troy. The beats and melodies blend in with the intermittent bird song, the loud buzzing of an enormous fly struggling against the kitchen window and the gentle breeze rippling through the trees in the garden.
And I think back to March 23rd when everything suddenly changed…
aUDIOMAPS is an ongoing project. It’s an integral part of my practise as an artist but it’s the most difficult element for me to define. Part music, part soundscape, part sampled mashup, part noise. That weekend when the ‘prime minister’ (hmm) declared ‘lockdown’ I gathered up the essential items from my studio and brought them home;
Eight track. Two old Akai S20 samplers. A mono synth. A Casio keyboard. Kaos pad. Microphones. Cables. Mixer.
Less is more…
It’s important to start with this context. The very first aUDIOMAPS / Exquisite Corps collaborations grew out of that surreal time five and a half years ago. Suddenly faced with ‘what do I do now’ I decided to share stem files with a group of creative friends… The result was aUDIOMAPS. (RE-imagined) from June 2021.
And now we are here. This organic collaborative relationship in a live context for the first time as an ensemble.
I was using aUDIOMAPS as my AKA moniker prior to March 2020. Utterly Lo-Fi, on the edge of being unlistenable at times. Totally experimental by nature but with a desire to make something almost like a song… Ha!
And working with sound and film / projections has its roots for me in the mid 1980’s in The North East. Darlington, to be precise. A collaboration with my dear friend Mike English. We called ourselves Clint ’n’ Max. We didn’t really know what we were doing but there was a compulsion to do it. Loud, confrontational, anti art. Or was it?Along the way I’ve been in a couple of bands. Devka and YoYo Static. I was a reluctant bass player…
And this? You are probably wondering what REMIX / replay is all about?Well, you all bring your own life experiences to this arena.
So you’ll all see and hear it from a number of different perspectives. Safe to say, it touches on current affairs, state control, fragmented society and the ‘place of the self’ in all of this. I think?
I start with Aldous Huxley talking about us vs the machines. Brave New World indeed…
And I end with a film clip of the grave stone of Samuel Holberry.“Vanished is the feverish dream of life. The rich and poor find no distinction here”.
What an exhilerating and exciting journey this has been.
Thinking about those initial conversations with ‘The Exquisite Corps’.
“Hey, can I give you the stem files for these aUDIOMAPS recordings I’ve made? Just play with them, remix, reinterpret, mangle, reconfigure. Whatever you want really…I’ve just been offered this ‘gig’…”
“Yeah, sure, that’d be dead cool”…
The process;
Lo-Fi / DIY / solo recordings made at Ribcage Studio.
Released as aUDIOMAPS on Bandcamp.
Films made for each piece.
The raw audio stem files shared with The Exquiste Corps.
Carte blanche response in terms of how they use them.
Shared. Deconstructed. Remixed. Reinvented.
A mix comes back. Wow! Thats a surprising outcome… always!
We talk, Have coffee / biscuits / etc.
We devise live components.
There is a huge amount of freedom here.
Improvisation. Spontaniety. To create an original structure.
Films are remixed to segue into the new interpretations.
Creative generosity is essential.Trust in the process.
And trust in each other.
We ‘rehearse’. And perform.
I am director / conductor. Part disruptor. Sampler and dismantler.
A voice somewhere in the maelstrom.
My alter egos are part of the ‘entertainment’ (sic).
With props. And bad suits / ties.(Clown trigger warning).
I play some sounds / noises. And talk / sing.
The Exquisite Corps will play.
And the films will tell their stories…
Humour - possibly. Dada - in a sense, yes. This isnt ‘a band’ btw. Performance ‘art’ - maybe.
I’ve got a long list of influences if that helps?
Derek Jarman, Bruce Nauman, Peter Greenaway, Alfred Jarry,
Cabaret Voltaire, TG, Forced Entertainment, Edward Muybridge,
Mike Kelly…
In one way or another these ‘points of reference’ have stamped their influence on my work.
Perhaps this all stems from when I was very young. I was thinking about my Grandmother and her rickety old cottage at the end of a lane in rural Gloucestershire. The lane was called ‘The British Cul-De-Sac. And she was known by friends and family as ‘Queenie’…
And we’d sit by the open fire. She always said the flames of the fire told stories…
My work is sometimes intentionally confrontational, sometimes intentionally beautiful.
Profanities, congested space, white noise, ugly / beautiful.
Process led – ‘making a mark’. This is my PUNK ROCK.
“People ask me, 'Don't you ever run out of ideas?' Well, in the first place, I don't use ideas. Every time I have an idea, it's too limiting and usually turns out to be a disappointment. But I haven't run out of curiosity.” Robert Rauschenberg.
Demolished. Crushed. Girders. Concrete crumbles. Dust.
Rubbish. Detritus. The left overs of lives once lived.
Caved in. Ceilings. Collapsing walls. Undergrowth overgrown.
Piled up. Stacked. Packed in. Stamped down.
What remains?
Sticks. Stones. Bricks. Brutal bones.
The bridge has collapsed.
The river is swollen brown.
(There are no Gods here).
A huge thank you to The Exquiste Corps;
Julia Schauerman, Jim Ever, Chris Finguz, Simon Elliot-Kemp,
Patrick Carley and Adam Zegma.
Your creative generosity is extraordinary. I’m humbled.
Thank you to Nick Potter for giving me this opportunity.
Really appreciated.
And to the technical and admin team at Sound Junction / University of Sheffield - Thank you.
Stephen Carley AKA aUDIOMAPS. November 2025.