 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline .(August 2017) |
A Low Hum is the ongoing project founded by photographer and music impresario Blink (born Ian Jorgensen), and is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Under the umbrella A LOW HUM, Blink organises tours, releases records, makes music videos, organises one-off events/festivals and publishes magazines and books. As of 2009, A Low Hum has organised and supported tours for over seventy musical acts from New Zealand, United States, Australia and beyond.
Contents
- A LOW HUM Tours
- Camp A Low Hum
- 2007 – Brookfields Outdoor Education Centre, Wainuiomata. 3–5 Feb
- 2008 – Tatum Park, Ohau. 2–5 Feb
- 2009 – Homedale, 6–8 February
- 2012 – Homedale
- 2013 – Homedale, Wainuiomata, 8–10 February
- 2014 – Homedale, Wainuiomata
- Campus A Low Hum
- 2010 – Flock House, 23–25 Jan'
- 2011 Flock House, 11–13 Feb
- Square Wave Festival
- A Low Hum NYE Parties
- ALH NYE at Bodega, 31 Dec 2006
- ALH NYE at Bodega, 31 Dec 2007
- Fields of Dreams at Camp Wainui, 31 Dec 2009 & 1 Jan 2010
- Big City Dreams, Garden Club, 31 Dec 2010
- Fields of Dreams at Camp Wainui, 31 Dec 2011 & 1 Jan 2012
- Puppies NYE, 31 Dec 2013
- A Low Hum House at Erua Lodge, 31 Dec 2014 & 1 Jan 2015
- ALHxNYExSEA at Boat Cafe, 31 Dec 2015
- 15 Years of A Low Hum at Tatum Park, 30 & 31 Dec 2016
- A Low Hum Releases
- References
- External links
In 2006, tours occurred every month and comprised between two and four rising Kiwi bands who played venues and gigs in about a dozen New Zealand locales along the way. In conjunction with each tour, A Low Hum published an A5 magazine, usually including a feature album or EP (often unreleased material by bands) and a music compilation CD with songs by local and international acts.
In 2006, A Low Hum also began publishing "Local Knowledge", a comprehensive guide for bands wanting to tour New Zealand and engage with the music industry.
In 2007, A Low Hum entered new territory as the producer of a major new live music festival, Camp A Low Hum (CALH), held on a large rural campsite close to Wainuiomata, 30 minutes drive north of Wellington. Attended by an intimate 350 campers, 49 bands performed 3, 4 and 5 February. In 2008 the festival spanned a total of four days featuring over 60 bands and doubling in audience numbers to around 700, according to Blink, the maximum capacity. The 2009 event sold out a month before the event, though capacity was limited to only 800 people. The 2010 event has been renamed Campus A Low Hum and has relocated to an unused agricultural college outside the town of Bulls in the North Island. Regarding changes to the format of the festival, Blink has said:
I have retained everything that was special about the Camp A Low Hum philosophy: intimate performances, small crowds, multiple environments, renegade performances, no band announcements, multiple performances by bands, spontaneous party action – and taken it bak 2 skool and added a whole bunch of new concepts to make it a brand new experience. [1]
In 2007, after having released music for a few years in conjunction with its magazine, A Low Hum ventured further into the territories of a traditional record label by starting a monthly subscription-based CDR singles club and releasing albums by local New Zealand artists, Disasteradio, Over the Atlantic and The Enright House.
In 2008, A Low Hum released a trilogy of free digital download EPs by up and coming NZ recordings artists; Secret Knives, Mount Pleasant and Red Steers
In 2009 Blink from A Low Hum tour managed Disasteradio around the World as well as worked on the next phase of his music festival series, renamed to Campus A Low Hum
In 2010 Blink is working on a documentary of the first three Camps, and is working on the follow-up to his 2006 book "Local Knowledge" April 2010, As reported by the Creative Freedom Foundation, A Low Hum announced it has ditched CDs for future releases and is planning on mainly only releasing Mp3s with accompanying artwork. [2]
In 2011, Blink released his follow-up to "Local Knowledge", titled "D.I.Y Touring the World". [3] The print edition is sold out, but the digital edition is still available from the A Low Hum website.
In November 2011, A Low Hum organised and promoted the Flying Nun 30th Anniversary celebrations with 30 huge shows across the country in one month. [4]
From 2012 to 2014 Blink ran Wellington live music venue "Puppies" which was on the corner of Tory and Vivian Streets. [5]
In 2013, A Low Hum ran "Square Wave Festival", an electronic music festival [6] featuring 70 artists [7] playing 30 shows throughout New Zealand in 6 venues throughout November [8]
In 2014 after closing Puppies, Blink, now returning to using his birth name released another book titled "The Problem with Music in New Zealand and How To Fix It and Why I started and ran Puppies", [9] [10] the book received widespread [11] press in NZ and one of the essays bought about a response from APRA/AMCOS NZ who published their response on their website. [12]
After eight such festivals, [13] in 2014, A Low Hum finished Camp A Low Hum with a final event [14] at Camp Wainui in Wainuiomata, Wellington [15]
In 2015, A Low Hum published a box set of ten books [16] of Ian's photographs of the New Zealand music scene over 15 years from 2000 to 2015, this was called A Movement, this box-set was released with a 25-date [17] national release tour including a mini-festival. [18]
In 2015, A Low Hum began working with Wellington inventor and engineer Rohan Hill [19] and helped take his invention, The Deluge, successfully [20] to an international audience. Nominated in 2017 by MusicTech magazine for their "Best new drum machines and samplers" list. [21] The Deluge is a portable synthesizer, sequencer and sampler used my musicians all over the world including notable acts such as Hans-Peter Lindstrøm whose use of the Deluge is his first time not using Ableton for his live sets. [22]
In 2015, Calling on his experience, Ian began teaching events, touring and media at Massey University in Wellington as part of the Bachelor of Commercial Music program. [23]
In 2015, A Low Hum toured Wellington based band Shocking Pinks around the world [24] as well as re-releasing their debut album. While on tour A Low Hum made, along with Ash Smith, a 6-part web series called "D.I.Y Touring the World" for "The Wireless", [25] a visual companion to the book he'd released years earlier. Ian was interviewed by Chinese blog Kiwiese [26] while there with Shocking Pinks.
NYE 2014/2015, A Low Hum hosted a small two-day music festival at Crossing Backpackers in Ohakune called "A Low Hum House" [27] A short-film edited and directed by Ian called "A Low Hum House" was released showing all the bands who played at the event. [28]
In 2016, A Low Hum held a two-night 15-year anniversary party called "15 Years of A Low Hum", returning to Tatum Park in Levin over the NYE period. [29]
In 2018, A Low Hum organised and promoted the "Where's My Room" national tour featuring Neil and Liam Finn. [30]
According to a list on the A Low Hum website, [31] as of February 2018, A Low Hum has promoted 560 events in New Zealand.
