All my life I felt I was missing something, left out of a conversation. I felt things talk behind my back – flowers for example, and streetlamps – and the feeling of being followed from a distance. I wanted psychic powers: I got an online guide to telepathy. ‘Objects speak but you haven’t learned to listen’ is something the guide said.This intense attention to the self is a masked attempt to escape it, you catch these things happening as if by accident, as if concentrating on something, so they don’t feel you listening. After a while they’ll want to talk. After a while they’ll need to. These whales on TV for instance…I like the way they make me feel, like an ant looking out of an aeroplane window. I am an ant looking out of a plane window. Hi there, it’s great to finally meet you! So far the guide was interesting, encouraged I continued to the first exercise. Hi there! Please picture clearly an object in your mind and I’ll describe it. You imagined a banana – you imagined a jar of honey – you imagined a fish – you imagined a fish on a rainbow. I see you. Hi there! Hi there.

Poet Sam Riviere's text in Luke Abbott's video for Brazil.

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Ok, if you want to know why we (me and Wysing Curator Gareth Bell-Jones) have invited Venetian Snares to headline our festival this year, watch this. He – Aaron Funk – is one of the most exciting live performers you are ever likely to see.If serious intensity is your thing, as much as it is ours, then book a ticket! Here. Venetian Snares, in Bourn… a dream come true really. 

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One of the best things about organising a music festival is that it gives you an excuse to go and see loads of live music. Last week I went to the Electric Brixton to see Luke Abbott and Gold Panda. I’d never been there before but it’s really great venue – next to Brixton Town Hall, a semi-circular space, very intense and stiflingly hot, in a good way! The evening was sold out and the place was absolutely jam-packed. Luke Abbott was our first ever musician-in-residence last autumn and he played an experimental set of new compositions at Wysing at the end of last year. This was totally different, much more clubby, but still incredibly precise and intricate. Really fantastic actually - wonderful live performance from a while ago here. He was followed by Gold Panda who of course set everyone off in some euphoric dancing. Gold Panda had some great visuals too which I think were by Dan Tombs. Anyway, the result of it all is that Luke will be headlining our Amphis Stage on 31 August – in between Cut Hands and Venetian Snares on the main stage, all timed so that you won’t miss any of them. Before that Luke and Gold Panda will be heading off on a US tour together; they're touring Europe at the moment. We really do have an incredible line-up this year, all for just £15! Info on who's playing and how to buy a ticket (early bird offers end in less than a week) here.

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What to say about Keren Cytter. She's an amazing New York based film-maker who was born in Israel and whose work explores love, violence, sex and often, murder. We have commissioned her to make a new work in collaboration with Kiera Fox and Charlie Feinstein of the band Maria & the Mirrors, and David Aird of Vindicatrix. All of them will be in-residence at Wysing over the summer working on the new piece. They'll perform the first live version of it at the festival - 31 August in case you didn't know - before working on it more and then performing at the ICA. Maria & the Mirrors played one of the most chaotic and exhilarating live performances I have ever seen at our festival last year so it'll be interesting to see what emerges from the collaboration... In case you don't know Keren's work, here's a link to the wonderfully scripted and choregraphed video Der Spiegel which you shouldn't click on if you object to nudity and swearing (in German). Covering submission, hope, self-delusion and lies the work identifies an interesting relationship between performer and viewer which Keren has taken further in more recent work. There's a breath-taking Beckettian line towards the end that appears to offer an excuse for some rather bad behaviour  "Madam, we are not the choir, we are the mass, we sound and look like a choir." ... Der Spiegel of course means, The Mirror.

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Gareth went to see Blood Music when they were playing on the same programme as the amazing Russell Haswell in early June and was blown away by them. The second video here is from that gig. Dark, sinister post-punk brilliance. They've been getting some airplay on Tom Ravenscroft's show on 6 Music. I can't wait to see them live!  They’re on the Main Stage which I’m stage managing, after a fashion... Have a look here.

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Ok, from now, this blog will only be covering some of the amazing people who will be performing in our music festival on 31 August. At least until the tickets sell out! Starting with just confirmed over the weekend, Australian band Tailor Birds. I had a really nice time on Sunday, when I was covering reception and trying to write our Arts Council annual submission, listening to loads of good festival music on the worlds most expensive headphones, which Luke Abbott made us buy when he was musician-in-residence last year. Makes all the difference. Tailor Birds are a bit like Warpaint, but more electronic. The main person, Sophie Kinston used to be in a band called The Sophie Burgess Trio and she's an electronic violinist who uses various loops, delay and wah wah pedals, turning everday objects into sound sources. They'll be performing on the Amphis Stage.

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