Scotland on Sunday recently published my travel piece on coastal Norwegian town Ålesund. The vibrancy of the town combined with the enthusiastic forward thinking from local creatives such as architects Sandbakk & Patterson and the owners of design hub and gourmet coffee cafe Invit left me with a memorable and favorable impression. Aside from these innovators there was room for restauarants with water-side access to allow for the delivery of fresh seafood everyday and a hotel designed by the world renowned architects Snøhetta, Hotel Brosundet. While the experience was resoundingly positive, when comparing my hometown of Aberdeen to Ålesund it paints a grey picture of the lack of culture vibrancy supported by the local state and private sector in Scotland's Granite City. With proposed projects such as concreting over a renowned Victorian garden (one of the only green spaces in the city centre) to become a carpark and consumer playground it is left to young artists to support themselves and develop Aberdeen's culture identity independently. One of the few sprouts of green shoots in the creative sector in Aberdeen has been the transofrmation of a derelict basement site into the base for 26 Collective. I hope that for the sake of the city, these young innovators are allowed to flourish and paint a more gleaming picture of the city.
Way back mid 00s; amongst the energetic illustrations and polemic wordage of hyperdope Lowdown magazine I came across a write up on a guy called Flying Lotus. Didn't need any encouragement to hit up his myspace after reading up on the Coltrane and Dilla links and wasn't exaclty dissapointed! What has happened since then, not many could comprehend. Going into Summer 2010 it is as if we have gone back to the early 90s - the heydays of triphop, beats and 808s - when post rave festivals such as Tribal Gatherings were getting off to DJs like Krush and James Lavelle (pre Unkle). Sounds from 'grimey London', 'sunny Cali' and the 'motorcity folklore of Detroit' stir the imagination before even listening to anything so it has been of great pleasure to recenty discover some Nordic talent outside of these big hitting 'beats' hotbeds. A graphic designer and hottly tipped producer to boot, Offshore comes from my hometown Aberdeen. His beats and mixes meld raw energy with maturity and music knowledge that are rarely found by Djs over indulging in one of the many genres that he splices and blends with ease. Over the North Sea, Inko has been surviving the Norsk winters for over five years developing a sound which shares the melodic rough bristles of Flying Lotus with exotic boombap depth. Be sure to try catch them at the following DO IT! nights;
Had a couple of weeks back in the UK before I return to Norway for la vie Oslo so suggested to my DO IT! collaborator Sio that I could design this months poster. It was also to be the first time I was DJing in Scotland since January earlier this year and had booked Brian D'Souza to come up North for a live set and Oslo based French designer and VJ Julie Arrive to do visuals alongside our residents. Regarding the poster; problems arose when I remembered the baggage handlers with idle hands that had left me with one mac charger less while returning from Sonar festival, Barcelona this year. With no workmates to borrow from and a distinct lack of mac shops or anywhere with a mac charger in Aberdeen I had to knock together a 100% craft poster with the aide of hands, pen, paper and scalpel. Came out quite nice in the end and I actually really enjoyed being away from my computer for those few days. Going to be working a lot more with hand illustration and collage on a couple of artsy projects coming up so keep an eye out. Also worth noting is the expansion of our DO IT! brand to Oslo where we will continue to host artsy guests from around Norway, Scotland and beyond. DO IT!