Apostrophe S Project

Apostrophe S is a trilogy of films by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball made between 1987 - 1990. A follow up piece Called Film of The Same Name was completed in 2017. The project was shot in north Kent on Higham Marshes and Blue Bell Hill and explores 'geopsychological' issues around landscape - in particular Hangway Turning is based on the urban legend of repeated ghost sightings made on Bluebell Hill, Kent, following the death of a bride-to-be in a road accident in March 1964.

 

The project began with a short pilot called Apostrophe S - A Postcard From Boxley Hill made from Super 8 Loops projected onto a wall and then videod. The soundtrack was recorded by Sanderson & Ball at IPS Studios in London with the voice-over by Diana Gordon.

Funding was secured from South East Arts to make Green on The Horizon. This was shot on Cliffe Marshes in Kent and features Angela Staples. The piece was shot on Super 8 and then edited on Umatic video.

 Following Ball's departure to Australia Sanderson completed the next part of the trilogy Hangway Turning with Nigel Jacklin (of Alien Brains fame) taking on the role of psychic investigator Thomas Cubiit and Angela Staples playing the 'ghost'.

 

Twenty years plus later Sanderson & Ball decided to revisit the location and ideas behind the Apostrophe S trilogy in The Film of The Same Name. For Film of the Same Name the Cubitt character was re-presented by BFI archivist William Fowler while the ghost by jeweler Leigh Milsom. Directors Sanderson and Ball portray themselves as the now middle-aged experimental filmmakers – maybe older and wiser but having some difficulty in remembering where the original scenes were shot. 

Green on the Horizon and Hangway Turning have been screened at over thirty venues including: Tate, ICA, Osnabruck, Piccadilly Film Festival. Green on The Horizon has been added to the BFI archive and is available on the BFI player, and was most recently shown at the BFI/NFT in November 2022.

Ice Yacht - Pillbox

Side A

1. Pillbox 13:30

2. Up and Over 01:28

 

Side B

3. Slow Water 09:09

4. Ice Spikes 05:36

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson.

 

Credits:

Release Date: 2020

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: tch 219

Sleeve Design: Layout and painting by Philip Sanderson

Reviews:

Review by Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly, number 1243 week 30

 

A few years ago I reviewed 'Pole Of Cold' by Ice Yacht, a musical project by former Storm Bug Philip Sanderson (Vital Weekly 981). Between then (2015) and now, Sanderson became more active and usually under his name. I am not sure why he pulled out the moniker Ice Yacht again unless it is to say that this is something quite different from his other work, which is quite electronic and at times 'poppy' (a term to be used carefully). As Ice Yacht we find him in a more abstract modus operandi. During the April lockdown he went out on the "Romney Marshes to capture ‘wild sound’, be it rusty gates, distant warehouse activity on the river Rother, or short wave radio signals", which back home were moulded into four pieces of music. Sanderson calls it "badly treated and manipulated before being fed into feedback loops", which may suggest something noisy and gruesome and that it surely is not. It is not necessarily very quiet and ambient. Rusty it surely is, and we can connect Ice Yacht to the many musicians working with similar strategies of lo-fi ambience based on field recordings taped onto old cassettes. It lacks Sanderson's current electronic and 'poppy' edge and sees him returning to the loopy scratched records of Storm Bugs, but perhaps less loopy and scratched. Different techniques and more experience in crafting experimental music resulting in thirty minutes of fine sonic bliss and at that, I must say, all too short. I would have loved more of this today. Had I known where I kept the download of the previous one, I would have played that straight after this. Now, I settled for this twice and that also went down well. (FdW) 

 

Review by Neil Kulkarni The Wire September 2020 

Sanderson has also put out new recordings under the name Ice Yacht, and Pillbox is four tracks of purely instrumental composition, wherein his vocal absence allows for a more introspective and wintry unfolding of his fascinations. The two long pieces here are key. “Slow Water" seems to follow an Antarctic dredger through an endless night, signs of life dopplering off downwards from its implacable movement, and "Pillbox" is isolationism par excellence, the terror and beauty of an endless ice shelf surveyed with a laser-like, steadicam feel, before unseen megabeasts start breaking through the mantle and pulling you under. 

Philip Sanderson - Passionate Particles

Tracklist:

1 Lay-by Lullaby

2 Omeletto

3 Feeding Time 

4 Body Snatcher

5 Crystal Set 

6 Down A Denny Lane 

7 Kite 

8 Racing The Arctic Shadow 

9 Summer With The Snow Bees 

10 Pity The Small 

11 View From A Hill 

12 Rumble Of The Ruins 

13 Slow Water 

14 Morphover & Curl 

15 Cash Back

16 Swing 

17 Colour Buffer

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson

 

Credits:

Format: CD 300 copies

Release Date: 2022

Label: Klanggalerie

Catalogue Number: gg378

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson 

 

Notes:

Passionate Particles is an hour-long compilation of tracks drawn from LP, CD, MC, and DL releases made between 2000 and 2021.

 

Reviews:

 

PHILIP SANDERSON - PASSIONATE PARTICLES (CD by Klanggalerie)

 

I like Austria's Klanggalerie label because they are not strictly a re-issue label, even when a considerable part of their catalogue is about giving old releases a new life. They also like their old artists to release new music, which is great. Please don't stick to your old guns, but also care about new music, as we will see today and in the next few weeks; I got a few of their recent releases. Today I'd like to start with Philip Sanderson. As you may know, Sanderson began his musical career in the late 70s with the Storm Bugs and his Snatch Tapes label. For many years he worked his own name (next to a more ambient oriented side project as Ice Yacht), and 'Passionate Particles' can be seen as a re-issue but not of one particular old release. Rather, it is a collection of pieces from the last twenty years that found their way to a plethora of formats (LP, cassettes, downloads, CDR). I enjoyed Storm Bugs in the past, but Sanderson's work is totally my thing. It is a no-brainer that I picked his album first from the bundle of Klanggalerie. Since the release of 'On One Of Those Bends' (Vital Weekly 1177), I have paid particular attention to his work. There is something lovely pop music about his work. I recently (Vital Weekly 1290; two of the pieces from that cassette are also on this CD) connected to Sparks, especially in his vocal delivery. That is not yet as strong on the sixteen pieces on 'Passionate Particles', except for the two pieces from Not Even My Closest Friends', but poppy it certainly is. Not the naff kind that is popular with the kids these days, but lovely music for adults. All electronic and sometimes instrumental bring a fine balance to the album. I would think that if you love Sparks or The Residents (who have a strong presence in the Klanggalerie as well), Sanderson's music will go down well, even without the guitar parts that these days seem to play a more significant role with The Residents (so I am told, not being the biggest fan there; odd, come to think of it). Sanderson's music isn't per se uptempo and upbeat, but moody and introspective, next to being quirky and pleasant; another excellent act of balancing there. Obviously, you'd find none of these tunes in any top ten, which is a great pity. This is precisely the sort of music that deserves a bigger audience; if only the world would listen! Today it rained a lot, but this release put a big smile on my face. It went straight to repeat, just as yesterday. Next up is some more of his music, as I call it a day and I want to enjoy some more wacky tunes! (FdW)

 

From Vital Weekly 1322 February 2022

Purchase this CD

 

 

 

Philip Sanderson - On One of These Bends

 

Side A

A1. Bright Waves

A2. Tale Chase

A3. E for Echo

A4. Viewfinder

A5. Everything He is Not

A6. On One of These Bends

Side B

B1. This is Not a Game

B2. Mixing Drinks & Aeroplanes

B3. Scene of the Crash

B4. Echo Complex

B5. Watertight

B6. Maps

B7. Looking Back

 

All music and lyrics by Philip Sanderson except: Bright Waves (Sleesenger/Sanderson/Tallis), Viewfinder (Sanderson, Denton), This is Not a Game (Sanderson, Ball). Philip Sanderson plays: VCS3, vibraphone, DX7, Roland SH-101, Roland TR-606, Revox tape delay, acoustic guitar, Yamaha FB-01. With: Bright Waves - vocals Nancy Slessenger. E for Echo - voice over Patricia Hosking. Viewfinder - guitar Michael Denton. This is Not a Game - keyboards Steven Ball, voice over Patricia Hosking & Tony Raven. Mixing Drinks & Aeroplanes - vocals Naomi, fretless bass Steve Rose, vibraphone Michael Denton. Maps - vocals Naomi.

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 500 copies

Release Date: 2018

Label: SÈance Centre

Catalogue Number:1SC

Sleeve Design: Alan Brian. Rear sleeve photograph by Philip Sanderson. Front images from various films by Philip Sanderson, and Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball.

Remastered from the original reels by Brandon Hocura

 

Notes:

From the back sleeve: On One Of These Bends is a collection of unreleased songs, soundtrack work and obscure cassette-only pieces from the 1980s which reflect a shift in focus towards film and moving image. It was a departure from the more industrial music Philip Sanderson had been making with his group Storm Bugs, having more in common with Nino Rota and Henry Mancini, albeit as seen through a DIY lens, and with a reel-to-reel orchestra comprised of an EMS VCS3, vibraphone, DX7, Roland SH-101, Roland TR-606, tape delay, acoustic guitar, fretless bass and Yamaha FB-01. On two numbers, Philip jokingly asked an American chanteuse to "sing it like a cross between Streisand and The Shangri-Las", and to his surprise she did. Counterpointing this are tracks such as E For Echo made with just an acoustic guitar, and the very first piece Bright Waves which combines the choral vocal talents of Nancy Slessenger with a Revox tape delay system, originally released on Snatch Tapes under the pseudonymous Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey.

 

These tracks are presented with the "picture turned down" so to speak, and as such the music acts as a kind of memento mori for the absent moving images, and maybe even for the decade itself. Remastered from the original reels, DMM pressing. 

 

CV

CV  Philip Sanderson

This list combines screenings, gallery installation and musical releases.

  

Solo Exhibitions

2015: Chronocuts (video series), exhibited as part of Trash’d NewWave Festival at Memorial Gallery, Hastings, UK.

2002: On Some Faraway Beach, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, UK. 

2002: Boating for Beginners, Pump House/Battersea Park, London, UK.

1997: Overheard Overhead, The Vestry, London, UK.

1996: Somewhere over England, Conductors’ Hallway, London, UK.

1996: If we can sparkle he may land tonight, Tannery, London, UK. 

 

Group Screenings/Exhibitions

All works by Philip Sanderson unless otherwise stated. 

 

2023:

Typing Pool (video) (2018) screened as part of screened as part of One Minute Volume 11. aContemporary Art Ruhr, Germany.

Snatch Tapes Symphony (Limited Edition Lathe Vinyl LP) (2023) Snatch Tapes, UK.

Dilly Dreamers (Limited Edition Lathe Vinyl LP) (2023) Astres D'Or, Netherlands.

2022:

Green on The Horizon (made with Steven Ball) (video) (1988) screened as part of The Unreliable Narrator, BFI/NFT, UK.  

Something in The Air (video) (2020) screened as part of One Minute Volume 10 

at 303 Projects, UK.

Up Close (video) (2022) screened at: Exploding cinemas Hastings, UK.

Passionate Particles (CD) (2022) Klanggalerie, Germany.

Noisy Nylon – Ice Yacht (MC) (2022) Snatch Tapes, UK.

Lost with all Hands (DL)) (2022) Snatch Tapes, UK.

 

2021:

24 Trains a Second (video) (2021) Fields of View, UK.

One Minute Volumes 1 - 10 archived at The British Film Institute

Something in The Air (video) (2020) screened as part of One Minute Volume 10 at Contemporary Art Ruhr, Germany.

Not Even my Closet Friends (MC) (2021) Snatch Tapes, UK.

 Colour Buffer - Ice Yacht (MC) (2021) Snatch Tapes, UK

 

2020:

Tracking (video) (2017) screened at Greenwich SOUND/IMAGE Festival, University of Greenwich, UK.

Something in The Air (video) (2020) screened as part of One Minute Volume 10 on VisualContainerTV, UK, and at Contemporary Art Ruhr, Germany.

The gift of sound and vision: Visual music as a form of glossolalic speech. In Sound and Image (pp. 120-131). Focal Press, UK.

Pillbox – Ice Yacht (MC) (2020) Snatch Tapes, UK.

Rumble of The Ruins (MC) (2020) Snatch Tapes, UK.

Storm Bugs (Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball) - A Safe Substitute (CD) (2020) Klanggalerie, Germany.

 

2019: 

Green on the Horizon (video) (1988) (with Steven Ball), Hangway Turning (video) (1990), Film of the Same Name (video) (2016) (with Steven Ball) all screened at 51Zero festival, UK.

Chronocuts (video) (2015) screened at Last Thursday Film Club, UK.

Storm Bugs - ‘Full Moon in My Pocket’ included on compilation Your Song, My Foot! Vol. 3: The 1979 Edition (MC) (2019), WFMU, USA.

Storm Bugs - ‘Take it to The Top’ included on compilation ContraPop Festival 2018: The Third And Tidal Report (CD) Extra Normal, UK.

 

2018: 

Pebble Dot Dash (video) (2018) hosted on the Wire Music Magazine YouTube channel, and presented as part of MPE & MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium 'Contexts of Film Practice', at University of Lincoln, UK. 

Tracking (video) (2017) screened at Darkroom Film Festival, UK. 

Twenty-five minute programme of videos by Sanderson screened at Mashcinema at Nozstock Festival, UK. 

Ten videos by Lumière & Son (Thomas Wiesner and Philip Sanderson) screened at London Art Fair, UK.

Typing Pool (video) (2018), and Pebble Dot Dash (video) (2018) screened at London Animation Club, UK.

Film of The Same Name (video) (2016) animation segments screened as part of Am1nation 2018 at London Animation Club, UK.

On One of These Bends (vinyl LP) (2018), Séance Centre, Canada.

 

2017: 

Tracking (video) (2017) screened at: Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Colombia, and at The Sound / Image colloquium University of Greenwich, UK. Nutcracking (video) (2010) by Lumière & Son screened as part of VisualcontainerTV, UK. 

“Resisting immersion in Visual Music:  The case for heightened listening and looking, and against pseudo-synaesthesia” paper presented at Sound / Image colloquium, University of Greenwich, UK. 

 Storm Bugs - Certified Original and Vintage Fakes (CD-R) (2017) Snatch Tapes, UK.

 

2016: 

Moth Flight (video) (2016) 'recommended' in the awards at the 75 Second Film Awards, Amy Johnson Festival Hull, UK. 

Self-Oscillation (video) (2016) selected for One Minute Programme Volume 9 screened at over 40 venues, UK and international. 

Green on The Horizon (video) (1988) (Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball) selected for BFI London Filmmakers Co-operative online collection. 

Presented paper and supporting videos as part of ‘C21 Music Practices: Sound & Image’ at London South Bank University, UK.

Lumiere et Son – presented paper and supporting videos as part of ‘The City as Modernist Ephemera’ at London South Bank University, UK.

Storm bugs – ‘Hiemal’ and ‘Little Bob Minor’ included on compilation (CD/LP) Close To The Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984 (2016) Cherry Red, UK.

 

2015: 

Kisser (video) (2007) screened as part of Altered States, Electro Studios West St Leonards, UK.

Battle of the Pixels (video) (2015) screened as part of One Minute Hull Artists' Moving Image Festival, UK. 

Fleshtones (video) (2006) screened as part of Sound and Image Colloquium, University of Greenwich, UK. 

Chronocuts (video) (2015) screened/installation as part of Trash'd New Wave Festival exhibition, Memorial Gallery, UK. 

Ice Yacht - Pole of Cold (MC) (2015) Fragment Factory, Germany. 

2014: 

Aye Aye (video) (2010) by Lumiere et Son (Thomas Wiesner and Philip Sanderson) selected for One Minute Volume 7, screened at over 30 venues, UK and international. 

Back Projection (DL) (2014) Snatch Tapes, UK.

 

2013: 

Artist talk and screening of Fleshtones (2006), Kisser (2007), and Jiggery Pokery (2005), at London Animation Club, UK.

Insoluble (video (2012) selected for 100 x 100 touring exhibition, screened at over 40 venues, UK and international. 

Storm bugs – ‘Cash Wash’ included on compilation An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music #7 (Compilation) (CD) (2013) Sub Rosa, Belgium.

 

2012: 

Hollow Gravity (vinyl LP) (2012) Puer Gravy, USA. 

 

2011: 

Nutcracking (video) (2010) by Lumiere et Son selected for One Minute Volume 5, screened at: 24 venues, UK and international.

Storm Bugs  - A Safe Substitute (vinyl LP) (2011/1980) Harbinger Sound, UK

 

2010: 

Product Recall  (video) (2009) selected for Iota Centre YouTube Channel.

Time Travel (video) (2010) by Lumière & Son selected for One Minute Volume 4, screened at over 10 venues, UK and international.

 

2009: 

No Particular Place to Go (installation) (2009) solo exhibition at Memorial Gallery Hastings, UK. 

Quadrangle (video) (2005) screened at Visual Music Marathon, USA. 

Fleshtones (video) (2006) screened at Iota Salon, USA.  

Kisser (video) (2007) screened at The BAck door, Australia. 

 

2008: 

Landfill (video) (2008) screened at London International Animation Festival, UK.  

Kisser (video) (2007) selected for One Minute Volume 2 screened at 9 venues, UK and International.

Storm Bug - 'Car Situations (Nasal Passage)’ included on compilation Messthetics Greatest Hiss (CD) (2008) Hyped to Death, USA. 

 

2007: 

Storm Bugs - Neither Here Nor There (2007) video performance The Foundry, UK.  

Engine Trouble (video) (2005) screened at Camera Obscura, Australia. 

Jiggery Pokery (video) (2005) selected for One Minute Volume 1 screened at over ten venues, UK and international. 

Quadrangle (video) (2005) screened at Visual Music Marathon, USA. 

Head of Steam (video) (2006) screened at Magmart Tour,Italy.

Engine Trouble (video) (2005), Fleshtones (video) (2006) Jiggery Pokery (video) (2005) all screened at Cog Collective, UK. 

Storm Bugs - Supplementary Benefit (vinyl LP) (2007/1980) Vinyl on Demand, Germany. 

 

2006: 

Quadrangle (video) (2005) screened at Lumen Leeds, UK. 

Engine Trouble (video) (2005) screened at Video Under Volcano, Italy.

Snatch Paste - Compilation (vinyl LP) (2006 Vinyl on Demand, Germany. 

 

2005: 

Row Row (video) (2005) screened at Videolisboa, Portugal. 

A Rooco Din (video) (2004) screened at 291 Gallery, UK, Exploding Cinema, UK, Videolisboa, Portugal, and at Berlin Videonale, Germany. 

Quadrangle (video) (2005) screened at Prog ME, Brazil, and at Island Art Film & Video Festival, UK. 

Seal Pool Sounds (CD) (2005) Seal Pool, USA.

 

2004: 

Notice Board (installation) (2004) as part of group exhibition Hat on Wall, UK.

A Rooco Din (video) (2004) screened at Lux Exposure, UK.

Storm Bugs - Up the Middle Down The Sides, (vinyl LP) (2004/1980) Fusetron, USA. 

 

2003: 

Storm Bugs  -'For Internal Use Only' included on compilation (CD) (2008) Adverse Effects, UK.

 

2002: 

On Some Faraway Beach (installation) (2002) solo exhibition at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, UK.

Boating for Beginners  (installation) (2002) solo exhibition on boating lake/Pump House Gallery, UK. 

Reprint (CD) (2002/1980) Anomalous Records, USA. 

'Terrain' (Philip Sanderson/David Jackman) (vinyl EP) (2002/1980) Die Stadt, Germany.

'Offshore' (Philip Sanderson/David Jackman) (CD) (2002/1981) Robot Records, USA.

 

2001: 

Moderate with Fog Patches (installation) (2001) as part of group exhibition Wordplay, Q Arts, UK. 

Storm Bugs - Let's go Outside And Get it Over (CD) (2001) Snatch Tapes, UK.

 

2000: 

The Improbability Calculator (installation) (2000) as part of group exhibition Spectrum, Turtle Arts, UK.

 

1999: 

Phantom Power (installation) (2000) as part of group exhibition Letting the Days go by, MOTA, UK. 

 

1998: 

Home Video (installation) (1998) as part of group exhibition Baffle, Camerawork, UK.

 

1997: 

Overheard Overhead (installation) (1997) solo exhibition at The Vestry, UK. 

Hot Seat (installation) (1996) and Phantom Power (installation) (1997) as part of group exhibition Glow, Walsall art Gallery, UK. 

'If O became E', (installation)(1997) as part of group show Conductors' Hallway, UK.

 

1995: 

Hot Seat (installation) (1996) as part of South London Gallery Open, UK. Winner of Artist’s Prize.

 

1996:

Somewhere over England (installation) (1996) solo exhibition at the Conductors' Hallway, UK.

 

1992:

Shadowman (video) (1991) screened at New Media Festival Osnabruck, Germany, and at London Film Festival, London, UK.

 

1990: 

Green on the Horizon (video) (1988) (with Steven Ball), Hangway Turning (video) (1990) screened at over thirty venues including the Tate, ICA, Osnabruck, and the Piccadilly Film Festival. 

 

Education

PhD, University of Westminster, 2016  

PCHE, London South Bank University, 2012

MA Fine Art, Kingston University, 2002

 

 

 

 

This site documents sound, moving image and installation by Philip Sanderson. Use the above menu to navigate.