In 2007 Jim Phelps presented a "mini-tour", as JULULU, along with composer M. Anthony Reimer. The event was more of an encapsulated "show" rather than the traditional piece, followed by another piece …. followed by another piece, separated by applause …. etc., etc.  The tour featured JULULU music (many of these pieces appearing below) and included live+video, live performance as well as fixed media video and audio works.  The event lasted approximately 47 minutes and was dubbed "The HAZMAT Tour" owing to an unfortunate incident on I-39 involving HAZMAT being called to the scene and several miles of I-39, both directions, being closed for hours.  JULULU appeared onstage in Wisconsin with 5 minutes to tech and tune before showtime.  Featured in this program was STARk Raving Red, a collaborative video work presenting a playful look into certain aspects of young female lifestyles often found in today's China. Ms. Luo Ting-Yi provides both sonic and visual materials for this piece as well as for some other music pieces on the program. 

In 2009 Phelps presented "Electrical Mysteries Tour" with colleague Michael Taylor. The two composers/performers premiered their co-authored work MystScapePulse, which incorporated electric guitar and bass, live electronic processing and a vintage ARP Odyssey analog synthesizer.  Essentially, there was no beginning and no end to the concert, with each piece flowing into the next.   A final electric guitar chord, captured by a sampler, rang out as the last sound of the event for several minutes as stage hands began striking the set.  Eventually the audience left. 

Visual artist and colleague Bart Woodstrup and Phelps (collectively aka 'Shotguns To Daylight') presented "Chinet" in 2010.  Once again, this event was a "show", lasted 42 minutes and included projections on three screens surrounding the audience, live performance with non-traditional controllers, electric guitars, fixed media video and audio as well as realtime-generated video which was actually a camouflaged MAX patch - interface = content.  Woodstrup performed by presenting and "mashing up" music occurring elsewhere in the show by granulating/modifying samples extracted from the fixed media and live guitar components.  The content was comprised of "uncomfortable bedfellows" of metaphor suggesting various semantic juxtapositions - sex, gun violence, football, and China. 

Currently, December 2010, Jim Phelps is putting together an event which, it is hoped, will "convolve" various styles and genres including rap, hip-hop, electronica, IDM, rock and experimental electroacoustics.  "RaWElectrics" will open April 29, 2011 in the Chicago area.

 Some materials found on the JULULU CD Hide Wind were sampled and fused with newer materials for some of the abovementioned events. The video version of RickLicks (excerpt below), from this CD, was performed live during the JULULU tour with the Rickenbacker 3/4-scale guitar for which it was written and which was made famous in the early '60s by John Lennon of The BEATLES. Video artist for this piece is Bart Woodstrup, also creator of the Hide Wind CD cover art. Another piece appearing on the Hide Wind CD as an audio piece was presented in its video version, Thirty Comfortable Days, video by Kurt Schultz (excerpt below).

As a direction-pointer for future work is an excursion (back) into Mono. I grew weary of what has become the "default" genres at mainstream electroacoustic conferences and festivals - 8-channel dispersion, and other surround-sound formats. I thought perhaps I would offer an alternative. I've begun this re-exploration by reviewing some of the masters of Mono production such as Phil Spector, Dave Clark and The BEATLES. I intend to explore what I occasionally refer to as "multi-stream" Mono and this is indeed how I hear some of Spector's work. Below are a couple of my explorations thus far, but they do not attempt to copy anyone's aesthetic, these earlier efforts serving as impetus - models from which to begin.

Additionally, some of my newer music reflects a resurgence of interest in an aesthetic of sound production which, perhaps, began in the late 60s/early 70s in the first "punk" music, although the term was not universally applied then. A stand-out in this genre is Iggy Pop's seminal LP "Raw Power." One might hear this production as the anti-textbook for audio production - a recording session in progress with no one running the board. This was clearly intentional and fit the music. Beautiful in its "ugliness." While I don't consider my work along these lines as participating in the noise genres of the present, the element of noise is certainly a compositional tool.

Provided below are MP3 and QuickTime excerpts of some materials included in the JULULU, Electrical Mysteries Tour and Chinet programs.