Black Sifichi
| Black Sifachi | |
|---|---|
| Born | New York |
| Residence | Paris |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation | Spoken word artist and writer |
Black Sifichi is a Scottish / American spoken word artist and writer born in New York City and who now lives in Paris. He has recorded albums with a multitude of artists, including "Unsavoury Products" and "Genetically Modifidied" with The Black Dog.[1] He co-wrote the cult hit 'Versus' with the group Ez3kiel. Recent releases are "Lost-Wax" with The Floating Roots Orchestra and "The Uncertain Trail" and "Floating Roots" with Lena. "Ashes to Ashes - Dub to Dub", "Spoken Dub Manifesto Vol 1." and a fourth album, Burning Before Sunset (TBR in March 2010 on Jarring Effects records) with 'Brain Damage' the duo from Saint-Étienne, France. In 2008 Sifichi recorded two tracks for Barry Adamson's label Central Control for the album Our Moon is Full with Strings of Consciousness led by Philippe Petit.
With Norscq he created performances for their stoner-pysche-free-DIY duo "Super Stoned" which uses costume, music and video. Ghedalia Tazartes accepted a rare invitation to work with Super Stoned for a performance at the L'Étrange Musique festival in Paris. Ghedalia decided to take on the name of Black Sifichi for the day and Black became Ghedalia. Sifichi also regularly works with the 7 member group 'Tempsion' led by Frederic Temps. A double LP called T.N.R.T.B.T.M.E will be released in 2010 on the L'Étrange Sonothèque label.
He is also a DJ who began mixing at Paris' Radio Libertaire 'Wreck This Mess' and then at Radio Nova in sharing a bi-monthly slot with DJ Morpheus. One week Morpheus with the 'Freezone' mix and another week 'Sub Para Dub'. Sub Para Dub was also re-broadcast on Couleurs 3 in Switzerland. Sub Para Dub eventually had its own weekly place in the grill. Sifichi now produces a 2 hour long weekly radio program entitled 'Audiometric' which is a meticulous mix of contemporary, abstract, experimental, dub, digi-dub, hip-hop, breakbeat, neo-jazz, post-rock... (a broad rage of music 'actuel') is broadcast on Aligre FM 93.1 in Paris, Jet FM in Nantes, Radio Grenouille in Marseille, Eko des Garrigues in Montpellier and on RTF, Limoges. He has mixed in many festivals across France and Europe - was resident at Paris' Batofar, What's Up, Flêche D'Or, and Cithea. He is also a photographer and has been exhibiting at the gallery 'Cabinet D'Amateur' in Paris and in London's 'Flexitron' in Islington. He was awarded a Bourse from the city of Paris for his photography on contemporary sculpture in the public sectors of Prague, Edinburgh and Paris which is now it the collection of the European Maison de la Photography. He shared first prize for a Time Out magazine reporter award. Recent publications are '400ml" = 400 Graffiti Artists from Around the World Customize the Spraycan' (Kitchen 93 publishers) - Livraison Revue d'art special edition compiled by Pierre Belouin "Soundtracks for the Blind", and the cover photography for 'La Plinthe' by Mathias Delplanque on Optical Sound Records & Fine Arts.
He has performed live with Norscq, Simon Fisher Turner, Mathias Delplanque, Olivia Louvel, Paul Kendall, Oldman, Rob Mazurek, Tim Whelan, Christian Vialard, Rodolphe Burger, David Thomas, Ghedalia Tazartes, Alain Bashung, UHT, Rainier Lericolais, Edward Perroud, Mohamed Roubhi, Ez3kiel, Carlo Brandt, Steve Arguelles, Cyril Atef, Bart Plantenga, Nicolas Marmin (aka bondage), Didier Calléja, Olivier Cadiot, DJ Mute, Wide Open Cage, Rachid Taha, the duo 2 Kilos & More and the duo BlackNox (Black Sifichi/Gerome Nox)
His narrative skills have been used for the films "Hear me, children yet-to-be-born" by Sandy Amerio - "Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y" by Johann Grimonprez. The 2009 short film 'Les Songes D'Edmee" by Jerome Lefdup.
Radio productions include 'Wet Dreams of The Pope' text by Bart Plantenga and Black Sifichi for Dutch National Radio, 'Pamplemousse by Yoko Ono' directed by Helena Villovitch for Radio France And Locked Out vs RBS for Radio Creation day.
In October 2009 Sifichi created the electronic and vocal work "Reaching For The Centre of Your Mind" (text and sound) for the Centre Georges Pompidou and Optical Sound records.
Sifichi has also made the full length video "Twist Over" with visual artist Roma Napoli with texts by Paul Lafargue. Another film entitled "Escape" which creates the strong effect of falling, "The Fly", "Scrolls : Volumes 1 & 2" and provides the visuals for Lena and The Floating Roots Orchestra.