Sunday, June 07, 2009

Laso Halo

Laso Halo

Laso Halo is/was North Carolina's Ted Singdahlsen and Mark Robinson. The duo continue to work as Lemmons the Shiny Clown. Check out Laso Halo's 1994 performance of "Lemmons the Shiny Clown" at The Brewery, in Raleigh, North Carolina HERE.

A self titled vinyl LP was released in 1992, and there were a few tracks included on Wifflefist's "Scattered and Smothered" CD, in 1995, as well. Wifflefist was a North Carolina artists collective which counted Laso Halo among its members, along with Glockenspiel and Silica Gel (to name but a few).

Singdahlsen has done everything from web design and 3D animation, to working with video, computer games and robots. Robinson's been similarly busy, teaching, lecturing and working in a variety of media. Check out their project, Lemmons the Shiny Clown, HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Laso Halo's Mark D. Robinson...


*Name: Laso Halo

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No

*Do you use a pseudonym?
A project birthed from Laso Halo directly is the Lemmons the Shiny Clown project. He is as we are as one.

*Members: Ted E. Singdahlsen and Mark D. Robinson

*Founding Members: The same - Mark and Ted

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations:
Yes

*Another genre descriptor:
*Is there a story behind your name? We like word games. Lasso Halo was a phrase Ted ran past me one day and I thought - "Bing!" Then we went to make a demo record and our cover art had some girls on the front all holding hands. Problem was there were only 4 girls and we wanted a letter per sock...thus, we lost a "s." A letter seemed a reasonable sacrifice.

*Location: Durham, NC

*What is your creative/artistic background: We have degrees in music, visual arts,and cultural theory. Ted has been able to create and draw since I can remember - since childhood. He has always impressed me on almost every level. He taught me that it was OK - good to create things. I came from a science family but have worked in audio since I was 5 or so. I made tape loops and spun records, I am not certain I was creating much but I had a great time. We tried numerous bands, played live a good bit, but realized that we were the most comfortable working as just the two of us spinning records, creating tape loops, using samplers etc. We also play instruments which is fun but more zen than the sampling. The university degrees in all that "fancy" sh** came later... we were trying to improve our chances in the job market - plus the fun audio stuff was always a bit expensive and we like toys. Wifflefist came as an extremely pleasant fortune - people of like minds working to similar ends. They sponsored a live show and LASO HALO was on the bill. We played an unreleased album from reel-to-reel and unfolded the beginnings of the Lemmons the Shiny Clown project... After the release of the Wifflefist "Scattered Smothered and covered" compilation CD they disbanded. Laso Halo went back to the studio but we did not release anything publicly.

*History: 20+ years

*Born: 1965 Penn. and NC

*Motivations: Audio is our means of communicating that which we cannot convey in any other format.

*Philosophy:
It seems to be in ever-evolution.

*How would you like to be remembered: Contributing to the electromagnetic debris that sings throughout the universe.

*Web address:
mrobin.com
tedsing.com


www.some-assembly-required.net

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting reading. Thanks Jon for all you've done, and thumbs up to Mark.

Anonymous said...

I used to have a Laso Halo Lemmons the Shiny Clown Paupaus Gettin Warm t shirt I wore the hell out of. It had Lemmons looking over a farmer whipping a pig on a vehicle. I'd love to get another one (that specific shirt). Anyone know how?

Jon Nelson said...

I don't know about that shirt specifically, but they seem to have some things available here:
http://www.cafepress.com/shinyclown

and their contact info is listed at their website - go straight to the source: lemmons[at]shinyclown.com

good luck!
Jon

Mark Robinson said...

Jon, LASOHALO released a few songs yesterday - album in the works. Thought you and your audience might find them interesting: https://soundcloud.com/lasohalo