Floccinaucinihilipilification

2012-01-27T05:31:00.001-08:00

At Cat

2012-01-27T05:27:00.001-08:00

Eden and After

2012-01-27T05:25:00.001-08:00

2011-12-09T11:03:00.001-08:00

Gagalactyca

2011-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

2011-11-21T16:05:00.001-08:00

2011-11-21T16:03:00.001-08:00

2011-10-27T10:25:00.001-07:00

2011-10-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

2011-10-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

Stanley Crawford - Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine

2011-09-21T13:52:00.001-07:00

2011-09-17T12:06:00.001-07:00

oh my

2011-09-08T08:39:00.001-07:00

Exposé of 1935, III. Grandville, or the World Exhibitions

Yes, when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrine, O divine Saint-Simon,
The glorious Golden Age will be reborn.
Rivers will flow with chocolate and tea,
Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain,
And sautéed pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with crushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compotes,
And farmers will harvest boots and coats.
It will snow wine, it will rain chickens,
And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.

-Langlé and Vanderburch, Louis-Bronze et le Saint-Simonien (Théâtre du Palais-Royal, February 27, 1832)

2011-09-07T15:05:00.001-07:00

2011-08-28T02:48:00.001-07:00

Henning Christiansen

2011-07-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

The music of Henning Christiansen is an odd one to describe, it comes from the 20th Century avant garde movement but does not sit comfortably amongst any of the recognisable patterns within this open ended field. It often uses a collage technique but is not strictly 'musique concrete', there is no chance based experiments but there often appears random gestures, improvisation is an element but this is not do or die free improvisation. Henning's work can be beautiful, unsettling, discreet, random, charming and hilarious. There is a human behind all this and one who's objective avoids the pitfalls of radical gesture, one which is more in tune with nature, to the extent that today it possibly remains more radical than the rest.

Henning Christiansen, to this day remains an obscure artist and musician. Whilst pages of energy, words and print have been laid down towards such radical cultural hero's as Sun Ra, Stockhausen, Miles Davis and Keith Rowe to name but four, very little attention has been paid unto the man who was the regular provider of the sonic backdrop for Joseph Beuys performances along with being a mainstay of radical Dutch performance for over 40 years. Christiansen was one of these European post modern artists that sprung out of the overflowing well of Fluxus inspired activity. Along with Joseph Beuys, he hung out with the likes of Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, David Moss and various Danish folk. He predominately worked within the world of visual artists which I discern contributes somewhat to his neglect in the experimental music media and community.

Henning Christiansen was born in Copenhagen in 1932, he lived in Denmark his entire life, the bulk of his later years spent with his wife and children on the island of Mon. Christiansen studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen from 1950 - 55 and again in 1961-63 where he took lessons with Vagn Holmboe (practising a more neo-classical style). In 1962 he attended the Darmstadt Summer School and by default landed in the hotbed of activity surrounding the budding Fluxus movement after he became involved with the George Maciunas's International Festspiele Neuster Musik. This event was an epiphany for Henning who's his artistic practice and musical scores took a radical shift after he met others leaning towards a more open ended approach to musical practice (keep in mind many of the original Fluxus artists came from a musical/composition background). This is all commonplace now, old hat even. It wasn't then, and, with regards to Henning's music it remains oblique to this day, retaining a mysterious charm, moreso than say the sound of someone flushing a toilet or some other obvious Fluxus shenanigans (it's funny how the sound of toilet flushing can 'date').

Henning became one of the central figures of the Danish branch of the Fluxus movement and was aligned with the radical Danish art movement Ex School along with Per Kirkeby, Bjørn Nørgaard and Poul Gernes. Arthur Köpcke, was another significant peer in this early period for it was he that exposed much of the Danish community to the the more radical gesture's of contemporary art coming out of New York, Germany and elsewhere.

Henning started out in composition, he wrote dozens of works in the 60's, Den rokadiske [The Castling] for string quartet (1966), Laenge leve livet [Long Live Life], Op. 76 (for recorder, cello and harpsichord) and In the Deep Woods, Op. 102 (for 5 tubas) to name but three. He also made music for film and television although it is hard to hear any of these works as very little documentation exists and there are next to no performances of these scores. 'Konstruktioner' is one such work that was released on vinyl, providing some insight into this stage of his output. It comes across as a neo-classical work with minimalist leanings. The formal structure is at odds with his later pieces but remains a charming piece of the puzzle. A straight springboard in which to leap into the unknown.

It is his collaborative work with Joseph Beuys and what followed after this that would provide the most fruit from his output. Throughout a series of collaborations between 1964 and 1985 these two shared a common belief in the performance as a liberating means of expression for the individual. Christiansen provided the soundtrack and collaborated with Beuys on numerous performances : 'Rastplatz bite Sauberhalten' (1967), 'Eurasienstab - Fluxorum Organum' (1968), Die Grosse Grune Zeitsymphonie' (1980-81) and 'Friedenskonzert'(along with Nam June Paik) and many more.

Let's run through a few of the works that were made during and after his collaboration with Beuys.

"Euranienstab" is a musical piece made for the performance 'organum Fluxorum Euransianstab 82 min Op 39' in 1967. For this performance Henning Christiansen wrote a 5 part organ piece. 'Euranienstab' was performed twice only, in Vienna 1967 and in Antwerp 1968. The recordings of Christiansen piece for church organ were played throughout the performance and for some inexplicable the remaining video footage of the performance omits the audio. The piece of music is a made up of a series of bobbing repetitive deep melodic church organ refrains, Henning's work occasionally makes reference to Erik Satie, and this one in particular cites Satie's 'Mass for the Poor', a piece which is quoted verbatim in a later Christiansen work, 'Schottische Symphonie'.

"Schottische Symphonie Requiem of Art (aus Celtic) (Fluxorum Organum II)" is a stunning piece of what the ? music/sound which also re-uses the original Euranienstab recordings. Again, the church organ motif bobs up and down throughout the recording but this time is overlaid with a variety of sonic play, a hammer hits an anvil, a plane circles overhead, a grief stricken human moans and groans in a quasi musical manner. German text punctuates proceedings at one point, a female voice, relaxed yet affirmative. It is borderline whether this can be music, even today we are familiar with a single sine wave as music, noise is as familiar as pop (moreso ?) to the experimental listener and all manner of decayed, destroyed audio is accepted as entertainment. But this work remains none of these things. It seems somewhere in the middle of a radio play, a sonic collage and a traditional church organ concert. It's foreign and foreign is good (a rare bear).

"Symphony Natura op.170" (1985) is an extended collage based on recordings made at the Rome Zoo in 1985 with electronic sounds incorporated throughout. Again, despite the synthetic nature of this approach the results are a fluid sonic journey which highlights the uncanny nature of nature. When discussing this work, Christiansen encapsulates his movement from the world of composition to that of natural sound, providing the listener with a comical bridge between the two:

"First of all, I think of Bruckner's great symphonies modelled after nature, from the days of flourishing orchestral culture, great feelings and gazing into the soundscape. Which was always the landscape of a concert hall and musicians dressed up as penguins, many violins. Originally most ideals of instrumental sounds were derived from animal voices or other sounds of natural phenomena. The violins, for instance: someone found out that stretched out, dried bowels could produce sounds, there is a funny saying: "My bowels are crying.

The technique of re-working older material is a common theme throughout Christiansen's later works. Sonic motifs re-appear on various recordings, re-contextualised in a manner which highlight the transitory element of the sound. All sounds can be locked into a composition but even within these man made walls there is a restless spirit in which they remain isolated, anxious and adaptable.

Henning's relaxed approach is one of the more appealing aspects of his craft. He never positioned himself as a prophet or an intellectual. If we take a look at 2 major works made for 'stones' in the late part of the 20th century we may see the crux of what makes Henning's creative output so unique and so disarmingly unfamiliar to the general approach of sound artists under the post Cage spell. His is a music that was made in the field, not concocted for a lecture hall.

In 1968-74 Christian Wolff wrote an instructive score based around stones, the performer is asked to play these objects as a means of extracting the sound matter from within :

Make sounds with stones, draw sounds out of stones, using a number of sizes and kinds (and colours); for the most part discretely; sometimes in rapid sequences. For the most part striking stones wfth stones, but also stones on other surfaces (inside the open head of a drum, for instance) or other than struck (bowed, for instance, or amplified). Do not break anything. - Christian Wolff, STONES

When one listens to performances of this revered work one gets a sense that the players take a rarified approach, painfully extracting the potential of the stones with all the delicacy of an archeologist brushing away the last remains of dust to see what ancient treasures lurk beneath the surface. Henning Christiansen also recorded stones, he set up a microphone and threw stones into a bucket within the vicinity of the mic, the sound is so common yet it strikes the listener as unusual, it's beautiful without being profound and so simple in it's gesture that it makes the Wolff piece seem like his 'licht' cycle. I don't think Henning cares if he breaks anything.

There is a problem I have with the mid-late period GRM school of musique concrete and much of the post cage world of liberated / organised sound. The GRM fell into the trap of disguising/destroying any original sound via an obsession with technological developments that the process itself rendered the original material hideously disfigured. This is all fine and good, these bearded maniacs can chop and maim at will but I never quite understood why the original sound material was no longer incorporated into the whole. At a guess I think Michel Chion came to similar conclusions as if evidenced in his recent work 'La Vie En Prose - Une Symphonie Concrète' which relies more in the positioning and juxtaposition of everyday (familiar) sound than the annihilation of such material via sonic process. This is the 21st Century but the chatter of a monkey still exists amongst all the twitching technology.

Henning Christiansen is sympathetic with sound, all sounds. He is not one to distinguish a hierarchy amongst any of them, they are not formulated into an ambient gloop or twisted into extreme shapes, rather the rattle of a piano's low end can sit alongside fried electronics, the reverb drenched conversation of a large acoustic space is on par with a blacksmith bashing hammer on anvil. The human voice recites text in a calm yet affirmative manner or may re-framed as parody via varispeed tape manipulation. A Christiansen recording, any Christiansen recording may encompass multi-lingual voices, stones and vacuum cleaners, hammers, coins in a glass bowl, footsteps on gravel, a bullfrog, rocks in a box, 100 blows with a hammer, a pipe, a blood pipe, under pressure, a canary, sheep and hens. There is a genuine love of sound here but one which is captured in the natural world, not dissected in the concert hall.

Of course any distinction between high and low culture was dismantled so long ago so that a man writing for a string quartet in one decade and recording stones being thrown in the next is hardly surprising, but what stands it here is how smooth the transition was. There is a no 'pain' in the work of Christiansen, no patronising screams of the infant child being torn from the remaining fragments of 'the old world'. Henning's work has a symbiotic relationship with the 'weird' - a natural tendency to explore unpopulated parameters of musical practice elevates him above those that intend to provoke with conscious shifts in formal identity. He is enjoying himself and the listener cannot help but join him in this celebration. His works survive as documents despite being constructed for performance.

Some insight into the origins of his practice and the unusual results later in his career can be gained from his original formal training :

"I feel most of what I have done is based on the academic, the classical. What I learned at the Conservatory has had tremendous significance. To me, the classical is the accumulated experience on how to form a work of art freely floating in space, so that it's linked to the nature that surrounds us and is within mankind. Earlier, I said "man is also nature, it's a synthesis".

Henning's music has a unique vision that remains elusive and mysterious to this day. Why he is never mentioned in any history of 20th Century experimental music or sound art literature is beyond me. I was in a bookstore recently and glanced through the index of yet another new book on the what is obviously a budding new market, that of 'sound art' and again the roster of subjects discussed is as predictable as the queen's speech at Christmas. All of those who are cited again and again by lazy academics who prefer to reiterate the obvious then truly explore under the cracks and in amongst the walls.

Henning Christiansen was an explorer, one who carried on his journey throughout all of his adult life, uncovering the dirt under the rocks and discovering that the matter there can be as poignant as that which sits above it.

Schoenberg / Satie Party

2011-07-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Jorge Luis Borges

2011-07-05T04:04:00.001-07:00

Self Portrait of Jorge Luis Borges, After He Went Blind

J G Ballard - The Crystal World

2011-07-05T04:01:00.001-07:00

Pink Floyd - Cirrus Minor

2011-06-29T13:54:00.001-07:00

2011-06-29T13:51:00.001-07:00

2011-06-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

Franca Sacchi "I always wanted a Dog , A Cat And A ...I always wanted a Dog , A Cat And A Horse - Now I Have A Cat And A Horse , I was only missing the dog"

2011-06-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

2011-06-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

2011-06-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

nightime in the daylight
slumped like soup
waiting to be ladled
the sounds of the zoo
crossed with the city
a gibbon for all
the roach croaked
"take them all"
the roach bellowed
no one listened
but the gibbons left
on their own accord
setting up home
in a disused factory
once home to production
intricate wires moved into form
artificial silk worms
were unaware of practical use
of their daily labour
their measly pay
their insulting xmas bonus
their instant coffee
the nerve of those that spoke of such matters
a silk worm with a flat white
a flat white line from the school
tracing the journey
from home
to work

2011-06-24T16:32:00.000-07:00

5 highlights from the recent 'Shock' catalogue update (ie: Stefan Jaworzyn is still a card)

2011-06-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

STOCKHAUSEN Unsichtbare Chore (DG, Gr) Apparently the full recording of the chorus use in Donnerstag Aus Licht - 50 minutes of hardcore unaccompanied bellowing. Rock out with your cock out. Ex(+)/M- £20.00

STRIBORG Embittered Darkness/Isle de Morts (Southern Lord, US) 2LP. One album of 'new' (2006) recordings and an album of old '97 demos (as Kathaaria) from this prolific Tasmanian BM human toilet. Real crude, lo-fi gibberish which causes me to laugh hysterically I wonder, idly, what his intentions were when he recorded this nonsense…Is he a fucking idiot or what? I like to think so. Black vinyl edition of 600. O/p. Ex/M-/M- £15.00

CHARLES TYLER QUARTET Definite Vol 1 (Storyville, US) Live in Stockholm, '81, w/ Steve Reid on drums, trumpeter Earl Cross & bassist Kevin Ross. Four long tracks, some dandy Cross/Tyler interplay, and a nice raw sound. Small tear on back cover, not bothersome even to me, and I am a fucking psycho. Ex/M £15.00

NURSE WITH WOUND The Bacteria Magnet (Dirter) White vinyl 12", edition of 300. Looks great but the music is indescribable drivel, I feel raped having heard it. And not in a good way. No inner sleeve. M-/M

GUNTER BRUS HERMANN NITSCH DIETER ROTH GERHARD OSWALD RUHM WIENER Munchner Konzert Mai 1974 (Edition Hansjorg Mayer) 3LP box set, possibly an edition of 500, though that sounds high. Who knows. Six sides of repulsive old men (some fat) making a horrible noise for Art's sake. Box has a bit of wear but is generally in good shape. Records are all mintish. Pretty rare. £250.00

2011-06-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

the day woke
and sprang into shape
it knew
it had much to do
overseeing
attending
shifting
moving
circling
revolving
preparation required
to take what criticism came it's way
it knew
the task was similar to the previous
but no 2 days can be repeated
and for this
grief is on it's way

2011-06-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

2011-06-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

2011-06-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

Fools and Fanatics face the world Fantastic
what choice do they have
when they wake
and move into the day
more dance
the thrill of moving
the company that swept
cleaning up the bench
as the remains ended
in turns

in the middle, us

the farm
there was once 1000
but it seems to be going well
so now
at a guess
2500 or so
they eat
they make waste
and this juice is gold
gold for the garden
a garden of gold

2011-06-10T06:22:00.001-07:00

2011-05-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

748,234,986,012

2011-05-19T09:50:00.001-07:00

Guianan Saki
Bisa
Beesa
Saki a Tête Blanche
Weisskopfaffe
Weisskopfsaki
Aliki
Huruwe
Wanaka
Sakiwinki
Wanaku
Sacca Winki
Wanakoe
Yarke
Yarque
Thari-ki
Pithecia pithecia

stylitism

2011-05-19T09:49:00.001-07:00

Stylitism

How to spell
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styliitiismstylietiesmstyleiteismstylaitaism

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stylitimsstylitsimstylitsmistylitmisstylit

Word analysis of stylitism
Length 9
Vocals stylitism
Consonants stylitism
MD5 2e5c3e9acf89b334b0b2f7f2424b35d9
SHA1 003dea7abc644c6477ad19762f13413ef71cbea6

2011-05-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

2011-05-11T00:48:00.001-07:00

2011-05-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

2011-05-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

2011-05-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

2011-05-08T13:17:00.001-07:00

"His soul is hidden separate from his body inside a needle, which is in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a hare, which is in an iron chest, which is buried under a green oak tree, which is on the island of Buyan, in the ocean".

2011-05-08T11:23:00.001-07:00

industrial music article

2011-05-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

When my head got banged on the door, I screamed,
"My head, my head." And I screamed, "Door, door."
And I did not scream, "Mother," and not, "God."
Nor did I speak of the vision of the End of Days
of a world where there will be no heads and doors anymore.

When you stroked my head I whispered,
"My head, my head," and I whispered, "Your hand, your hand.
And I did not whisper, "Mother," and not, "God."
And I did not see wonderful visions
of hands stroking heads in the opening heavens.

Whatever I scream and speak and whisper is
to comfort myself: My head, my head.
Door, door. Your hand, your hand.

Yehuda Amichai - My Head, My Head

2011-04-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

a feeble tan
a beach no longer required
for the life of vitamin d
and within the night
your skin glows
a beacon for all
that lurk in your bed

- sand

Kevin Drumm / Jérôme Noetinger / Robert Piotrowicz

2011-04-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Press release for a new 7" on Bocian records here

Selten Gehörte Musik

2011-04-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

Made in Worpswede

2011-03-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

John Forbes - Melbourne (after Max Jacob)

2011-03-01T05:14:00.000-08:00

The incessant trams are the colour of the skin
after a course of suntan pills and your opinions
have to change a lot, like the weather but more
deliberately; where fashion is argued for, is
true love like two speech balloons that merge,
even before the attached figures have met?
At least your blinding headaches will modulate to a
slow wastage of the self, as your drugged &
artificial suntan fades. Then a voice you've never
heard before--your own--will say: 'Be a caricature,
John, and not a cartoon, if you want to lose
your nostalgia for the sensual, glaring sun!'

Cleaning the desktop

2011-01-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

An Investigation of the Stone and the Shadow

2010-12-30T13:57:00.001-08:00

a poem by Giorgio Agamben

The Lion dreams
and dreams the Rose.
The Rose dreams
and dreams the King.
The King dreams
and dreams the law.
The law dreams
and dreams grace.
Grace dreams
and dreams the circle.
The circle dreams
and dreams the line.
The line dreams
and dreams pain.
Pain dreams
and dreams the scale.
The scale dreams
and dreams the shadow.
The shadow dreams
and dreams Gold.
Gold dreams
and dreams the stone.
The stone dreams
and dreams the serpent.
The serpent dreams
and dreams poison.
Poison dreams
and dreams death.
Death dreams
and dreams destiny.
Destiny dreams
and dreams life.
Life dreams
and dreams the mask.
The mask dreams
and dreams god.
God dreams
and dreams the word.
The word dreams
and dreams the Rose.
The Rose dreams
and dreams man.

Man dreams
and dreams the stone.

2010-12-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

Here in the Year

2010-12-24T02:56:00.000-08:00

2010:

Organum - Valentin 7"
Hype Williams - Han Dynasty I 7"
Call Back The Giants - ST LP
Kevin Drumm - Lights Out MP3
Helm - To An End LP
Luc Ferrari - Ephemere I & II CD
Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet - Air Supply CD
Reines D'Angleterre - Les Comores LP
Marsfield - Three Sunsets Over Marsfield LP
Vanessa Rossetto - Mineral Orange LP
Michael Pisaro - July Mountain (3 versions) CD
Michael Pisaro/Taku Sugimoto - 2 seconds / b minor / wave CD

Older Gear:

‪Pierrot Lunaire - Gudrun ‬
Opus Avantra - Introspezione
Search Party - Montgomery Chapel
Gerhard Rühm - Das Leben Chopins Und Andere Ton-Dichtungen
Robert Ashley - Your Money My Life Goodbye
Robert Ashley - Yellow Man with Heart with Wings
Robert Ashley - Perfect Lives (Private Parts): Music Word Fire And I Would Do It Again (Coo Coo)
Pierre Henry - Haut-Voltage / Coexistence
Massimo Toniutti - Il Museo Selvatico
Dennis Johnson - November
Cold Sun - Dark Shadows LP
Otto Muehl - Psycho Motorik LP
Otto Muehl - AAM 1 LP
Incredible String Band - Hangmans Beautiful Daughter
Henning Christiansen - Op. 39 Fluxorum Organum
Henning Christiansen - Abchiedssymphonie
Ron Nagorcka - Atom Bomb (performed by Golden Fur)
Parsons Sound - ST 3LP
Sand - Golem LP
Dadawah - Peace and Love LP
Walter Marchetti - Il Divano Dell'Orecchio

Literature:

Jonathan Littell - The Kindly Ones
William H Gass - The Tunnel
Patrick Lundborg, Aaron Milenski, Ron Moore et al - The Acid Archives
Hannah Arendt
Giorgio Agamben ( + Francis Plagne's thesis on Agamben)
The (actual) Cables

Film:

Shoah
Dogtooth
The Social Network

2010-09-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

The land of tables set by magic and roast chickens that flew into your mouth.

2010-09-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Michel Chion 1972

2010-09-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

2010-08-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Scene 1 – Well, now she´s with God, poor soul
Scene 1 – May God console you, neighbour
Scene 1 – Give her eternal rest, O Lord
Scene 1 – Funeral March
Scene 2 – Nanka, fetch some water
Scene 2 – Good morning, cook!
Scene 3 – Aha, it´s long journey on foot
Scene 4 – The last number, who still wants to dance?
Scene 4 – Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! – Hey, best man, sing a farewell song
Scene 5 – We´ve been together two years now
Scene 5 – Drudge alone? Aren´t older children nearly fit for work?

Scene 6 – Rock-a-bye baby, my little baby-faced Tonecek!
Scene 6 – Has she gone?
Scene 6 – Rock-a-bye baby, my Tonecek
Scene 7 – You damned, lazy devils!
Scene 7 – You´re a thankless creature
Scene 8 – What kind of food is this?
Scene 8 – Another day gone
Scene 9 – Get up, you! Get up, you!
Scene 10 – You see, old man, they´ve all left us

2010-08-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

Recent Playlist

2010-08-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

Source Records 1-6 Music of the Avant Garde, 1968-1971 - Various 3cd
'Throw more Bottles' - Public Image Limited audience mp3
Un grand sommeil noir - Edgard Varèse cd
Crepuscule With Pac-man - Intelligence LP
Like I am, Comme Je Suis - Unovidual + Tara Cross mp3
November - Dennis Johnson mp3
Before Today - Ariel Pink LP
Khayef Aqool Ellik Fi Albi - Fairuz mp3
Krampus With Scale By The Moon - Francis Plagne - mp3
Turku - Erkin Koray mp3
U.F.O Dictator / Tampax (in the cunt) - Tampax 7"
Call back the Giants - Call back the Giants LP
The very Best of - Buffy Sainte Marie LP
Cro Magnon 7"
1978 Demo - Wire LP
Basement Recordings 1978-1982 - Leo Coomans LP
Dogs In English Porcelain - Vanessa Rossetto cd

3 track 12" - Hecker LP
Gudrun - Pierrot Luniare LP
L'opéra Concret - Michel Chion cd
Fathom - Douglas Quin LP
To an End - Helm LP
Things that Dreams are made of - Hygiene 7"
Musique Barbare - Karel Appel mp3
Untitled (1993) - Lory d mp3
Loops and Reels - Peter Hammil cd
Agonie Ajournée - Agonie Ajournée

2010-08-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

I really do not use this blog much at all do i? Not sure how this situation came to be. Other fields of interest overwhelmed my desire for adorning these pages with my sparkling prose. Maybe, rather I think 'i can't be arsed' rattled in the noggin so much it became an everyday reality leaving a few relevant pictures cropping up here and there and very little else. Talking about pics I put some in here recently and will run through these quickly.

The girl below is taken from one of the Frans Zwartjes films, 'Behind your Walls' - it's a great film, he's a great man. This photo has that lynch 'wuzza in trouble' vibe about it. It reminds me of a good friend of mine, hence the inclusion.

Below this we see a man with 2 cats. The man looks decent enough in that wholesome 'leave it to beaver' way - ie: somethings bubbling away underneath that snappy suit and chunko glassed. Mind you that could have something to do with the two cats. Breathing or stuffed? I can't tell. Anyway this chap is João Guimarães Rosa from Brazil, a giant of South American literature who once wrote a lengthy number called 'The Devil to Pay in the Backlands'. I am desperate for a copy of this at a reasonable price and more than often this is the number 1 book that enters my head as I enter one of the (several) good second hand book stores here.

Underneath Rosa we have a sample of Robert Walser's Manuscripts recently released by the passionate new directions publishing speaking of which, where's my copy of Anne Calson's 'Nox' - that should have been here some weeks back?

Another fly repeatedly lunges into the reflection of trees found lurking in the giant mirror on my wall.

Next down we have Clarice Lispector - an amazing looking woman who has written many books on my list but none of which I had a chance to indulge. Another Brazilian writer who fascinates from afar but I truly think this was posted for aesthetic reasons.

Dripping Junk is Graham Lambkin's new book which, along with moving house has occupied much of my time this summer. Not a bad place to be at all really. Stock should arrive this week and having the sample I can assure all that this one's a bit of a beast with the size and scale being a big step up from 'Dumb Answer to Miracles' - I was shocked when i pulled this sucker out of the bag, it's serious. I like publishing. Now to get cracking on with (fingers crossed) future projects with Frans Zwartjes and Jacques Brodier

Jacques Brodier at his 'le filtre de realite'

The final image of the previous posts is a book of origin I do not know.

2010-07-04T10:45:00.001-07:00

2010-07-04T06:06:00.000-07:00

2010-07-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

2010-07-04T06:02:00.000-07:00

2010-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

2010-07-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Norman Douglas

2010-06-15T15:19:00.001-07:00

His last known words to those near him were - "Get these fucking nuns away from me."

2010-06-07T15:29:00.001-07:00

"During this time, Rossetti acquired an obsession for exotic animals, and in particular wombats. He would frequently ask friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the London Zoo in Regent's Park, and would spend hours there himself. Finally, in September 1869, he was to acquire the first of two pet wombats. This short-lived wombat, named "Top", was often brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece of the dinner table during meals. This fascination with exotic animals continued throughout Rossetti's life, finally culminating in the purchase of a llama and a Toucan which Rossetti would dress in a cowboy hat and persuade it to ride the llama round the dining table for his amusement."

I think it's a rather utopian

2010-04-19T01:58:00.001-07:00

"Hi,
I'm Alice and I come from Milan, Italy ..
I wish I could realize my dream and I ask for your support .. I wish I could meet Marilyn Manson ..
This is one of the biggest dreams of my life ..
I'd like to know Brian and I hoped you could help me ..

thanks anyway ..
I think it's a rather utopian .."

2010-04-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

2010-04-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

KEVIN DRUMM - Lights Out म्प३

2010-04-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

April 2010 ?!? Well I guess it's time i posted something here. Has been a slow start due the boy from Knox dealing with 'adverse weather conditions' but many hours indoors along with a stereo won in a raffle (?) has provided some musical moments worth savouring or at the very least jotting down here.

One of the first audio blats i encountered this year that pricked me lobes is this sucker by Kevin Drumm. you know the guy, respected Chicago improv man who suddenly went all noise mit black metal iconography and kick started a decade of noise/rock/punk/black that actually created much of cultural merit. Well after the new years he posted this 'Lights Out' release for all for free and man o man it's a good one.

I have had many mornings in the tube on the way to work finding no better way of blocking out the entire average experience than warping the immediate environment via this precise combination of sounds. As a headphone experience it never fails to thrill.

Just a perfect combination of frequencies - part merzbow - part ryoji ikeda - but outdoing both with it's precision and detail. I write this entry so you may enjoy also.

Avatar

2010-01-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

An email came in today from an old friend, former mail order customer (way back when), Sound Projector scribe and all round solidified human, Miss Jennifer Hor. I reproduce with certification. Oh and for the record I have not seen Avatar but I am sure I will someday, mind you I said that about ET once and I still have not seen that sucker. I still like the original Terminator and I also enjoyed the sequence in Titanic when the ship starts to sink (from a gravitational point of view!). Anyway none of this has anything to do with anything I just like Jenny's tone, hence the reproduction here:

"Killing myself laughing at news that a mountain in south China was renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain". Apparently the govt tourist authorities there hope to cash in on the James Cameron flick "Avatar". They claim that in 2008 some hack from Hollywood was taking photos of the mountain and they provided inspiration for the floating boulders in the movie. I find that a bit hard to believe. If some guy really was taking photos of the mountain, wouldn't he be arrested and get tossed into jail? Then again I confess to knowing very little about how local govt works in south China.

I did see the movie and when I saw the hanging himalayas, the first thing that flashed into my mind was that Studio Ghibli movie "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" which as you know features an aerial idyll similar to what was in "Avatar", only multiplied by 100. The other Studio Ghibli movie that flashed into my mind from time to time was "Princess Mononoke", esp during the scene when the Tree of Life got cut down by the choppers and missiles.

Just about everyone sees plagiarism of some sort or another in "Avatar". In the US, everyone sees Pocahontas, Dances With Wolves, Last Samurai and maybe Custer's Last Stand. In Russia, folks see books by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. I have never read any of their novels in English translation but some of them take place on a warm jungle planet called Pandora inhabited by 2 or 3 humanoid species, one of which is called the Nave. Because the story is so basic, you can hang any interpretation you want on it. I have seen reviews that say the movie is racist and other reviews that say it's not racist. Funniest opinion I've seen is one from George Monbiot saying it's "profoundly silly" and "profound". Best stick to arguing with Oz scientist Ian Plimer on climate change, Mr Monbiot.

The racist aspect of the movie for me was the concentration of political and religious leadership in the female warrior Neytiri's family. From the little I have read about hunter-gatherer societies, this would never happen (they usually have councils of elders which while hardly democratic at least diffuse leadership away from one person). But Cameron is catering for us supposedly more "civilised" audiences who often confuse politicians with messiahs so maybe he's having the last laugh on us?

Currently reading "The Good Soldier Svejk" again. Whenever I forget Hungarian and Serbian swear words I have to read that novel again".

Cheers, Jen

2010-01-05T15:25:00.001-08:00

2010-01-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

'The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the voice of procrastination, the sin of postponment, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters, meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked. This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people, more people, more countries. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us. The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision' - Anaïs Nin (1946)

2009-12-26T07:11:00.001-08:00

again with the minimalism

2009-12-24T01:48:00.000-08:00

In the end it was 2 minimalist composers who served the dish most savoured, these being Julius Eastman from the States and Roberto Cacciapaglia from Italy.

Anybody that writes 'Sei Note in Logica' and 'My Time' in the same career is bound to achieve prime status in these parts.

Eastmen is a story that must be told later but thanks to Mr Harper I was introduced to his unique world of piano repetition which sounds nothing like the others. His output also contains the kind of angry message that has me thinking that not all contemporary artists posit themselves as self satisfied saviours of culture.

2009-12-23T04:04:00.000-08:00

2009-12-23T02:16:00.000-08:00

As it turned out most of this year was spent sifting through the archives. Not one to be so enamoured with the music that has been coming out this year. Fair enough, working at a shitty distro would contribute to this, a place where the art as commodity dichotomy is magnified to an appalling level. Moreso when you are dealing with No Fun in one hand and Danni Minogue on the other.

Mississippi records was a great catalyst to dive head first into various waters from decades past and the LA hip hop humans behind Stones Throw (Peanut Butter Wolf, Edan etc) injected fresh life into the obscure psych world, unveiling with glee all kinds of continent hopping obscure gems for ALL to enjoy. The hip hop approach of 'check this out' sits in stark contrast to the hoarding Tasmanian bum crack approach found at records fairs where the record is kept hidden, expensive and unobtainable.

Finders Keepers likely stand as the start to all this with their zealous unearthing of obscure gems from all over the globe releasing and djing these to ears craving soemthing beyond your safe assed cool school dj shadow approach. Whilst i rant here Gaslamp Killer must be noted for following a similar path and provided one of the better mix cd's which did not get me castrated for repeated plays on the work stereo.

Electronic music and abstract music both floundered again, Hecker's 'Acid in the style of David Tudor' was a singular pearl as is to be expected at this point but my financial situation simply did not provide the neccesary moniters to fully enjoy and hear the detail that i know is lurking there.

Nate Young's 'Regression' which was an enthralling stripped back take on that whole Wolf Eyes/ American Tapes schtick. A superb example of tension via minimalism and silence.

Mattin's ball kept rolling with Billy Bao's May 08 release gaining recognition
and along with Gary Mundy providing some real pleasure grit to Philip Best's Consumer Electronics incredibly satisfying 'Crowd Pleaser'.

Emeralds 'What Happened' gave a solid 30 minute rip of classic 60's soviet avant electronic joy until buddy boy whips out his guitar and kleenex boarding back on the space craft for an unwanted smooth voyage home.

Some glumes, lemmas and paleas in the increasing muck but as mentioned at the start it was mostly old gold that blocked out the bleak and opened up shop on my street.

Let's run through some of those.

Various - The Sound Of Wonder! (Finders Keepers Records)
Pakistan showed up India for less quirk, more melody and a lower quotient of 'shrill' factor which makes most bollywood frightening to the bass crowd.

Schimpfluch-Gruppe - Paris Aktionen (Tochnit Aleph,Beniffer Editions)
The recording of 2 men slamming their faces into plates of bologanese appears. Thank you.

Eugeniusz Rudnik - Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia / Polish Radio Experimential Studio (Polskie Radio)
I went to Poland 11 times this year (!) - the output of the Polish Radio Experimential Studio has long since remained out of reach, gather dust and moisture about 15 minutes from where i sit. It's a frustrating situation, moreso for my pals who have tried and failed to negotitate releasing, or at least saving the gems that lurk here. This box set was the first sign of hope with it's exhaustive overview of one of the more obscure (to the west) and prolific composers. Love the love.

Josef Anton Riedl: Klangregionen 1951 - 2007 (edition rz)
Again, a much needed re-issue to enlighten the masses to experiments conducted by some chap who spent too much time every day carving his niche with labour intensive experiements. Go home and have some warm broth my friend.

Various - String Of Pearls: International 78s (Mississippi Records / Canary Records)
notable for finest lp cover of 2009 also!

Various - Mata La Pena (Mississippi Records)

The Pyramids - Birth/Speed/Merging (ikef)
Late arrival hyped by my housemate who, like most of the ctas i share my life with in London, like nothing more than some pounds in the pocket and a trip down to Honest Jon's where the fruit is always ripe and the financial damage is kind. Jazz somewhere between the playful melodic side of Sun Ra and the let's hop freak side of Art Ensemble of Chicago. A diamond discovery.

Various Psych Funk 101 (world psychedelic funk classics)
Example #1 of the hip hop excavation programme that worked so well for music fans of all ilk. Great mix from around the globe, neither of which are particular psych or funk when it comes down to it but 4 sides of hybrid musics which can be concocted only when moogs enter egypt, a library records brief states 'propulsive crime' and Magma's influence takes root in skilled fragile skull.

Various - Forge Your Own Chains (Now-Again)
This being the day after music for the heady brew of the record above.

2009-12-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

1. Louis-Ferdinand Celine - Journey To The End Of The Night (left on a bus 60 pages before finishing)
2. Roberto Bolano - 2666: A Novel (3rd book left on a plane 40 mins after finishing)
"It is mainly Literature that allows us to see the worst. And to know how to face it, how to overcome it. on the whole the man who play finds in the game the strength to overcome what the game leads of horror" - Georges Bataille
My most enjoyable read this year. Contemporary with dignity intact. Complex without the bravado. An extreme exploration of traditional narrative where endless threads unfold, move on, escape and contribute. On a macro level the arc's are unstable, on a micro level numerous punctuations amuse. Most feared the third book which details hundreds of murders of women in the desert borderlands of northern Mexico (I recall a man telling his friend he was stuck in this section at a second hand book store recently) but this section is a prime example of Bolano's 'range' as events wash past
the reader detailing a world continually operating at a larger scale, beyond any means of control. The individual is left drifting amongst these larger mechanisms contributing what they will and on occasion finding themselves caught in a tide from which they struggle to negotiate.
3. Gertrude Stein - Tender Buttons
4. Isaac Bashevis Singer - Love and Exile: An Autobiographical Trilogy
5. Dorota Maslowska - A Couple of Poor Polish-Speaking Romanians
6. Alain Robbe-Grillet - Project for a Revolution in New York
7. Guillermo Cabrera Infante - Three Trapped Tigers
8. Raymond Queneau - Exercises in Style
9. Ken Knabb (Editor) - Situationist International Anthology
10.Venedikt Erofeev - Moscow Stations

2009-12-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

01 Zelia Barbosa - Funeral do Lavrador
02 Frog - Witch Hunt
03 I.D Company - Bhagavad Seite
04 Roberto Cacciapaglia - My Time
05 S.E.M Studios - lvresse des profondeurs
06 Magma - Udu Wudu
07 Kim Sun - The Man Who Must Leave
08 Morocco - Opa Kukla
09 Santo & Johnny - Slave girl
10 Ursula Bogner - Begleitung für tuba
11 Ramases & Selket - (In My) Mind's Eye
12 The Sound Off's - The Angry Desert
13 Nino Rota - L'Uccello Magico A Dresda
14 Lori & the Chameleoons - The Lonely Spy
15 Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band - Ramadan in Space Time
16 Harvey Avenue - You're No Good
17 Wadih Essafi - Aandak Baharia Ya Rayess
18 Wanda Jackson - Funnel of Love
19 Morocco - Ela Tho
20 US69 - 2069 - A Spaced Oddity
21 J Matthews - Electrotwist
22 Screamin Jay Hawkins - I Hear Voices
23 Armando Sciascia - Circuito Chiuso
24 Jacques Thollot - Cécile
25 Unkwown Artist - Ahlan Wa Sahlan
26 Nelson Angelo and Joyce - Comunhão
27 Nino Rota - Ecclesiastical Fashion Show (Part 3)
28 Miguel Abuelo - El Muelle.mp3
29 Chico Buarque & Ennio Morricone - Funeral de Um Lavrador
30 Voices of Walter Schumann - Haunted House.wav
31 Francois de Roubaix - Judo
32 Lee Hazelwood - My Autumn's Done Come.m4a
33 Milton Nascimento - Pablo
34 Eddie Lang - Prelude in C Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2
35 Omar Khorshid - Rakset El Fadaa
36 Nelson Angelo and Joyce - Tudo começa de novo
37 US69 - 2069: A Spaced Oddity
38 Baligh Hamdy - Gada
39 Terauchi Takeshi + His Blue Jeans - Edo Komoriuta
40 Faiza Ahmed - Nootet Al Daaf
41 Baligh Hamdi - Raks El Asie
42 Little Egypt - Snake Charmer's Delight
43 Naushad - Dream Ride
44 S. Hazarasingh - Aa Jane Jaan
45 Charanjit Singh - Jaaneman Jaaneman
46 Amon Duul II - Mozambique
47 Ash Ra Temple - Jenseits (always)
48 Allahu Akbar - Fantastic Group
49 Blossom Toes - Peace Loving Man
50 Mehnaz - Bolo Na Kuch Bolo Na
51 Mehnaz - Khawab Mujhe Dikhlao Na
52 Brainbombs - Jack the Ripper Lover
53 Brainbombs - Drive Around
54 Brainbombs - Lipstick on my Dick
55 Oliver - In Vain
56 Klaus Nomi - Cold Song
57 Brian Eno - Driving me Backwards
58 Julius Eastman - Gay Guerilla
59 Fryderyk Chopin - Funeral March
60 Ake Hodell - Mr.Smith in Rhodesia
61 Jean-Marc Foussat - Images & Jalousies
62 Henry Mancini - Arabesque
63 Roberto Cacciapaglia - Sei Note In Logica
64 Quarteto En Cy - Tudo Que Voce Podi
65 Sparks - Escape Parts 1 + 2
66 Jorge Ben - Errare Humanum Est
67 Magma - De Futura
68 Moniek Darge - Turkish Square
64 Julius Eastman - The Holy Presence of Joan D'Arc
65 Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk
66 Julius Eastman - Evil Nigger
67 Tages - You're Too Incomphrehensible
68 Talking Heads - The Great Curve
69 Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - The L.S Bumble Bee
70 ZNR - Senete

2009-12-20T12:49:00.001-08:00

-17 °C

2009-12-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

"Late with my pizza, lied to me, call centre manager was useless, I'll never order from them again."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-12-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

All this lazy blogging will hopefully come to an end when i finally get some time off/away over the next couple of weeks by dipping my hard sun soiled Australian toes deep in the brittle Polish winter. Maybe, just maybe, i will find time to do some writing on various subjects that have been circling my top shelf, Brian Eno, Roberto Bolano, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Frédéric Chopin, Julius Eastman, Roberto Cacciapaglia, the difference between Psych collecting amongst the, erm 'psych collectors' versus the 'before the day' new hip hop archeologists, the complete and utter uselessness of 'current' musical tags that may get your goat also - yes 'hypnogogic', certainly 'noise' etc... and a year end wrap up and my views on where it all went rail hopping.

Believe?

In the meantime, here's a nice illustration by Leif Elggren available for chewing:

2009-12-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

2009-12-06T02:34:00.001-08:00

2009-11-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

"sleep, the greatest enemy of promiscuity" - G.Cabrera Infante

2009-11-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

photo: Thembi Soddell

2009-11-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

"No one should make important decisions under the influence of nostalgia, It can only lead to disaster".

Penultimate Press

2009-11-14T03:01:00.000-08:00

I will use the excuse of being very slack on this blog in many months due to working on establishing a 'proper' publishing imprint (words on paper) which is now ready to roll. First cab out the rank is a collection of writings by Graham Lambkin, he formally of the Shadow Ring (of whom we started correspondance after he read that post). It's really odd and a wonderful thing to hold and read. Further details can be found at Penultimate Press

Maryanne Amacher (1943-2009)

2009-10-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

When I left Australia there were s a handful of musicians I had in the back of my mind that I would like to see live: Nurse with Wound, Scott Walker, Consumer Electronics, Ghedelia Tazartes, Iancu Dumitrescu, Hermann Nitsch, Charlemagne Palestine... With the exception of the last 2 I have ticked all of this boxes (to varying degrees of satisfaction). Let it rest with high praise for Ghedelia Tazartes. This year there has been some wonderful shows by folks I never thought about, or rather never thought I would see - Omar Souleyman, Scott Foust (ultimate eccentricty) and Magma (holy!). But sad news this weekend as one of the most desired live performers I was hoping to witness at least once in my life has eluded me forever.

Maryanne Amacher was one of the more curious practitioners of sound installation that I have encountered over the years. Her work which was more interested in the perception of sound than strictly the sound itself or rather "Amacher's work is very concerned with what happens after you see and hear".

Although Tzadik released 2 cd's of Amarcher's output, the majority of her work was site specific as the nature of her explorations demanded playing with the architecture of a space, hence my keen interest to 'experience' this live.

"Why do you have to produce your work in this concert hall? Go out and find a beautiful space, a wonderful architecture." Right now we have no buildings dedicated solely to sonic experiences, other than frontal concert stages built for presenting nineteenth century music. This has been a serious problem, even in the last half of the twentieth century, alive with electronic media, multi loudspeakers, and interactive media".

I have heard accounts from friends that attended one of her performances, stories of intense volume via speakers set up in strategic positions (inside other objects, facing walls, up elevator shafts etc) all over the venue (usually warehouse spaces and the like). A different sonic world is experienced in every room as she had sculptured the audio specific the parameters within. One could wander freely and experience Amarcher's theories/experiments first hand. All of this 'sound in space' is not so dissimilar to what the GRM were doing with the Acousmonium but keep in mind this was in America, by just one person, not an institution.

"She talked about what she was doing as experimental acoustics and justifiably critiqued the "official" field as being in its infancy, relying on faulty tools of measurement rather than extensive first-person phenomenological research".

She was a student of Stockhausen, a one time member of MEV and a post Cage thinker who sat more in line with the 60's scientific analysis of sound matter along the lines of Alvin Lucier. But for her, the sound coming out of he speakers was not the key interest.

"Ms. Amacher, calmly but theatrically adjusting the knobs on her control panel, made the music sound as if 1,000 cicadas had settled on the inside of the ear; the music sprang from inside a listener's head - an unusual experience. " - Peter Watrous New York Times 1988

"At EMPAC she was using about 40 channels of audio, only about 4 were actually inside the theater! The rest were as far as three levels beneath, with carefully measured apertures created by doors, air vents, and so forth" Micah Silver, Oct 23, 2009

Amacher was also interested in the concept of time, the redundancy of composition and limitation on composers and players held no interest;

"The development of this expansive time spectrum in emergent technologies is for me today what an extended sonic spectrum that included noise was for Cage in 1937. As the possibilities of the "all sound music of the future" were to Cage, the possibilities of "all time music" are to me. In the twenty first century, new time worlds will be explored just as composers in the twentieth century explored new sounds".

Her approach to sound art was a always moving on a different current to those around her whilst, at the same time, being lauded by the European hard nuts and the American noise punks.

"Recent scientific experiments at Johns Hopkins have shown that our ears continue to emit sound for a few seconds after death, establishing that our ears not only receive and absorb sound, but also emit sound (referred to by researchers as "otoacoustic emissions").

Maryanne Amacher died on the 22nd of Oct at age 66.

Cage's Influence
Extremities: Maryanne Amacher in Conversation

2009-10-18T05:40:00.001-07:00

Nekrotzar

2009-10-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

Roland Topor's design for Nekrotzar (György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre -Teatro Comunale di Bologna 1979)

2009-10-09T03:31:00.000-07:00

Amazon marketplace can be a fine way of picking up cheap books. I skimped off a pound (!) to buy a second hand copy of a book recently. It arrived in 2 days (nice) the cover and condition looked almost new (super) and then i open up to see the last reader had underlined enormous parts of the text and added their own notes in the margins. This can be annoying as it only serves as a distraction to the reading 'flow' ( a VERY important sentence awaits you in 247 words time!) Ah, balls I thought, I should have been informed of this, have I been ripped off? should i have coughed up the extra squid for the new kaboodle? Then, as I continued to browse I noticed the underliner, this chronic note taker was also a crafty arter, having filled in what would have otherwise been a boring title page with the following pic. I flipped and was chuffed i was now in possession of a rather nifty, rather freaky sketch by an anonymous who?

2009-09-26T07:01:00.001-07:00

"For in chess, he says, every pawn can become a queen"

why one should apply themselves to their language studies

2009-09-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Last days of Hellingly Asylum

2009-09-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hellingly Hospital is located in East Sussex, a 2 hour drive out of London and is an extraordinary example of an old world Lunatic asylum.

Opened in 1903 and closed 1994, Hellingly sits on a hilltop (apparently "common practise at the time as it was believed that commanding views over pleasant landscapes had a theraputic quality that would speed up recovery"). and is so big and vast it once housed it's own railway station.

Ariel view of the asylum:

Designed by THE main man of asylum architecture from this period, George Thomas Hine, it was designed as a 'compact arrow plan with villas' and housed up to 2000 patients (I assume the boom of mind fry after the wars helped pack this and the other asylums strewn throughout this country back then).

It has remained abandoned since it's closure and is now a derelict labyrinth of decay, wear and vandalism.

After some hiccups it seems the days are finally numbered for Hellingly as word is destruction is due too commence within weeks.

Yesterday was a very pleasant 5 hour Sunday trespass which resulted in one of the finest outings I have had in the UK. It must be said it is impossible to explain/capture what it is like inside this space as it sits right now, I can't recall ever being in a space with so much visual information. An endless variety in the structure/collapse of walls, floors, windows and objects, all in various states of decay and corrosion, along with an overwhelming variety of textures from peeling paint, ash, paper, wood, charcoal, etc resulted in Parietal lobe fatigue!

An intense, unique and suitably special experience indeed.

Many good photo's can be found here and here. In the meantime a few of my shoddy ones:

Warszawa

2009-08-31T03:07:00.000-07:00

Apocalypse de Jean

2009-08-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Suffice to say I have no understanding of the text within. Regardless, this remains one of my favourite works by Pierre Henry presented here with neatly synched icon heavy video fromage.

2009-08-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

Mississippi

2009-08-18T13:23:00.001-07:00

Early in spring I started to do a bit of random research on Mississippi Records. I heard a few lp's and was impressed enough to investigate what their caper was. In summary I found out the labels operations are now run by two chaps - one, Warren Hill from Montreal who sells wax and more via his outlet 'Backroom Records & Pastries' and another chap, Eric Isaacson who runs a humble record store in Portland, Oregon sharing the same moniker as the label in question. They have been questioned for the legitimacy of their releases and on the flip have been forthcoming about pressing up bootlegs. Now legitimate, none of this is of any consequence and concern for us right now (not that are feathers are ruffled by such operations in the first place, unearth and distribute we say, by any means avaliable), what we are here to discuss is the goddamn holy burger tapes series they have been spitting out on the side of the 'official' label operations.

It's hard to gauge exactly who is behind these cassettes and tracing the entire discography remains a task I find little time to map but what I do know is that as far as download, bootleg, community service in the 21st century goes these are the total sparkling bomb discovery I have made this year of a musical matter. Every cassette is a world of musical discovery spanning a wide variety of styles, thematically compiled with quality and quantity riding in tandem. At this point I am not sure exactly how many of these cassette's are floating around - can anyone help?? the official resource has a listing of 'mrc 30' but my source for obtaining all these downloads has a 33rd volume. Both of these sources have fractured discographies and neither complete the puzzle. Logic begone!

Actually, having said this it must be noted that the random, haphazard approach of these tapes right down to the scrawled track listing and liner notes on the early additions are a mere ruse as once you listen you know that whoever it is behind these is one hellava serious collector nerd with supreme taste for the authentic in the post Harry Smith, or more to the point, post Revenant obsession for hiss riddled authenticity in many of it's of it's 20th Century guises from punk, ska, 70's gospel, pop, blues, folk and strange! The ear for the odd is found in the commercial and obscure alike.

Time has removed any prejudice in these selections so common hinderance like commercial success, individual ego, trends etc are long buried. And due to the so called 'illegality' licensing issues are out the window so free reign is afoot. A perfect platform to hunter and gather and have some fun and indeed the cats behind this series are doing just that.

It's hard to say the appeal here, I mean just how many freaking blogs are churning out free bytes by the hour, how easy is it too source pretty much anything in an instant but at the same time option paralysis is the Bell's Palsy of the music downloader so some guidance is a blessing and it just so happens I have been on a 'ye olde' schtick for quite awhile now so all this crackle just the ticket.

Amongst the treasures I have discovered so far via this series (and yes I am still working through the whole batch but as usual my listening habits get glued to certain points and these must be exhausted before moving on) are the following:

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - I Hear Voices (psychotic pop with 'you are there' vocal schizophrenia)

Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? (ultimate existential pop, deadpan genius)

The Sound Offs - The Angry Desert (incredible Joe Meek-esque sound ridden pop toon)

Zélia Barbosa - Funeral do Lavrador (simplistic Brazilian gold)

Klaus Nomi - Cold Song (Fuck! I never even knew about this character - why lord why?)

Eddie Lang - Prelude (In C Major) (Who the hell is this guy!! His take on Rachmaninov's spooky masterpiece tops even the over the
top interpretation by Ekseption 'On Sunday they will kill the world' - beautiful!

Lois Jordon - The Amen Corner (Riotous!)

+ Loads of Ska, gospel, soul, not too mention Asian Pop I can't even wrap my head around. And this is really just the nano tip of an iceburg so substantial it should keep these characters in the cocktail business for many moons to come.

You can do a lot of good for yourself to start with the following but truly all tapes have pearls in abundance:

Vol 1 House of Broken Hearts 1
Vol 2 House of Broken Hearts 2
Vol 14 Samba Triste
Vol 28 Classical Music For & By The People
Vol 32 Sunda Pop

Like Harry Smith's utterly essential 'Anthology of American Folk Music' the subject matter of these compilations often reside in the downtrodden, the glum, the melancholic, the hurt, the mundane, the desperate, the everyday etc... Loads of broken hearts, damaged souls, cheating, lies, bitterness and pain, ie: business as usual!

I cannot recommend the world unveiled in this series enough and for me (being no expert on what else has happened this year at all) I would rate these compilations as THE musical highlight of 2009. There is a world human in here which needs to be explored for the emotional intensity as much as creative output, oppression rules!

On a final note someone on the Root Strata blog mentioned how 25+26 in the series were straight up Kinks compilations which I personally think is hilarious and genius a) being that it's the Kinks (whom I have more than a soft spot for) and b) these folk are really having a ball with this whole shebang.

These are completely beautiful carriers of information that could only exist in this century whilst completely licking at the heels of the last, and what a glorious thang that is. Get on it folks - it will make yr world all that more round. That we can guarantee.