Publishing writing by musicians, artists, critics and listeners of contemporary music and associated arts practice.
Ramones – Ramones (Sire, 1976)
The albums we love have it easy. If they’re within earshot they can luxuriate in the praise—be it ham-fisted, needlessly abstract or recklessly passionate—heaped upon them. It’s a relationship complicated primarily, if at all, by extra-musical associations: various and sundry hormone- and/or adrenaline-churning experiences involving love, loss, theft, success, or abject failure. Continue reading “Adam Sonderberg ‘Tick Mark Studies’”
There’s a note on the stairs: “Things are not very good. He refuses to eat because of diarrhoea – so juice, coffee, tea (in red canister).” My mother’s gone to a rehearsal for an Easter performance of the St. Matthew Passion, and I’ve come back to the house where I grew up in Bradford to look after my father for the hours while she’s away. He’s 93 and has been subject to debilitating infections for much of the past year. He’s had trouble swallowing for some time, and from his bedroom upstairs I hear an ugly, phlegmy cough every minute or so as he tries to clear his windpipe. His balance is poor, and several falls have left his skin marked with countless dark bruises which refuse to heal. Intellectually he’s still pretty much there, and he listens every day to the news in French and German as well as English, but the constant ailments make him miserable and he’s ready to die. Continue reading “Simon Reynell ‘Thoughts on Not Being a Musician’”
For the month of November 2011 I was an artist in residence in Delhi with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the media research center Sarai. One of my proposed projects for this residency was a continuation of my “Unheard Cities” series of works, which I’ve been realizing since 2002. “Unheard Cities” explores how we perceive urban sound environments in the form of installations, musical performances and, in the case of “Unheard Delhi,” works for radio. In “Unheard Delhi” I interviewed eight people with the question, “What is your favorite sound or sound environment in Delhi?” I recorded all the answers and then went out in the city and recorded the corresponding sounds. The resulting recordings and interviews were then mixed together for an approximately 60-minute long audio portrait of the city. I produced an earlier version of this piece, “Unheard Zürich,” in 2007. Continue reading “Jason Kahn ‘Notes on Unheard Delhi’”
1. Prepare a piano.
2. They found the point in the room most distant from the piano.
3a. The inside of the piano.
3b. The outside of the piano. Continue reading “Michael Pisaro ‘Prepared Piano (Sketchbook) 1997-2000’”
I would postulate an animal that lives at the far reaches of the atmosphere, “hanging” in space and moving by electric/mechanical energy originating in its thought processes. Continue reading “Jeph Jerman ‘Fantastical Zoology’”
