EYELESS IN GAZA – ORANGE ICE & WAX CRAYONS (CD by Catsun/Monotype Records) *
OUTPUT: NOISE – A SOUNDTRACK TO THE DSM-IV (CD by Output:Noise) *
KRILL.MINIMA – SEKUNDENSCHLAF (CD by Psychonavigation) *
CHRISTOPH FUNABASHI – THE BOOK OF HEADS (CD by Schraum) *
TAKUMI SEINO – OLD RED CHAIR ON THE PORCH (CD by Vos)
WINTSCH, WEBER & WOLFARTH – THE HOLISTIC WORLDS OF (LP by Monotype Records)
XTUL – IN THE MEMORY OF A ROSE NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN A GARDNER DIE (CD by Obfuscated Records)
ENDOMETRIUM – CUNTPLOW ECLIPSE BLINDNESS (CD by Obfuscated Records)
PULSATING CYST – HORRIBLE SIGNAL 7 (7inch by Obfuscated Records)
HELIUM CLENCH – SIEVE (LP by Bocian Records)
PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE – CHIAPANECA (LP by Bocian Records)
DISCO SPLENDOR – NEW WAGE (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
STREET THUNDER – HUNTER KILLER 2029 (CDR by Wggfdtb) *
DUPLANT & CHAMBEL & DROUIN – FIELD BY MEMORY INHABITED 1 & 2 (CDR by Rhizome.s) *
BELORUKOV & HARPAKAHYLO & LICHOTA & NASUNG – AFTER (CDR by Neuni) *
SEBASTIAN WESMAN – A BLUE BIRD (DVD-R, private)
IMPROKUP! IMPROVISATION AS SQUATTING AND LIVING TOGETHER (DVD and Booklet by
w.m.o/r 38 Stockholm)
EYELESS IN GAZA – ORANGE ICE & WAX CRAYONS (CD by Catsun/Monotype Records)
Last week I was reading ‘Stripped’, the history of Depeche Mode. At some 600 pages a lengthy history of a band recording an album, touring an album, do some drugs and repeat that for thirty years. But the small bit that really surprised me is that Eyeless in Gaza was their support act in 1986. That struck me, as in 1986 I may have lost Eyeless In Gaza out of sight, but by 1986 Depeche Mode was already a big band, playing bigger places already. I never realized that the duo of Peter Becker and Martyn Bates was so big at one point. Back in 1981 when I first heard them they were, I thought, one of the more interesting bands on what I thought was one of the more interesting labels at that time, Cherry Red. A label that dared releasing both post punk and way more experimental stuff, like A Tent, Five Or Six or Second Layer. Eyeless In Gaza was both at the same. A bit experimental, but never shy of a good pop/folk song, using drum machines, keyboards, guitar and vocals. By when I dived more deep into the world of cassettes (loving their split cassette with Lol Coxhil!), I didn’t keep up with them after ‘Pale Hands I Loved So Well’, the fourth album from 1982. They have played together all these years and an impressive discography at that. The only later work I heard was ‘Songs Of The Beautiful Wanton’ (2000) since it was on Soleilmoon, to which I had some business ties back then. I understand that this particular title is from 1991, when the group was in hibernation, following their temporary split in 1987. It’s a compilation of sorts of older stuff, bits and pieces from all stages of their career and it’s exactly that quality which I used to like them for. From some gorgeous great pop songs to more experimental percussion and vocals, as in ‘Street Lamps n’ Snow’, the outside rain sounds of ‘P.S. For Michael’ but also the great pop moments of ‘Hours Grow’ and ‘What I Want To Know’, or when it blends together such as ‘Formerly At Midnight’, some proto techno music. The balance here seems to be towards the more experimental stuff, but experimental in the hands of Gaza is where pop meets folk meets ambience meets drone, usually with keyboards and vocals. Experiments for the sake of creating some great weird pop music, and not for the sake of experiments itself. Just like was a common place in the early 80s. Albums like this make me realize I love this a lot, and what I so dearly miss out in a lot of the current “alternatively” (lots of salt needed) pop music scene, where everybody follows whatever is hip and have no sense of experimenting with form of a song. That makes me sad indeed. But maybe I get old and need to pull the plug on what I do and play Cherry Red records of those years and sulk all day? That would not seem right though, but I may play some more Eyeless In Gaza in the next few free moments this week. (FdW)
Address: http://catsun.monotyperecords.com/
OUTPUT: NOISE – A SOUNDTRACK TO THE DSM-IV (CD by Output:Noise)
Somehow I suspect this to be much older than the six months I normally accept for a release, but then I had already played it too often to ignore a review. It says c with a circle around it – 2011 – so there you go. Here we have an ‘ambitious conceptual performance: a fully improvised score directly influenced by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders’. Ten of these are set to music, groups were formed drawn from a hat. We only see last names here, and no instruments are listed. But me thinks there is a whole bunch of guitars, sound effects, short wave radio, synthesizers, maybe saxophones (or other wind instruments), cello and perhaps drum/percussion. As you could expect from such mixed matters, the music is a mixed bag too. From carefully strummed instruments to wildly improvised slabs of free noise. Could I tell the disease from just hearing it? Not really, I must say (perhaps with the exception of ‘Tourette Syndrome’, but maybe that was clear from the abusive languages used in the ‘vocals’, but I couldn’t tell ‘Cymophobia’ apart from ‘Trichotillomania’ sitting in my lazy armchair while listening to this. I thought the music was all pretty much regular improvised, with a tendency towards more the more free rocky agenda, with distortion on the guitar. At times – which means more than once here – I was reminded of the old live recordings by Violence & The Scared which are now being re-issued. Good and solid, and perhaps not entirely original. (FdW)
Address: http://outputnoise.com/DSM
KRILL.MINIMA – SEKUNDENSCHLAF (CD by Psychonavigation)
Martin Juhls from Dortmund works under various names, such as Falter, Marsen Jules and Krill.minima. In his early days we reviewed some of his work, I seem to be remember, but once he signed to City Centre Offices that was over. I am not sure what the differences are between the various names. Falter is described as ‘housy clickdub’, Marsen Jules as ‘orchestral’ and Krill.minima as ‘ambient’, but the way it sounds should be yet another hybrid combination of his other projects. Perhaps not as dance music based, but each and every track is build around a number of rhythmic loops. I understand Juhls samples these rhythms from ‘ordinary and non ordinary noises’ recorded in his living room. With these samples he creates a rhythm and then starts playing around with those rhythms, adding software synthesizers, sound effects and creates fine compositions with it. Not dark as many of his drone/ambient peers are doing, but there is a nice light texture to this music, bouncing happily around, like the bird like spring time music of ‘Nachtigal’, or the slightly exotic music of ‘Bienenkorb’, with its sampled children maracca’s. Sometimes Juhls ventures out to the world of dub/Chain Reaction/Rhythm & Sound such as in ‘Von Angesicht Zu Angesicht’, further blurring the dividing lines in his split musical personality – why is this not ‘clickdub’ I wondered. Perfect music to come down after a long party, but in my case the perfect music to start the day. Relaxed music, bro! (FdW)
Address: http://www.pscyhonavigation.com
CHRISTOPH FUNABASHI – THE BOOK OF HEADS (CD by Schraum)
A name not very often found in these pages is that of John Zorn. Obviously his music moves outside the world of the Weekly, but maybe it shouldn’t? That said, what I heard not always blew me away, but that said, I am hardly an expert on the subject of Zorn. In 1977 he composed a work ‘The Book Of Heads’, for Eugene Chadbourne. These are 35 Etudes For Solo Guitar and which are here performed by guitar player Christoph Funabashi from Hamburg. This is the second time this work makes it to a release, Marc Ribot was the first in 1995 (for Zorn’s Tzadik obviously). These thirty pieces range from mere twenty-one seconds to four minutes and uses four different guitars (I assume this includes acoustic and electric guitars), balloons, several metal objects, styrofoam, music boxes, various violin bows but no overdubs or edits of any kind have been made. It’s this briefness of pieces – most are around one minute – and the sheer variety of techniques used here, which makes this an interesting and somewhat exciting release. Strumming the strings but not playing a melody, using objects to play the whole instruments – body and strings – loud, quiet, wild (sometimes with distortion), careful, introspective and extravert. Of course I have no idea what the score looks like, and for instance Chadbourne would have played, nor to what extend Funabashi is using techniques which may be more common place now than in 1977. All that sort of considerations. What I do know is that this is quite a great release of improvised music. To be put on shuffle and repeat and have it running for some time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.schraum.de
TAKUMI SEINO – OLD RED CHAIR ON THE PORCH (CD by Vos)
Seino is a regular guest in the columns of Vital Weekly. Many of his CDs have been reviewed here. Often live recordings, like this new one. Seino (electric & acoustic guitars) is accompanied by Yasutaka Yorozu (bass) and Larry Marshall (drums). Marshall is an American drummer and composer who lives and works from time to time in Japan. Yorozu is a acoustic bass player from Kyoto moving within very different musical territories. Seino graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1996 and works mainly in Japan. Most of the time in small combinations if not solo, like the trio Haki Hachiya (vocals) and Paed Conca (clarinet) with whom he played in 2012 in Switzerland. ‘Old Red Chair on the Porch’ features seven compositions by Seino. Most of them of a laid back jazzy kind. However in the closing piece he gets lose, with a long and burning solo. Most of the time however we move along pleasantly meandering music that is however always directed towards a clear goal. Seino proves himself again a virtuosic and sensitive player. His playing is colorful and disciplined, with a clear and distinct sound. He is in good company with Marshall Yorozu, although the playing style of the drummer is not always the one I wish in combination with Seino. (DM)
Address: http://www.takumiseino.com
WINTSCH, WEBER & WOLFARTH – THE HOLISTIC WORLDS OF (LP by Monotype Records)
Another title came to my mind when I had this LP in my hands: ‘The Heliocentic Worlds of Sun Ra’. I’m not sure their title is meant as reference to Sun Ra, but they do have something in common. As ‘The Holistic Worlds of’ is above all remarkable for its use of synthesizers in an acoustic environment, this was also the case by Sun Ra, who is known for his use of synthesizers in his Arkestras. Anyway we are talking here of an excellent work, delivered by a Swiss trio of Michael Wintsch (piano, synthesizer), Christian Weber (bass) and Christian Wolfarth (drums). Recorded in a studio in Geneva in june 2011, some five years after their first release for Leo Records. A few notes on the players: Christian Weber comes from Zürich and did most of his studies in Austria. Christian Wolfarth also originates from Zürich and studied with Pierre Favre among others. He plays jazz and improvised music and was also involved in many interdisciplinary projects. Wintsch worked for filmmaker Alain Tanner, was long time member of rock group Monkey’s Touch, before interest in improvisation started to grow. He played with people like Fred Frith and many Swiss colleagues. Together with Baenz Oester he had a trio with Gerry Hemingway. Their new release contains 10 fresh improvisations that are inventive and imaginative. What stays most to my mind is the combination of acoustical instruments and the eccentric use of electronics. In the second track ‘Bells’ these sounds clearly refer to the sounds from the bells in a clockwork. Not surprising for a Swiss combo of course. In line with the following track ‘Mercury tears’ and most of the other pieces on this album, is their minimalist and open approach in creating textures that are are full of tension and never have a weak spot. They never chose for an uptempo journey, but consequently stick a searching and slowly progressing style of unfolding their ideas. Fine and satisfying work, released by the Polish Monotype label. (DM)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
XTUL – IN THE MEMORY OF A ROSE NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN A GARDNER DIE (CD by Obfuscated Records)
ENDOMETRIUM – CUNTPLOW ECLIPSE BLINDNESS (CD by Obfuscated Records)
PULSATING CYST – HORRIBLE SIGNAL 7 (7inch by Obfuscated Records)
Music for pleasure – programme music of horror and science-fiction phantasy where noise, produced from synthesizers is processed through echo and reverb to give such an aesthetic – of dreamlike, nightmarish scenes. If that is your thing then you will enjoy these three releases which all IMO present this aesthetic. I find the theme slightly corny, too Vincent Price horror, real horror comes in daylight wearing a suit and smiling. But this kind of gothic music is not about ‘the real’ but some imagined and exiting fiction. And that’s fine, I don’t care much for that, but this is just a question of taste, if listening to music is nothing more than a pleasurable activity. And of course this is a very questionable definition. But from my perspective, which is a certain set of ideas regarding noise, music is not up for discussion in any form. Why? Well in simple terms, and once again to wrestle noise from the musicians grip, music is (using some recent philosophical critique) correlationist. What does that mean? Well in idiots terms, music needs a human to listen to it in order for it to be music. Noise does not. So in the case here the echo and reverb is applied for the benefit of the listener, like putting syrup on your waffle. This immediately removes it from noise qua noise, which is not correlationist, into noise qua music, which is. The more idiotic one is the more noise can be appreciated, the more human one is the more music can be appreciated. This follows – does it not? Mindless things make noise, mindful things make music. This also shows that noise is not to be regarded as some Zen like uber sound either. Reverb et al are effects, special effects, as found in the movies, not real. Noise is not an effect but an affect. ‘Affect’ here being an object which may or may not give an effect – a human correlational response. I can see the objection to this review – but it would lie in my not describing the ‘effects’ of the work- but I have, or then in assuming that I place affect above effect, which in music I think might be the case. But as I said – I’m not regarding this ‘musically’ in the last instance. (jliat)
Address: http://www.obfuscatedrecords.com/
HELIUM CLENCH – SIEVE (LP by Bocian Records)
PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE – CHIAPANECA (LP by Bocian Records)
While I was searching for older reviews of music by Tim Catlin here, I came to the horrible discovery that I have been writing his name as Caitlin for many times, and not Catlin. Nobody ever pointed that one out, I think. Sorry sorry. Here Catlin has a record with David Brown as Helium Clench and this is what you could call a duet for guitars. Many variations are listed on the cover, including, I guess, objects which are used to play them: (David Brown:) bandoura, bass guitar, bowed acoustic guitar, bowed objects, semi-acoustic guitar, child’s tenor guitar, chord organ, electric guitar, ukelin, guitar pedals, lawn bowls, mandolin, percussion, prepared acoustic guitar and rainstick (dog-trainer) (Tim Catlin:) acoustic guitar, bowed acoustic guitar, bowed electric guitar, bowed objects, electric guitar, fretless electric guitar, guitar pedals, percussion and prepared acoustic guitar. What can be noted is the extensive use of all things acoustic here. I imagine these guys sitting together, each with a guitar on their lap, all these objects and in the meantime playing some chords on the organ using their feet, or perhaps keys taped down. They are in search for microtonal qualities in their sound. Strangely coherent wandering through the field of improvised music, electro-acoustic sound collage and musique concrete composition. Not always as easily though, but a highly concentrated effort it is. Lots of scraping and less on the overtones, curious enough. A record that requires all your attention!
Drummer/percussion player par excellence from Norway Paal Nilssen-Love is well-known and these days seems to be releasing a lot of records. Here we have a solo record of a concert captured in Mexico on May 12 2012. Now I’m not too sure why this needed to be released, even when the recording in itself is quite good. But solo releases by improvisers who have a great name playing with others, and are great performers, even when playing solo: is that really necessary? That’s something I couldn’t figure out I must admit. Like I said this is a great, vivid recording of some wild playing, using the entire kit, rolling about on the various skins and cymbals. I am no expert so I am not sure which drum head is his favorite, but Nilssen-Love is certainly not a man of careful playing, to examine his kit, or using anything else than a few sticks and the kit, and the kit sounds like what it is: a drumkit, save perhaps for that bit on side two where the cymbals are played with bows, but, I guess, that is a regular treat for drummers in this scene. This is a fine record indeed, by a fine player, but it not necessarily adds to something we already know from him. (FdW)
Address: http://bocianrecords.com/
DISCO SPLENDOR – NEW WAGE (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
It seems by now that a large portion of interest from Germany’s Attenuation Circuit is reserved to re-releasing music from the past, mainly 80s, mainly from the USA and which was mainly released on cassette. Music from the active lot Zan Hoffman, PBK and Minoy. From the latter two there was already a re-issue ‘Cloisters’ (see Vital Weekly 858), but this one, as Disco Splendor came before that. PBK suspects Minoy didn’t trust PBK that much, so he asked him to use a band name, hence Disco Splendor. PBK is now not sure, as Minoy passed away in 2010. Maybe the the two of them didn’t feel confident enough to by their real names. They did however after that. A lot of what happens here is based on the use of shortwave radio sounds and sound effects (ab-)use. Two tracks, both around the thirty minute break, indicating that this was a C60 cassette at that time, and it’s along the lines of ‘Cloisters’. A heavy yet minimal sound of processed radio signals, all layered together and thus creating a more industrial than ambient sound. Unlike ‘Cloisters’ which seemed somehow a bit more subdued in that respect. Now here we don’t have something that is entirely worked out, composed if you will, but more in a surrealist stream of unconscious sounds, that endless barrage of cluttering static. Mumbling voices in the first piece, machine screaming in overload in the second – both untitled. I think ‘Cloisters’ was already more refined, but here we have a fine start. Essential for those who want to take that deep plunge into the vaults of industrial music, released in a small amounts on cassettes. Only in the 80s. (FdW)
Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
STREET THUNDER – HUNTER KILLER 2029 (CDR by Wggfdtb)
Although very much I don’t pretend to have any wisdom nor do I want to sound like a grumpy (old) man, but common boys and girls as WGGFTDTB, you really should be doing a better job with your covers. You realize quite nice music, so why is the presentation so lo-fi? A simple xeroxed sheet, no info, no website, nothing, just artist name in some shitty font type. Without making any bows to capitalism or commercial attitude: the eye wants something nice too, I should imagine. The website is not yet updated when I writing this. So, clueless here, once again, and I can only tell you what I heard. Four pieces, just under thirty minutes. Here we have an example of a man and his drum machine and a single keyboard, plus perhaps a few sound effects. It bangs slowly, and he plays a few melodies. The added value is not in the recording quality, which remains rather lo-fi, but that adds, I guess, to the overall quality of it. I sense there is some sort of drama in these pieces, although we’re not exactly what it is. ‘Dawn @ Mt. Sarah Connor’ is a dreamier texture than the some what spookier ‘Night @ Mt. Sarah Connor’. It ends with ‘Motorbikes At Midnight/To Be Continued…?’, which is much louder and breaks with the more gentle tone of the first three pieces, which was a pity. The product of some naivety perhaps, but it sounded alright. To be continued? (FdW)
Address: http://weregonnagetfuckingdrunktonightboys.wordpress.com/
DUPLANT & CHAMBEL & DROUIN – FIELD BY MEMORY INHABITED 1 & 2 (CDR by Rhizome.s)
The second release on a label curated by the musicians who play on it Pedro Chambel (microphone and objects) and Bruno Duplant (electroacoustic device and phonographies) along with Jamie Drouin (suitcase modular and radio). There is a score for this piece and it’s performed twice here, and in both instances it lasts twenty minutes. This is not the ‘easy music’ department. The music is quite radical. It has some really low end and really high frequencies and a strong sense of dynamics. Should you want to hear all of it, then you must turn up the volume quite a bit and you will notice that when it comes to the high end things are nastily loud (and I probably lost a bit of hearing over the years). There is an excellent combination to be found here in the use of field recordings and radio sound, along with whatever it is they do with their electronics. Music like this requires a lot of concentration, I think. It dwells very much on the soft parts, as equally as on the louder parts. Although the cover doesn’t say, but perhaps ‘Play Loud’ would be a good advice for this, although I am not sure if that would intended here. Maybe it’s all meant to be soft and quiet? In the world of microsound and improvisation perhaps not the most original voice, but it’s all executed with great care and style. (FdW)
Address: http://rhizome-s.blogspot.pt
BELORUKOV & HARPAKAHYLO & LICHOTA & NASUNG – AFTER (CDR by Neuni)
A new label (why not?, probably there weren’t enough?) from the Basque country, founded by Hector Rey. “Its publishing policy is based in the fact that it is open to any kind of sonic proposal with the exception of ambient, drone and field recordings music”, which was odd. Heavy metal and country & western is more up for it, then, as long as it follows ‘an anti copyright philosophy’? Here we have a quartet of musicians, recorded in January of last year. Ilia Belorukov (alto saxophone), Harpakaylo (drums & objects), Patryk Lichota (saxophones & objects) and Kim Nasung (guzheng). They recorded only three tracks, which last only fifteen minutes. This is improvised music in optima forma. Free, yet not wild. More thought out, contemplative and all acoustic I should believe. There is a nice ‘ringing’ approach to this, working with overtones, such as in the second (untitled) piece, which I thought was the best piece. Altogether quite nice. I found it hard however to figure out if this was enough or if it could have been a bit longer. Maybe it could have indeed, as what I heard showed a good solid interest in improvisation. Nicely printed cover, which is a rarity in the world of CDR releases. I am curious for the next release on Neuni! (FdW)
Address: http://www.nuenirecs.com
SEBASTIAN WESMAN – A BLUE BIRD (DVD-R, private)
More music here by Sebastian Wesman, whom we first heard as Isableasnacho in Vital Weekly 818 and under his own belt in Vital Weekly 836, which were slightly different releases. Under his own name things turned out to be more modern classical than as his alias. back then I had no idea how these things were made and perhaps this DVD-R sheds some light on it. It’s recorded and filmed in a church in Estonia, of which we see shots of the interior and we see Wesman playing the violin. What we don’t see, but which I think might there actually, is some electronic afterlife, maybe a looper, but for all I know I am all wrong. Oh and Wesman uses his voice. Like I noted with his previous release, I am not really the person to judge modern classical music, even when I quite enjoyed this work. There is the obvious reference to the other Estonian composer to be made, and especially ‘Fratres’ by Arvo Part (for it is him). Rather than separate pieces, I think this is one piece in various parts, but obviously, since the scenery doesn’t change – Wesman playing in a church – it’s perhaps only natural to think this. Beautiful music, minimal yet moving stuff. The church acts a great resonance board for the music. What Nils Frahm is to the piano, Wesman should be to the violin, preferable with the same recognition! (FdW)
Address: http://www.sebastianwesman.com
IMPROKUP! IMPROVISATION AS SQUATTING AND LIVING TOGETHER (DVD and Booklet by
w.m.o/r 38 Stockholm)
‘Review’ Definition: ‘A report or essay giving a critical estimate of a work or performance.’
What is this activity of deliberate risk, if it is risk? To see and feel how the other half lives, I think not, it would if it were an act of condescension, which I don’t think it is? Is it yet more sensational ‘bungee’ jumping, seemingly dangerous, but not, or a cultural anthropological field trip? Akin to watching the lonely and cold Nambikwara …?
Though the now too numerous hierarchies of structuralism become chaotic-without any mathematics of help. I have written elsewhere of the concerns and problematics within contemporary art. These are numerous and complex, and yet an audience may not be bothered. Art has never been as popular, as mass entertainment, social glue, education and solution to economic and social deprivation. This was the case, yet the current fiscal situation might not only expose the greed within humanity but also the somewhat ‘difficult’ relation this has towards the arts themselves. The audiences of the 1990s were amused and delighted by the event of art as it was presented to them as sensation upon sensation. An audience willing to accept the novelty of postmodernism’s lack of novelty in its presentation of novelty… has come to be seen as something of a similar disaster to older modernist practitioners. (In music Cage, and his lack of any legacy) Despite theory, theories which resemble tutus laced on performing poodles, the essence of
the animal is lost in kitsch performances and documenta of pageants… such as The Cremaster Cycle … a prevailing question is what is to be done? Where and by who, to who for what? There was and is in some quarters still sufficient money to not bother, Saatchi is doing well in China and the former USSR, and not too badly in Chelsea. Of course these represent safe houses and safe places. The gallery is no longer a gallows, only a fake.
Going out on a limb here – which is part of this current strategy – is the artist and that relationship to audience- poodle or prophet. Yet it isn’t any different in terms of engagement- Stockhausen famously identified this lack in his description of the “audiences” terrible complicity with the ‘architects’ of 911. He was soon silenced but he identified a very real set of complex issues. These revolve around such things as risk, commitment, capital, sincerity, entertainment, education, politics and the general set of complex systems of the current civilized world. Any audience or performer is aware of what is missing, history, geography ethnicity, sex, in any encounter. Seth Kim-Cohen simply gives up ‘his spaces’ – Mattin and company find other strategies and this is yet another. Successful or not it identifies the core of a vipers nest of problems, situations, networks etc.
Though still strangely the venue, gallery, artist, curator event persists. The cycle of Biennales and festivals all celebrate these persistent failures of wanting a univocity- but of needing to shout out this fact from somewhere else, as someone else, privileged = artist. The question is the answer and
that still gets us nowhere – or rather gets us wherever we want to go. The audience continues to look at the finger which now points both to the audience and to the artist. Yet this is still a ‘pointing’ artist.
The artist deskills the audience – distracts the audience – if the artist removes himself or herself from the audience that is the only viable strategy. But not even to communicate that would assume that nothing has occurred – which is precisely the point. A point which cannot be made without refuting itself. As an undocumented non performative act – which is life itself – life qua life as opposed to life as an artist (or audience). The erasure of noise taken to its conclusion is not silence but being qua being. Such is the joy of the artist liberated from art- and the spectator
no longer needs to watch.
In the recent work of Mattin – I identify the problem of audience, artist, performance and space.
As art no longer explores or ‘creates anew’ it must entertain, (time) amuse – an audience by other means. The audience therefore together with the ‘space’ (a curated space) dictate the art, they therefore effectively become the artist in a play which Mattin involves a reversal or challenge to these roles. In watching or attending to this process the artist becomes audience. The artist in effect becomes the prisoner of the curated space. For example Joseph Beuys’ “I Like America and America Likes Me” – in which audience is Beuys and/or the coyote? 1974 marks a juncture of Modern Art and the Post-Modern…
The curated space (after Duchamp) legitimates art- that is the ‘final’ truth of Modernity- that its Structures are what carry its legitimation, power and meaning, (The Structuralism of Lévi-Strauss, Jakobson, and Lacan et al.) Within post-structuralism the art-audience audience-as-artist takes on the legitimating role of performing – with the context of the critical arena of curatorship. The public act of 911 legitimates the ‘War on Terror’. Or ‘Terror on Terror’ – ‘War on War’ The audience – victims of terror refuses terror and victimhood – for choosing terror and instigator (artist) of a
war. Sympathy for the victims of terrorism is replaced by the aggressive artistic acts of ‘shock and awe’ and bravery, courage, and risk of our armed forces. Of occupations! The artist becomes victim, here? In being observed in his/her failure to be creative – to create new and so the audience become
instigators of the act – authors of performances they can watch failure take place. Now the artist is like the zoo animal or circus animal, the YBAs. The situation – Zoo/Circus is no longer real – real of Modernity – truth & beauty- but façade- act – performance.
So space became curated – and deserted spaces – wastelands – ones incapable of territoriallization and re- territoriallization – outside of curatorship – de-curatorship – become the spaces of ‘reality’. These are ‘poor’ – inhabited by the poor – and therefore the real and the source of the good. Charity does not begin at home but it is located in the Desert – Africa – Band Aid. Without these deserts how could the rich liberal democracies be ‘good’. For without the poor we cannot be charitable. The
poor allow (give the opportunity for) justice. The poor become the new real artists- making us good. These poor – has an audience of charitable and state funded art. This justifies the spectator- audience of ecological tourism. But the creators of this drama are the audiences themselves, as are
the victims of the drama. The ‘other’ artist, polar bear, flood / famine victim is passive, empty and arbitrary. It is in this context that the work (here) struggles as does the work of – I maintain – Mattin et al. Here the audience is exposed as artist- elsewhere the audience becomes the artist –
downloading – creating playlists… The focus groups. Liberal democracy is the totalitarianism of the group.
What ‘The artist’ is to do is to find a ‘new space’ which is not public, but holy other – like the poor. Not to conceptualize, conceptualism becomes speculation – a book which is measured not on its meaning but on its sales. In other words on its audience. Mass sales mean that the message is held
already by the mass – no learning curve- as no learning – the audience is the author of the books success.
The text. The text describes the background to this piece. A group of people sort to ‘occupy’ and live in a deserted factory in the town of Eibar in the Basque country. As the author is not identified, which is because of its participatory nature I have not made any attempt to identify an author. The
group is not identified or is the author so my references to Mattin here and above will relate both to an individual and an assumed ‘collective’. The text details the difficulties of gaining access, thoughts and feelings, conversations, and a profound feeling at the start of the occupation of what
I will précis here as ‘alienation’. But it is perhaps more the losing of another alienation which alienates. They appear as ‘fish out of water’. A terrifying and uncertain predicament. This “group of people” – undergoing such a process is separate to other processes, but joins them, I receive an email from Frans de Waard which is a CC from one Mattin who has emailed a Franz, asking about the
iMPROKUP! release… identity is a fatal illusion perhaps, a chilling event is the finding of old workers medical records which contains chest x-rays. My copy arrives with one – I’m suspicious to open it, could this be contaminated? Violations of name, Franz is a German name, violation of territory, violation of ownership, violation of records.
The music. There is no ‘music’, then there ‘is’ music. The DVD contains 14 mp3 files of varying length with a total running time of just under 40 hours, unedited recording of the ‘occupation’. Conversations mostly in Spanish, some inaudible, noise from the deserted factory, wine being opened, a dog barking, distant traffic, and snoring are features with long silences – ambient background noise recordings which includes recording through the night as people sleep. From the text certain activities can be determined.
The crisis. Then there is the “crisis” – a performance of ‘music’ at a point in the proceedings, but only once the space has been not only occupied – as an animal – but as a sign that the animal occupation has become a cultural re-occupation. A Deterritorialization of the factory’s territory –
capitalism – clearing a space, finding a space to eat, sleep and shit.. is then subsequently re-territorialized (Deleuze), as performance. Percussion from found objects, guitar and violin… musical devices – notes – sound – snippet of a song -organized structuring – playing – performer- art. A “bacchanal”. Is this a mistake or some need to re-establish some faith in man, than otherwise remain the animal. The move from animal via bacchanalia towards man and the divine – so the percussion of church bells is the percussion of found objects in improvisations, as signs of a doxa and a logos. An attempt at being human is the human condition, or rather is one of many possibilities, there are children, graffitists , and gypsies in these territories, and now artists. Wagner contra Nietzsche. The sign of this event is a cross, X marks the spot – BC/AD, a juncture – and a dis-juncture of the performance, and its sound is the percussion of religiosity. Religiosity is a sign that the animal man is now transcended by the human man and then the knowing man and then the GOD MAN, God creator – performer musician whose intoxicated dance continues endlessly world over for ‘All joy wants eternity’ – is the intoxicated song. “A little poison now and then: that produces pleasant dreams” – This is the last men. The inhabitants of the last night appear to be all male. No longer an animal-man a listener in the dark, the man man or god man makes music, creates an art space – and then celebrates this conquest of the un-inhabitable, celebrates his becoming god in intoxication of a spirit, in drinking, a finality of an intoxication – which ends the occupation is orujo- a pomace brandy.
There is in the final night of raucous talk – shouts and laughter then silence of sleep, the following morning more subdued and perhaps sober departure- the text says no applause – but they have already experienced this rapture. The group now of four, five? wake and share banter, laughter,
light hearted and confident, joke about snoring, vomiting. Perhaps in Spanish they rehearse the documentation and in English discuss non-concerts in concert and non concert venues, of breaking expectations and an audiences expecting such a breaking? Meta talk, philosophy of breaking the
deification. Attempting heresy. They move around the factory, discuss international travel, and finally, there is applause.
The listener. However here also is the obvious problem for any listener is that of listening. Before this crucial event – of becoming human again the problematics of the performer are reduced to zero – in the direction of sound creation – and placed with the listener. For this review I have ran the
recordings on a lap top over several days. Though it would be possible given much more time to listen ‘attentively’ – a single listening as such would be impossible. This throws the listener into a non passivity. So as the recording plays – like the ‘actors’ in the recording I go about other
activities. The text points out, especially on the first evening, that listening becomes important, as listening for threats, for danger. (Animal listening) Sleep is disturbed by a listening as if the actors are reduced to animal instincts. The listener to the DVD is (in this case) safe, and the sounds are not dramatic and do not even raise the ‘theatre’ of threat. Is this good? A question such as this is beside the point. The reversal of roles, audience and performance, the ‘actor’ / ‘performers’ engagement with sound as a reality, of threat, of danger, and then of boredom, of outside of convention. These are thematics which I understand have motivated Mattin recently. Here they are complete. The occupiers need to transcend their objectives given the environment they place themselves into, or rather reverse any intellectual transcendency, for a praxis which is that of the
living organism and mere survival. My listening is likewise not a normality as I describe above, but one which is safer – though more temporally complete, a more “bourgeoisie” sense with this (second) listener. Music once did more than demonstrate a thematic, in primitive ritual it was the thing (thing-in-itself) – and I think this piece – iMPROKUP! once again claims that ontology. Whether the ‘actors’ think this is a measure of success or not I don’t know. For my part it is however a measure of achievement. A human achievement as an amputation from the real whose freedom threatens the animal. So as my artistic listening gives way to a listening of a performance, I can only lie on my bed and do nothing. Might I now miss some important event in the performance? Where once I was free to come and go – I am now like a traditional audience located in a space in which I cannot speak, cannot move, cannot perform.
A review: The self removal of the artist- what if Christ didn’t turn up to the crucifixion – then the subsequent distribution of the Holy Spirit to the world (thus deifying everyone) would not and could not take place. The one in its One is not interpreted in itself and if it remains in itself – self
qua self, life qua life, being qua being, in itself – without any interpretation (performance / demonstration)_ – concepts – objects ideas it is just ( as in being just – justified, justice) as being qua being – life qua life – This self creating art as being qua being.
What facilitated Marxism was not Marx but his audience, likewise Christianity, the great empires, kingdoms, fascist regimes and today’s liberal democracies. Communist regimes were audience participation events par-excellence. Leaders today as always follow their audiences. The ‘occupation’ for me begins and fails to end with the realization that the inside is like the outside, and is as heterogeneous, polymorphic, contingent and dangerous. This then is a revelatory work of art. However its revelation is paradoxical – as its success in existence lies in the domination of a place, and overcoming of dangers – a re-occupation which then allows in the first place the presentation of this achievement – and then a celebratory performance. Where originally the participants were
listeners- and sound represented possible threats from an unknown other, they achieve a human emancipation of the space – but with such a freedom they in turn become a threat to others – still afraid in the dark and listening. The gaining of freedom is the loss of being in the real other, and brings a certain power and a certain authority again. ‘Occupation’ – Definition: ‘An activity that serves as one’s regular source of livelihood. An activity engaged in especially as a means of passing time. The act or process of holding or possessing a place. The state of being held or possessed. Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces. The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.’ – Occupation then cannot succeed in ‘locating’ the outsider in a freedom – only by occupation the outside is placed inside – inside the occupiers ‘prison’. Artist – freedom – audience – keep quiet – turn your mobile phones off – stop communicating. Music’s failure is always that of occupation and denial, of threat of violence and actual violence. And moreover this review will be unlike some modernist ending without end- although music cannot be overcome- as occupation cannot de-occupy- in conclusion – what was not performed here, what was not recorded here- was noise qua – noise, unheard. Not heard. Not herd. The self removal of the artist- what if Christ didn’t turn up to the crucifixion? (jliat)
An Address: http://www.mattin.org/recordings.html