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A very good compilation of extreme noise and
other oddities... The Sound Projector
...a sincere product, which you should buy, if
only for the good cause. Vital Weekly
...contains sound works created
in honor of Abigail Lavine by an eclectic array of acclaimed sound artists
and musicians. Generator Archives
The Sound Projector
A very good compilation of extreme noise and other
oddities put together by Gen Ken Montgomery for his own limited-release
artefact label. It's dedicated to Abigail Lavine, a woman who died in
1997 (of breast cancer I think), and known as the co-founder of 8- Track
Heaven, a website dedicated to the joys of collecting 8-track cartridges.
A long list of top-rank noisesters and soundart nutcases appear, many
with exclusive contributions. Divided into four programmes, there is clearly
some attempt to structure the material; broadly speaking, we get the most
extreme examples of noise-art on the first half, sandwiched equally with
cuts that are puzzling, strange and unusual. Around programme three we
get mostly voice-based or song works, followed by field and documentary
recordings. Around the middle are a couple tracks that pay tribute to
Abigail's obsession with 8-track cartridges, and indeed add to Gen Ken's
growing interest in the ways this defunct medium can yield exciting results
- hence 'Stairway to 8-track Heaven', his extract from a longer CD, where
he derived a happy accident from faulty playback of a very cheap copy
of Led Zeppelin IV. Among the noise-niks, we have (in no particular order)
Emil Beaulieu with harsh feedback and grinding, The Haters with a dose
of insanely ferocious roaring, Daniel Menche with an evil rumbling of
dread, Chop Shop (ie Scott Konzelman, Abigail's boyfriend) with his cast-iron
heavy pounding and rumbling, and A.M.K. - whose 'Reclosure' is a slab
of nasty chaos turntable loops resembling mad wolves chasing their own
tails in a prelude to cannibalism. These cuts of hefty metallic noise
are for serious head-damage freaks only. Slightly more palatable are the
junky constructs of Thomas Dimuzio and David Weinstein, which are engagingly
offbeat. The voice works include Gordon Monahan making a recital in an
echo chamber (in such ways that we can't understand a word); Blackhumour
making a voice loop out of the name Abigail; Lary 7 using a found tape
for a slide show and doctoring it with puzzling additions; and the absurdist
poetry of Malcolm Riviera. His '8-Track Librarians in Outer Space' is
hilarious - a throwaway piece of inspired nonsense. Field recordings include
a slightly dark 'Walk in the winter field' by John Hudak, a sketch with
some menacing dogs just on the periphery of perception; a barely-treated
slice of life from Francisco L6pez. and the real-time antics of Abbey
Lavine herself at a shooting range - which closes the CD. We've heard
from her already doing a voiceover for her Tahini party, a track which
emphasises the skewed 'fun' atmosphere of this increasingly deranged CD,
the soundtrack for a bohemian festival of death in the midst of life.
As 'downers' for the end of the party, may I suggest you unwind with the
geiger-counter clicks of Carl-Michael Von Hausswolff or the imperceptible
creaking and humming of Peter Duimelinks. (Both are extreme examples of
mad process electronic art). Clearly, life in NYC must have been a non-stop
funfest if you reckoned Abigail among your friends - maybe she was a later
equivalent of madcap junkie boho film-maker, everyone's favourite Maya
Deren. Limited release in nifty packaging, including a small art print
by Leif Elggren (who also adds a fine track at the start). Go native.
—Ed Pinsent
Vital Weekly
On April the 1st of this year Abigail Lavine
died off breast cancer. She was the girlfriend of Scott Konzelman (Chop
Shop), and this CD is to support them. 23 tracks by friends, and two by
herself on a lengthy CD. Among them we find a whole bunch of people from
the noise scene, that includes many US ones, but also some Europeans like
Leif Elggren, Francisco Lopez, Peter Duimelinks and C.M. von Hauswolff.
Some of these people do whatever they are good at, like AMK's turntable
abuse, Blackhumour's tape-looped voices, or the fine sound processing
of Small Cruel Party or Daniel Menche. Since Abigail was involved in the
ancient technqiue of 8-track there are some of those, the most frigthening
by Egnekn entitled 'Stairway to 8-track Heaven'. In all a sincere product,
which you should buy, if only for the good cause. Frans de Waard
Generator Archives
LINKS OUTTA HERE contains sound works created
in honor of Abigail Lavine by an eclectic array of acclaimed sound artists
and musicians: amk, blackhumour, chop shop, Thomas Dimuzio, Peter Duimelinks, Egnekn,
Leif Elggren, Emil Beaulieau, Russ Forster, The Haters, C. M. Hausswolf,
John Hudak, Francisco Lopez, Daniel Menche, Gordon Monahan, Malcolm Riviera,
Lary Seven, small cruel party, tentatively a cONVENIENCE and David Weinstein.
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