Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet-Photographs (Erstwhile 070)

[Damon_Smith]

First impressions? I think this is a special release in a few different ways. I think it enters a debate around sound art vs. experimental music (a topic that has been up in Houston since the Menil did an otherwise great exhibition called "Silence" with some really horrid performances by sound artists Jacob Kirkegaard & Steve Roden - Roden also had some piss-poor art in the show).
These guys fair way better on first hearing but still, the standards in both genres need to be considered to evaluate "success".

Before the album arrived I sent around this sound piece to Abbey, Rowe, Simon and Brian.
http://ubu.com/sound/dean.html
Rowe had some interesting things to say about her work but it remains one of the most successful sound art works I have heard outside of Lawrence Weiner and Vito Acconci, although they are both more text driven.

Anyway, it is great, puzzling release with about as beautiful a production as you are going to find. The object is WELL worth it.

[jon abbey]

one thing I will say is that this is definitely a trilogy, planned from the beginning by those two (to what extent I do not know), along with The Breadwinner and Air Supply, and should be examined as such in addition to being discussed on its own. you can see this from the design and numbering on the four discs of the three releases.

[Wombatz]

Well I haven't heard Photographs so the thread is too narrow in scope for me to contribute ... but is it even the same genre? Previous Lambkin/Lescalleet sounded like music to me, while the Dean sits in a tradition of radioplay that starts with something like Ruttmann's Weekend and has been explored pretty thoroughly in German radio for decades now. (I must admit that while I liked the beginning, somewhere around the spot in the public toilet with the bells tinkling behind (which could btw be a reference to Murnau's Last Laugh), I thought the recognizable audio events were layed on a bit thickly, with a speaker enunciating to us about the "absolute threshold of hearing" and all the musty street and salon music, though yes they're sort of like restaged old photographs ... the S-Bahn stops at posh Charlottenburg, nice Schloss with rococo paintings there ...)

A classic whose greatness I hadn't been aware of (recently found in the comments of a fb post by Jon), Christiansen and Beuys' Requiem of Art, would make more sense for me here as a standard for competing with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvz9ch4eKAI (though on the whole such evaluations of relative merit make no sense to me. Still it's great that this stufff is being rediscovered now and given its proper due, also e.g. Vostell's sound pieces.)

[jon abbey]

A classic whose greatness I hadn't been aware of (recently found in the comments of a fb post by Jon), Christiansen and Beuys' Requiem of Art, would make more sense for me here as a standard for competing with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvz9ch4eKAI (though on the whole such evaluations of relative merit make no sense to me.

funny, I was just talking about this piece not five minutes ago to Matt Revert, who helped with the design of Photographs. it definitely needs to be heard for fans of Graham L, Mark Harwood will be writing a piece on Christiansen for the next 'surround'.

[jon abbey]

and yeah, I don't think there's any need to combine discussion of Photographs and that Dean piece, even without my having heard it as of yet.

[Damon_Smith]

and yeah, I don't think there's any need to combine discussion of Photographs and that Dean piece, even without my having heard it as of yet.

The Dean piece is related, more than most other music including EAI. My reason for bringing it up is only that to really evaluate Photographs you need to evaluate it in terms of how both musicians and visual artists have handled sound in the last several decades - even down to the packaging being an integral part of the work.
I am just putting out the Dean work as a piece of sound art that doesn't suck. The Beuys also good and is related, but it is even more "music", the trio with Paik where Beuys is phoned i may have a closer relationship.

[jon abbey]

the influences on these two musicians could make for a fascinating discussion, although again maybe not in a thread as specific as this. Graham has reissued/issued work by the aforementioned Henning Christiansen as well as Moniek Darge, and both of those I would say are important influences on him, along with plenty of others.

[Damon_Smith]

That makes sense. I hope for a wider discussion about the release - my main point is that it transcends pure music but in a positive sense. When Jason stayed with me, he was interested talking about the work I did with Herzog, so there are surely some ideas from contemporary film in there as well.
The Dean piece is less a an idea of influence than works that this would sit next to in the world.
I have only had one solid listen with the CD case in hand... more soon.

[nicenick]

got my copy yesterday!

like damon, finding this quite beautiful but also quite puzzling. wombatz' radio-play reference seems apropos to me: all the captured dialogue gives this a definite travelogue vibe, and the whole thing seems very narrative, albeit in a dilapidated, fragmentary sort of way.

super interesting & weird record!

[jon abbey]

Jason is a huge Herzog fan and film fan in general, but I'm not sure how much that informs his musical aesthetic. I'd be interested in hearing info or opinions on this, though.

[Damon_Smith]

Yeah, the talking bits seem to read as dialog for sure - rather than spoken or found text or other ways it could be heard. I have only heard a few radio plays, I wish I was more informed in that area.

[ambiguous_figures]

does anyone know if lambkinor lescalleet are familiar with luc ferrari's far west news? something about the format to photographs and the way far west news functions reminds me of each other. in that there's an expression in both of the elaborate nature of any given interaction. and i mean interaction in a social way. this might just be something i'm reading in them tho...

[presquepartout]

whether or not this is the right place, i'd like comment that this album is fantastic (everything about it). i can't really say anything more, or anything approaching intelligent about it, until after many much more listens.

[jon abbey]

does anyone know if lambkin or lescalleet are familiar with luc ferrari's far west news?

Graham says he knows this, but it wasn't on his mind while making Photographs.

[Dan Warburton]

My copy just arrived today, so it will be accompanying me on my weekend trip to England. I remember enjoying Air Supply while flying across Europe a few months ago. (No jokes about noise-cancelling headphones, please)
If it sounds as good as it looks it'll be a treat. Well done to all concerned.

[Dan Warburton]

Looks like our jolly chums have been having fun at the pressing plant - when I pop disc 2 into the computer to rip the files for my mp3 machine, it displays the eight track titles of the album Air Supply! (The total duration is exactly the same too - 46'16" - perfect C90 cassette length.. I'll make a cassette copy and play it on my Dad's first generation Sony Walkman, yippee) The music isn't the same.. but after what Jason got up to with Big Black, I'm on the lookout for some occult correspondences.

[mudd]

now i want to check if disc 1 matches the breadwinner.

(it does. in fact when i listened on my computer it apparently thought i was listening to the breadwinner because i noted some track titles that just aren't there.)

m

[Herb Levy]

The pressing plant probably has nothing to do with the track titles that are showing.

The most commonly used database to identify recordings is based on the exact time lengths of tracks on an album. This is most obvious when you insert a disc that has only one track - if there are any other CDs that have a single track of the same length, that or those will be listed as possible CDs.

The time length is measured by the frames into which each second is broken down, so it's quite rare to have a disc containing several tracks to have the same exact timings for each track. Lambkin & Lescalleet must have made sure that the exact timings for the new set equalled those on their earlier collaborations.

[mudd]

yeah to be clear it was definitely 'artistic intent', nothing at all to do with the pressing. somewhere between an easter egg and an allusion.

m

[bnuob]

does anyone know if lambkinor lescalleet are familiar with luc ferrari's far west news? something about the format to photographs and the way far west news functions reminds me of each other. in that there's an expression in both of the elaborate nature of any given interaction. and i mean interaction in a social way. this might just be something i'm reading in them tho...

joeq,

It's not just you, Far West News was brought to mind for me as well, for more or less the same reasons. Particularly the field recordings of Luc & Brunhild meeting Phillip Bimstein.

anyway this is a terrific record.